Christopher Luxon's State of the Nation speech today offered no real hope nor vision for a unified and prosperous Aotearoa New Zealand.
"Our country is not a corporation and a Prime Minister is not a CEO. Christopher Luxon today waved goodbye to record numbers of New Zealanders leaving the country as he offers nothing but reheated austerity," says Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
"Luxon's stated plan is to magically 'grow' out of our problems, while he slashes investment in the very infrastructure and research necessary for any kind of growth. His version of growth costs worker's livelihoods and a stable climate while lining the pockets of the wealthiest.
"There's no future in turning our country into a chop shop and selling critical assets for parts.
"If you want proof of the nonsense in Luxon's pitch today, just look to the fossil-fuel-reliance manufactured electricity crisis every winter. To the closure of pulp and paper mills in Ohakune and Tokoroa. To the lack of any industrial planning to support miners out of a volatile boom and bust cycle.
"Luxon's State of the Nation wasn't a vision for the future. It was a reheat of the rhetoric that's failed us for more than 40 years.
"Doing more of the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
"Doing things that your own advice says will increase inequality and climate changing emissions is selling out your people and our future.
"The IRD tells us that the wealthiest 311 households hold more wealth combined than the bottom two and a half million, while paying half the effective tax rate of the average New Zealander. Rules reinforced by Luxon mean you can bank more money and avoid paying tax if you speculate on properties instead of working. That's the productivity problem.
"We are a country of enormous talent that punches well above our weight. Let's invest in that, instead of hoping some billionaires will come and save us. Such a 'plan' is not working out so well for the United States of America," says Chlöe Swarbrick.
