It’s a Chippy Butty Budget.
0% nutrion – 100% taste.
It does enough to make you consider voting Labour without really promising to do anything outside the neoliberal straightjacket that Labour are locked into.
Here are the concerns of NZ voters…
…and Labour have made a good job of attempting to respond to those concerns.
There is the symbolism of a high tax on the income of Trusts and lowering childcare to include 2 year olds while increasing food funding in schools, but there is nothing radical that NZ really needs to start working on the grotesque underfunding of our infrastructure.
WINNERS:
Mediocrity: This is the best Labour can produce with an MMP majority. Jesus wept.
Beneficiaries + Kids + Education: The lower transport costs and removal of prescription fees with extensions to healthy homes all benefit the poor. We will also expand early childcare and there is 300 new classrooms.We can not allow the perfect to eclipse the good, and there is good here.
Immigration: Open the flood gates, Labour will simply use mass immigration in the exact same way Key did to prop up our low wage economy and create fake growth.
Science: The Science City investment sound interesting and is necessary. Good to see the gamers getting some love as well.
LOSERS:
NZ: We need vision, we need courage, we need political leadership. We got a Chip butty instead.
ACT: Their alternative budget where they spell out the most radical privatisation agenda and slashing of welfare ever suggested in a manifesto will look positively fascist in comparison to this.
National:
This messaging by the right, that the Left ‘splashes around cash’ highlights how bankrupt the debate on State spending has become.
New Zealand has an egregious infrastructure deficit in NZ!
Because our under regulated capitalism has been robbed of revenue by a rigged economic system that benefits the rich ,we are desperately needing more hospitals, more passenger rail, roads, schools, storm repair, tens of thousands still waiting for State Houses
The reality is that we are not spending nearly enough and we need a far larger State capacity, not less of it!
There is a class war happening right in front of our eyes as the wealthy pour millions in donations to National and ACT while Climate Denying Federated Farmers join ACT and National push for landlords to have the power to evict when some of their biggest donors are Real Estate pimps.
The political project of the right is to amputate the State’s capacity to raise revenue so that it can’t be redistributed in the first place.
The top 5% of NZers own roughly 50% of NZs wealth, while the bottom 50% of NZers own a miserable 5%!
Are those stats that live up to the egalitarian dream of NZ?
The ‘cash was splashed around’ by Labour as the price paid to prevent a mass death event from a once in a century pandemic.
Pretending otherwise is simply rewriting history while denying the underfunded present which dooms us in the future.
We need a bigger State, not a smaller one.
Rich Pricks hiding in Trusts: They get pinged with a higher tax.
PREDICTIONS:
The most important political lesson I’ve ever learned in NZ Politics is from the Laila Harre School of change.
Back when she was in Alliance, she had to force Labour to agree to maternity leave.
Can you remember and imagine that?
Having to force Labour to give maternity leave?
Laila teaches us that if we ever want the Labour Party to actually serve the people and not the vested interests of the Professional Managerial Class, then you need to smash Labour’s head against a wall, put a gun to their head and scream ‘do it’.
That’s the only way Labour will act in the interests of the people, if you force them to.
Look at the resistance Labour are digging in to stop any debate on Tax despite the IRD showing us NZ Capitalism is rigged!
There are 14 Billionaires in NZ + 3118 ultra-high net worth individuals, let’s start with them, then move onto the Banks, then the Property Speculators, the Climate Change polluters and big industry!
Labour’s acquiesce to the neoliberal economic straightjacket is the price they pay to remain in power because as we have seen they are beholden to the Professional Management Class and corporate lobbyists, the only way we get anything actually progressive out of them is if we force them.
Labour’s greatest fear is a Bernie Sanders type of left wing populism, as food inflation continues to burn working people, the Māori Party’s demand to remove GST from food and to tax the rich is terrifying the interests of the ultra wealthy and that is why we are seeing the kind of insane donations difference between Labour and National/ACT.
Thankfully ACT and National have promised to give Landlords the power to evict and build a new prison empire on top of stupid ideas like giving everyone a receipt from the Government! In comparison to the crazy National/ACT agenda, Labour look positively socialist!
