Labour has compared National's financial plan to a fraudulent music festival in the United States, where the founders could not deliver on what they had promised.
Labour's health and education spokesperson Chris Hipkins said in a press release on Monday, "More spending promises by National today would make even the Fyre Festival organisers blush."
Fyre Festival was sold as a luxury music festival in The Bahamas by Fyre Media Inc CEO Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. The festival was marketed with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent.
But the founders could not deliver on what they had promised. McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud. He and Ja Rule were sued for $100 million in a lawsuit on behalf of Fyre Festival attendees. The controversy has been the subject of several documentaries.
Hipkins made the comparison in light of National's latest policy announcements, including promises of more than $100 million for mental health and more than $200 million for reskilling.
"National needs to explain where in its fiscal plan the money for these is coming from, given that on their own, these two policies cost way in excess of the $200 million it has set aside for all its unannounced announcements since releasing its plan," Hipkins said.
"It's hopeful over-promising on an epic scale, much like the planned Fyre Festival in the West Indies, which billed itself as the best music festival the world had ever seen, but ended up delivering a 'squalid collection of soggy tents on an abandoned building site'."
National has announced a $179 million mental health policy on Monday, $63 million of which had already been announced as an anti-meth programme included in its financial plan released earlier this month.
Hipkins said National needs to explain where the rest of the money is coming from. National said it would use $11 million in unspent mental health funding announced in Budget 2019, but it didn't say which plans it would stop.
"National needs to come clean on what services it's going to cut when it raids Budget 19's $1.9 billion costed plan for mental health. How can National 'seek to maintain these initiatives' when the funding is going to be used elsewhere?" Hipkins said.
He also wants to know how National will pay for its reskilling policy.
National's tertiary spokesperson Simeon Brown said the $225 million policy would be paid for by using the $230 million for Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) planned by the Government as part of its vocational education shake-up.
The WDCs, once established, would take over some of the key functions of the current Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) which the Government said it would replace.
National opposes the reforms, and Brown said the Government still hasn't set up the WDCs.
"We're disestablishing the Workforce Development Councils which is part of the review of vocational education. That's worth $230 million and none of that's been spent by this current Government," Brown said.
"It's wasteful money. We're going to allocate it into getting skills to people who have lost their jobs and get them back into work."
Labour has been attacking National's financial plan ever since finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith admitted to miscalculating how much it would save from cutting NZ Super Fund contributions, resulting in a $4 billion fiscal hole.
Newshub revealed National made the same mistake with its capital allowance, resulting in another $88 million shortfall. Robertson says National also double-counted $4 billion worth of funding in transport, which Goldsmith has rejected.
Goldsmith has also admitted he did not account for the loss of tax paid by the NZ Super Fund, but despite that being worth near-on $2 billion, he insisted that it didn't count as another hole in his budget.
National leader Judith Collins said at least National has a plan.
"What's really clear is that we have a plan, a financial plan. We've got nothing from the Labour Party - nothing at all. It's very easy to pick holes in other people's plans if you don't have your own. I haven't seen anything from the Labour Party."
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern told RNZ her party will soon put out some "supplementary information" to follow September's Treasury update.
"What I'm deeply concerned about is that the National Party has a significant hole - you cannot promote tax cuts, as well as spending, as well as debt reduction and claim that you're not going to cut services," Ardern said.
"They have a lot of explaining to do, and I do expect as leader of the National Party that job should be up to Judith Collins."
