The Capital Gains Tax train wreck is all the evidence you
need this is a Government that didn't have a plan.
Why are we here? Because they'd tried this before, got
burned twice - and still didn't learn the lesson.
Jacinda Ardern personally overrode her party and ran this
policy last election to be enacted by now. But she got dragged kicking and
screaming into a cupboard and was subdued to the point where she acquiesced,
and promised nothing before 2020, then flick it off to a working group.
The working group was specifically tasked with finding a way
to make a CGT work, they couldn't. They told the Government they couldn't, they
were then told to go away and try harder. All the while the Government stalled,
pretending they hadn't made up their mind.
They're still stalling, pretending they haven't made up
their mind and in that is the naivety, they're taking their issue, and making a
complete and utter hash of it. The Prime Minister, at her post-Cabinet press
conference, lectured the media on how to cover this subject, and offered up an
olive branch to small businesses and farmers that they'll be at the top of her
mind.
She does this because Newstalk ZB political editor Barry
Soper said the Beehive's ninth floor is in shock at the reaction to the tax.
More naivety.
If they really thought a new all-encompassing, sweepingly
aggressive tax was going to be welcomed, they didn't learn enough about the
real world as they spent all those years at university, union meetings, and
running NGOs.
Enter Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who in his first
major speech of the year to business tells them the Government isn't bound by
the tax report - why did he say that? Because he's clearly worked out as well
that this thing stinks to high heaven.
Adding to the problem is the two months' worth of lord knows
what, as they, yet again, stall for time having received one of their 100-plus
working group reports. They apparently need to digest, chew over, and
presumably try and bring Winston on board with at least a small slice of it.
Do remember the more they cut out of this, the more people
they exempt, the less sensible a CGT is.
If you're taking farms and businesses out, you open the
Pandora's Box of the fast burgeoning industry that is tax avoidance. Not to
mention the fact the more you exempt, the less you actually raise. And the less
you raise, the more questions are asked about the cost of compliance and
chasing the returns.
Not unlike the 'Google tax', which although containing a
moderate amount of common sense, isn't actually looking to raise a lot, but
promises a world of pain in the legal department.
This Government looks yet again like they're fighting to
convince anyone that what they're doing is good for the country, makes sense,
and it's all part of a clear professional well thought through policy plan.
And if they're on the ropes now, how bad is it going to get
when they actually tell us it's on and provide some specifics?
Mike Hosking is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB, who
has hosted his number one breakfast show since 2008 - see HERE.
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