Does Cunliffe follow belgarion's lead or Vice-versa? It appears to be that way.
Prime Minister John Key has launched a scathing attack on Labour leader David Cunliffe's credibility, calling him "tricky" and questioning whether he's been telling the public the truth.
Speaking on TV3's Firstline this morning about Labour's $60-a-week child payment scheme, Mr Key accepted that some elements of the new policy have "merit".
But he went on to say it was unfunded and not well targeted, before accusing Mr Cunliffe of "misleading New Zealanders" over the scheme.
He said Mr Cunliffe claimed the benefit would be paid out for the first year of the baby's life, as long as you earn under $150,000.
But the money starts being paid only once paid parental leave ends.
"David Cunliffe's developing a reputation around Parliament for being very tricky," Mr Key said.
"He [Cunliffe] just needs to learn to be up front with the public so they can actually trust his word.
"I read his speeches and now after a number of examples of this, I really question whether the guy is telling me the truth ..."
Yesterday, Mr Key said the Government will "have a look" at extending paid parental leave to beyond 14 weeks as early as the middle of this year.
On Firstline this morning Mr Key denied imitating Labour's policies.
"Paid parental leave is one of those things where we've always said, under the right conditions, when we can afford it, of course there's a case to extend that a bit. At the moment we pay 14 weeks; could that go out a bit more? My view is probably yes."
Given the cost of the Christchurch earthquakes, coupled with the global financial crisis, and "racking up massive debts" to pay for existing programmes, Mr Key said there was no credible argument to increase paid parental leave before now.
He said it came down to a matter of priorities.
"You can go to 26 weeks of paid parental leave, but are you going to have as much money to spend on new cancer drugs that come? Or maybe more police officers, or maybe other support for other people?
"I think you've got to get your balance right, and in my view we will get that balance right, and the Labour Party is not."
Direct link here
Is Cunliffe a bell boy? :)
NZ small biz more bullish than Aust counterpart.
EZ, here is an interesting but not surprising article on SMEs. We were discussing this not so long ago.
New Zealand small to medium-sized businesses are more bullish in their revenue expectations for the year to August than their Australian counterparts,according to a MYOB trans-Tasman report.
Around 43 per cent of the 1000 New Zealand SMEs surveyed by the business software company are expecting revenues to rise between August 2013 and the same month this year.
Some 10 per cent of New Zealand businesses surveyed by MYOB are forecasting revenue to fall over this period.
Across the ditch, a quarter of the 1000 SMEs surveyed expect revenue to improve and 22 per cent are forecasting it to be down.
A higher proportion of New Zealand operators are also more optimistic about the economy than in Australia.
Almost 30 per cent of New Zealand SMEs expects the economy to improve in the year to August, while only 23 per cent of Australian businesses surveyed had optimistic sentiments about their economy.
"Where the differences are particularly evident is in the relative performance of key sectors," said MYOB chief executive Tim Reed.
"New Zealand's construction, retail, manufacturing and rural sectors are all expecting to outperform Australia's".
"In Australia, businesses are more optimistic about growth in the year to August 2014 than they were in the previous 12 months, but the opportunities are probably at least six to 12 months behind where New Zealand sits. Although the winding down of the mining boom remains a concern, investment in construction is on the rise, and the falling Australian dollar is helping both exporters and the tourism economy," he said.
More bullish expectations this side of the Tasman followed the local SME economy outperforming the same sector in Australia in the year to August 2013, MYOB said.
This is the direct link.
All positive news from our Govt. EZ, got any good news from the opposition?
Cunliffe has his facts wrong again.
Self imploding before our very eyes. National has good results pouring in at the same time Labour is doing the opposite.
This just in from News Talk ZB
David Cunliffe's under attack over the detail of his opening speech to parliament.
The Labour leader used his first parliamentary speech of 2014 to slam the Government and call for more value to be added to our exports.
"New Zealand's not going to get rich exporting raw logs or a freezing industry that's now getting to export whole carcasses, so somebody else can cut them up and add the value."
But Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce says Mr Cunliffe has his facts wrong.
"He says we shouldn't be exporting lamb carcasses overseas - we don't! 98% of New Zealand's lamb carcasses are processed in this country."
:)