Treasurer accused of lacking plan

National

PEOPLE’S National Congress Party leader Peter O’Neill has accused Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey of trying to “hide his inability to deliver a plan to revive the economy”.
He was responding to Ling-Stuckey’s criticisms when tabling the 2020 Supplementary Budget last week of the O’Neill-led government’s poor performance up to last year before James Marape took over the reins.
He referred especially to Ling-Stuckey’s claims on debt over the past decade, exposed by the real debt-to-Gross Domestic Product data over that period set according to agreed global standards.
“Just one year ago, debt-to-GDP limit was at 35 per cent,” he said.
“Now this Government has pushed this to an unsustainable 60 per cent,” he said.
“This government’s debt is sky-rocketing and they have no (plans) to grow the economy to repay these massive loans.”
O’Neill said the biggest deception was the claim that by changing the law, the Government could take billions of Kina from the Central Bank.
“With no plans to repay this during the current financial year is by any international standard a policy of printing money,” O’Neill said.