57 Comments
Sep 26Liked by Bernard Hickey

The sheer amount of belief beggaring is huge with this disclosure from treasury, the sheer scale of the cuts required. The days of the Employment contracts act in the 90s were dark indeed.

But I don’t know how long this government can weather headlines such as those in the ODT which would be horrifyingly frequent if as unthinkable as it is, we pursue this madness.

In place of a simple, equitable and fair tax system!

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In the face of all the government's mindless slash & burn policies, it's nice to know that Luxon made a tax free capital gain of $300 k with the recent sale of one of his rental properties, in Onehunga. Couldn't have happened to a nicer chap!

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You forgot the '/s' tag.

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Sep 26Liked by Bernard Hickey

Not satisfied with attacking individual groups: disabled, low paid and Māori they seem to be targeting a whole island now

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We’re raising the Te Wai Ponamu independence flag forthwith ✊🏼

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Sep 26Liked by Bernard Hickey

" A recently published Cabinet paper disclosed the internal debate to an unusual level of detail, with Immigration Minister Erica Stanford saying such “theoretical” policy exercises consumed significant time and energy and often failed to reflect “real-world realities”."

Of course for Stanford - the "real-world realities' are not upsetting their business donors who want to keep importing cheap labour without any issue.

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Sep 26Liked by Bernard Hickey

Big of the minister to imply her government’s policies are more connected to these “real-world realities”. The bigger picture of the governance approach is pretty clear now and ought to be stated more clearly: we are being governed under a mindset of anti-expertise, and our sources of real knowledge and research about “real-world realities” in the government are being sidelined, defunded, and dismantled. This certainly feels like a radical ideological project, and It feels awfully concerning that these hits and cuts just keep coming out of nowhere. Are the capabilities of our media system so degraded now that we have virtually no insight into the intentions of our leaders ahead of time? Wouldn’t you, as a voter, have wanted to know in 2023 what the opposition might have had in plan?

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Yes is it common sense or rhetorical nonsense?

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Sep 27Liked by Bernard Hickey

Indeed. Where are, we ask, HM’s Loyal Opposition, who are gifted, every day, opportunities to express not just some wussi soundbite, but full noise Bloody Outrage at what these people are doing to the fabric of our society.

Who is there, to get in their ear, and shout SPEAK UP ! SPEAK UP!

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To extend the analogy, maybe they’re just try hard heading dogs, when they should be full on huntaways.

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It is one thing to speak up (eg press releases) and another to get them published by corporate media.

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author

Great points.

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Sep 26Liked by Bernard Hickey

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectoral_balances

In Nz we continually run foreign sector deficits ie our "current a/c "balance shows we spend more than we earn internationally. So if govt moves to surplus, we the private sector will need to finance a deficit. Historically this ALWAYS leads to a (at least) recession.

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Your visceral revulsion at the current state of the government's policies and approaches has rarely been articulated as succinctly as it is today... It goes without saying that this sentiment is entirely congruent with my own. Kia Kaha

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Sep 27Liked by Bernard Hickey

Ten out of ten for today’s most eloquent and elegant riposte!

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Much obliged sir

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$30B for Roads of National significance, no wonder Nats don't want to pay for anything that is not a road!

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Please release this publicly Bernard! Lots of people need to be across this.

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author

Open now Thomas. Thanks

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It really is remarkable how the reckons and populist ideology has permeated the Ministerial ranks. I guess it's commendable how they are all sticking to the same line but at what cost? I keep hearing that Erica Stanford is a good minister but she is exactly the same as the rest, consumed by short-termism and completely ignoring well-reasoned advice.

The Treasury speech is a real eye-opener and it attacks this government where it really hurts them - their popularity over the next two years. If they think the streets of inner-city Wellington are quiet now, by the time the next election rolls around, it will be like a post war-zone.

Also, good on the ODT for this campaign, not sure I'd want to show my face in Dunedin if I were a member of any of the coalition parties this weekend.

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Empty streets of Wellington... earlier this week I drove to Wellington for family reasons. It's a city I love and have lived or worked for many years. I have never seen the place so empty. Kelburn is like a ghost town. Traffic was negligible and I had the choice dozens of parking spots outside the railway station. The Coalition of Chaos have a lot to answer for

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It's all those lazy public servants "working " from home creating that ghost town. Better mandate them back into the office so they can cause traffic jams and justify the gold plated road tunnel.

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I’m wondering if Todd McLay has learned something from Volkswagen a few years ago - how to cheat with the measurement of emissions

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He obv missed that part of the lesson where Volkswagen got caught and punished severely. The Guardian's summary: "(the dieselgate scandal) cost it an estimated €30bn in compensation payments worldwide, as well as taking an untold toll on its reputation."

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What happens once there has been a cheat of the numbers? If there is a "nice" big fire or two after the numbers have been fudged then the cost of the lost forestry will be higher and make the situation worse.

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How can government think South Islanders will not rise up at the unfair cuts to health & spending it is practicing. As a Northerner I am appalled.

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Dr Ayesha Verrall - "...I think if we admitted Chris Bishop to the gastroenterology department at Dunedin Hospital, we might be able to get a scope and find out where that $3 billion figure came from, because that is utterly made up."

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That was brilliant from Ayesha, or maybe it is a well known joke amongst gastro enterologists.

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Mr Luxon sure is stacking up the "outcomes" he has asked us to measure his performance against.

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Stick it to them Dunedin! This is only the beginning, the wheels will fall off! what are the National backbenches saying? Toeing the line or starting to feel some heat, especially in the provinces. The Coalition Govt came in with promises, tax cuts blaming the previous Govt of over spending inefficiencies, while Labour squandered its opportunity National are proving to be a bunch of willies.

As Bernard has repeatedly stated the problems are systemic and have been neglected by successive Govts. And they’ve come home to roost assisted by Covid, the increasing boomers, failing council infrastructure and Bernards baby, the housing market.

The Coalition have jumped into the deep end without a swimming lesson! At least Labour was trying to mix some of this stuff.

Well as predicted by others next year will be tougher as they attempt to balance the books.

Labour have got to sort themselves out, remodel the tax system, have a vision and strategy for the future, tell people how and why and attack these willies with good sound reasoning supported by facts. That feels better, have a nice weekend, go Dunedin and the ABs!

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"When is the big end of town going to call bullshit on all of this?"

The problem is they think they are the big end of town and so ignore all the evidence and advice from people who analyse the information for a living. No trust in the information experts and inevitably ( as seen ) no trust in the science. Bloody Philistines!

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Looking at the image of the stalled Dunedin Hospital build, perhaps that's how Stonehenge came about?

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Are you suggesting there were Neolithic Neoliberals

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I guess, on the plus side, the Reserve Bank will save on heating costs as they are instructed to pull billions of dollars out of the *actual* economy and set fire to it, in order to meet the government's wacko demand for 'surplus'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxJW7hl8oqM

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