The real possibility we are facing this election is a Labour led minority Government with a supply and confidence agreement with the Māori Party, the price of which will be a range of policies that will have an immediate material impact on poor peoples pockets.
Over it’s 30 year history, MMP has diluted the ideological zeal of the Left and Right by always generating a middle centrist power block.
This election is utterly different to any before it.
This time it is the pent up ideological frustrations from the Right and the Left that will dictate to the centre.
This time it will be Labour held hostage to the Greens and Māori Party OR it will be National held hostage by ACT.
It will result in the most Left Wing Government since Savage or the most Right Wing Government since Lange!
That is ironically what is at stake this election, either the most Right Wing or Left Wing version of Labour.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Martyn – plus $5 Billion worth of bribes to come on election promises…
Labour does not keep their election promises.Jacinda told Jack Tane they are aspirations only.
Bob the first – I wonder what many Labour MPs will do after the election? Write apology cards to NZers perhaps??
Thankfully the winners out of this budget outnumber you losers.
Election promise ” I will not raise gst”…John Key
No Nat MPs apology cards were forthcoming.
Bert “The Winner in his wee mind” – Nah…stop living in the past
In his tiny wee mind.
Young nathan, you are so very naive. Most political pundits agree this had been a very good budget. Wee minds like yourself and Blob embarrass yourselves with weak attempts of attacking the government. You both have no idea.
Ok Bert.
Ho hum.
They gifted you labour for six years.
It is a reductionist position to dwell on the bourgeois Parliament as the font of all Aotearoa NZ politics.
Te Pāti Māori are out there organising not just sitting in offices feeding media channels. Sure they are a minor player as yet, but they are showing the way that others should follow. Another poster fears the incoming migrants influence as residents on our elections–well don’t forget–many migrants are working class carers, labourers, IT & Telecom installers etc. and not automatic Natzo supporters–or voters.
The Budget was a typical monetarist non event for the working class of this country. Robbo is locked into the 30% net debt ceiling which is ridiculous when you look at what he did to bail out employers and fuel the property bludgers during COVID.
Rare is the day when an MMP majority eventuates…very fucking rare actually…yet the neo Blairist Labour Caucus managed to let a major opportunity for change slide by. And Natzo commenters…at the very least Robbo scuttled your chances I guess with his “small target” approach.
Interesting help for gamers. Of course it is known that gamers make the best drone operators. Now, who at national level would want to employ drone operators?
Game development is big business that can be done anywhere and New Zealand was a risk of losing our companies to Australia, who offered a 30% tax rebate. So with a 20% rebate, we are still competitive, when you factor in our lower wages & relocation costs. On a side note, this is another way to avoid paying tax when you are big business.
I’m not sure that budget is going to much of a vote winner. When interest rate really start to bite, mortgage foreclosures ramp up and living cost remain high, there aren’t going to be too many smiling faces saying “Thank you Labour”.
If commonsense prevails NC there will only be a handful of Labour supporters.
Common sense left the building quite awhile back.
Yes there is ample evidence on this site to demonstrate commonsense is a rarity.
Using your post as a perfect example Blob.
what EXACTLY in the budget do you find objectionable comment…not your unfulfilled wishlist but stuff in it that you don’t like
Well come the election and subsequent elections till 200 billion is paid off the government, who ever is in charge is going to have to raise taxes revenue by targeting a small cohort of tax payers who are fairly well off.
On that bases I would expect to see very industry specific taxes expanded and/or decreased. Petroleum taxes maybe a target, sugar although I’m not convinced. Perhaps even bank levies but I think trying to design a John Heart tax specifically for him and his one mate kind of misses the mark. A lot of people say China owns a lot of New Zealand but a lot of them don’t know that Warren buffet owns more. So I think targeting John Heart is a bit miss guided.
Otherwise what we might expect from a post election budget is a change to concessions that are available to all tax payers for significant global entities. Now a significant global entity is a New Zealand Tax payer that is a part of a group that earns more than a billion dollars in revenue per year.
Some of the concessions might include dividends earnt offshore by a private New Zealand entity or perhaps the government might want to increase financial transaction fees on a range of things including and or removing statutory taxes on vehicles or energy for employers who are also significant global entities keeping in mind that New Zealand is a bolt hole for the world’s wealthy and if they want economic security and political stability then they’ll have to pay for it but Johnnie’s already a citizen.
