Tax cuts for tobacco companies & landlords

An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty Images

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:

1. At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing and public transport to pay for tax cuts that deliver 64% of the benefits to the wealthiest 40%, it has just quietly halved the tax on heated tobacco products, and then Police stopped journalists asking Associate Health Minister Casey Costello about it. It’s also been estimated Aotearoa’s property investors made $511 billion in tax-free capital gains since 1991, but they are the biggest beneficiaries of the tax cuts;

2. Building industry and housing and health experts say they’re appalled that Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk is considering completely rolling back new home insulation standards estimated to cut heating bills by 40%, reduce climate emissions and reduce hospital ED admissions, but add around $15,000 to the cost of a standard home;

3. In quote of the day: The number of beneficiaries being sanctioned under the new Government rose 53.7% to 10,389 or 115 a day in the June quarter after the Government launched crackdown not backed by any evidence it works;

4. In solutions news: British passenger ferry operator Red Funnel has announced it will launch an electric-only fast-foiling passenger ferry service late next year.

5. In Charts of the day: The Coalition Government’s moves since November to push costs down and out to Councils and consumers by freezing capital and spending grants, increasing car registration costs, imposing road user charges on EV drivers, increasing bus and train fares for kids and adding prescription charges have added around half a percentage point to inflation, which was 3.3% in the June quarter. Inflation would be already back into the RBNZ’s 1-3% target band without those decisions, which may have allowed the central bank to cut the Official Cash Rate earlier than the late-November this year currently projected.

6. In Climate graphic of the day: Berkeley Earth reported global mean temperatures in June were a record-high 1.60 °C above the 1850 to 1900 average and 0.14°C above last year’s previous June record high. Berkeley now estimates a 92% chance that 2024 will set a new record as the warmest year, beating 2023.

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Top Six Things to note on July 16:

1. Cutting tobacco taxes while denying hospitals, unis funds

GPs, cancer doctors, universities, disabled plead for funds

Here’s the latest state of affairs: