Government has not been saving, says Chan

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NEW Ireland Governor and former prime minister Sir Julius Chan says the Government has squandered the wealth of the country by not saving for a “rainy day”.
Sir Julius (pictured) said the current economic and financial situation did not happen “yesterday or last year – it started to build up a long time ago”.
“When our country was going through a reasonably balanced budget, the Government opted for a deficit budget,” Sir Julius said.
“You and I know the time to paint the roof is when the sun is shining. The sun was shining very brightly four or five years ago. “We should have painted the roof, we should have taken the surplus money, and we should have set it aside for the rainy day. You don’t paint the roof on a rainy day.”
Sir Julius said the Government was now blaming commodity prices.
“The world is unpredictable,” he said.
“If we can predict our life – it won’t be interesting – you will know what river you’re going to cross, what sort of sickness you’re going to get.
“That will destroy your whole determination of making life better – because it’s so predictable.
“Running a country is like that. We were actually achieving the status of a reasonable, balanced budget, but we chose to spend more than what we earned. We chose to go and borrow money, we chose to buy shares, and we chose to buy images and getting international conventions and all these things.
“We’ve got to accept that they are some of the root causes of the situation that we’re in today.  This cancer did not happen by accident – it was thought-out, it was self-inflicted.”