Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand, who worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
The Leader of the Labour Party, Chris Hipkins, has proved he nicely fits the joke about the dog that chases cars – what does it do when it catches one? Fresh from him declaring in parliament the treaty did not cede sovereignty, yet without telling us what NZ should do in such a scenario because he doesn’t have a clue, we now hear how Labour is actively discussing ways to introduce capital and asset taxes.
The fact that capital is scarce here (so taxing savings would make it scarcer) is of little concern to Hipkins. His election 2026 plan has become clear: he needs, and wants, the Kiwi economy to fail, not just now, but over the next couple of years.
Hipkins is desperate for us to forget that he is the primary architect of NZ’s currently awful economic performance. He personally went to war with Auckland and locked us up in 2022 when nearly the entire city had already been vaccinated. If his dreams come true, then he will go into election 2026 on the back of a poor economy, meaning National-ACT-NZ First will struggle to properly fund health care.
Chippy can then offer his ‘rescue plan’: introduce capital taxes to forcefully acquire funds ‘needed to rebuild the health system’. It’s a copy of UK Labour PM Keir Starmer’s proposals. Starmer warned his next budget will include tax rises, almost certainly on capital, to plug the National Health Service’s funding gap. The difference between Starmer and Hipkins is that the British PM wants his economy to grow, but Hipkins needs NZ to stay depressed for him to succeed. For talking NZ down and wanting us to fail, Hipkins should get out of politics.
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This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
