National - FFS!

[Bjauck]

Very rare brand that Lambourghi.

Fiat Panda is much more common.

I may get a Lamborghini.

UK police used to go on patrol in pandas. Probably Morris rather than Fiat!

[Panda-NZ-]

When’s National going to release their tax cuts, the second edition.

[Balance]

Hope to see National do some billborads like these soon as Hipkins get more desperate and more personal :

[Logen Ninefingers]

When’s National going to release their tax cuts, the second edition.

We've already seem Labour's tax cuts: GST coming off certain items.

[justakiwi]

So National's new catchphrase is "squeezed middle", and they seriously believe an extra $20/fortnight, for a family, is meaningful "tax relief." I am trying hard to keep an open mind here, as some of what they are announcing, I do agree with, but I think they are seriously out of touch with the realities many Kiwis are facing right now.

National appears to have zero concern for/interest in, those Kiwis who do not fall into the "squeezed middle" category. Especially those who are single, or have no children in their care. And, no, I am not just talking about myself.

I will be watching future announcements with interest.

[thegreatestben]

Not a national voter but balance up the money in hand vs the reduction in costs over all. I hear them when they are saying it's about making the environment in which we all live in better than it currently is. We all want to see more opportunity and prosperity and the conditions need to be right to allow that to flourish.

I 100% agree with Luxon's point that the focus has been too great on amount of spending as a measure of performance. Show me the outcomes!
I'd happily pay more tax if I thought or could see it was being spent well, and don't read that as well meaning selfishly for me.

I'd like to see it invested well in health, aged care, child care, education and so on... none of those particularly benefit me directly
(ok aged care yes as an OCA investor) but I want to see NZ being a place people are able to feel positive to live in. Even if they don't have a lot today, we should all feel like it's possible to do better.

Too few of us are saying that and after 6 years of Labour it's hard not to see where the blame for a lot of this lies.

[iceman]

So National's new catchphrase is "squeezed middle", and they seriously believe an extra $20/fortnight, for a family, is meaningful "tax relief." I am trying hard to keep an open mind here, as some of what they are announcing, I do agree with, but I think they are seriously out of touch with the realities many Kiwis are facing right now.

National appears to have zero concern for/interest in, those Kiwis who do not fall into the "squeezed middle" category. Especially those who are single, or have no children in their care. And, no, I am not just talking about myself.

I will be watching future announcements with interest.

I have a different view after listening to National's Leadership team. I think they've got it pretty much right with this. They are unashamedly targeting the "squeezed middle" ( a boring term already) with meaningful and fully costed tax relief that is long overdue. Furthermore, the fuel price reduction and slowing or reversing of rental costs will give the average family a lot more than the $ 40-50 per fortnight they get from the tax adjustments alone.
This is the first announcement I have seen from National at this early stage of the election campaign that I like a lot.

[Logen Ninefingers]

So National's new catchphrase is "squeezed middle", and they seriously believe an extra $20/fortnight, for a family, is meaningful "tax relief." I am trying hard to keep an open mind here, as some of what they are announcing, I do agree with, but I think they are seriously out of touch with the realities many Kiwis are facing right now.

National appears to have zero concern for/interest in, those Kiwis who do not fall into the "squeezed middle" category. Especially those who are single, or have no children in their care. And, no, I am not just talking about myself.

I will be watching future announcements with interest.

I watched the unveiling of the tax policy and heard various amounts given as to much people in the ‘squeezed middle’ would get by way of tax relief. The very lowest figure mentioned was ‘$20 a fortnight’, other amounts mentioned were multiples of that. The fact that you put forward the lowest figure out of all of them tells me that your mind is very much closed, and it will be the same with many of the Labourites and chardonnay quaffers that post here: we will have a busy day of pooh-poohing and attempted discrediting no doubt. It was inevitable.

[justakiwi]

I think any hope of rents reducing, is pie in the sky fantasy. Best we can hope for there, is a slowing of rent increases. The vast majority of landlords are unlikely to give any consideration to passing the savings onto tenants.

Fuel? Well, we all know how that goes. The price of fuel is impacted by many other things, not just govt fuel tax. So while reducing the tax is helpful, it by no means guarantees that we will pay less for our fuel over time.

Besides which, none of this comes into place until July next year (correct me if I'm wrong) - so not going to relieve the pressure for anyone, until then.

Furthermore, the fuel price reduction and slowing or reversing of rental costs will give the average family a lot more than the $ 40-50 per fortnight they get from the tax adjustments alone.

[iceman]

I think any hope of rents reducing, is pie in the sky fantasy. Best we can hope for there, is a slowing of rent increases. The vast majority of landlords are unlikely to give any consideration to passing the savings onto tenants.

Fuel? Well, we all know how that goes. The price of fuel is impacted by many other things, not just govt fuel tax. So while reducing the tax is helpful, it by no means guarantees that we will pay less for our fuel over time.

Besides which, none of this comes into place until July next year (correct me if I'm wrong) - so not going to relieve the pressure for anyone, until then.

Of course it doesn't guarantee that rents and fuel costs will go down. But it's highly likely they will both be lower than they would under current settings. I as a small landlord with a great longterm (single mother) tenant have not raised rents to recover the elimination of normal accounting of interest payments. I had recently warned my tenant that I would have to raise the rent soon to recover this increased cost. I am hopeful that this policy change, if implemented, will make it possible for me to not increase rents for a while yet.