Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, June 3rd, 2008 - 3 comments
Those interested in the political situation in the States will be wanting to read the new book written by Scott McClellan (former White House press secretary), with potentially some lessons for operators in NZ. This piece in the Washington Post suggests that the people who should read it the most are the people least likely to take the time to […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, June 3rd, 2008 - 26 comments
This is the graph of the oil price forecasts Treasury used to underpin its fiscal model for the Budget. It assumes that oil would touch $115 a barrel US in about July this year before easing off to a long-run level of $100 a barrel. That is already up on Treasury’s forecast from November, which […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, June 3rd, 2008 - 18 comments
Isn’t this the one issue where we truly know what National will do? Didn’t John Key say ‘there will be no asset sales in the first term of a National Government (we’ll save that or the second term)’? Yes, he did. But that goes against the deepest of National principles and caused real disquiet about […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, May 30th, 2008 - 57 comments
Following a series of National Party questions to the house the Herald has discovered the Labour government has spent nearly $27K on sausage rolls since taking power in 1999. Sources inside the public service reveal that in many cases morning teas would be provided with nearly two sausage rolls per person in attendance and some […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, May 29th, 2008 - 115 comments
Yesterday, the leaders of the parliamentary parties apologised to the veterans of the Vietnam War for the treatment they received both while fighting and on their return home. It was not these soldiers’ fault that their government deployed them in a disastrous and unjust war. Except, now John Key is saying the war and New […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, May 29th, 2008 - 60 comments
I noticed an interesting comment from Ferdinand in our Kiwisaver thread yesterday: I signed up to Kiwisaver based on the 4% employer contribution being rolled out. If National cap that at 1% then I’m out of pocket by about $75,000 in contributions alone. That got me thinking about that meaningless phrase John Key used to […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, May 28th, 2008 - 15 comments
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, we look at Kiwisaver. National has had a tortured relationship with Kiwisaver. When it was first introduced in 2005 John Key described it as a “terribly designed system” and spent the next […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:03 pm, May 27th, 2008 - 34 comments
Tracy Watkins reports: “National has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on KiwiSaver after its industrial relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson appeared to put the kibosh on a major component of the scheme. Ms Wilkinson was forced to retract comments made earlier today suggesting National would do away with the compulsory employer contribution.” On his blog Vernon […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:41 am, May 27th, 2008 - 40 comments
Let’s have another look at our friend, the distribution of income graph. The red circle is what most people earn. The blue circle is where you would think most people earn given the commentariat’s fixation with the 39% bracket. No prizes for guessing which circle editors and opinion writers fall into, eh? You’ll also note […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, May 26th, 2008 - 32 comments
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy detail: “National must get a move on… we need to hear some serious policy soon”. Turns out they’re not alone. Rod Oram (SST): …for it to be a genuine debate, National needs […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:24 pm, May 26th, 2008 - 11 comments
National is still refusing to give us any detail on its tax cut plan, indicating it doesn’t have one. But let’s do a bit of Kremlinology to work out what we might expect from them when they eventually get their act together. The size of Labour’s tax cuts has spooked National. Key’s speech in reply […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, May 26th, 2008 - 42 comments
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the strongest terms it can. Now that the Budget is behind us, the National Party has less excuse for indecision on most of the important economic issues facing the country at the coming […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, May 24th, 2008 - 62 comments
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell us anything. When he does that, interviewers need to push him to explain himself. Here’s a few paraphrased examples from the last couple of week: Q. ‘What don’t you like about the […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, May 23rd, 2008 - 60 comments
The Press (Budget Doesn’t Impress Family) looks at the effect of the tax cuts on an average family with a combined income of $78,000 and two kids under 12 . They will have $42 more a week from tax cuts and boosted Working for Families tax credits come October 1. That’s like getting paid for […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, May 23rd, 2008 - 5 comments
Key kicks off this Close Up interview by trying to dampen down rising expectations of National’s tax package and make himself some wiggle room by emphasising that his comments from earlier in the week about tax cuts “north of $50” relate to voter expectations rather than what National may eventually be able to deliver. Presumably […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, May 23rd, 2008 - 52 comments
