15 Comments
User's avatar
Janine McVeagh's avatar

Infrastructure liabilities and fear of borrowing: exactly. The Green budget addresses both, as well as environment and social equity. Yet, that approach is "rainbows and unicorns". How is punishing the less well-off, destroying the environment, ignoring te tiriti and selling our country to corporations somehow "no BS"? It's a disgusting budget!

Expand full comment
Alex Clarkson's avatar

Exactly, couldn’t agree more. Please Bernard can we have your analysis of the Green Budget itself, without a neo lib comparative?

Expand full comment
Cristina's avatar

I agree with this suggestion 😊

Expand full comment
Renee's avatar

What is that -ocracy word between 11-12mins?

Expand full comment
Plague Craig's avatar

Was it gerentocracy?

Expand full comment
Renee's avatar

Thank you

Expand full comment
Cristina's avatar

a state, society, or group governed by old people.

Expand full comment
Plague Craig's avatar

If we are prepared to means test young people with a foot halfway on a plane to Australia, let's also check whether Maseratis owners in St Heliers really, really need gold card discounts too.

Expand full comment
TJ's avatar

Fantastic Hoon this week, sounds like a collective thumbs down.

Three things that jumped out to me since absorbing the first flush of commentary.

1. Where has the social investment thinking gone? It was signalled it was to be used in this term. I get the sense that most of these nips and tucks are completely self defeating and could be shown to be so.

2. Could the multiplier effect concept be used to justify the complete opposite actions they've done to kick start the economy and "going for growth?" Imagine how many more times the money would cycle around the economy if the late stage equal pay claims had started to be settled and paid out. How stimulatory is it when given to pensioners who are probably the last generation to get the super universally? Ie. good percentage of scrooge mcducks throwing it on the pile. Dont get me started with the hand out to big gas.

3. Will this be shown to be a political win in retrospect for National? As Bernard said, its not popular with vast swathes of the voting public. How does the party and Nicola smile their way through something that turns so many off?

Expand full comment
Simon's avatar

Quote: "30% of all single-parent families have an effective marginal tax rate of 50%+" is utterly astounding.

Expand full comment
Rae's avatar

Simon, I agree "30% of single parent........tax rate of 50%" is shocking.

How can this be permitted.

Expand full comment
Satish's avatar

Can we flush the budget down the loo? I feel like doing this,if only I could.

The rich get richer...as always with a National government.

And the less fortunate,of which this tiny nation has a majority,are left wondering why there were sent down the loo.

Expand full comment
Rae's avatar

What bothers me is Nicola saying people have a 'choice'. Only some people. Having a choice denotes an income which is adequate.

Clearly Nicola has always had choice.

Expand full comment
Cristina's avatar

I really appreciate the focus of this weeks Hoon.

Peter knows what questions to ask the experts, for further exploration of topics being discussed. I especially appreciated his question to Bernard about the connection between bond markets & interest rates.

Often we tend to get a little bit lost in the sauce when economists talk about Bond markets as they seem very abstract to a lot of us including myself. Having Bernard explain the mechanism in which they are connected improves our understanding of the economic system.

Another cracker Gentleman!

Expand full comment
Annie's avatar

I am really struggling with this 20% 'tax boost' for investments. The way it has been explained to me is that it is pretty much the government forwarding 20% of the depreciation to the 1st year and that effectively this means there will be less in future years. While this seems great for (PPP agreements) companies coming in and building our infrastructure for us it feels like crap for the average NZ business. We have had our own business for over 20 years now, it has never been like this. Our difficultly now is we don't have the cash to go buy new plant and equipment. So this is of no use to us at all.

We know and are friends with quite a number of people who are also in business (ours is a B2B operation) and none of them - even the 'rich' firms see themselves as benefiting.

I really need some help to see the good in this.

Expand full comment