Taxing tourists who visit the country to help build that infrastructure is a no brainer right? We are a premium tourism destination and a simple one off tax would generate hundreds of millions.
So why is National so against it?
Conservative voters in the regions are much more willing to tolerate foreigners prepared to work their land for low wages, than they are indigenous New Zealanders preparing to reclaim their patrimony. As Bill English noted of National’s and NZ First sudden shifts: “the policy direction is going to be driven by the strength of the economy”.
The grim truth about National’s latest lie on housing is just how utterly hollow the plan really is.
Last week we watched the worst angles of our nature focus viciously on Metiria’s brave admission of being forced to cheat the system to feed her family, while a far larger story about our homelessness passed by without half the attention spent bashing her.
Gareth Morgan’s Opportunities Party is working to appear a radical departure from the status quo. Proposals for a dramatic change to taxation policy and the partial roll out of a Universal Basic Income are a welcome political development. It’s good to have a political party seriously calling for the rich to pay more tax. But despite this, the policy package of The Opportunities Party (TOP) would hurt working people. Behind attention grabbing rhetoric TOP maintains a deep commitment to establishment economics and neo-liberalism.
Wealth is not created from thin air. It is made from manipulating the wealth created by working people. In other words, you and I and every person living in New Zealand has been fleeced $1,489 more this past year so these bloodsuckers can build a bigger pile of unearned income. And they don’t pay tax on it.
It’s about priorities and is another way we’re making the choice between Labour and National clear. This election is a choice between Labour’s investment in healthcare, homes and education; and National’s $400m of tax cuts for the top 10%.
These 7 deaths in one month from synthetic cannabis is a failure of social policy. We either decide to have an adult discussion about drugs or we continue with the bullshit denial that is killing and maiming so many.
Wake up NZ.
As a small country, we have mistaken NZ as an equal country where people can freely move up through the social strata. I would suggest to you that statistic of 70% of National voters not knowing anyone unemployed actually shows that we are a highly segregated culture.
Metiria is guilty of a crime – but not the one John Armstrong rails against. Her transgression was to break ranks with the socio-political formation that has kept Richardson’s and Shipley’s welfare cuts bleeding and raw for more than quarter-of-a-century.