The first Fabian Society seminar in Auckland last weekend attracted a good crowd watch an participate as some of New Zealand’s top economic thinkers debated how to get the economy working for us. It has been judged a huge success. The next seminars will be in Wellington on Sunday 28 March and in Christchurch on 18 April.
I got a call from a friend today, thanks to National his rent is going up. I’ll call him Ned. He’s retired and […]
Felix can hardly contain himself at the prospect of National’s tax changes: Woohoo!! Told you my mate Mr Key would be able to deliver a “north of $50 a week†tax cut. And you all said he wouldn’t. So who’s looking stupid now eh? I mean sure, you need to bring in $180,000 a year to get it but just get off your arse and be a bit more ambitious whydontcha?
The numbers of National’s tax money go round leaked to the SST. I have worked out who wins and who loses. Key claimed that no-one will be worse off and the bulk will be much better off but 10% are worse off and 80% get next to nothing (without even counting the rent hikes). The elite get $100 in net tax cuts for every $1 the typical Kiwi gets.
Under National’s proposed tax cuts and GST increases someone on the average wage of $48,000 comes out about $5 to $10 per week ahead. But 70% of Kiwis have incomes under $40,000. Their tax cuts will barely compensate them for the GST increase. How can National go on claiming that “the vast bulk of New Zealanders will be better offâ€?
The poor don’t need tax cuts for the top 12% to to inspire them to want to get out of poverty. Poverty is inspiration enough. But thepoor cannot all become rich. To function capitalism needs poverty. There’s got to be lots of people doing the shitty, dangerous, hard jobs for cheap. And the wealth will always flow to the elite few who own capital or defend their interests.
The recession has forced tens of thousands of people out of work. There are now 276,000 jobless Kiwis. The lucky ones (only a […]
Some contractors and small business owners record private costs as business expenses and claim back the GST. The cheats who claim enough GST back get payments from IRD. Hiking GST puts more of our money in the pockets of these tax cheats.
Labour’s ‘Axe the Tax’ campaign has hit the road. Phil Goff is travelling around New Zealand explaining why Labour opposes National’s plan to hike GST on everyone to pay for tax cuts that will primarily go to the well-off. National are worried. They’re not promoting their package anymore, they’re lashing out at Goff.
John Key has promised to make tax changes that are revenue neutral, give huge payouts to the wealthy elite, and somehow mean the “vast bulk of taxpayers will be substantially better off”. But it’s a money-go-round. How you can make everyone better off with the same amount of money you’ve taken off them?
You have to double-check every ‘fact’ the Nats tell you. Bill English, for example, has been caught out lying on Labour’s growth record.
For the last couple of weeks, John Key has been claiming that when Labour increased GST from 10% to 12.5% in 1989 there was no compensation for taxpayers. That too is a lie.
Success for Opposition frontbenchers largely consists of embarrassing their opposite number by forcing them to answer questions they would rather not. Labour showed both how to do that and how not to do it in the House yesterday.
This man is Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom. He has overseen the largest corporate disaster in recent New Zealand history. The Nats are planning to give him over $6,600 a week in tax cuts. Apparently this screw up on a $7 million salary is the kind of guy New Zealand needs.
Duncan Garner: “Key must get the compensation [for GST] right or there will be a backlash from voters” Problem is, you can’t get everyone to put some money in a bucket, give a large chunk of it to the rich and then compensate everyone else for what they put in with what is left. It can’t add up.
Bill English’s argument that cutting taxes for the few at the top can cause an economic step change has always been nonsense.
His appearance on Q&A yesterday simply confirmed it.
An interesting piece from One News. Bill English gave another underwhelming speech on National’s economic plan, which basically boiled down to ‘tax cuts!’. A young businesswoman in the audience told English she wanted a real plan. His response: ‘tax cuts’. But he could give no proof his tax cuts would improve the economy.
Key doesn’t have the money to keep his promise to make everyone better off or at least no worse off from tax reform. He doesn’t have pixies in the garden to make more money. But he can cut the bottom tax rates, and a new poll shows strong support for that move.
In their attempts to justify putting up GST on all New Zealanders to give huge tax cuts to the wealthy few, the Right are going so far as to argue that middle and low income New Zealand doesn’t even exist.
Key has explicitly promised that no-one will be left worse off by these changes but he doesn’t have the money, can’t have to money, to do that if he persists in handing over buckets of money to the rich.
Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it’s as much due to his and Labour’s much improved performance as it is to Key and National’s shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance.
Click through for today’s Tom Scott cartoon.
He hits the nail on the head.
Putting up GST hits the poor the hardest.
For Kiwis who are barely scrapping by every cent counts.
The best political commentary these days doesn’t come from the political journalists. As Zetetic shows, they have turned themselves into government minders. But […]
In chronological order: John Key: “[I never promised I wouldn’t raise GST]. I said I would not raise GST to cover deficits, and […]
My my, things are turning quickly for John Key. We now have the first sighting of the red flag term “the beleaguered PM” […]
“Last GST hike had little impact, say tax experts” – Herald The article is about inflation but it is also true of growth. […]
Yesterday, Rahui Katene said the Maori Party could walk away from National if they didn’t adequately compensate low and middle income people for increasing […]
“An unscientific poll yesterday of 846 readers asking whether they would be happy to pay more GST if it meant they paid less […]
I find it frustrating that the debate over tax concerntrates on the top rate rate, which doesn’t apply to 90% of taxpayers. It’s […]
John Key has indicated that the Government will lift the GST rate to 15% and remove depreciation from investment houses. According to the […]
Any questions?
Bernard Hickey: He had a chance to follow up all the talk of real reform to create a ‘step change’. He had all […]
Good spotting by Jake Quinn: during the 2008 election, John Key ruled out raising GST, as the Herald reported back in October of […]
The Tax Working Group’s summary presentation at their December seminar came from a senior partner from one of the Big 4 accountancy firms, […]
This is the first post in an occasional series that will translate Tory speak into plain language (fellow writers and guest posters are […]
On the Q+A blog, Tim Watkin rips into the proposed tax changes. Part of the post: …You might think that such a new […]
A good appearance from Phil Goff on the first Q+A of the year. I liked this part especially: Guyon Espiner: You spoke in your […]
