English says knowledge wave passed without ripple

By JEREMY REES

Opposition leader Bill English said today's Budget has failed to deliver.

"All the Budget has dished up is a repackaging and re-announcement of commitments already made.

We were promised a knowledge wave and it has passed us by without causing so much as a ripple."

He said the Government had failed to capitalise on the best economic conditions in a generation - a 3.1 per cent growth rate and a budget surplus of $2.6 billion - to implement real and long-term change.

"During this period, favoured with good commodity prices and a low dollar, it has missed a prime opportunity to help increase the competitiveness of small businesses that drive our economy.

Now these businesses face a much more difficult environment with a rising dollar and increasing interest rates.

"National's Finance spokesman, David Carter said the Budget showed a "real lack of ambition".

"There is nothing but old-fashioned intervention dressed up as economic transformation, designed by bureaucrats for bureaucrats.

ACT leader Richard Prebble said Dr Cullen had been unable to reach his own target of establishing a 4 per cent growth rate to help lift New zealand into the top half of the developed nations in the OECD.

"In February, Dr Cullen set the objective of 4 per cent growth. Yet even Treasury's own growth projections show that in four years time growth will be just 2 per cent - half the figure Dr Cullen himself says we need."

United Future Leader Peter Dunne criticised the Budget succinctly; "It is safe and unspectacular and completely lacking in vision."

He gave it a D for vision and a B+ for good economic numbers.

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