Island Life by David Slack

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Island Life: The Budget of All Mothers

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  • Paul Campbell,

    Let's put it in perspective - John pays $168/week he's going to get a $16/week cut - that's 10% - raising to $32 (20%) - not small potatoes

    but apparently we're not all going going to buy potatoes - we're going to buy cheese - will no one think of the poor starving dairy farmers?

    seriously though cheese and milk are expensive - a tax cut isn't going to change that - if we want to do something about the price of cheese we need to STOP BUYING IT - thereby reducing demand and lowering the price - so long as we all keep spending our tax cuts on cheese we're screwed (and fat)

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Timmy H,

    "Budget of all mothers."

    Fantastic. I giggled uncontrollably.

    Paul, that isn't really true - as the farmers and Fonterra are fond of noting, the globalised economy means we take the world price on these goods. Reducing domestic demand will do no more than make our stuffed potatoes a little less enjoyable.

    Since Feb 2008 • 10 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    So it is for Dr Cullen. He has delivered the Budget of all mothers.

    Presumably this is Cullen's last budget.

    I wonder what he thinks about it privately. It's a rather unusual Labour pre-election budget. No big 'bribes' of spending to 'buy votes'. It's a rather right-wing budget in terms of 'here, have some money back, and more if you vote for us later in the year'.

    I think he's been a fairly good Minister of Finance, and while I wish he'd thrown a bit more money around in a few places, I imagine he can't be overly happy that the last chapter in his book was a final attempt to undercut national's election chances, which probably isn't going to make much difference anyway.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Jan Farr,

    I imagine he can't be overly happy that the last chapter in his book was a final attempt to undercut national's election chances, which probably isn't going to make much difference anyway.

    Well, possibly Kyle, but I heard Helen Clark and John Key earlier on Nine to Noon. Helen Clark, transparent, crisp and detailed as usual and John Key, fudging and umming and ahing and promising to be transparent one day - um 'trust me (or Bill English, or someone)'.
    Eventually he's going to have to come up with something that doesn't involve too much borrowing. NZ voters are not all media-selected vox poppers.

    Carterton • Since Apr 2008 • 395 posts Report Reply

  • dc_red,

    Key was a mess last night, simultaneously claiming "these tax cuts are too little too late" and "these tax cuts will offer some people more than $50/week ... outrageous!"

    Oil Patch, Alberta • Since Nov 2006 • 706 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    I actually think he's been an excellent Minister of Finance - he's paid down the debt in the good years leaving us in a much better situation for the lean ones. Kiwisaver's another great example of thinking about the economy in the very long run - providing a pool of investment capital (like Australia has) to help grow out economy

    I think it's pretty rare to find a politician thinking about the future in this way - the easy thing to do is to have a lolly scramble every year - even this year with defeat staring them in the face he's really not let them open the flood gates and offer ponies for all

    If the Nats get in next year I hope they WONT give us big tax breaks. With the economy trending down the way it is now is a good time to keep that fiscal prudence in place so we can continue to pay the bills - with record low unemployment came record low dole payouts - as people start getting laid off (see the morning paper ever other day) those costs go up and the tax take goes down - the alternative is to blow all that money Cullen has saved

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Don Christie,

    Nice try, buddy but you should have been here three years ago

    Except, they were. WFF, interest free loans, corporate tax etc.

    If it's any indication, my taxi driver last night was a very happy man. He expected a very positive change in his circumstances. He also praised Cullen for not going too far.

    Me, I'd rather they kept the tax and did more infrastructure work. But whilst Labour campaigned successfully on that in 1999 it seems that economic experts like the Espinar boys and the owners of the Herald won't let the public see two sides of the coin this year.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    A happy taxi driver??????????????



    Its all over for National, I predict a Labour landslide with Helen being able to rule alone.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Well, possibly Kyle, but I heard Helen Clark and John Key earlier on Nine to Noon. Helen Clark, transparent, crisp and detailed as usual...

    Or on-script and not exactly subjected to any kind of probing questions, if you want to put it another way.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Williams,

    Fair comment Craig, but why is Key's script full of evasion and vague twaddle?

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Withers,

    I never had any problems with paying taxes. I understand insurance.

    I certainly had problems with National's 90s drive to make us all buy private health insurance from impoverished multi-nationals by allowing the deterioration of public health by stealth. It was the dishonesty of it......doing it while claiming not to. I'd rather pay the tax that at least goes somewhere in NZ than the private insurance that covers less and less and goes to some shareholder in DesMoine or Liverpool.

    By 1999, our local school in Raumati Beach wasn't able to afford to fix the roof or the boys loo.....with water trickling across the floor and out of the door for months. They used the girls' loo in turns.

