25 Sep 2020

Election 2020: Grant Robertson and Paul Goldsmith debate finance

From Morning Report, 8:10 am on 25 September 2020

Recovery and rebuild are the themes of all major political parties in this election campaign.

In responding to Covid-19, governments worldwide have borrowed huge amounts of money at cheap rates.

In New Zealand, debt is now at 31 percent of GDP; and is expected to peak at 58 percent of GDP in 2024.

But with so many countries struggling to contain the pandemic, some of them seeing second and third waves, New Zealand cannot depend on tourism or immigration to grow the economy for the indefinite future.

So what will we do?

National's Paul Goldsmith and Labour's Grant Robertson debate their plans.