To truly understand yesterday’s Budget, it’s worth returning to a statement made in 2020 by the then British High Commissioner Laura Clark that New Zealand has “Scandinavian ambitions in terms of quality of life and public services, but a US attitude to tax”.
Yes all perspiration no aspiration. Smart is not a word you associate with NZ governments. Having spent 17 years living in Singapore spread out over nearly 40 years, the contrast is sharp. Foresight and planning is exhibited in everything the Singaporean government has done since Singapore’s founding, whereas NZ governments have muddled along and the NZ public have allowed themselves to be conned into thinking they can continue to swing between pseudo right and left wing governments and enjoy a prosperous future.
Not surprisingly, we are in about the same position as a low-taxed and low-indebted nation (albeit moving up in the indebted category thanks to the tax cuts). These are indisputable facts that can easily be retrieved from reputable sites like the one above.
Furthermore, being the only OECD nation without a capital gains or wealth tax is one severe handicap that puts even us behind the USA in taxing the wealthy. We once had a central government land tax (a de-facto wealth tax), sent to the wind by the neoliberals.
Make no mistake, a National-led government spends less than Labour, but yes, it is marginal in most cases. Both have been neoliberal governments.
When NZ tried to "become Singapore" in the 1980's, spearheading the global neoliberal revolution, we sunk into one of the worst-performing economies in the developed world... suicides tripled while crime skyrocketed. We never learn.
Yes all perspiration no aspiration. Smart is not a word you associate with NZ governments. Having spent 17 years living in Singapore spread out over nearly 40 years, the contrast is sharp. Foresight and planning is exhibited in everything the Singaporean government has done since Singapore’s founding, whereas NZ governments have muddled along and the NZ public have allowed themselves to be conned into thinking they can continue to swing between pseudo right and left wing governments and enjoy a prosperous future.
Oh this is so depressing.
I think I need an early Friday drink .
I'm off there now..
Definitely change, this fecking neoliberal none sense is well past it’s sell by date
Thanks for the comprehensive analysis Bryce
There is lots of room for movement to the middle. We are nowhere close! New Zealand, once the Sweden of the South Pacific, has been hovering at around 25th in the OECD in govenment spending to GDP.... about the same as the USA, according to this OECD site: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/6c445a59-en/index.html?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fcomponent%2F6c445a59-en .
Not surprisingly, we are in about the same position as a low-taxed and low-indebted nation (albeit moving up in the indebted category thanks to the tax cuts). These are indisputable facts that can easily be retrieved from reputable sites like the one above.
Why does the New Zealand right/centrist neoliberal nomenklatura continue to ignore the facts? Luxon when running for office, stated in a flat-out lie on TV that we were the "second highest spender in the OECD", https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/496735/watch-national-leader-christopher-luxon-s-media-briefing-hijacked-by-heckler . No one corrected him.
Furthermore, being the only OECD nation without a capital gains or wealth tax is one severe handicap that puts even us behind the USA in taxing the wealthy. We once had a central government land tax (a de-facto wealth tax), sent to the wind by the neoliberals.
Make no mistake, a National-led government spends less than Labour, but yes, it is marginal in most cases. Both have been neoliberal governments.
When NZ tried to "become Singapore" in the 1980's, spearheading the global neoliberal revolution, we sunk into one of the worst-performing economies in the developed world... suicides tripled while crime skyrocketed. We never learn.