Muldoon record used in attack

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 4

Muldoon record used in attack

Political reporter The Opposition spokeswoman on finance, Miss Ruth Richardson, used the record of the Muldoon administration to criticise the Minister of Finance, Mr Caygill. In spite of disagreeing with the economic policies of the former Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, Miss Richardson used the 8 per cent economic growth the Labour Government inherited to criticise the slide in growth now occurring. “For four years, the Government’s answer to every economic problem has been to blame the previous Government,’ she said. “David Caygill con-

tinues in this dishonourable tradition rather than owning up to the fact that it is his Government that has burnt this economy off.” “Labour inherited an 8 per cent growth rate in 1984. It’s taken them a mere four years to crunch that growth to below zero.” The Government had lost its nerve when unemployment reached 150,000, and now had “no capacity to finish the job for which they were given a mandate in 1987.” Nothing in Mr Caygill’s first speech as Minister of Finance yesterday translated reform into growth, jobs, or investment, said Miss Richardson.