Similar Posts

Join the Discussion

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

6 Comments

  1. Everything National/ACT/NZ First do is for their wealthy voters. They have made it so they get all the cream from the top and the remainder of our country struggle and even pay MORE TAX – how in the hell do they get away with this? I also need to add two items to this : [1] Minor parties have too much clout and should only be able to bring in Bills with help from the other parties in their coalition. This is a huge flaw in the MMP voting system and needs to be changed, otherwise let’s go back to ‘first past the post’! [2] We need to get rid of the disgraceful “fast-track” SH&T. It is totally undemocratic and has been horribly used and abused by this CoC! The Greens have come up with a supermarket solution that looks feasible. Willis is still saying, after three years of nothingness, that they are looking at a ‘similar’ supermarket option! Go away you silly people, it’s too late – you have again missed the boat! You have proven you are not capable.

  2. Imaging a supermarket run by the Greens. No produce on the shelves from Isreal.USA. .Wages all over living wage but prices with no large profit.No cigarettes or unhealthy food . They would be broke in a year and then the vultures would swoop in.

    1. That sounds great to me, maybe you should try some of the alternative supermarkets and see how other people live before thinking that only your preferences count.
      Maybe you should get a decent spell check program as well or learn how to spell Israel.

  3. The Commerce Commission and a govt of any stripe can break up this clear oligopoly. How much would prices come down? 5% 8% 10% ? It’s going to take some time to make that kind of restructuring work.

    On the other hand, families, beneficiaries, working poor and middle-class with mortgage stress are all under pressure now. One in three Kiwis experienced food insecurity in the last year. A left government could, on day one, make any food sold retail in a supermarket, grocers, dairy, butchers, bakers, fruiterers, fishmongers or farmers market ‘zero-rated’ for gst. At the stroke of a pen those 600,000 people using food banks would have their food budget increased by 15%.

    To the objection that supermarkets would pocket the 15%. A regulation that all supermarkets reduce food prices by 15% and the reduction is frozen for a year.

    To the objection that a few better-off people would be getting a tax break – it’s a universal tax break they could vote for and it would free up a bit of money for them to spend elsewhere in city economies still hit by recession.

    To the objection. ‘What is food?’ It’s anything edible sold in a retail food shop, selling food for making meals at home. Not a restaurant or takeaway or food wholesaler or manufacturer.

    To the objection: what would make up the lost gst revenue? Gst on food is $4billion. Removing GST from food would be a $4billion stimulus to the economy. The stimulus would increase jobs, incomes and income tax.

    However, the $4billion could be made up from a very minute financial transactions tax. There is in excess of $13 trillion of financial market flows in NZ. To collect $4billion the govt just needs to tax that flow at a rate of 3c in every $100.