In the last 48 hours, Luxon has u-turned so many times, he’s doughnuting policy now

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
61
2051

What on earth are they doing???

Chris Hipkins tears into National over report of dumped tax policy

Labour’s Chris Hipkins has torn into National, claiming it is suffering “internal division” after a report suggested the party had dumped its earlier tax policy.

National finance spokesperson Nicola Willis told NZHerald it was a policy for the Budget in May and that National would form a new tax policy ahead of next year’s election.

However, Willis has confirmed that will include a form of indexation and the party is committed to tax reduction.

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A calculator on the party’s website which showed how much people could save under its tax policy has also been removed.

“As we shape our tax policy for the future, New Zealanders can expect to see a package that really focuses on the squeezed middle of New Zealanders who we know are struggling to get ahead and the shape of that package will be determined next year,” Willis told NZHerald.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, speaking from Auckland on Thursday, wouldn’t get into National’s policies.

“The policies of the Opposition are a matter for them and whether or not voters feel they are consistent and therefore trustworthy is also a question for them too.”

But one of her senior MPs was more than happy to.

Hipkins, who released a statement on a Labour letterhead as the Labour MP for Rimutaka (as opposed to as a minister), said National appeared to be “in disarray”.

“This was Chris Luxon’s first policy as National Party Leader, and now his Deputy Nicola Willis has dumped it six months later,” he said on Thursday. “It’s the sort of disarray we got used to in the days of Bridges, Muller and Collins.”

Willis says the party’s position on indexation has not changed.

It comes just a day after Luxon was forced to clarify comments about National’s health and education spending plans.

After previously promising to lift spending by the rate of inflation, Luxon wasn’t so clear about itduring an interview with AM on Wednesday morning. He later told reporters that it was National’s policy to peg spending to inflation.

Hipkins pointed out Luxon’s comments on abortion, businesses being soft and his social media account suggesting he was in Te Puke when he was actually holidaying in Hawaii as “rookie errors”. He questioned whether National MPs might be asking whether the first-term MP was promoted to leader too soon.

“Luxon’s puppet at the Backbencher might be Humpty Dumpty but one has to wonder if the Fosbury Flop might have been more accurate,” said Hipkins.

Ok, put aside the fact no one knows who the fuck the Fosbury Flop is and forces you to consider Chippy was home schooled in a castle, Luxon is u-turning so fast, he’s lost political traction and is just spinning policy doughnuts all over the local cemetery, hooning around like West Auckland teenagers after a day of drinking Mountain Dew.

You are not in Botany now Mr Luxon!

This is ridiculous! He’s either not being briefed deeply enough to make the calls in the first place, or Nicola Willis isn’t telling him what she’s doing!

This is basic communications 101 and should never be played out in public. Luxon’s history now of saying something and then walking it back is becoming a problem, add to that the whole harvesting people’s pain from the cost of living crisis only to holiday in Hawaii while telling us he was in Te Puke and you have the authenticity problem of a rich man who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

I have argued that 34% is Luxon’s ceiling, but now I suspect even that might be too high.

The very angry right vote will see the possibility of a Labour/Green/Māori Party Government as a cultural existential threat and in their writhing around in pain will thrash over to ACT.

I think ACT will start cannibalising National vote again as the polarisation amplifies.

Luxon is not the droid you are looking for.

Remember, Luxon was the negotiated leader, not the most talented. He became Leader after Collins made her hate pack vote for him after she ratfucked Simon Bridges.

The question is when will Nicola Willis attempt a move against Luxon. Before the election or after it?

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61 COMMENTS

  2. And the gaffs keep on coming!

    Luxon has no political nose but an entitled rich prick mentality and is rapidly transforming into Todd Muller, redux.

    Will he last until 2023? I have my doubts but one thing is for sure, the best performing MP for this government, bar none!

  3. Martyn it’s a high jump technique. Rather than humpty dumpty ‘having a great (accidental) fall’ its almost like he is doing it on purpose. At least that’s how I took it

  4. Events to-date surely raise the question if Willis is setting Luxon up to fail. If a leader and a deputy aren’t singing the same tune on major policy issues I can only assume the past rifts in their caucus remain. This can only end one way, and for the sake of a credible opposition, let alone a government in waiting, the sooner the better.