    Apprenticeships wiped. Obviously dreadfully stupid, but they wouldn't listen. Students fees through the roof generating mortgage-size debts with ballooning interest, paid to the impoverished banks, heaped on young people who should be starting families and careers and who ultimately will keep New Zealand operational if they don't leave. I remember getting my own life underway in the 70s was challenge enough without a massive loan shackled to my leg as well.

    Labour isn't perfect. Far from it. But National was worse on almost everything that mattered to me. Given the chance they will be worse again. Despite John Key's apparently moderate personal views, the same crew stands behind him waiting for their moment to resume the rush to cuts services and export our money to their clients of greatest concern: banks and insurance companies. Plus they want to take my vote away by pushing to get rid of MMP. That moves them from mere endurable irritant to the status of enemy of my democracy. That is visceral and deep.

    The fact National has released so little policy says to me they don't want to allow too much time for people to think about it. Keep'em in the dark and when the time comes feed'em the proverbial.

    Having said all that, I don't vote for either of them. They both fall over badly where prudence is concerned. To be fair to them, though, that isn't necessarily their fault.

    Most Kiwi voters don't know - and don't really want to know - how the world actually works. To some extent, the media are enablers by infotaining people instead of informing them.

    Problem is, if people knew how the world worked, they would share responsibility for it. As any school child knows from their earliest days, the best way to avoid being responsible for anything ts to ensure you know as little about it as possible. That way, if things are going wrong, it's always someone else's fault. It can't be yours. You didn't know anything about it.

    So politicians of any stripe who may try to lead in one direction or another for reasons they think prudent for the future, but uncomfortable for someone in the present, will find themselves running hard into this lump of willfully ignorant inertia that composes the broad mass of voters.

    Other politicians have merged with the broad mass and react as they do, rejecting anything they don't like no matter how necessary it may ultimately prove to be. Together, they won't give up the V8 even though a 1.3L car would cost them half as much. The kids can go without. Gimme a tax cut.

    This year it's Labour's turn to face the music for threatening voters with reality. Whoever wins the election, reality will always win in the end...and politicians are always the fall guys for the folks who need someone to blame. They are perennially between the rock of change and the hard place of voter resistance to it.

    It was a good budget.....if you like tax cuts.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report Reply

  • cindy baxter,

    erm... budget? i got utterly diverted by the Pitch Black ad on your page with free downloads of live tracks.

    it was free - so i guess vaguely relevant to this thread. more free downloads please Dr Cullen!

    auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 102 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    "...it seems that economic experts like the Espinar boys and the owners of the Herald won't let the public see two sides of the coin this year..."

    I used to think the press gallery were all looking for change of government so they could upsize their salaries as spinmeisters for a new batch of incoming National party ministers. After reading their coverage over the last day, I've changed my mind. I think they are just self-aggrandizing hyenas, none of whom have the intellectual or intestinal fortitude to go against the pack mentality.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • andrew llewellyn,

    Its all over for National, I predict a Labour landslide with Helen being able to rule alone.

    Heh - I think "rule" is probably a word they'll try & avoid.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Fair comment Craig, but why is Key's script full of evasion and vague twaddle?

    Well, let's see -- if anything changes it's a 'flip flop' concealing a 'secret agenda'. You put costings on something, and find that the numbers have changed you either brazen it out, and pray another windfall dividend from a powerco will come along to save your arse, or fiddle with it and find... you're not only a flip-flopper with a secret agenda but one who can't balance a cheque book let alone run a country.

    And to be quite cynical, why should Key set himself up for any more 'baby-fucking rich prick' headlines than he really has to? Without wanting to share the paper bag Mr Semmens is hyperventilating into, I don't think Phil Goff is the only person out there who thinks all you get from candour is a pair of clown shoes in the balls.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Most Kiwi voters don't know - and don't really want to know - how the world actually works. To some extent, the media are enablers by infotaining people instead of informing them.

    See I was with you until there.

    Most Kiwi voters do know how the world works. They get their kids to school, they go to work, they struggle to find enough money to buy food, car, and keep the house, they play sports on the weekend, watch the rugby, occasionally go out, and think politicians tend to talk a bunch of twaddle, which they do.

    They're living their lives, and it's a bit condescending to blame 'the way the world is going' on ordinary people. It's a one way ticket to being told to sod off and talk to someone who wants to be told what to do with their lives.

    If politicians and political organisers can't make politics relevant for ordinary people then they're not up to the job. Politicians who do that best will be rewarded by being in government next year.

    You only need to look at the level of involvement in the American primaries at present to see how politicians can increase engagement in the political system by making it relevant for 'ordinary folk'. It's going to be the main reason why Obama will be nominated for President, and not Clinton.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Angus Robertson,

    Steve Withers,

    Nice comment and pretty spot on. Agree mostly except the visceral and deep part.

    The Nats proposing a public referendum seems a small threat to democracy. Especially compared to the restrictions on free speech Labour has already foisted upon NZ without any real consultation.

