10 Facts about how bad Budget 2017 really is

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  1. The tax package is heavily skewed towards high-income Kiwis.
  2. The bottom half of income earners get 20% of the value of the cuts. The top 10% also get 20% of the money.
  3. The poorest 800,000 get nothing.
  4. 500,000 low income working Kiwis get $1 a week net.
  5. Health gets a real terms cut of $200m
  6. Education gets a real terms cut of $80m
  7. It does nothing for housing.
  8. The extra $2b for infrastructure is only paying for cost blow-outs, not new projects
  9. Accommodation Supplement increase is a con job
  10. Cuts home insulation program when we know 1600 NZers die from the cold each year, that’s a death sentence for some of our most vulnerable.

This Budget is a hollow turd rolled in glitter.

29 COMMENTS

  1. I can only add to what I already posted here:
    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/05/25/budget-2017-the-sweep-it-under-the-carpet-budget/

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/05/25/budget-2017-here-we-go-again/

    I would confirm most of the above, sadly the 6 pm news channels and even RNZ and others fall for the “benefits” that were announced, most not even going to be coming into force until 1 April 2018!

    This is an Election Year Vote Buying Budget, an Election Bribe Budget, nothing else. The extra that people in middle class and working families’ situations may get will soon be sucked up again by new user pays charges and so forth, and by abatement regimes, that will not change, and likely be expanded.

    Heard recently on ACC’s appalling treatment of claims?

    ‘Complex claims methods deny ACC to thousands – report’
    RNZ, 23 May 2017:
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/331335/complex-claims-methods-deny-acc-to-thousands-report

    Have people forgotten about these tactics?
    ’60 minutes, the exit strategy’:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNkN3DW1W6s

    http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/13311-transcript-from-du-plessis-interview-with-melanie-reid-on-60-minutes/

    Also take note of this:
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201843510/emergency-housing-providers-instructed-not-to-talk-to-media

    We get endless spin, let the ones in the various sectors do their detailed analysis of the Budget over the coming days, and let us see, how few will actually “benefit” from it, listen to RNZ, I advise, as most other media will NOT present much real analysis at all, and continue offering spin selling stories for the Nat ACT brigade in power.

    The country experienced mass immigration gains for nearly three years now, the government did stuff all to address infrastructure and other needs, and now it does belatedly spend a bit here and there, and give families in the middle class a bit more to spend, but it only lies again, as more user charges and levies are about to come.

    They will start with increasing ACC charges, and also other ones, to pay for instance for this:
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11840364

  2. People are being hoodwinked, on a huge scale, actually, most that are supposed to ‘benefit’, they will NOT know for sure, how much they will actually get, until after 1 April 2018, which is of course after the election date, and so Kiwis are so far misled to think that by voting Nats they will really be significantly better off.

    Only after 1 April 2018 will many wake up and see, they will have been misled on the benefits for themselves, but by then it is too late, the Nat Act government bribing voters will have been voted in for another three years, that is unless Labour and Greens make sure they will NOT be voted for.

  3. Incredible Martyn,

    This was the best snow job since when we heard John Key say;

    “I never pull girls pony tails”!!!!!

    God they are absolute bloody liars as half the money they are budgeting was already committed to the tasks allotted to like the Kaikoura road and the rail infrastructure as they get insurance cover for both rail & road now, and they say it’s new money!!! Bloody liars and scammers.

    Gosh Winston was excellent in reply today shit he was in full flight, he is great even at his age.

    Their NZ First Conference in Palmerston North next month and later in July in Auckland will be the Party political events we need cover for and to watch.

  4. Accommodation Supplement only causes rents to rise.
    In Auckland, renters bid (like an auction ) to get a flat. If a the supplement rises by $25 then a renter can now bid $25 higher than they could before. Renter is no better off. Landlord pockets the extra supplement.
    The change from providing low rent state units (competing with landlords) to the current system of subsidising landlords (1.8 billion last year) is in my opinion the most overlooked reason for unaffordable housing in N.Z.

    • You think raising the accommodation supplement only increases rent do you? Do you also think raising the minimum wage increases unemployment?

      • Eventually there is push back when consumers can not afford the services payed for in cold hard cash.

        On the other hand if we were putting borrowed money into infrastructure instead of servicing debt and tax cuts we should be fine.

        There is no question about it. Having more full time constriction work and so on and so forth is far supperior to an economy full of Mc jobs

      • There’s a big difference in raising minimum wages and raising the accommodation supplement, Gosman.

        Raising the minimum wage puts money IN TO the pockets of low paid workers, and is spent throughout the economy by those workers.
        Raising the accommodation supplement takes money OUT of the pockets of workers and into the bank accounts of landlords.

        Not that you’d understand any of this.

    • I left NZ 8 years ago, I’ve been living in South Korea ever since. Here, I rent an 82m2 apartment on the 20th floor of a highrise complex on a mountainside at the outskirts of the city. The neighbourhood is quiet, hiking trails a 2 minute walk away on one side of me, and the new monorail 5 minutes walk away on the other side. I have a massive bedroom, a moderate second bedroom, a nice modern kitchen, and a huge living room with a balcony space I’ve started a small indoor garden in. All this costs just $600 a month for me, by myself.