    • i personally think that it is just a lack of communication the two. their media handlers will be working a ton of overtime from now until the election.

      • SAC, wouldn’t that indicate a total lack of the corporate skills Luxon is supposed to have. Surely as boss he needs to make sure his team is ‘all on the same page’.

        • Corporate skills are not required in a company that a Government has to bail out, if anything it shows a failure of corporate skills.

          • So true Bert. His abandonment of the Heathrow landing slots and Regional routes as Air NZ CEO demonstrated he is not a builder but rather retreats from challenges.

  5. The fact of the matter is, regardless of whether or not he looks stupid in the media, and he increasingly does look stupid in the media, Chris Luxon will need to come up with some solid policies for National before the 2023 election. That’s what the voters want.

  6. This is your captain, Captain Hindsight speaking…
    Fasten your seatbelts we are going in to land.. In Te Puke..
    Uh.. you say there is some confusion.. Cancel that…
    We will be detouring to Hawaii for a week..
    Uh.. um John you’re cracking up.. I can’t hear you properly..
    Nicola can you take over the wheel for this one.?
    What are the flight controllers the NZ Initiative saying we should do?

  7. “…hooning around like West Auckland teenagers after a day of drinking Mountain Dew.”

    please, west auckland teens drink monster energy drinks, in the 400 ml can, thay would be frothing at the mouth at the suggestion of drinking mountain dew.

  8. Seymour…”Drop the tax cut saga”!

    Luxon…”yes David”

    Willis…”But if we put out a press statement saying it was only for last May’s budget, then it’ll sound like it was our idea”

    Seymour…”Yes Nicola, I will allow that”.

    • Thanks @bert. You’ve confirmed the rumours I’ver heard that Luxon is about to be rolled (but softened to “pursuing other business interests”.

      We have a sweepstake in my street, that:

      #1. “David Seymour will be National Leader going in to the next election, with Nicola as deputy”
      #2. “Nicola Willis will be National Leader going in to the next election, with Seymour as deputy”
      #3. “National and ACT will merge as a new Party called the NACTL – National Act Liberals before the next election”
      #4. “National, ACT and NZ First will merge as a new Party called the SJNL – the Shane Jones’ National Liberals before the next election”

      Knowing how much National, ACT, and NZ First sift through TDB for policy commentary, I have put my money on #3!

    • @bert Awesome bert, Love the dialogue transcript. Do you have a long-range microphone that listened in on this ‘fictional’ conversation? Perfect punctuation by the way, unlike Im right, who normally pipes up about now with some unpunctuated drivel, spittle and and foam.

      “How can you tell if NPDPD Willis, or HAD Luxon, or CRV Bishop are lying about tax, bert?”
      “When they blink when they are being interviewed, or when their lips move, bert!”

      Note, HAD Luxon should have been in the Commonwealth Games Gymnastic squad, he would have won Gold, for the most number of backflips since Nadia Nadia Comăneci, won Gold at the 1976 Olympics.

      Humpty Aloha Donut Luxon – Gold Medal for the most number of backflips and spins on Tax.
      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/08/unions-lash-out-at-christopher-luxon-after-he-backtracks-on-health-funding-promise.html

      Chris R&V Bishop – Silver medal for getting his facts wrong about drug testing at music festivals.
      https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/12/chris-bishop-says-sorry-after-chloe-swarbrick-again-calls-out-drug-testing-lies.html

      Nicola NPDPD Willis – National Party Dirty Politics Denier – Bronze medal for this comment “I came to Parliament because I care about policy and issues and ideas and that’s what I’m there for. I also believe in the values of the National Party and a very important one of which is personal responsibility and I do take responsibility for my actions and my behaviour and the impact that has on others. – with her politically expedient fingers crossed behind her politically expedient back!
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/421823/question-time-first-term-mps-on-parliament-culture

      National: Gold, silver and bronze at being untrustworthy and too tainted by dirty politics stench, and uber medal overall winner of backflips on tax

  9. No need to wonder “who” the Fosbury Flop is.. It was a well known technique that became the standard for high jumpers.. Named after a bloke by the name of Fosbury strangely enough.. The fact that the technique leaves the user flat on his/her back with their legs in the air makes for an accurate assessment of Luxons future “political posturing” .. An impersonation of a dying cockroach..

