Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour says Chlöe Swarbrick becoming Finance Minister could damage New Zealand’s credibility with international lenders and ultimately leave households and businesses paying higher interest rates.

Speaking to Chris Lynch Media, the ACT leader said voters should take seriously the prospect of the Green Party co leader seeking control of the finance portfolio if the left forms a government after the November election.

Swarbrick, who is the Greens’ finance spokesperson, has openly confirmed she wants the job. Labour leader Chris Hipkins, however, has said Barbara Edmonds becoming Finance Minister is one of his non negotiable positions.

Seymour said financial markets would closely scrutinise the policies attached to whoever held the portfolio.

He said New Zealand’s borrowing costs depended partly on whether international markets viewed the Government as a credible borrower.

“The world’s going to look at New Zealand and say, ‘This used to be a small but reliable country and they’ve gone mad.'”

Seymour argued lenders might still be prepared to provide money, but could demand a higher interest rate because they perceived greater risk.

“That means people pay higher on their mortgage, higher on the government debt, harder for businesses to grow and expand and create jobs because they’ll be paying higher interest rates.

“The whole country will pay for that credibility gap.”

Seymour has been particularly critical of the Greens’ supermarket policy, characterising it as nationalisation.

The Green Party’s actual policy proposes creating a publicly owned supermarket chain called KiwiMart. It would require at least 120 existing stores and distribution centre capacity to be sold into public ownership. The Greens say Parliamentary Library modelling puts the acquisition cost at $1.3 billion, with another $1.5 billion required to capitalise the new chain.

But Seymour’s warnings come as the Greens enjoy a significant rise in political support.

A 1News Verian poll published this week put the party on 16 percent, its highest recorded level in that poll, with Labour and National both on 28 percent.

Asked why voters appeared to be moving towards the Greens despite his criticism of their economic policies, Seymour said financial frustration was driving some of the support.

“There’s a lot of people out there who are saying, ‘Look, we’ve done everything right. We’ve worked hard. Six, seven years later, we have less money at the end of the week than in 2019.'”

“She is tapping into that frustration and saying, ‘Yeah, you know what, it’s not your fault, some rich person’s fault. I’m going to tax them and give the money to you,'” Seymour said.

Seymour argued the better response was a smaller and more efficient government, lower levels of tax and debt, and fewer regulations affecting investment and productivity.

The interview also turned to supermarket competition, with Seymour challenged on what evidence there was that removing regulatory barriers would actually convince a major international competitor to enter New Zealand.

He pointed directly to the new Woolworths development in Halswell, Christchurch, saying the lengthy consenting process demonstrated the problem facing companies wanting to expand.

Woolworths took about four years to obtain resource consent for the Halswell development, a delay that has previously been raised in Parliament and by Seymour as an example of barriers facing supermarket development.

“Does anyone believe that holding up the development of a new supermarket for four years with bureaucracy has led to cheaper prices?”

Seymour said consenting costs and the cost of holding land during delays eventually had to be recovered.

“All of those costs will be added onto your grocery bill.”

ACT’s election policy proposes a single process covering areas including resource consent, liquor licensing, food labelling and overseas investment approvals for prospective supermarket operators.

Seymour said an overseas operator considering New Zealand currently faced numerous layers of regulation before it could establish a national chain.

“It’s not surprising no one’s run that gauntlet.”

But when asked what ACT would do if those barriers were removed and a major competitor still refused to enter New Zealand, Seymour acknowledged geography and market size could also be part of the problem.

“It may be that a country that’s 1500 kilometres long with a huge mountain range down the middle, only five million people and 2000 kilometres from the nearest other country, you know, the most isolated people on Earth, it may be that actually you can’t do it much cheaper than it’s currently being done.”

He said governments needed to stop assuming a single industry could simply be forced into delivering lower prices.

“We’ve got to stop this pattern of attacking a group of people in New Zealand for a perceived problem when there’s very little evidence that we’re going to solve it.”

“The solution that solves all of that is a growing economy and higher wages so you can afford everything,” Seymour said.

He said New Zealanders travelling overseas were increasingly confronted by high prices elsewhere as well.

“Stuff costs more in other countries too, by the way. It’s just our wages haven’t kept up and our dollar is not strong.”

Seymour was also asked about former Prime Minister Sir John Key’s warning to centre right voters against splitting their electorate and party votes.

Key used National’s campaign launch to discourage strategic voting, while Seymour subsequently said both votes belonged to individual voters.

Seymour told Chris Lynch Media he believed the electorate vote should ultimately be determined by the quality of the local candidate.

“Your constituency vote, I would say give it to the person who’ll answer your call late on a wet Friday afternoon.

“You need a person who will fight for you as a community and as an individual.

“A community does have a right to have a strong representative.”