KEY POINTS:
The leaders of three minor parties have attacked the Government's response to the financial crisis.
Green's co-leader Russel Norman, Act leader Rodney Hide and United Future's Peter Dunne all told University of Auckland students that the Government had made a mistake by guaranteeing bank loans.
Billed as the "Trinity of Power Panel", the three leaders debated topics ranging from terrorism, drugs and law and order in front of a crowd of students in the quad.
Mr Norman called for infrastructure investment in sustainable areas such as public transport and energy efficient housing to keep the economy ticking along.
He said guaranteeing bank loans was necessary but the Government should have asked for two things.
"If we're going to guarantee the bank deposits I think we've got a right to say 'look you've got to stop paying your CEOs millions of dollars. If we're paying for the risk you've got to stop paying such high dividends to your share holders,'" Mr Norman said.
Mr Hide said the Government was too quick to make the guarantees and should have recalled Parliament.
"All year we've been in a recession. Our economy has gotten smaller over this year," Mr Hide said.
He said New Zealand was borrowing $14b to 15b from off-shore lenders to fund Kiwi lifestyles but there is now a shortage of credit on the international market.
He said there is now no credit on the international markets to fund that.
"What that'll mean for New Zealand is the dollar will fall because no one wants to fund our lifestyle."
He said the economy needed to be freed up and the Government needed to be frugal.
Mr Dunne replied: "The problem we've got to avoid Rodney, is what we got into last time where domestic mortgage rates meant people struggled to be able to afford them."
Mr Norman said the free-market experiment of the past 20 years had failed. He said it was this experiment that led to the sub-prime mortgage and credit-crunch crisis.
Mr Dunne said infrastructure such as the transmission gully should be built and the New Zealand Reserve Bank should work closer with its Australian counterparts.
Regarding the bank guarantees, Mr Dunne said: "I see other people talking about extending the range of the guarantee. I'm wary of that because of the simple reason that three weeks ago no nobody in the world was talking about guaranteeing bank deposits."
