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Here's a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston's post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National's burgeoning bureaucracy: Did you know that John Key himself in his Wellington parliamentary office employs has 36 people?... they cost the taxpayer, every year... over…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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There was a Roy Morgan poll out yesterday showing a gap of 14 between National and Labour. Party support varied only slightly from the previous Morgan poll. The Morgan poll differs hugely from the controversial Fairfax poll from a week or so ago which showed…
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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…
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Here are graphs of the portion of income going on tax and the portion of reduction in tax for Kiwis under the Budget's cuts, with the population in each $10,000 bracket. As you can see, the biggest percent reductions go to the bulk of the…
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Well that happened fast. This is the 1001st public post on The Standard. That is assuming I get it in before the next post appears. So I thought we should have a post to celebrate the event. It has been just over 9 months in…
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The launch of Drinking Liberally at the Southern Cross last night was a blast. The organisers had been hoping for 20 plus people to make it the first time, so it was really impressive to see over 50 people there. Nandor spoke well and had…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
economy education election 2008 Environment families health housing Media national same old national
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From the MP who tried to ban water comes 'don't use crash statistics to work out which roads are dangerous'. Writing in the Oamaru Mail about a dangerous stretch of road, National MP Jacqui Dean says: "Transit New Zealand often places too great an emphasis…
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Get "scientific" with this poll and determine "which Disney villain are you"?
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It seems National has succeeded in the first step of its campaign to muzzle the EPMU and the fifty thousand workers it represents. Over at the bog our mate Davey is crowing about the high court win that recognises the union as a legal person…
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Economist Greg Clydesdale has released a report in which he says Pacific Islanders are a drain on the New Zealand economy (exhibiting "significant and enduring under-achievement" and "that can contribute little to economic growth" in his words). I accept Clydesdale's cry that he is not…
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Seemingly content to coast along on the "time for a change" sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details in major policy areas: government debt, work rights and retirement savings. English ended up sounding like a broken record on Agenda a…
bill english economy john key kremlinology same old national workers' rights youtube
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Nandor Tanczos has just announced he will not be standing down from Parliament early to let Russel Norman in because former MP Mike Ward has refused to step aside. According to Nandor's statement: "I had hoped that I might step down soon and allow Co-Leader…
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Good on Breakfast for following our lead by playing the full clip of Goff's AltTv interview this morning and saying 'make up your own mind'. Bit of a change that, asking people to judge for themselves. Most political reporting treats politics as if it's some…
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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…
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Well, I've seen the video of Goff on Alt TV and I really can't see what all the fuss is about. Phil Goff's stated the obvious by saying there's a chance Labour could lose the next election, he's reaffirmed his support for Helen Clark and…
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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…
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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 work rights. On Agenda, Bill English said he is concerned about new 'entitlements' for workers. 'Entitlements' is an anti-worker…
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See that line that says minimum wage? Nearly half of kiwis earn less than that. Seven months ago, that was me. I was working removing asbestos contaminated glue from the floor of an office building along with half a dozen other guys. Now, asbestos is…
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Oscar Pistorius now the chance to become the first amputee to compete on the track at the Olympics. The 21-year-old who runs on artificial carbon fibre legs has been cleared to compete at the Beijing Olympics if he can make the qualifying time (he needs to take about a…
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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…
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