Well said.
Privatisation and extraction of wealth is the aim, entrenching neoliberalism through a manufactured crisis.
I think that GrantR fully intended to run a fiscally responsible government…. until COVID absolutely stuffed that up. Despite some things like PPE, the length of the second lockdown and keeping MIQ going to long, the Ardern Government got most things right.
They did, however, overcook the economy and gave the banks to much money to throw around at extremely low interest rates.
I’m really quite centralist in my political thinking which is why I find the current economic discussions almost farcical….. National say the economy they inherited was in such bad shape, they need huge cutbacks in the government spending….. while still justifying tax cuts. While Labour say they left the economy is such a good state and the pain has been caused by National’s policies since the election and the economy can’t afford tax cuts.
The truth, I feel, is in the middle….. inflation and interest rates increased under Labour and National were never going to turn it around in six months. While, the country can’t afford tax cuts economically, politically National can’t afford not to give them as they were such a large part of their election promises.
The septic in me thinks that Labour deliberately ran the country down to make it harder for the adjustments in the tax thresholds to occur, the realist feels that the RBNZ is far more to blame than either the last government or this one, the property owner in one wants to see a level playing field with being a landlord to running any other business, the former renter wants expenses to landlords reduced so rents don’t go up so much, and the business owner/tax payer in me feels like it would be nice to get some relief an a time of real down turn.
I personally like some of the areas the government is moving in terms of tax but feel they’re missing out in others. I’ve always said that the tax thresholds need adjustment but that there should also be an adjustment to the higher tax rate or even a new one brought in at over $250,000 PA. I’d rather see an inheritance tax and the reintroduction of gift duty to help reduce inter generational wealth transfer over a wealth tax or CGT.
Where I think that Labour, the Maori Party and the Greens are wrong is looking at developing tax policies that will effect hundreds of thousands of Kiwi Families based on the Parker Report into the wealth of a hundred richest Kiwis.
The current government has moved too far in changing the Brightline point back to 2 years…. I’d rather have gone to five. And they also should remove the exemptions around new builds being not included in the Brightline rules….. all a speculator needs to do is buy a complying new build and then sell it within two years and they don’t have to pay tax on the capital gain…. all what Labour did was create a loophole for speculators to exploit.
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