Posts by Sacha
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Lilith __,
but that hasn't stopped them cutting WFF or looking at asset sales.
The more obvious target is the loony 'roads of National party significance' motorway building programme. It's an $11,000,000,000 taxpayer investment in last century's networks that totally ignores even the current price of oil, let alone its future, and which starves funds from public transport, cycling and even basic maintenance of existing roads.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Lilith __,
there must be a really huge benefit NZ will get from the ultrafast broadband, right?
That one is the equivalent of deciding whether or not to build roads or a telephone network when you don't have one.
It simply won't be an optional part of any modern economy. High-resolution videoconferencing and suchlike will be a standard part of working with other countries and with one another, across all parts of our economy and society.
If anything, the government is not doing *enough* - hence Joyce's regulatory gymnastics to sweeten the deal for our reluctant private sector co-investors.
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Japan also grappling with whether to rebuild or move.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Mikaere Curtis,
Is this same spending cap being applied to MP's (in comparison, extremely generous) superannuation funding ?
That would require principled leadership by folk with integrity. So, no.
And apparently Treasury have increased their departmental budget again while helping slash others.
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: Radioactive Space Donut, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Nah, they made the mistake of asking Treasury, eh
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: Radioactive Space Donut, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
layby
Heh. Did David put you up to that one?
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Idiot Savant,
So where are these wage rises meant to come from? Who is meant to get them?
Magic bean farmers?
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
A good rule of thumb is that if Pagani thinks you're on the right track, you should go out behind the barn and shoot yourself in the head.
That was my fear, yes..
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OnPoint: Budget 2011: A Credible Path to…, in reply to Sacha,
Really unambitious
Pagani agrees (though I'm not convinced that's a good thing).
There is nothing to grow us out of trouble.
Take out the quick 1.5 per cent stimulus to growth from the Christchurch rebuild, and a one-off 0.3 per cent pulse from the Rugby World Cup, and the underlying rate of growth is just 2.2 per cent.
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There is nothing here to create faster growth or give businesses the confidence to invest and create jobs.
This is a light-weight budget, promising froth, lacking in ambition. It is a budget of small-minded, aimless blue meringues.
Because the economy isn't growing they are making niggling cuts.
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Hard News: Budget 2011: While you wait, in reply to Steve Barnes,
"That's an awful lot to pay for Barker and Corbett"
Their benefit-cost ratio would compare extremely well with Joyce's vain follies