“Of course you are correct. At the same time the government should also immediately strip Fonterra of all of its monopoly quota rights as well.”

Its a monopoly that would quite happily give up selling in NZ… in fact, it makes no money in NZ as its milk is sold below cost. LEts give Fonterra the right to choose where it wants to sell its product!

Well, this is how it works in a progressive tax system. I wish people on the left would shut the fuck up and understand how huge a proportion of tax the wealthy pay. Most Labour supporters would pay zero or negative income tax once jandouts like WFF are factored in.

Is there were no “rich pricks” in NZ, who would fund Labour supporters’ accomomdation supplements, benefits, wFF ,healthcare, schooling etc etc..

Starting to distrust this government now, a real shame. I had such high hopes.

And now they are going to mine National Park? I’m not a lefty green party supporter, but even I know that mining National Park is 100% Pure Bullshit.

The GST rise to 15% is a good move – puts the incentive on investment rather than consumption. Low income households will see benefit increases, adjustments to WFF and there has just been a raise in the minimum wage. Also the government has not gone about reducing government spending.

Finally the promised income tax cuts might finally arrive. The proposals will allow kiwis to choose what happens with more of the money they earn. I had hoped for 27% top rate but 30% would do until after the next election. 33% would be too easy for a future government to bump back up to the current rate again.

Almost every real country in the world taxes profit on sale of non family home.NZ doesn’t cos so many politicians and “ordinary” NZers invest in property.

OK, all you lefties with the value judgments on individuals’ purchasing decisions….

I’m usually labelled a lefty here (when they are being nice).

I think GST should go to 15% – and I think Goff sounds like a joe hunt going on about the poor being hit hardest.

My understanding of it is GST goes up, WFF and benefits go up a little to balance the average affect to zero for “poorer” people, rorts and avoidances are clamped down on, and top tax rates come down to give incentive to:
a) earn more
b) invest more

Yes, most people who earn more will gain more. That shouldn’t disadvantage lower earners (who have been given greater gains already under Labour), just give them more reason to aspire to higher incomes.

That’s just government by slogans, as there is no proof that it is the number of liquor outlets that cause the binge drinking”

It’s impossible to prove but there is reasonable evidence to suggest that drunkeness and amount consumed is associated with the density of alcohol outlets – see this Auckland study…..

Addiction. 2008 Oct;103(10):1614-21.
Density of alcohol outlets and teenage drinking: living in an alcogenic environment is associated with higher consumption in a metropolitan setting.
Huckle T, Huakau J, Sweetsur P, Huisman O, Casswell S.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For a constraint based argument it seems reasonable.
In the 2005 National Alcohol Survey, about 25% of drinkers aged 18-24 get drunk (self-report) at least once a week.

If there were no outlets selling alcohol then that level of binge drinking wouldn’t be sustainable. (Who could make that much alcohol without being found out by the police?)

As the number of outlets increases from zero then there would be expected to be increasing binge drinking until you get to some sort of threshold where alcohol is so freely available that adding another outlet won’t change consumption.

I’d say we are well past that threshold and that reducing alcohol licences by even 20% wouldn’t change things to much (considering that since the 80′s the number of licences has increased, IIRC, by 400%).

My big concern is raising GST to 15%. I appreciate the economy is not in good shape and we need to safeguard government revenue.
However my question is this — if we get good times again would consideration be given to lowering the rate of GST?

I just believe we pay too much tax generally and we rely on the government too much. I would like to see more individual and community responsibility, a general commitment to a lower tax regime over time, and smaller central government.

John Key et al are and will position NZ over the next 22 months without scaring the horses excessively. This will ensure a second term and there will be another 100 day plan (remember that – most have forgotten already) in which a bunch of preplanned and relatively radical changes will be rammed through while everyone is thinking about their Christmas turkey dinner.

I think key is actually herding cats here and his timetable is the three months following the next election as the time to slam the gate.

At 12.5% GST content on a $200,000 jetboat is (1/9 or purchase price) about $22,000.
compare with GST content on $20 worth of fruit/veges is about $2.20.

Raise GST to 15% and the jetboat goes up to 204,400. Now the “rich prick” is stung for an extra 4 grand taking his GST component to $26,400. Quite a contribution.

While down at Funky Pumpkin, the battler paying $20 for the fruit and veges is now paying $20.44.

All this hoo-ha from Labour about an extra 44 cents on the vege bill?

The Lefties will still go on about how raising GST rapes the poor to pay the rich, blah blah blah. They know this to be nonsense, and it is just disingenuous for them to keep on spouting such krap.

Wait patiently for three months for the real oil in the Budget before passing judgment on the Government’s latest and seemingly insipid prescription for shifting New Zealand’s sluggish-performing economy into the growth fast-lane.

That is the message from Government insiders. Only then, they say, will the exact extent of sweeping tax cuts planned to take effect from this October become evident.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10625260

Yesterday may have been some carefully laid out PR.

How’s that New Vision for New Zealand of yours coming along John?

I’d call it more of a shuffle. I’m hoping that he will learn to lift his feet by budget time.

The speech wasn’t visionary, more like preparatory. Maybe holding back to more contentious moves so they can be done and dusted in one hit at budget time. Hopefully….