The jigsaw pireces of the Budget are starting to click in the public mind if recent polls are any indication. In the last week :
- The IMF described NZ’s savings gap and net international indebtedness as “among the largest of any advanced nation”
- Analysis shows a $9.2bn additional fiscal hole in the Budget by 2023 arising from the tax changes
- Budget documents show expenditure as a % of GDP falling from 33% to 28%
- Bill English floats Kiwibank sale as one example of a number of SOEs ripe for partial privatisation.
In other words: give away taxes up front (very largely to their mates); run an out year deficit (deliberately); compress spending (as ‘prudence ” then demands); and flog off what is left of the family silver to fill the remaining gap (dressed up as mum and dad savings products, of course).
What does all this mean for the average Kiwi?
- despite the govt spin, they are worse off for the next four years at least due to the toxic cocktail of GST, inflation, other govt charges and taxes, and slow wage growth;
- public services like Heatlh and Early Childhood Education will be slashed as new spending lags inflation ($300m short in Health) or deliberate policy changes bite;
- the outlook for public services gets dramatically worse as the National Party tries to resize the state to 28% of GDP – although they won’t want to talk much about that before the election;
- the underlying economic problems reamin unresolved and get more intractable over time. There is no credible plan for growth and jobs.
Moral of story: do NOT let National get a second term Stop the malign juggernaut before it does irrepairable damage.
Yes he is good. It is easier to be a good parent when you aren’t cutting your feet on egg shells too.
@Loota was that comment for Rebecca or me?
I’m sure I’m not the only person who looked at all scenarios before deciding on what to do, so I suppose in saying that, unless I am an odd one out, then it will be in the reasons why women stay or leave somewhere. Maybe on domestic violence sites? Like usual all I really have to base my opinions on is from personal experiences and what I looked before making my decisions that lead to me to where I am today.
Rebecca brought up crime and domestic violence, child abuse stats under labour, I was merely pointing out how I see how it could worsen under National, yet not be seen. People will keep quiet so not to end up in that position of possibly more financially worse off and stigma attached etc, and why under Labour it was higher as more people felt more comfortable speaking out. That is one reason why I don’t trust the stats.
The budget is not helpful to the situation in my eyes and indirectly could have an effect on this issue.
That is all I really have to say on the matter. I am sorry David if it I’ve taken this thread off topic somewhat, I really didn’t mean to.
” Just under half of all residential landlords in a post-Budget survey say they will be raising their rents, because they can no longer claim tax deductions for depreciation.
A survey of 2459 people showed 47 per cent of the rental property owners who were questioned intended to raise their rents, and 69 per cent were convinced denying depreciation would cause rents to rise.
This was even though 45 per cent of landlords approved of the Budget overall, and 32 per cent felt neutrally about it.
The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, which commissioned the survey, said the area with the highest proportion of landlords planning to raise rents was Manukau City (74 per cent)”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/personal-finance/3737547/Rent-rises-on-the-cards-after-Budget