Somebody suggested to me yesterday that the 2023 version of the National Party is similar to the Helen Clark Labour Party of 20 years ago. That is just to the left of centre.
When you look a few policies, that comment isn’t far off the mark. They’re going to retain the 39 cent top tax rate and they’re maintaining the Zero Carbon Act, when the ETS could do the same job at a fraction of the price.
Then in the last few days we’ve had two quite staggering announcements that would not have been made by a National Party thirty years ago.
They’re going to maintain the winter heating payment for all people aged 65 and over even if a decent chunk of them are multi-millionaires, and then at the other end of the scale they’re going to carry on with this busted policy of the fees-free first year at university.
What is it with these people? The term poll driven fruit cakes comes to mind.
The country cannot afford either policy and the fees-free idea is a shambles. It hasn’t brought any more students into university and has been shown to be of more assistance to children of the wealthy than kids from lower income families.
As for the winter heating payment, why is it not means tested?
Don’t give me the stock answer of that would be too hard to administer. There are mechanisms that already exist like the community services medical card to identify pensioners of limited means. Or make it an opt-in scheme for those under a certain income or asset base rather than just a universal money giveaway.
I think both initiatives are wasteful and non-targeted spending, something a responsible government would not do.
Any new government led by the Nats is looking like Santa Claus already.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
They’re going to maintain the winter heating payment for all people aged 65 and over even if a decent chunk of them are multi-millionaires, and then at the other end of the scale they’re going to carry on with this busted policy of the fees-free first year at university.
What is it with these people? The term poll driven fruit cakes comes to mind.
The country cannot afford either policy and the fees-free idea is a shambles. It hasn’t brought any more students into university and has been shown to be of more assistance to children of the wealthy than kids from lower income families.
As for the winter heating payment, why is it not means tested?
Don’t give me the stock answer of that would be too hard to administer. There are mechanisms that already exist like the community services medical card to identify pensioners of limited means. Or make it an opt-in scheme for those under a certain income or asset base rather than just a universal money giveaway.
I think both initiatives are wasteful and non-targeted spending, something a responsible government would not do.
Any new government led by the Nats is looking like Santa Claus already.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
So will the " financial largesse" extend to Maori issues?
At one meeting , Shane Reti was asked whether National was prepared for the inevitable uproar from Iwi when the dismantling of the Maori Health authority would be formally announced after the election.
His reply: the same amount of funding would still go to Maori - but for health care with stringent accountability not for a bloated bureaucracy.
Again, the 83% will miss out on additional health funding.
As I've said before, National are the best worse option. Being realistic, one of the two major parties is needed to form a government.
Labour are bloody terrible and need to go for all sorts of reasons, not least rolling out apartheid and overseeing economic decline.
National are piss poor (which ranks above bloody terrible) and Luxon and Willis are as woke as they come. But they'll have to do, INITIALLY.
The really big job in NZ after consigning the Loony-Left to opposition, hopefully for a very long time, is to reform the centre-right and weed out all the weak, woke specimens starting with the aforementioned and most of the planned National cabinet.
I hope you are right with the use of the word "initially", Dee, because it will be NZ's only hope.
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