What I don’t want to see are system wide tax reforms that effect a large portion. On that bases I don’t want to see a change in the range or base of GST how ever acceptable or desirable that change maybe.
Ultimately we will have to wait till October 14 to find out which taxes changed are coming down the pipe.
The question is; will the next government utilise the generous change in debt cap created by Grant or will they cancel it.
If one works towards the debt sealing created by Grant there is at lot of “cash” lying around to build stuff, create stuff, implement tax cuts…..
TPM is correct that one can scrap GST on food and stay well within the dept cap. Not sure rating agencies will like it, but, all the same it can fit inside the new debt cap.
Nationals tax cuts and Acts no tax on the first $18,000 will assist in generating how much tax take for downplaying debt, building infrastructure ( which they created as we all know) again?
Come October we must not allow the right bloc and their neoliberalism anywhere near the halls of power and we all know it.
We are not even close to Grant’s debt cap.
Spend baby, spend.
Remove GST of food and give tax cuts.
All fits under Grant’s debt cap.
New Zealand at a population of 5 million has to live through a very long period of this new normal where crises points have increased and the time between crises decreases.
We can’t expect 10 years of relative stability inbetween fiscal stimulus packages boosts GDP growth. We have to be able to maintain spending.
Even the defence budget if it was confronted by war has to be able to maintain a 2% GDP spend it’s a battle of attrition.
splashing the cash is a rightard delusion
Actually Gaga it’s not. Although they so much love their monetary analogies.
If you follow Bernard Hickey (he does great work), you will see that we are close approaching a point where we have to spend so much on debt servicing that we cant afford infrastructure. We may have got through covid but the debt has risen by so much, now forecast next year at something like $209?? Billion when it had been down to something like $60B? under the Nats.
I dont think the $200B is terrible but obviously very limiting but for the extra $140B? we didnt get any new hospitals, major infrastructure and only 6,000 new houses.
In terms of managing the economy Labour has been an abject failure however, we cannot assume that National will do any better. Nicola Willis as Finance Minister, a journo come JK policy advisor who was parachuted into Fonterra for 2 years. Are there no economists or even accountants left in the National party? I know no-one voluntarily wants to join them but you think they could find someone better?
Chaos or order? Or would you like fries with that?
Ordered chaos? Got fried?
Overall not a bad budget.
Pinging rich pricks hiding their wealth in Trusts with a higher tax rate….good start in escaping
the neoliberal straightjacket in my opinion.
Great to see investment in science and the IT sector, even if it is just gaming
Keep it up Chippy!
If commonsense prevails Sleek there will only be a handful of Nact supporters.
Fabulous to be copied again.
Thanks NSC.
I liked the tax increase on Trustee income from 33% to 39%. This is income retained in trusts (not distributed to benefiaries at their marginal rates). Tax on trustee income is a flat tax (not teired like income of individuals). It’s a start. Dunno when it kicks in though?
It demonstrates the competence of this administration.
It takes them three years to figure out that 1+1=2.
At least it shows that while they are slow that, given enough bureaucrats they will find the answers, we just need to be patient and they will fix everything.
It took the honourable David Parker three years to accept that 33 is not equal to 39!
Took the dishonorable John Key 1 month to accept he lied on gst.
You know it was a tax switch.
But what the Pope does or does not do has no relevance to what David Parker does and you know that also.
Oh dear.
This country is just drifting away to irrelevancy. Anyone with ambition will leave. China will probably start buying off our politicians for influence over the next few decades,
100%
I suggest Nicola Willis needs a Chemist Warehouse store locator. What a muppet
It’s a bit fence sitting but there will be no recession, miss Willis 😀
Even Luxon’s colleagues are calling Luxon Captain Cliche.
$10B before covid now it is $90B, yet well under the Grant debt cap.
Imagine servicing that loan!
Do not be so sure that we are looking at a rosy future because we have invested our tax take well.
$10 billion to $100 billion under Key paid down by Labour.
Paying down debt under Nact will explode that debt
Even you know this is nonsense.
Labour only took over at the end of 2017 and after much inactivity they and planning and committees did they start spending. That was what lead to the borrowing.
