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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Andrew Dickens: There's big stones in the path to coalition


So, still no Government.

It's not a biggie. Remember, they only started talking after the specials were counted so it's only been a fortnight. But then again, why did they only start talking after the specials were counted? But still not a biggie.

Meanwhile, all those getting stuck into Winston are not using their knowledge of history or politics.

He doesn't have to be in Government. He can say no easily and then bring the Government down whenever he wants. Yes, he's the tail and National's the dog but the dog needs Winston's tail far more than Winston needs the dog.

And when it comes to the difficulties of the negotiation, many seem to forget that Winston is an old-fashioned anti-globalist who hates immigration and the stress it puts on our infrastructure.

They seem not to remember that it was Winston's idea to slap a foreign buyers ban in our property market. And he was part of the team that did in 2017.

But letting foreign buyers back in is at the centre of National's tax plan.

So they're asking New Zealand First to do an absolute U-turn in terms of policy and principles. That's a big ask. It was always going to be. It was evident weeks before the election. And Luxon has already hinted that the foreign buyers ban may stay. That's a big U-turn too.

If there's something to criticise National for, it's dropping their 2 ticks blue campaign and letting Winston in. They have much in common but the differences are big stones in the path of coalition.

Meanwhile, while the cat's away Wayne Brown comes out to play. National's policy of dropping the Auckland fuel tax is leading the mayor to ways to raise money to build the roads. All of a sudden congestion tax is on the fast track.

It's proof that there is no such thing as a free tax cut. National wants to drop the tax to give Aucklanders more money in the back pocket, but as Wayne Brown points out that comes at the expense of roads. So what do you want more? Roads or tax cuts. Tax cuts or congestion taxes.

Andrew Dickens is a broadcaster with Newstalk ZB. - where this article was sourced.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The tax on foreign purchases is incidental when compared to the cost of over employment in the Govt. sector, a deal could easily be to use that as an alternate source of funds.
The Govt. sector could easily slim down by 40,000 backroom time wasters over the next 3 years. The full cost per person is up around $250K (think in terms of office space, travel etc. plus their actual salaries with benefits.)
That's $10B/Yr.
Tax cuts could be given for each year and remember each billion dollars given in tax cuts yields more tax and each of the 40,000 liberated highly qualified workers can work in the productive sector again yielding actual productive GDP and tax again.
Out of each $1 of extra GDP the Govt. gets a further 40cents.
So the generally expected GDP uptick from a spending cuts distributed into the community is 3X.
I am suggesting $10B can be trimmed and distributed to generate economic activity again yielding tax and that could be as much as $12B.
Yes it matters where the Govt. spends money we saw that with the QE during covid 19.
The stimulus was broadly distributed and durable. Actually to durable and the inflation generated through printed money is our other issue.

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