Nicola Willis - happy to work with David Seymour

[Lilith7]

Oh joy, what little delights may be in store if that lot get a sniff of power! She always reminds me of Ruth Richardson which is rather unfortunate, in view of the nickname she had at the time, Ruthless.



https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politic...id-seymour

"Under her plan, a National Government would have just six months to find $14.6 billion if it is to keep its promise of income tax cuts and boosted payments to families. But Willis is sure she can pull that off, telling Stuff she expects to have the majority of the public service “savings” needed to fund this plan done by Christmas.

Her commitment comes amid a polling backdrop that shows National and ACT in a strong position to form the next government. ACT leader David Seymour has been campaigning on a platform of cutting Government spending, saying National hasn’t gone far enough.

In an extended interview on Tova, the new podcast hosted by Stuff chief political correspondent Tova O’Brien, Willis said she would be happy to work beside Seymour in a Treasurer-type role if she was the next minister of finance.

Those cost cuts across the public service would be done by Christmas, Willis told Stuff.

“I was fortunate to work for John Key when he first formed a Government in 2008. And I can tell you that in the first 100 days, a huge amount was done,” she said.

Willis refused to entertain the idea that those cuts might not have been found by July, or that the new taxes wouldn’t be generating the revenue needed by her deadline.

Asked if she was willing to borrow money to fund National’s tax relief, Willis replied: “We will be able to deliver it without borrowing... we are confident we can.”