Yes what you say is nonsense, you obviously don’t do great with numbers.
NSC utter nonsense.
A bit of a dick move by National, though not unexpected.
Her voice is irritating enough without the word salad of vapid nothingness. coalition of chaos, COL crisis, fewer taxes, wasteful spending blah blah talking points blahdy blah
Her voice is a screech and also what’s with the long slow droll questions in parliament, playing for time or is it she likes the sound of her red lipstick on a pig voice?
But as I said the other day, for ‘the most left-wing government since Savage’ to emerge (which Martyn says is imminent), virtually every policy since the mid-1980s would have to be reversed — and every public service closed down after 1940 would have to be restored (including all shuttered S.O.E’s).
Every single M.P. is opposed to that. None of the parties would ever allow anyone to propose such a thing.
If a party actually ran on that platform, they would probably win in a huge landslide — it would be virtually the same policies as all the moderate Labour and Tory governments (i.e. 1935-1984), and would draw in all the Bernie/Corbyn supporters and most of the Trump supporters.
Losers: rural people , your taxes will pay for free public transport for others in cities, while you have none. Also while your farms are planted in pine trees, your communities die and yeah you can also pay more for the vehicles you have to have so the city rich can buy a Tesla.
New Zealand DOES have an egregious infrastructure deficit in NZ!
But to be fair, there are some valid reasons for this:
Firstly we’re a young country so it’s not valid to compare us to countries that have 2,000 years old Roman roads. They got a head start!
Secondly our low population density means that the infrastructure we have is stretched really thin with too few people to pay for it.
Lastly, topology and geology. Unlike the US, Northern Europe and Aussie, this country is not exactly a billiard table! Worse, those hills are covered in unstable clay. It’s very expensive to build road and building foundations here.
The one aspect that definitely IS our fault is our planning and consenting process. It’s a national disgrace that we waste so much time and money on hui and karakia. That ‘consensus culture’ (= dicking around) costs us dearly. It needs fixing urgently.
The country already had world-class infrastructure by the 1930s, with a much smaller population. Much of it was later bulldozed or left to rust.
The topology is extremely challenging in many places, but there are also various large plains. You don’t need new construction on most of the hills — there are flat, wide-open spaces waiting to be built on (and lots of old buildings which need to have skyscrapers built above them).
topography – japan and norway….they manage to have infrastructure andrew
Norway sell oil. BUT NOT IN OUR BACKYARD.
and that has what to do with the technical ability or will to construct infrastructure?
…and if you wanna go down that road japan has virtually no natural resources and still manages it cabbage house
” Labour’s greatest fear is a Bernie Sanders type of left wing populism, as food inflation continues to burn working people ”
Bernie would have taken it to these LINO bastards and exposed them for the frauds they are !!
There is no hope on the horizon for all of the Kiwis shut out of the plutocracy they are trapped in.
This from Idiot Savant
” Grant Robertson is currently reading his budget speech, to the usual applause from the performing seals on the backbench. More childcare subsidies for multinational childcare providers! Eliminating prescription charges! Subsidies for computer game companies (who already have the subsidy of being exempt from employment law)! Some of this is welcome, some of it is sensible, some of it is not. But all of it misses the target.
Look at the three key metrics. Housing? Nothing. Tax? A minor tweak to the trust rate, but nothing significant. Climate change? More research funding as a substitute for action, a little bit for public transport, but nothing really to reduce emissions. On the big issues they’re just kicking the can down the road again. Which means it’ll be that much more expensive when the bill comes due.
As I said earlier this morning, we need change. This budget shows that we will not get it from Labour.
WE NEED FORCED CHANGE.
” Over on The Kaka, Bernard Hickey is calling the Loafers Lodge fire a symptom of our bipartisan, low-tax, low-debt, no-housing, fuck-the-poor, asset bubble for the rich political consensus. And he’s appropriately cynical about the response:
So far, the response in real financial terms by the Government is business as usual: investigate the individual disaster, change some regulations and blame the residents and/or the landlord.
