With one week until Christmas, and one working day of the Parliamentary year left, the season to be jolly will be feeling empty for a lot of New Zealanders. Since the National-led Coalition came to office, over 7,000 public service jobs have been lost or merged with other positions. Unemployment sits at 4.8% of the workforce. Now, Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis has released a grim picture of the economy.
From a socio-economic standpoint, 2024 has been a grim year. In addition to orchestrating savage changes to the public service that caused thousands of people to lose their jobs, the Government has cut back on a range of services and interventions. It has made accessing social welfare for the disabled and handicapped more difficult. It has made a raft of economic decisions with poorly thought through outcomes, such as cancelling the Cook Strait ferry replacements, setting aside $4 billion to repair potholes and – despite being a Government that is constantly going on about how wastage is bad on an almost daily basis – a new Ministry of Redtape.
For what gain? At best Ms Willis expects New Zealand to not return to surplus until possibly 2028/2029. A deficit of $13 billion, and Crown debt of $192.8 billion. $18 billion in borrowing through the bond programme is on the cards. Yet, it is loath to close loopholes that enable the wealthiest 1% of income earners to avoid their income tax obligations, which would net $7 billion per annum and more than cover the cost of the landlord tax breaks. It is loath to introduce a Capital Gains Tax or equivalent because that would upset its donor base. It is loath to introduce a cap on house ownership to ensure that a few very wealthy landlords cannot buy up too much of the housing market.
Nothing has been seriously attempted in the way of lowering living costs. Nothing has been done to help beneficiaries, with payment cards being introduced despite warnings that they can be abused, and come with a social stigma. The very vast majority of these people will work if they can find employment circumstances that suit their abilities. None want to deal with Ministry of Social Development bureaucracy more than they need to, yet the Government that is pushing them to work is also the same one that has put thousands of people out of middle income jobs, forcing them to put things like having children, buying/building a house or paying off the mortgage on hold.
Are they really serious about a good economic Christmas for this country?
Meri Kirihimete Aotearoa.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 