The problem for Chris Luxon on tax cuts and the easy solution to it
I think there has been an enormous political blunder by Luxon’s team.
He is good at the 30-45second sound bite on 5minute morning radio and Breakfast TV interviews and he comes across fairly slick in those 30-45seconds, but a 20minute live TV interview with Jack Tame?
Come on!
Luxon wasn’t ready!
And let’s not put up with any ‘Jack was being a bully’ crap! Jack is a very straight broadcaster, very smart and very well researched, if you can’t front foot it with Jack, you shouldn’t be stepping up!
Jack is an excellent broadcaster and pushes for answers Luxon should have effortlessly had.
The fundamental problem for every right wing politician selling tax cuts is the following: Average Punter asks how much they are getting in tax cuts, and under National that’s $850 per year, and then they ask the politician trying to sell the tax cut how much they are getting, and in Luxon’s case it will be $18000 and average punters say fuck off – the poor aren’t stupid!
That’s why none of this makes sense, because shifting the tax bracket should be a vote winner for National. It’s not a tax cut, it’s allowing hard working Kiwis to keep more of the pittance they earn! But by refusing to rule out scrapping the top tax rate, it becomes a de facto tax cut issue.
The solution to this is all so obvious and again screams questions about Luxon’s team.
The automatic inoculation of the criticism of Luxon getting $18000 in a tax cut, is an announcement by Chris that he intends to donate that full $18000 to a charity!
That way the criticism is void and it makes Luxon look magnanimous and charitable.
He bewilderingly told Jack he didn’t ‘need’ the $18000 (which in of itself is a red flag), so why not donate it to charity?
That this obvious means to shut down that criticism while building Luxon’s reputation wasn’t employed from the start suggests a team that isn’t playing 3 moves ahead.
Luxon is not having a great time of it in the media at the moment – he goes off the ZB talking points and throws his rump base some raw meat ideas like no public transport subsidies and dumping Labour Day and then has to walk them back 24 hours later.
He is gaffing a lot here and he starts to come across like David Shearer.
Chris Luxon DOES NOT want to come across like David Shearer.
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I fail to understand people who say Luxon is talking of changing the tax rates so he is better of . They seem to forget he has given up a job paying in excess of $3 million a year to be in parliment on a salary which is far far less .
Trev Trev Trev…It’s not about the money any more for him .. He’s got plenty…
No…this is ego driven …seeking praise, admiration and lots of back pats from his rich mates is what gets this personality type out of bed in the morning… not the pursuit of the overall betterment mankind.
Underneath, a fragile compromised ego that needs constant nourishment..
Trev open your eyes man its about power can you not see the bigger picture those NZ oligarchs didn’t donate 1.8 million for Nationals campaign for nothing, what do they really want more power more money more and more and more it never ends.
Luxon donating his tax cut to charity would just be political grandstanding. I would respect him and National more if they unashamedly defended their policy. If they believe people on high incomes deserve the same proportional reduction in their taxes then just say so. Taxation is meant to be fair. Is it fair to have a graduated tax schedule where one person ends up paying a greater percentage of their income in tax than another?
Luxon is a front for our NZ oligarchs the ones who donated 1.8 million to his party and are not happy with the direction our country is heading.
I fail to understand people who say Luxon is talking of changing the tax rates so he is better of . They seem to forget he has given up a job paying in excess of $3 million a year to be in parliment on a salary which is far far less .
That still doesn’t justify why the tax cut would be needed though if he’s just going to donate it to charity. Polling from recent elections has shown tax cuts are not an overly popular policy or top issue for voters.
Too late!!….
Luxon is worse than Shearer because Shearer wasn’t a recidivist bullshit artist like Luxon.
Shearer couldn’t mange the 3 second sound bite but was better in a longer format interview.
Luxon is over rated.
More comparable to Todd Muller. Middle management ability, (on a good day), that somehow found his way into senior management and i don’t think that he is good at any of the soundbites…be it 3,5, 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds. He just spouts vacuous unsubstantiated nonsense. He’s not clever, funny, witty or incisive like a Lange, or a Cullen.
Just doesn’t have the IQ or the cultural capital to pull it off. Reading great literary works such as… ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ does not count!!
The ego is definitely bigger than the ability.