Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 1st, 2010 - 35 comments
John Armstrong in today’s NZHerald asks whether the love affair with Key is over: After an 18-month dream run during which National had polled consistently above 50 per cent – and as high as 57 per cent – Sunday’s poll may be viewed as a watershed and the end (finally) of the honeymoon with voters. But that may be too simplistic.
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, June 1st, 2010 - 27 comments
Just had a look at David Cunliffe on the Nation and was quite impressed.
Worth a look to see someone running a left economic argument well.
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 pm, May 31st, 2010 - 11 comments
This from McCully – It is not up to the Minister of Sport to investigate allegations of racial team selection, Murray McCully says. He said if that was the case then he would have his staff monitoring talkback radio. McCully’s trying to tell us his staff aren’t monitoring talkback radio? The great strategist and spin-meister […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, May 31st, 2010 - 60 comments
Immediately after the Budget, some of the political commentators said National had triumphed and caught the Left wrong-footed. Wrong. In reality, Kiwis are not buying National’s spin. The Left’s argument against tax cuts for the rich is gaining resonance. Workers see a tax swindle. The Nats have played their only trump and they’re finding it hasn’t worked.
Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, May 30th, 2010 - 19 comments
National’s second budget has induced a lot of inflation – 5.9% over the next year. Interest rates on term deposits are just 4.4%. Collectively, New Zealand’s savers will be $2.3 billion worse off in a year’s time than they are now, thanks to the Budget. The flipside is the real value of mortgages will fall. Borrowers win and savers lose. I thought English said he was encouraging savings.
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, May 29th, 2010 - 12 comments
When floating the idea of Kiwibank’s possible sale to a post-budget audience last week, Bill English said that the government did not want to put more capital in because it was risky. Mr English, fresh from delivering the 2010 Budget, told a gathering of South Island business people yesterday that the Government might consider a […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:47 pm, May 27th, 2010 - 6 comments
Seems that negotiations are underway to allow Wellington Airport stay open all night (last flights now are about 9pm) during the World Cup so that fans can travel direct to the next game thus avoiding the need for an overnight in Welly.
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, May 27th, 2010 - 9 comments
Rodney Hide’s new line is that he has listened to the people, democracy has triumphed, and the SuperShitty is all better now. It isn’t. We still have CCOs imposed by government. And the vast majority of submitters that wanted more powers for local boards have largely been ignored. Rodney still has no idea how much this SuperShitty is going to cost. But rates are going one way – up.
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 75 comments
Here’s a graph of tax week’s tax swindle. I can’t do the property tax/rent increase part but here’s the net weekly effect of the income tax changes and the GST hike. These numbers match up with those provided by Treasury. The first 1.2 million taxpayers get less than a dollar a week. The first 3 million (of 3.4 million) get an average of $4.24 a week. The top 100,000 average $105 a week.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 25th, 2010 - 38 comments
Last year ACE, this year ECE. What has this government got against education? Once again it’s the big loser in a National budget. It’s enough to make you believe a conspiracy theory that they want to keep us ignorant so we’ll be more likely to vote them in… The massive cut in Early Childhood Education […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, May 25th, 2010 - 35 comments
Pointing out that a “rich get richer” budget is going to increase inequality in NZ seems to be making the Nats uncomfortable. Bill English tries to simply deny the facts. DPF tries to divert attention to “social mobility”. Lame efforts in both cases. The truth is that inequality isn’t on the Nats radar. They simply don’t care.
Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, May 24th, 2010 - Comments Off on Campaign for MMP: Wellington action meeting
The Campaign for MMP has been established to mobilise public support for the MMP electoral system leading up to the government’s planned 2011 referendum. If you’d like to be part of a Wellington organising group, then join us this Wednesday. The meeting will be also useful in helping you to write a submission on the […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, May 24th, 2010 - 30 comments
Tories claim that tax cuts “cause growth” in the economy – they “grow the pie”. But it’s rubbish. No honest review of the long term historical picture can sustain the claim. Tax cuts don’t cause growth.
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 pm, May 23rd, 2010 - 30 comments
There’s some mean little barbs hidden in the Budget. National has abolished a tax rebate for redundant workers that helps you out if you are made redundant and your payout pushes you into a higher tax bracket. It’s a petty mean-hearted attack from an increasingly rightwing government. In fact, this insult to hard working Kiwis is an exact repetition of what they did in 1992.
Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 23rd, 2010 - 52 comments
The frustration was palpable today as Guyon Espiner struggled in vain to get a single straight answer from Bill English, who was only prepared to twist, evade, and repeat lines: “GUYON Do you accept that for very high income earners, people on the sort of salary like your own of $276,000 a year,you gave those people money they simply did not need?
Written By: - Date published: 12:44 pm, May 23rd, 2010 - 94 comments
The other day, we had a satire guest post about ‘thank the rich day’. Michael Laws appears determined to out do us: “On Thursday, this Key/English administration decided to abandon the pretence that we are an egalitarian society, or that we should ever attempt to be so. The wealthy are the wealthy because they merit that status, was the prime minister’s underlying message.”
Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, May 22nd, 2010 - 54 comments
My wife and I are retired. We worked hard, we lived frugally, and we have a nest egg to get us through. Now John’s mob have come along and taken part of that nest egg away from us. 5.9% inflation will eat up our savings. The same will happen to the nest eggs of retired people or young people saving to buy a house up and down this country. How does that reward saving?
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, May 22nd, 2010 - 41 comments
It’s interesting to see how Irish’s ‘rabbit from a hat’ metaphor has taken off for describing this Budget. Some, like Tracey Watkins, are even using it positively. She needs to have a bit more of a think about what the rabbit from a hat is. The rabbit itself is nothing special. In fact, in this case it’s a borrowed bunny, despite the media’s tendency to portray tax cut as costless.
Written By: - Date published: 6:27 am, May 22nd, 2010 - 38 comments
Amongst all the budget reaction, there is a group of people that I don’t understand. They are the small group who are very well off, and who are nevertheless exulting about tax cuts that give them a few tens of dollars a week. Is your allegiance really purchased so cheaply?
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, May 21st, 2010 - 11 comments
In what it seems to think is an act of benevolence and economic genius, National has decided to borrow a pile of money, cut key public services, put up GST, and give me an extra $1000 a year. Will it make me work harder? Hell no. My partner and I are already paid plenty. If anything it will make us look at ways to reduce the amount we work.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, May 21st, 2010 - 20 comments
There’s some useful scenarios to look at on the beehive’s tax site. They show how we all pay less tax, even after GST, and somehow the government also gets more tax. I love maths like that. But some of them seem to have something missing, so I thought I’d correct a couple of them…
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, May 21st, 2010 - 16 comments
Have you figured out what the Budget means for you? I’ve been looking at the media statements, reading the spin, deconstructing the commentators and trying to work out where it gets me as a parent with young children….
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, May 21st, 2010 - 11 comments
What does Treasury make of National’s economic plan according to the Budget papers? Here’s the outlook for when National is kicked out of office at the end of 2011: Workers’ share of the economy will have fallen from an already miserable 43.6% to 41.5%. GDP per capita will be lower when National leaves office than when they entered it. Real wages will drop 2%.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 21st, 2010 - 45 comments
I think the saddest part of this budget is that the government will spend $70 million building more prisons while cutting $120 million from early childhood education. It kind of sums up this Key Government’s priorities don’t you think? They’re cutting taxes for the rich while they cut health and education spending. It’s our future they are cutting, so the rich can be richer in the short-term.
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 pm, May 20th, 2010 - 62 comments
A round up of commentary from around the media on the Budget. Well, the media that’s in written form anyway. I’ll be damned if I’m doing any transcribing. Favourite lines, Vernon Small: “Bill English has written a one-dimensional tax-shuffle Budget”, John Armstrong: “Those looking for the bright ideas and initiatives to galvanise economic growth are going to be hugely disappointed”
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, May 20th, 2010 - 141 comments
Telecom Paul Reynolds’ $290,000 ‘rich guy bonus’ alone is enough to hire six nurses or teachers. It’s enough to pay for 40,000 hours of early childhood education. It’s the added GST bill for some 400 typical Kiwi workers.
As expected this man, earning $7 million a year, has been given a tax break more than 200 times bigger than that of the average Kiwi worker.
Update: Key has spent up large in his irresponsible tax cuts for the rich. We’ll be paying for this for decades to come. What happened to the fiscal conservatives in the National Party?
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, May 20th, 2010 - 18 comments
Finance Minister Bill English today announced tax cuts worth $340,000 for National MPs on their Parliamentary salaries alone. “I’m very pleased we could announce this gift, ah, fair alteration of the tax system. There was a real danger that New Zealand could have lost the services of such valuable, highly-skilled workers as Paula Bennett, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Paul Quinn, and Melissa Lee
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, May 20th, 2010 - 56 comments
Hone Harawira does not want to vote for the ‘don’t be jealous’ budget and he doesn’t think the Maori Party will be standing true to its principles or supporters if it does. Harawira sought permission to vote against the Budget. Tariana Turia, who is awfully comfortable in the back of her Crown limo, refused. Let’s hope Harawira has the courage cross the floor anyway.
Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, May 20th, 2010 - 23 comments
Giving the rich a bucket of your money, is about keeping valuable people (who must be rich, by definition) in this country, or closing loopholes (by make the cheat automatic), or was it about boosting growth through trickle down (which is like helping a dehydrated man by giving water to someone with an already full bladder and hoping they piss on him)? Whatever, just don’t be jealous, OK?
Written By: - Date published: 2:44 pm, May 19th, 2010 - 4 comments
We already know that National’s big economic plan this budget is a tax swap from working Kiwis to the rich that will not affect growth but will increase inequality. There’s some money for science and Kiwirail, which is good but only partially reverses the cuts that National imposed last year. The two big items in the budget that the Nats have control over (assuming no cuts to benefits or super) are education and health. The increases in these two sectors are the things to watch.
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, May 19th, 2010 - 6 comments
Brian Gaynor in Saturday’s Herald argues that investment industry organisations and their advisors owe a duty of care to investors. He calls it an “ethical overlay”, and says Unfortunately a number of developments indicate that we seem to be a million miles away from having this ethical overlay. There is little incentive for New Zealand […]
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