But will there be more spending on social housing, and on benefits, so people at the bottom aren’t warehoused in firetraps, waiting to be burned to death because neither government nor landlord is interested in paying for basic safety (let alone dignity)? Finance Minister Grant Robertson says “wait for the budget”, but we know the answer will be “no”. Quite apart from pre-election risk-aversion, the Labour party is completely uninterested in fixing anything, in changing the toxic status quo. They’re the party of excuses. That’s all they ever offer. Excuses for why nothing can be done, for why things have to stay the way they are. And meanwhile the Ministers making those excuses are sitting on their $296,007 salaries (plus slush), and on their piles of hoarded houses (paid for by the public, thanks to generous parliamentary allowances and rortable expenses), collecting their tax-free capital gains. They are the problem. They are profiting from this mess. Of course they’re uninterested in fixing anything.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/
I’m glad that benefits were increased before this year as they would probably be seen as an election year “bribe”. They needed to rise, as renting and mortgages have gone up quite extraordinarily as well as an increase in grocery prices, we did have high petrol prices for half a year, as well as a myriad of escalating prices in many other categories of consumer goods.
More middle class welfare but the prescription free is absolutely needed and cost more to collect than it brought in and was leaving a legacy of longterm health problems. The really poor wont benefit from the heating etc extension as they dont own houses and most landlords wont get it done because its a cost even with a subsidy. But the working middle with houses will jump on it.
Breakdown of today’s Labour Government Budget Subsidies.
$6b Fletcher Construction
$1.2b Australian Childcare Providers
$327m Transport. Only for 13-year-olds to 25.
Transport Industry is 77% owned by Offshore Owners.
NZders get to vote in October!
Do not forget that it took them less than three years to figure out that 1+1=2 or should that read that 33 is not equal to 39.
They probably had two working groups beavering away on this.
What are these people going to do with their time now that they have sorted this out? Celebrate?
Or maybe they can get started on defining what hate speech is.
“Labour’s greatest fear is…” That they might get judged on results, not good intentions.
During a period of great power games it’s a case of nation, before party. You get that? People who have been aggressively brain washed will be pittied but never the less New Zealand will emerge on the right side of history.
Meds, Sam, take your meds.
Don’t be a degenerate.
Intensions are very important.
It puts bread on the table.
Er, no it doesn’t. I intended to buy bread for my family, but instead I bought a Lotto ticket and will then buy the bread when I win $5 million on Saturday. My family will be so happy with me. I am so good.
In the mean time we have communities cards rolled out to all beneficiaries.
The process is already there to target welfare yet we distribute it to those in need and anyone else that wants it.
I can imagine someone is working on a covid card type identity document that will entitle these beneficiaries to their benefits. The software budget will blow out. But before that blowout they may well realise that they never budgeted for that cost.
Someone somewhere please instruct someone to write a brief for the business case. Caching!
Business cases get in the way of “let’s do this”, but they do prevent “Oh shit, where are the parachutes” moments. Labour, planning is for those that care, let’s do this…
Long live free speech.
I don’t know what planet Luxon is on, because this was a bare bones budget by any measure, obvious to all, except apparently Luxon. A very moderate budget, with relatively little new spending, tranched well into next year, which will have a low impact on reserve bank interest rate decisions.
Makes me wonder if Luxon’s speech was written in anticipation of much greater new spending in the budget, and that he never told his speech writer (Jerry?) to correct it, to match what was actually said, or that he just lacked understanding.
Luxon’s call for tax cuts for (himself snigger snigger) tax payers at this time, would reduce the govt’s ability to spend on repairing cyclone infrastructure damage, and would have been even more inflationary.
So if he’s saying Robertson’s budget will delay interest rates reducing, then I say thank god for Robertson, because Luxon’s alternative would be even worse for interest rates. Does he want the infrastructure rebuild to be half arsed, because penny pinching on infrastructure resilience in the first place, contributed to it getting so badly damaged.
FYI after our recent weather events, surely Luxon has to weed out the climate change deniers from his own party now. I mean, a cyclone, floods, and 4 tornadoes last month, must resonate even for 7 bungalow’s Luxon.
It was Labour, that got NZ through the pandemic, better financially and healthwise, than virtually any other comparable country. And some experts are now predicting, that the long predicted recession, will be shallow, or may not even happen after all. This should be good economic news for everyone including Luxon, shouldn’t it – or is it bad news in his world.
