The Debate
We had been told that the first few segments should not be too aggressive, with the free for all happening in the last (of five) segments. However as interjections were encouraged the first segment was a bit of a shouting match.
At the interval we were relayed a message from on high (Bill Ralston) that if things were not more orderly in future, then the debate would revert to set scripts. This did the trick as everyone went from lions to lambs and was very polite for the next couple of segments. The irony is that TVNZ set the rules which said one can interject, and then changed them part-way through.
Maharey had a tough job, as effectively he was the only party saying lets not cut taxes at all. He was very disciplined though and just kept repeating his lines about the surpluses are due to Labour’s economic management and that National is over promising. Neither of these are true, but he did well to keep pushing them.
The surprise was the Maori Party coming our proposing tax cuts of $4 to $5 billion a year. Where do I sign up? đŸ™‚
I am not sure if the debate would have changed anyone’s mind. But that in itself is all the pro tax cits lobby needed, as they already have 70%+ of NZers supporting tax relief. As long as there was no critical blows struck, public opinion should not change, and there was very little argument against tax relief – at times it seemed more an argument about how much and how to do it.
I was pretty happy with the two points I got across:
1) That Australia is delivering tax cuts despite a smaller surplus, and that our surplus is the 2nd highest in the OECD as % of the economy, and that there will never be a better time to cut taxes
2) That it is silly for people like me to pay taxes, just to have it given to familes actually earning more money than me, just because they have some kids. Families on $90,000 income should not be getting money from my taxes through Working for Families.
I thought both of the two ‘experts’ were good – the tax accountant and the economist.
Despite a fairly high degree of nervousness before the debate, I actually enjoyed it a lot in the end, and was somewhat disppointed when it ended.
There is a lively thread on the debate at Sir Humphrey’s.