In a move that I’m sure will surprise many, Cactus Kate has named Red Alert her Blog of the Year.
I’m not sure whether we should be humbled or concerned…
Red Alert
Posts Tagged ‘Cactus Kate’
Cactus Kate on why bill should go
Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 29th, 2009Again I’m not sure my colleagues will like linking to this but Kate’s line on English is pretty hard to disagree with.
Obviously Kate and I differ on where to afterwards but there must be someone in that caucus who believes in something and is prepared to follow through.
Then again maybe it is better to just keep him there. The replacement might pick up too many of the prickly woman’s policy ideas.
Cactus Kate on pay the bill english
Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 28th, 2009I’m sure a few of my colleagues won’t think much of me linking to Cactus Kate.
This story has comments that are wrong – and her conclusion is pure Acting – but the nub of it that Bill English is on the ropes, a liability and a hypocrite is where we have common ground.
Pay the bill english on trusts and tax
Posted by Trevor Mallard on October 27th, 2009Cactus Kate highlights the problem pay the bill has as MoF.
“Bill English has absolutely no right to talk about Trusts with any authority ever again. He set the Endeavour Trust up with the purpose of using it as a vehicle for not only home ownership but rorting the taxpayer of their subsidy on housing. This is beyond what English says he is now targetting – the age old fair practice of using companies or trust to lower the top personal tax rate from the high thirties to the low thirties. Still too bloody high.”
The last bit confirms that Kate hasn’t joined the enlightened side of politics and shows that pay the bill is being written off as a credible figure by the right as well as the left.
I do however want to warn against the idea that government can just hike up the tax rate in order to cover the budget. It doesn’t work.
When I was first an MP the Nats left us a legacy of a 66% top tax rate. Anyone with brains could work out that money invested with an accountant or tax lawyer resulted in a better return than investing it in productive activity.
And when GST was introduced and all rates dropped – including the top rate coming down to 33% – income tax revenue increased. Partly because a pile of exemptions and legal rorts were removed, partly because some people who had never had a relationship with the tax system became registered for GST and therefore paid income tax as well and partly because it was better to get on with earning money and cop the tax rather than spending valuable time energy and money trying to avoid it.
Regulation in NZ
Posted by Trevor Mallard on May 26th, 2009Cactus Kate is generally not my cup of tea. This is however worth a read.
