Christopher Luxon hits back at Labour's spending plans, brushes off Winston Peters on India FTA

Christopher Luxon hits back at Labour's spending plans, brushes off Winston Peters on India FTA

National leader Christopher Luxon continues to claim more unfunded spending from Labour, despite the latest policy coming from the same source as his own KiwiSaver plans.

Labour at its pre-election congress over the weekend announced an election policy to expand the apprenticeship boost scheme from one year to two, with more trades eligible, and grants on offer for tools.

Originally introduced in 2020, the scheme pays employers $500 a month to help cover wages and keep apprentices earning while training.

Leader Chris Hipkins said the funding for expanding it would come from future budget operating allowances, the same source as National's KiwiSaver policy.

The party estimated it would cost an average $56.6m a year, or $226.4m over four years; compared to about $1 billion for National's KiwiSaver scheme over four years.

Luxon said National backed the scheme.

"We put funding back in place after Labour failed to fund it," he said, referring to previous Labour government Budgets that used time-limited funding.

"We support apprenticeship boost, and we're open to doing whatever we can to create more trade opportunities, but the bigger issue for Labour is more unfunded spending.

"The bigger issue for Labour is there's another quarter-of-a-billion dollars of unfunded spending, and they didn't [say] over the weekend how they're going to fund it.

"We did two policies in the last week you know, KiwiSaver and rooftop solar. We explain how we're going to fund it, and somehow they just seem to be able to announce an idea and actually there's just more tax and more debt, and more being added to the hidden bill."

Asked what National would do instead, Luxon pointed to the recent Budget doubling the places in skills trade academies and providing more youth guarantee places and vocational pathways.

Labour's campaign chair Kieran McAnulty backed the policy, pushing back on criticism of it being a "retread".

"Why can't you just bring back something that we know works? Why does it have to be something brand new? If there's something that worked in the past that is just as relevant now that this government cut and we're bringing it back, that's a good thing, right?

"I talk to a lot of tradespeople with my housing portfolio, but I also do a lot of public meetings in that space too, and also as campaign chair, and so I'm talking to people not just that back the party, but that traditionally support other parties. I can tell you this every time I mention the apprenticeship boost, the room's full of nodding heads.

"Doesn't matter who they vote for, they know that this is a good thing."

He said something needed to be done, and "sniping from the sidelines, like we've seen in response from the government, is not going to solve the problem".

Luxon pushed back on the suggestion he was just blaming Labour.

"No, I'm not doing that. I'm saying to you, we're the only ones with a long-term economic plan to grow the economy and to make life more affordable," he said.

"In the last three quarters, nine months of the year we've grown the economy at 2.1 percent, we've got spending under control, we've got inflation down, we've got interest rates down, we've got growth in the economy."

Luxon also pushed back on New Zealand First leader Winston Peters' claims about the India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), saying it was "no surprise", but Peters could "sabotage as much as he likes".

Peters last week claimed National was secretly restricting immigration from India specifically.

Luxon said his foreign minister had been agitating against the deal, and - echoing the words of his Trade Minister Todd McClay - was "wrong".

"Winston Peters is just simply wrong on the Indian FTA, in the same way he was wrong on the China FTA," he said.

"It's now getting quite confusing what he's talking about, because he says we had too many immigrants coming in, then now we haven't got enough. The bottom line is pretty simple. Todd McClay did the deal, he was in the room, both sides know exactly what we've agreed on. We're getting on with it.

"It's time to move on, frankly."

Luxon did not directly answer repeated questions about what Peters had got wrong, however, saying it was "no surprise".

"He doesn't support the Indian FTA at all. We think it's a massive opportunity for New Zealand - 1.5 billion consumers, the biggest economy, thousands of jobs, and billions of new exports. We think that's great. He's just not a fan of the Indian FTA.

"We've negotiated this deal with the Indians, they're happy with it, we're happy with it, we're getting on with it, and Winston can, you know, agitate and try and sabotage as much as he likes, but at the end of the day it's happening."

Luxon defended two recent policy u-turns from the government - including on Fisheries and Conservation - saying that reflected good lawmaking.

"It's about making better law. So, I think what's worse is actually mindlessly just pushing on for something when you're not listening to that feedback and there's genuinely good feedback that you should be trying to make that law better with," Luxon said.

Morning Report host Ingrid Hipkiss then asked if it would not be better to have well thought out law to start with.

"Well, we do," Luxon responded, "but it's also quite good, Ingrid, that I think the public in a democracy actually get to comment on that legislation, actually get to strengthen or improve it."