Here’s this morning’s top news from around Aotearoa and elsewhere about our political economy around housing, climate and poverty.
The Lead: Finance Minister Nicola Willis has launched a ‘fiscal black hole’ attack on Labour, saying it has promised $18.2 billion of unfunded spending.
The Sidebar: Labour Finance Spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds rejected the accusation, saying National needed to explain its $56 billion unfunded hole for promised Roads of National Significance (RONS).
The Bottom Line: The accusation is dependent on plenty of unknown unknowns, including Labour’s full tax plans, and is reminiscent of Steven Joyce’s last-minute fiscal black hole accusation in 2017, which turned out to be a dud.
Chart of the Day: A new Freshwater Strategy poll published this morning in The Post-$ has found support for National down one point to 29% in June from 30% in February, while Labour fell two points to 35%. NZ First rose one point to 12% and ACT rose two points to 8%. The Greens were unchanged on 10%. (See Chart of the Day) The poll also found 57% said New Zealand is heading in the wrong direction, up two points from February, while 27% said it was on the right track, down one point from February, suggesting the Budget has not helped the Government.
Scoop: IRD is considering an industry proposal to reinstate a subsidy for payroll intermediaries and making businesses automatically transfer PAYE when wages are paid, in order to minimise tax debt, which has ballooned to $10.5 billion, Alice Peacock reports this morning for Newsroom Pro-$. (See more below in Top Six and Scoops and Breaking News that went out at 6am in the Early Bird)
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