XPost: nz.politics
On Sat, 23 Sep 2023 21:44:51 -0000 (UTC), Tony
<
lizandtony@orcon.net.nz> wrote:
https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/media_release_gst_claims_cabbage?utm_campaign=230923_nwsltr&utm_medium=email&utm_source=taxpayers
From a politically neutral source.
Of course the Taxpayers Union is not politically neutral - it supports
ACT and in relation to economic policies, National. It is an active
opponent of all other parties.
Also worth reading:
The Republican Party, through The Heritage Foundation, have
identified New Zealand as close to their ideal far-right political
situation. Labour have been moving, albeit slowly, towards lower
inequality; National will increase inequality.
See :
https://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2023
"You might not have heard of the Heritage Foundation, an ultra-right
US think tank that has evolved into a policy arm of the Republican
Party, influencing its shift to more hardline conservative positions
in recent decades. Its Index on Economic Freedom, an annual appraisal
of 184 national economies, applauds those that are most friendly to
business, especially concerning tax codes. In other words, the most
right-wing economies. During the last six years of Labour government,
New Zealand has consistently been in the top five, even level-pegging
with Singapore in the number one slot. The Heritage Foundation praises
New Zealand on a number of criteria, including its ‘flexible labour regulations’. On the economic scale, the mainstream media’s default
description of Labour as ‘centre left’ contrasts with the Heritage
Foundation’s global perspective.
At the end of two three-year terms of Labour government and certain
additional welfare provisions, the country’s overall child poverty
numbers have simply plateaued, with one in nine children still living
in households below the poverty line. Public housing wait lists are
spiraling, and a 2023 Inland Revenue report shows that the country’s
311 wealthiest families pay 8.9 percent of their income in tax,
compared with 10.5 percent required of minimum wage workers.
Given her phenomenal popularity until relatively recently,
international celebrity prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s resignation
last January caught the country by surprise. Her lower-profile
successor, Chris Hipkins, promises to concentrate on “bread and
butter” issues. Even in a coalition with the further left Greens and
the Maori Party, the polls still predict a win for Christopher Luxon’s conservative National Party, probably in coalition with the further
right libertarian ACT party. Despite the likelihood of an
ultra-neoliberal government, Hipkins scores higher than Luxon in
personal popularity.
New Zealand’s under 30s have bucked the trend of young voters in other
western democracies who favour solidly left figures like Bernie
Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. Kiwi youth voters are predominantly
right-wing, preferring heightened business opportunities to lowered
emissions. This is due in no small measure to ACT leader David
Seymour, who has combined his commitment to unfettered market forces
with some liberal social policies that may actually be more to the
liking of Green voters than to National’s old guard. In such a
pro-business environment the dilemma for the Greens is how much to
address the uncomfortable reality that economic growth is incompatible
with ecological urgency.
Labour, National, ACT and the Greens have more or less ruled out a
coalition with the populist New Zealand First party. Its leader,
veteran parliamentarian Winston Peters, failed to achieve the 5
percent threshold in 2020. The maverick phoenix has risen again,
buoyed by the present polls. Who knows? He might yet be a kingmaker in
an election that looks likely to see New Zealand nudging Singapore off
that top slot in the Heritage Foundation’s chart."
______________
And for a measure of success against far-right objectives - see:
https://www.heritage.org/index/country/newzealand
or
https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
and see how far the "lower tax" mantra has taken us:
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/global/2022-international-tax-competitiveness-index/#Rankings
We are third after Estonia and Latvia for lowest tax - no wonder we
suffer from insufficient funds to alleviate poverty! - and also it may
explain why so many of our large companies have been sold to overseas
owners . . .
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