Aloha Luxon the living cliche’ and landlord to all and sundry, may look fine in the debating chamber, or polished in front of the boardroom, but he has all the charisma of an old jockstrap, and his public favorabilty is now tanking below Judith’s abysmal levels. So that instead of being the savior for National’s chances, he is now the anchor dragging them along, and he makes the likes of Cunliffe, look positively warm and cuddly by comparison.
Wow someone who truly understands and sees where NZ politics is at.
It is so refreshing to see a reasoned post unlike trolls like Bob the first and we all know it.
Call it you are so right. With Willis stating she will put the $5 back on prescriptions is that really the best they can do. It makes you wonder if she has shares in the chemist warehouse.
Did you not read the bit about government debt increasing to $214 billion by 2027? That’s 45% of gdp or in excess of $90,000 per household.
How could anyone vote for Hipkins when under his watch education dropped to its lowest level in our history.
Bob how can anyone vote for luxon when the education results are the results of National’s “National standards” and what’s worse he wants to bring them back Bob
Yep, that’s my biggest issue with him as well.
Education is the future, not just for our kids but for the entire country and it seems that these guys have actually worked really hard to make it worse.
Yes the only success Labour Government have had in 5 plus years,destroyed our education system,under the watch of Chippy.
To be fair why would anyone ever vote for Luxon or any National MP given educational was at it’s lowest under Parata worldwide. The fiasco that was Novapay, the corruption that was nepotism and the utter failure that was National standards.
Education under Hipkins and Labour is worldclass compared to the shambles national produced, everyone knows this.
Confused national standards policy coming unravelled
Hekia Parata’s answers in Parliament today highlight once again how confused and botched the Government’s national standards programme is, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says.
“Bizarrely, Hekia Parata declared today that ‘National standards are not intended to have a positive impact on students’ – so what’s the point of them?
“She then went on to claim that no teacher is forced to tell any child that they are below standard, yet her own government has made it mandatory for schools to report those very results to parents.
“A new report out today found that only 16 per cent of teachers believe the standards have a positive impact. Instead they express real concern that the standards are ‘soul destroying’ and that they have ‘led to a deterioration in the educational deal our children are receiving’.
“National standards are neither national nor standard. There is no consistency between schools in the way they are applied, several research reports have raised serious questions about the validity of the results they produce, and parents, teachers and principals all have serious concerns about them.
“National standards don’t measure progress, so kids who are doing well can still end up being labelled as failures.
“Labour will ditch national standards and return the focus of kids and teachers to a broad curriculum that allows every child to discover and realise their full potential,” Chris Hipkins said.
Had nearly 2 terms the Labour Government during which educational levels have dropped to their lowest in history.
So what on earth are you on about MHK?
So? We are still “paying” for Bill English ‘s zero budgets. At what point do you stop kicking the can down the road for the next mob?
He may not have been liked by his colleagues but he had a super big brain and had Thatcher’s “The lady’s not for turning”. If he had the support of his colleagues and had won, NZ would not be in the state it is now. He was going to make some changes but dearie me, the other luvvies didnt want it because it put their jobs in jeopardy.
Much maligned old Cunliffe but just an early example of the political malaise we have seen from Labour ever since.
I thought Willis was actually above Luxon in terms of smarts but the stupid prescription stand is nonsensical. It’s like the addiction to spend chestnut. ‘Labour spend too much… I mean it’s wasteful spend but we would spend differently’. So which is it? Spending too much is too much spending full stop. What she won’t admit is they will cut spend to fund tax cuts. Apparently they won’t borrow, they will cut revenue so they sure as hell have to cut something. There aren’t enough consultants to shed to make that work. Or maybe it’s different when National borrow.
Labour borrows to help. National borrows to “help their mates”.
Grant created a debt cap and then showed his fiscal discipline by staying well below the new debt cap.
TPM can show that removing GST off food and provide free prescriptions to Maori will leave headspace under the deb cap.
Grant has a good heart, through a strange siphoning brain. That doesna allow much.
On the plus he hasn’t reached out to folk with election year money, on the minus he’s a complete idiot about reality.