  10. It’s only Hosking and the sycophantic !ZB announcers that are keeping Luxon in the game …

    The rest of the media seem to have suddenly had an epiphany and woken up from their reverie …

    Clearly he has nothing to offer and would be a useless Prime Minister rivalling train-wreck Shipley for hopelessness..

    The honeymoon is over and the election is a long ,long, long 16 months away yet….

    The dismantling will be Muller revisited….

    • David Seymour Henry.
      Don Brash has done it before, moving from ACT to National.
      Deja-vu, all over again!

      But then again, it could be Stephen Joyce, aka Dildo Baggins.

    • No link to “gutter-style Politics” @bert? Really?

      Deep down, many of the right wing commenters here. agree with you in your never-ending fight against the horde of paid right-wing trolls, who who denigrate you as a leftist looney. Most of our right-wing-troll wages, come from our number of comments, rather than the quality of our comments.

      Mr Key supported Chris Luxon’s leadership of the National Party. Very little of the Dirty Politics supposedly associated with John Key, affected Luxon very much. However, support by John Key, and alleged dirty politics link was almost a Judas kiss on the cheek for Luxon.

      It has been hard to shake off negative links in the media with Chris Luxon, but failing to grasp the public sentiment to taxing the poor, the same rate as the rich, has left a sour taste with “Kiwis”, who generally have an innate sense of egalitarianism, or “Fair Go”

      “Dirty Politics” has become synonymous for National Party in the minds of bloggers only. Taxing the poor, less than the rich, which would lead to a $17,000 difference per year for rich people like Luxon, is a bridge too far for most voters, at either end of the political spectrum.

      National and ACT will need to bury the hatchet with NZ First; and bring in a “fair” CGT (Capital Gains Tax). It’s the only credible tax difference between National and Labour at the moment. Labour have refused to introduce a CGT while Ms Ardern is PM. Implementing a staged CGT, over 9 years, will help National to grab the high moral ground, to also re-connect with the “squeezed middle”, in other words, those hard-working Kiwis who see the inequities of a tax package that give $18.,000 to one sector of society and $180 to another sector of New Zealand working society.

      The well-off in NZ already have trusts in place, and these trusts can be used to offset and delay the CGT tax ad infinitum. If National want to sell a CGT, to the richest 10%, then roll it in the glitter of the fact that, New Zealand will become the Switzerland of the South Pacific, which was once proposed by Sir John Key.

      Tax brackets, or a tax that gives rich more than the middle and poor are currently unpalatable. Dropping tax to 20% across the board – no matter how much you earn, and moving to an indirect tax of 20% should be easier to convince Kiwis. Indirect tax, compared with direct income tax is a no-brainer. If you have more money in your pocket, or are paying less direct income tax, and fractionally more, is a much fairer system. Voters have the choice to save the money from less direct tax, or spend it.

      Thanks @bert. 20% income tax, 20% business tax and 20% GST is the way forard towards a fairer society.

  14. Since it was recycling day where I am,
    I thought I’d recycle this joke…
    His lordship PotatoHead MumbleFuck Christ Luxon, leaves Hawaii and heads back to NZ on a private plane, when they hit turbulence and their plane is about to crash. There are 3 passengers, but only 2 parachutes. The first passenger said. “I am the latest leader of the National opposition, and I am the shrewdest richest smartest leader in NZ political history, so my people don’t want me to die”. He took the first pack and jumped out of the plane.
    The second passenger, the Pope, said to the third passenger, a 10-year-old schoolboy “My son, I am old and don’t have many years left, you have more years ahead so I will sacrifice my life and let you have the last parachute.”
    The little boy said, “That’s okay, Your Holiness, there’s a parachute left for you. The shrewdest richest smartest leader in NZ political history took my schoolbag…”

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