      Back home in Ak or Welly, I’d be hard pressed to find a single room in a shared apartment for that cost. Combine that with the job market, and what motivation is there for me to ever want to return home, financially speaking? If the government wants to stop the brain drain, it’s going entirely the wrong way about it.

    • Any evidence for this bidding practise? I’ve lived in three houses in six years and have never once had to bid.

    • Too early to call, they can still present good, decent policy that will show they can offer a clear alternative to this lot. The ball is in Labour’s and the Green’s court now.

  5. Having followed the MSM today, there was surprisingly little talk about the Budget that was announced and debated only yesterday afternoon. So with ever fewer resources, no significant investigative journalism, only short, superficial “analysis”, our journos appear to have ticked the budget off, and see no need to report on the finer details. That means the voters out there will not learn much more than the headlines and positive spin Da Budget was given yesterday, and the Nats, always mindful of PR and selling themselves with the help of the MSM can rely on a positive outcome in the coming polls.

    Here is RNZ’s website, little on the Budget, but apparently more than on other “media”:
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/

    Other media:
    http://beta.nzherald.co.nz/
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/
    http://www.radiolive.co.nz/home.html
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/

    I will watch the 6pm news, but expect only little being reported on the Budget.

    • Oh, yes and no, it depends, check the IRD’s Annual Report for details:
      http://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/3/0/30b48dc6-0bf7-4fbf-9f5d-f84f2d5c153d/annual-report-2016.pdf

      Most tax is paid on income people earn, next up is GST, and when it comes to available income to pay essentials, low income earners are spending all of their income on bare essentials, such as housing, food, clothing, utility costs, transport and so. That means most of their spending includes GST, on top of income tax they may pay.

      High earners have only a maximum income tax of 33 percent to pay, which is significantly lower than income tax used to be over longer historic times in NZ, and hence they have more discretionary spending given their high incomes, which they may “invest” in real estate, new cars, a bot, a Bach or other things.

      The income inequality in NZ has increased substantially since the ‘Mother of All Budgets’ by Ruth Richardson in 1991, NZ is a rather unequal society now, and the rich get richer, not by accident.

      If people earn high incomes, they should pay more tax, as more equal societies are desirable, providing better living quality and conditions for all.

      https://www.tutor2u.net/economics/reference/market-failure-income-and-wealth-inequality

      • But someone making say $120K pays more tax than someone making $30K. So while their tax may reduce by more than someone paying 30K, they still pay a lot more right?

        • That is what a fair society requires, and under a truly fair society there would not be such income differences as we have now. A CEO or Manager should not earn such grand salaries as are paid in many enterprises these days, and low income earners deserve at least a living wage, but we are far from that.

        • Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s not about the amount they pay. It’s about the percentage. Comparing a $120,000 wage with a $30,000 wage is ridiculous, because the thresholds and percentages are worlds apart. Factor in GST on top of that, and how it affects the poor, and account for the lack of CGT, and how it benefits the rich, and you might as well try to compare a pink balloon with a sack of gorilla’s toenail clippings. Piss off.

          • Look I understand your are jealous of those of us who work hard. I know for you, you just want it all on a platter. I started on minimum wage years ago but I worked hard, I got a degree, I paid off my student loan. I sacrificed and now I get the fruits of my labour.

            • Years ago when Governments made it easy for you to succeed. Try doing it in today’s society. Reality not jealousy.

            • So the cleaner working hard for the minimum wage is not working hard enough? You arrogant self entitled BS artist, excuse my lingo.

            • Peoples incomes are only minimally correlated with how hard they work, the degree of difficulty of what they do and the social value of their outputs. Put another way, in our economy income is distributed perversely. The progressive income tax recognises this fact and redistributes income more rationally.

            • Excuse! Me! For speaking! Loud!, this! Is! Where! We! Make! The! Memes!, Watch! Your! Step!

              Come on bro. Dont even try and deny it. Its the weekend. If you ain’t out there getting pussy. You’re in here with me.

              Lets fucking low ball New Zealands top 10% tax bracket and say the all earn double the average wage so about 140k so that is 20k more than your failed attempt at an equation.

              And this is fucking low balling. If you want to high ball we can say NZs big for banks rip out 4 billion every year so in financial terms two Kaikora earthquakes (estimated cost 2bill each in clean up costs) get extracted out of New Zealand markets every year. But lets fucking low ball the effects of lending practices on New Zealand and say they only cause one 2bill financial earthquake every year. Not just that. Lets give them a 50% discount for buying bulk spyware so the big-iv, low balled, extract 1bill out of NZ every year.

              So for you to have your job and loan and 120k taxable income and so on and so forth totally causes a 1bill financial earth quake every year and that is fucking low balling. The truth of the matter is much much worse. It disfigures the harts and lungs of children. Ok we saved one bill but our kids are dis-formed.

              So any way. Hope you learned something new and hope you enjoyed. And watch for cyber cucks on the way out.

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