ACT Party leader David Seymour says while the PREFU numbers are “hopeful”, they rely on there being further significant reduction in Government spending by the end of the decade. 

Asked how reliable the forecast was, Seymour told Ryan Bridge the 2023 PREFU had promised a $2 billion surplus by the current financial year, with debt at $193 billion, and in reality it was now at $209 billion. 

“So what this document has told us is that the surplus will be two years later than we were promised last election, and debt will be $16 billion higher than we were promised last election,” he said. 

Government spending was currently 32.5% and needed to be below 30% by 2030 for the PREFU figures to be accurate. 

“As the person in the Government who's been saying, 'Guys, we've got to save more money, we've got to save money faster', all of this slippage is in some ways a vindication, but also very bad news,” Seymour said. 

“We’re going to have to work a lot harder if we're going to make the numbers real this time, as they did not become real over the last three years.” 

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