Pensioners have complained that they should be helped as well because they don’t have enough money. Beneficiaries have complained. Diesel users have complained because their fuel has actually gone up much more than petrol.
Then, there are also wealthy people complaining because they don’t have kids - they’re saying they’re once again getting nothing while the 'breeders' are and that they’re the ones subsidising them.
Now, I understand the sentiment from everyone. All of it is fair. But I think the Government is right to have limited this package the way they have because we are simply too broke as a country to shell out 50 bucks a week for everyone, including millionaires.
Plus, we’ve just spent four years fighting inflation. We know what that feels like, right? We know how hard that is.
The last thing we want to do is pump so much money into the economy that inflation goes up again and we have to start that fight all over.
So if you have to choose who you give the money to, you choose workers because they have to get to work - beneficiaries don’t. You choose parents because their budgets are much less flexible. They have added fixed costs they just can’t escape: childcare, dropping the kids off at school and so on.
I think the Government has actually done a pretty good job here of threading the needle with this package. It’s not inflationary if it’s only reallocating money that would have been spent in the Budget anyway. It’s not taking on any extra debt that wouldn’t already have been taken on because it’s in the Budget.
It also has an off-ramp: the payment ends after a year or when the price of 91 drops below $3 for four consecutive weeks - whichever comes first.
I think part of the reason so many people are complaining today is because Jacinda, Grant and Covid have got us addicted to Government help. If there’s a problem, we now default to expecting the Government to fix it, don’t we?
And often we expect the Government to fix it with money.
We need to get off that. We should have learned what happens next. When you turn on the Government money hose, you get inflation, then you get a recession.
Being more targeted and more disciplined - even if most of us miss out - ultimately does mean less pain for us all.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show. This article was sourced from Newstalk ZB.
6 comments:
It’s bull pukke is what it is. The price is inflation…and inflationary- by artificially lowering it for some you raise it for others….& wtf is with working for families anyway? It’s a slide towards genuine communism. It would be the first welfare link I’d remove
Maybe, but when they’re pulling in record levels of tax revenue, yet still, just like the last lot, continue to waste our money on pet projects….corporate welfare re EV chargers, sky diving, the remaining 15,000 extra pen pushers in the public service (what’s the bet many are leftover from Bloomfield’s Covid comms people), this feels like pure virtue signalling.
So its not inflationary Heather. Really?. Who pays for the trickle down price rises in staples such as groceries when transport companies pass on the extra they need to pay at the pump. It will be the rest of us who spend the real money in this economy.
@anon 9:32am - good point. In that case, rather than adding fuel to the fire (no pun intended), since diesel is now the same price as 91 they should really just be reducing the RUCs. This would reduce costs for the transport industry, which means less pressure on us as consumers, & it wouldn’t encourage panic buying. If you discount the fuel in any way, you run the risk of more pumps running dry re panic buying, which just ends up manufacturing a shortage & massive spike in price that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
One would assume politicians & their advisors aren’t complete idiots, so the question is why are inflationary driving measures always their first response? Why aren’t we seeing this idea floated? What’s the end game? Is this just an excuse for a Covid junior? Another money grab? A backdoor to invoke more climate change ideology (which we know isn’t about the climate….even Greta is complaining about fossil fuel restrictions!)? It doesn’t seem to stack up.
I heartily (and financially) agree with the previous two responses. This is not a good time to be owning and operating a diesel vehicle, and I think it remiss of the govt not to grant some relief to that category. Who will be paying increased cartage costs as well as increased fuel prices? (All rhyming aside) we will remember come November.
Another divide and rule government strategy. Give all citizens fuel relief or none at all. Families don't need this any more than anybody else, especially businesses who operate diesel vehicles. Can they reduce taxes on fuel? I am not au fait with this subject but I am totally sick of undemocratic solutions.
Anyway, the Strait of Hormuz will be open soon and fuel prices will come down again...ho hum. The usual political nonsense from Stuff et al.
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