    Auckland • Since May 2007 • 984 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Rowe,

    Heh - I think "rule" is probably a word they'll try & avoid.

    But "Govern with an iron fist" doesn't have the same ring to it.

    Your guilty consciences may make you vote Democratic, but secretly you all yearn for a Republican president to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!

    </sideshowbob>

    Lake Roxburgh, Central Ot… • Since Nov 2006 • 574 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Williams,

    I don't think Phil Goff is the only person out there who thinks all you get from candour is a pair of clown shoes in the balls.

    Craig, I can't see that approach working on tax. While he's no longer expected to have views on most policy, the one issue he's been banging on about for evah is tax so now saying you'll have to wait looks foolish.

    The NZ election is different from the Australian but it's interesting that when the Coalition announced their tax package at the start of the '07 election, it took Labor only two days to release there's.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    The NZ election is different from the Australian but it's interesting that when the Coalition announced their tax package at the start of the '07 election, it took Labor only two days to release there's.

    On the other hand, if you want a political landscape that is not exactly hospitable to Jews, Muslims, vegans or anyone else adverse to pork Australia truly is the lucky country. Though I do have to give Wayne Swan one and a half cheers for delivering a federal budget where he used the unspeakable c-word -- that's 'spending cuts' you grubby children -- and apparently meaning it. Now that's a difference I won't hold my breath for here.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Withers,

    Kyle: I can agree with you on one level. The mechanics of daily life do eat up a lot of time and energy and that is how the world works for most people. But from another perspective, it is a 'hedgehog' view of the world, plodding along on the path in front of you while things you aren't aware of approach and threaten to make you roadkill on the highway of life. On THAT level, most people don't understand the how, what and why of things like local councils or national governments making changes that can turn their lives inside out ultimately.....and they didn't know about it. They don't read the Public Notices. They have no idea what is swirling around them everyday as they go about the life you describe.
    If what I am saying is wrong in your town, tell me where it is and I'll move there. :-)

    Angus: It's a self-serving referendum. National would be the primary beneficiary of any resulting change. We have democracy now and they don't like it. As for the EFA, I can say anything I like and plan to. I have no fear whatever of being prosecuted. What I can't do is amplify my speech in favour of any party with a million dollars. That undermines fairness. Democracy is about votes, not money. or should be.

    If you want to be exempt from the EFA, just buy or start a newspaper, radio or TV station. You can say what you like all day long and no one can stop you. Give away free copies on Thursdays - or every day - (with partisan editorials and copy) as a marketing ploy to improve circulation. Put one in every letterbox in New Zealand. No restrictions. EFA is irrelevant. Fill it with good news about the parties you like and bad news about the rest. You're the media. You have a free pass. No law to stop you. Unfortunately, at present, the only people who enjoy this exemption from the EFA are small number of foreign billionaires and overseas banks who own almost all the daily newspapers, commercial radio and commercial TV in NZ.

    If you want "freedom of speech" for the already wealthy and powerful so they can drown out your own voice, pass them this tip. I'm assuming you don't have the money to do this yourself. :-)

    Auckland • Since Mar 2008 • 312 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Angus: It's a self-serving referendum. National would be the primary beneficiary of any resulting change. We have democracy now and they don't like it.

    Steve: I don't support this referendum (a bloody waste of money on a symbolic and meaningless fig-leaf that could be better applied elsewhere, at the very least) but New Zealand wasn't a democracy before MMP? Britian isn't a democracy? Australia isn't a democracy?

    I really hope I've seriously misread you, because on the face of it you're being as absurd as the right-wingnuts who think MMP is creeping fascism. Or something.

    For the record, I didn't support MMP but can live with being on the losing side of that argument. Nor can I see any necessity for turning over the electoral system. But I do love the way some folks appear to think there's something inherently 'undemocratic' about an election where the results aren't to their liking.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • FletcherB,

    "But what if their numbers are off? What if the price of oil goes higher"

    Higher than the forecasted peak of $115 before it levels off to $100-ish. Whoops, already hit $132 last night.

    Unfortunately, some of the assumptions upon which the treasury have forecast are already woefully out of date...

    West Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 893 posts Report Reply

  • Idiot Savant,

    And to be quite cynical, why should Key set himself up for any more 'baby-fucking rich prick' headlines than he really has to?

    Because we live in a democracy, and that implies parties laying out their policy platform so voters can choose between the alternatives (or, in the case of MMP, contribute to the cocktail).

    Keeping your policies secret is lying to the voters. When politicians did that in the 90's, we castrated parliament and the executive. If they do it again, then it will make it very clear indeed that we should have instead focused on the individual MPs.

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report Reply

  • Idiot Savant,

    Britian isn't a democracy?

    When the governing party gets 55% of the seats on 35% of the vote, I'd say "no".

    Australia is at least a step better in having PV (and is good in having STV for the senate). But it's still not good enough.

    Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report Reply

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