Winston Peters: If I were the Finance Minister

NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo/ Gregor Richardson

If I were Finance Minister I would tell New Zealanders the truth about our economy.

It is nine years since the Global Financial Crisis and the global economy has not fully recovered despite money printing and historically low interest rates.

What has happened in New Zealand in the last nine years is a massive rise in inequality of incomes, wealth and opportunity.

Budget 2017 should be dedicated to addressing these disquieting developments.

This budget should be careful to inform the country of potential instability and volatility so people can act accordingly.

The budget needs measures to turn around the decline in manufacturing and exports as a percentage of gdp, and set out clear tax policy to revive commerce and attack our national indebtedness of over $156 billion.

Real tax reform would simplify tax on SMEs, promote added value to raw materials, offer a 20 per cent corporate tax rate for exporters (company tax is 28 per cent), and tax international corporates at the same rate New Zealand's real wealth creators are paying.

This budget should spell out a target of over 2 per cent of gdp for research and development and give targeted tax incentives for that.

This budget should outline measures to rebuild our gdp based on exporting, productivity and production, not mass immigration and consumption.

Having done that, the budget must address untold areas of demand in housing, health, education, infrastructure, police and the environment, to name a few.

This budget should be telling New Zealanders how we are going to seriously grow the economy and increase the per capita income of every New Zealander.

It should spell out what our gdp per person growth rate is compared with, say 10 First World economies.

Budget 2017 must contain plans to reverse our slide down the OECD ladder.