Don’t get your hopes up. The fix is in, you can see the Labour influence on Tea Party (the erstwhile kingmaker) from the leader to their latest MP.
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While the Left fantasise about the 'greedy' 311 'ultra-wealthy individuals' who were the subject of the Parker probe, they might like to consider just how much money wealthy people tend to give to philathropic and charitable causes.
If we look at the example of the USA, we find the following -
'High-income households provide an outsized share of all philanthropic giving. Those in the top 1 percent of the income distribution (any family making $394,000 or more in 2015) provide about a third of all charitable dollars given in the U.S. When it comes to bequests, the rich are even more important: the wealthiest 1.4 percent of Americans are responsible for 86 percent of the charitable donations made at death, according to one study.'
And while the Left may daydream that they will 'end poverty' if they can just hammer the rich, we might also wonder why the seemingly unlimited borrowing they are undertaking is not making a dent in any of the issues they purport to be solving. In short, if Robbo has no compunction is borrowing enormous multi-billion slush funds to 'fight COVID' or 'build national resilience', what is constraining him from doing the same to 'end poverty'?
Is it the case that 'the rich' are just a convenient (and traditional) target to explain away Left wing failure and a constant 'chasing of the tail'? When you find out you are pursuing your ideological fixations and making no headway, it must be tempting to lash out with "Arrrrggghhhh, if only we could really get stuck into 'the rich' all our problems would be solved!!" Actually, this idea is at the centre of Left wing magical thinking. MMT was supposed to be the panacea, MMT clearly doesn't work, so they revert to type and start wailing about 'the rich'.
Perhaps 'the rich' can do more good through their philanthropic endeavours than this government can. A bequest of $45 million to a very worthy cause may do infinitely more good than government wastage of that $45 million on a 'cycle bridge' that will never be built.
The Left still assumes that they can create perfect fairness in society if only they just get 'more money'. But even when they go into over-drive on their borrow & spend mania, they still find that the wheels are spinning - and actually all they are doing is causing immense suffering via inflation.
Eric Crampton: More fuel to the fire
Dr Eric Crampton is chief economist with The New Zealand Initiative.
'There are a few budget and macroeconomic rules of thumb.
When the economy is running hot, a Reserve Bank that targets inflation responds by increasing interest rates. Government should not add fiscal fuel to those fires.
The budget projects substantial increases in gross and net debt as compared to the government’s December forecasts. By 2027, net debt is expected to be five percentage points higher, relative to GDP, than had been forecast – despite an improved overall economic outlook.
It makes sense to take on debt to deal with cyclone recovery. But workers and materials to do the work have to come from somewhere; debt doesn’t magic them into existence. And when the government is borrowing $160 million to hand to the video game industry, one wonders whether they are entirely serious.
The government now expects a small return to surplus in 2025/6: a little over half a billion dollars. But the government relies heavily on tobacco excise revenues: $1.7 billion per year, or about 1.1% of total tax revenue. Cigarettes with any substantial amount of nicotine in them are banned after April 1, 2025.
So if the new tobacco rules work as intended, there’s a cigarette burn mark in the accounts.'
Interesting to see Debbie Packer from Tea Party saying derisively the budget was for “the middle class and the rich”.
“Three years of a so-called wellbeing budget and the wellbeing of our people here in Aotearoa couldn’t be worse off” said co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
Presumably Māori people have kids to put into childcare and also have health needs requiring them to pay for prescriptions, presumably they use public transport, presumably they utilise new infrastructure etc etc etc.....
Aside from the 'goodies' dished out to all NZers (includes māori) there are also the below 'goodies' exclusively for māori -
'Budget funding for Te Matanini is part of just over $825 million allocated to Māori-focused initiatives.
It includes $200m to improve Māori housing through the Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme, for long-term housing supply, capability building and whare repairs.'
A Budget for the Breeder Contingent - Folks ;)
Likely mostly all the Taxpayer Net Tax Reciprients too
(You know - all those who are Net Tax receive with W4F and Supplements thrown in on top rather than Net Tax Paid into the Coffers)
But alas increasing Rents, COL impact, Fuel Tax Ramp Ups, Interest Hikes, Soon to occur rising Unemployment
may render that target of Robbo's 2023 handouts a Null event as the rest of the year to October sees them
all steadily bitten harder and harder and they get more miserable on Misery Guts Robbo's Fudget prescription:)
This was the budget with 3 names: the 'bread and butter budget', the 'no frills budget', and the 'wellbeing budget'.
No matter how many names they gave it, it still wouldn't qualify as a 'fiscally responsible budget'.
3 more apt names for it would include 'the inflationary budget', 'the last roll of the dice budget', and the 'kick the middle class in the guts budget'.
Never in the course of human history has so much been borrowed, to be sprayed around so recklessly, to ultimately achieve so little.
In times of high inflation, Robertson responds by pouring a truckload more fuel onto that fire!? leaving Orr no choice but to raise RB rates higher than expected. This is insanity. Although I prefer David Seymour's description: "Robertson is financially incontinent".
It is insanity, but they will do whatever they can to 'protect' those they see as they see as 'their people'. The irony is that both 'their people' and all of us are going to pay the price with higher inflation, despite the laughable Treasury crystal ball gazing predictions today. This is a government that says they govern for us all, but they really don't. They believe in class warfare, hence the mounting rhetoric against 'the rich' and the obvious contempt for the middle class (they say 'bourgeoisie').
The middle class will now be crushed between inflation & interest rates, and this seems to be inevitable because there are now zero guardrails to prevent it happening.
Agreed we are in a class war and there are plenty of unashamedly misguided and/or disingenuous self-flagellating supporters of these destructive policies. The wealthy can avoid their shenanigans. The middle class cannot and as you say will get crushed. The poor have no skin in their game. Note to self that I should get Seymour's quote right....he said "fiscally incontinent". Although both descriptions are apt.