In the lead up to the budget, Chris Hipkins, in an interview with Mike Hosking, avoided most of the questions by answering along the lines of ‘only a few more sleeps to go Mike and you’ll find out’. When the big day came listening to Grant Robertson almost induced sleep. This budget was the nearest thing to a non-event one could possibly dream up. Not wanting to scare the horses is one thing but this budget, in terms of being a winner, never made it to the starting gates.
What it demonstrated was something most of us already knew: when it comes to economic management, the left are completely clueless. It’s the same the world over. America is on the cusp of defaulting on its debt repayments due to the irresponsible spending policies of a senile old man. Thank goodness the Republicans control the House. America talks in trillions as opposed to our billions and their credit card is close to being maxed out.
Grant Robertson is on the same path. These people seem oblivious to the fact that money borrowed has to be repaid. If you are going to borrow, then those of us on the right know that in order to repay debt you have to increase productivity. Is that what the left believe? They con you into thinking so by talking about it, but are incapable of putting policies in place whereby it can be actually achieved.
Those in power on the left look for easy ways to go after the money: TAX THE RICH. This is their modus operandi. It’s the politics of envy, which at the moment is being promoted by the miserable looking David Parker. The highlight of his life must be turning up at his desk every morning trying to invent even more ways to screw the people who are working their butts off to improve both themselves and the country’s productivity. He is the poster boy for Margaret Thatcher’s famous words: “The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
They were careful not to be seen to be too enthusiastic in this regard, no doubt much to Parker’s chagrin. He managed an increase in the trust tax rate. This budget is a red flag, a warning of what’s in the pipeline before and after the election. Robertson has left himself ‘bribe money’ for use prior to the election. After the election, Hipkins’s policy bonfire will still be smoking. Expect policies like Three Waters and others to be retrieved from the ashes. A capital gains tax could be in the offing.
This budget, as Christopher Luxon said, was both a ‘blowout’ and a ‘no ideas’ budget. There was nothing in it to help those who contribute to increasing the productivity of the country. Both agriculture and tourism were ignored. While we are still recovering from what we now know were unwarranted lockdowns, these industries need all the help they can get. What we got was an inward-looking budget focussed solely on domestic issues. More classrooms that won’t get built and nothing aimed at getting kids doing ram raids back to school. Light bulbs featured again, but they forgot the showerheads.
Maori did extraordinarily well, although they don’t think so. It’s never enough in their books. How the country benefits economically from putting millions into kapa haka is beyond me. Purely political because there is an increasing concern amongst the Maori Caucus as to where the vote might go at the election. Arnold Nordmeyer gave us a black budget, Robertson delivered a brown one. Here’s a thought: how about taxing Maori businesses and levelling the tax playing field? No doubt that would be racist.
How ironic that shortly after the transport fare subsidies were announced, a power failure knocked out half of Auckland’s peak hour train services AGAIN. The prescription fee cancellation is of little consequence as the Chemist Warehouse and some other outlets don’t charge it anyway. National is right to reinstate it. Many can afford to pay it. Free ECE for two year olds was the one bright spot in the dull affair. That does help with the family budget and allows parents back into the workforce earlier.
Apart from that there was nothing to get excited about. Grant Robertson has driven the country into a dead-end street and with this latest effort appears to have switched off the engine. He has done nothing to power the economy and help effect the increase in the productivity we so desperately need. He seems to think a budget ‘for the times’ is purely domestic as we recover from a Covid cold. This budget should have been completely the opposite: revving up the economic engine to drive much-needed income from exports and tax cuts to put cash in people’s pockets. Especially during a cost of living crisis.
But no, what we got was a financial document completely lacking in vision. Grant could do worse than rock up to his nearest Specsavers. Having an eye on the election is one thing. Doing it at the country and its citizens’ expense is quite another.
