Summarised by Centrist
Broadcaster Duncan Garner says Chlöe Swarbrick’s Q+A appearance proves she’s “out of her depth” on basic economic policy, calling the Greens’ alternative budget unserious, incoherent, and dangerous.
In his Slam Dunc segment, Garner praises Jack Tame for “putting her through her paces,” exposing a leader “fronting a massive tax-and-spend plan with no grip on the numbers.”
Tame asked whether the Greens had accounted for capital flight: “Why wouldn’t wealthy New Zealanders just move overseas?”
Swarbrick replied: “That has been accounted for through avoidance measures and otherwise… they’ve been independently… off the top of my head, I’m more than happy to get the granular detail for you and come back to you on the specifics.”
Pressed again on projections: “Have you changed your accounting for capital flight?”
Swarbrick: “I’m going to be completely honest with you and say that I’m going to need to come back to you on those details.”
Garner called it “a total embarrassment,” adding: “You don’t front a $70 billion tax plan and turn up to Q+A saying ‘I’ll get back to you.’”
Asked how a 33% inheritance tax would hit family farms, Swarbrick responded: “91% of New Zealanders will pay less income tax… but again… let’s deal with the evidence.”
Tame: “How are farmers going to do that?”
Swarbrick: “Let’s get the data… and see how big of an issue this actually is.”
Garner’s verdict: “They’re making it up as they go. Activists with talking points, not a serious economic alternative.”