Well the budget is out and across the country the public are looking at their tax cuts and asking “is that it?” and this is at a time that economists are very nervous about the inflationary impact of such a large package of cuts and anything bigger means cutting services or significantly increasing borrowing. The […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, May 23rd, 2008 - 61 comments
John Campbell interviews John Key on the budget, refusing to let him get away with merely repeating his focus-grouped lines. At about the 3 minute mark Campbell challenges Key’s evasiveness directly: “I think you are as slippery as a snake in wet grass”. It’s not just the media that are starting to get frustrated with […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:27 pm, May 22nd, 2008 - 7 comments
As much as I despair to see our political discourse descend into a bidding war on taxes, it’s worth looking at Infometrics’ online online tax cut calculator here. Just plug in your income and it’ll tell you your new effective tax rate and how much you’ll get in your pocket from October 1 through to […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, May 22nd, 2008 - 36 comments
From John Armstrong in The Herald: Is it enough? Michael Cullen has given it his best shot. He has been about as generous as he could be. He and his Labour colleagues will not die wondering what might have been had the Finance minister’s tax cuts been bolder. He could not have been bolder without […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, May 22nd, 2008 - 69 comments
The tax cuts are smaller up front than Labour had been hoping to deliver but the economic position at present means there is simply not the money in the coffers to give huge cuts right now. Labour is bringing forward the cuts and the boost to Working for Families to October 1, instead of April […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, May 22nd, 2008 - 8 comments
The tax cuts are the cornerstone of this budget but there is also important new spending. New Spending in the Budget: $172.3 million for improving DHB efficiency $2 billion for DHBS $164.2 million for HPV immunisation $160 million for more elective surgery $60 million to improve the health workforce $79 million for child and youth […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, May 22nd, 2008 - 27 comments
Labour has announced a three year tax cut package worth $10.6 billion. Here’s a table showing the changes: Current 15.00% 21.00% 33.00% 39.00% Up to $9,500.00 $38,000.00 $60,000.00 $60 K New 12.50% 21.00% 33.00% 39.00% 01/10/08 $14,000.00 $40,000.00 $70,000.00 $70K plus 01/04/10 $17,500.00 $40,000.00 $75,000.00 $75K plus 01/04/11 $20,000.00 $42,500.00 $80,000.00 $80K plus What does […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 22nd, 2008 - 44 comments
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: $750 million of new health spending ($160 million for elective services) -Pork $700 million for Fast Forward Fund, food and pastoral sector research -Pork $665 million to buy the national rail operations […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, May 21st, 2008 - 56 comments
Well it’s Budget day tomorrow and we’ve got our man Steve Pierson going to the lock-up so we can get you a good ol’ Standardista analysis ASAP. But while we don’t know what’s going to be in the Budget we can take a fair guess at what National’s response will be. So we’ve decided to […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, May 20th, 2008 - 52 comments
Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party is looking increasingly estrogen-lite.” So there would have been a sigh of relief in National circles that they can now distance themselves from comments such as these from declared departee Bob Clarkson: […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, May 20th, 2008 - 41 comments
Good to see the New Zealand Herald is starting a campaign to let us know the policy cost of National’s likely massive tax cut programme. Amongst the list of things National could drop to put money into the pockets of a few are: $700 million for Fast Forward Fund investing in food and pastoral sector […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:02 pm, May 19th, 2008 - 26 comments
National has pulled its support for the emissions trading scheme which is intended to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases and penalise polluters. This is the latest in a long line of Key’s shifting positions on climate change. First climate change was a “complete and utter hoax”. Then as the environmental mood gained momentum […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, May 19th, 2008 - 33 comments
Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious issue: a target to reduce greenhouse gas emission to 50% of 1990 levels by 2050. Of course, setting a target for a time when most of your MPs will be dead is […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 am, May 17th, 2008 - 192 comments
As we all know the latest Fairfax poll has shown a huge lead for the National Party. Now I’m of the opinion it’s probably a rogue poll and we could argue that point (and methodology, and trends, etc) until the cows come home but I’m interested in something else. If this poll was hypothetically the […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:57 pm, May 14th, 2008 - 14 comments
Who would have thought? Murray McCully as The Penguin. Hat tip: onegoodmove
Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 12th, 2008 - 48 comments
We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: ‘crime is up’ they cry (when it’s down), ‘taxes are too high’ (when they’re down), ‘too many dole bludgers’ (when benefit numbers are way, way down), ‘everyone’s leaving for Australia’ (when fewer than 0.7% of people went last year), ‘labour costs […]
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