You know, all of this stuff about the NZ Economy & the Budget & Left or Right etc is just moot points? Take a look at the entire Geopolitical Landscape, Neoliberal capitalism is in its death throes, the World is being split in two, away from the deathcult Western USD, Swift, Petrodollar system! The BRICS+ Nations are settling up their own Financial system! That’s why the US is dragging the West into WW3 with China after their Ukraine Proxy War debacle ends in humiliation & defeat like in Afghanistan but worse because the dollar is toast as the World’s Reserve Currency? When all else fails, like the Banking system & Free market Neoliberalism & its rigged Western Economies for the Elites, they take you to War to divert attention & reduce the population? And Aussies & Kiwis will be set up next to be the new Ukrainians & fall guys to be used as Human sacrifices & canon fodder to help save the US Empire & its failed Neoliberal Financial system from collapse & the death of its Empire & Hegemony,Hoorah! Enjoy your Chip butty?
The government is recruiting.
It’s another Austerity Budget with some MMT extra tax revenues thrown in for good measure. How to inflate away your deficit.
Roger Douglas would be proud of Robo’s budgets.
This budget confirms my worst fears. NZ will live on borrowed money forever from now on. We will never be a viable economy ever again, let alone profitable. Labour is totally happy to make us bankrupt. It’s gonna hit all of us shortly and 5 bucks off prescriptions will pale into insignificance on the pain scale.
pssttt cabbage house ‘deficeit funding’ is a thing ask anyone with a mortgage
re the science city – shame they are undermining science by pushing Maori religious / cultural bullshit into the school science curriculum. Future scientists will be wasting taxpayer money studying falsehoods like Mauri, which doesn’t exist, to satisfy the woke religion.
the so-called maori science will end up as poster on the tea room wall..and some working groups(who will make a nice couple of quid) it doesn’t matter how old your traditions are science is science and gravity won’t stop for magic potions
House wife’s and House Husband s are the winner s of this budget …it doesn’t mean they will vote for Labour though.
Most day care places are awful dumbing grounds, that kids hate. And who wants to catch a bus full if bullies that never turns up on time.
It’s glaringly obvious Luxon and Willis are superior in every respect to their Labour Government counterparts.
Prime Minister Hipkins as Minister of Education worst ever.What’s the Deputy Prime Minister other than a failure as well.
Bob you are deluded. Is that to say Labour set a high bar? No. But Luxon for one limbos comfortably under it. Willis is headed that way too, which is unfortunate
Just for once…only this once…I agree with you Wheel! Shit I better scull a few tequilas after that admission.
Not too many Krautet otherwise your posts will sound more like the alcoholic Bob’s do.
Wheel, I’d suggest it’s time for Bob to stop breastfeeding.
Anyone who opposes the removal of fees from prescriptions is an enemy of humanity and should be treated as such. No one should have go without because they cannot afford to pay for healthcare.
Who is opposing that?
Anyone that can’t see that we must target welfare better does not understand economics.
We already have community cards out in our communities. Swipe it and the pharmacy invoices the government. Sound easy to me.
Same applies for public transport.
What about people who don’t qualify but still will have trouble being able to afford their meds? Perhaps you need to move to the USA. Paradise there. People who cannot afford their meds, just die.
If they can’t afford meds then MSD will help if they qualify for help.
You do not seem to trust the government! Why is that?
millsy I ask again.” How often do you visit the United States?”
While we are at it why is it that United States is the preferred destination for most immigrants?
millsy, Bob’s a troll robot, please excuse it.
Apparently on the dark web, Bert’s evil twin exists in AI form. Meet DarkBERT…
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/artificial-intelligence/darkbert-unveiled-ai-llm-dark-web-8616834/
The National and ACT parties raising $5,000,000 to fight the election is quite disturbing. Politics in this country are starting to imitate what happens in the USA, with elections being decided on how much money the parties can raise to further their campaigns, rather than having limits on what they can spend on electioneering. Elections should be won or lost based on the policies they are promoting, with said policies contained in a manifesto, which is released to the general public to study, well before the election is due to be held. That way, voters will have no excuse for not knowing what each of the competing parties stand for and what they intend to do if elected.
Agree Mark but Labour had no intention of meeting the policies in their manifesto.We have 5 plus years of proof plus Jacinda Ardern said they were aspirations only.
Comments are closed.