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Andrew Dickens: 3 parties and 3 waffly bits of policy which all miss their mark

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Mon, 9 May 2022, 2:08PM
Photo / Getty | File

Andrew Dickens: 3 parties and 3 waffly bits of policy which all miss their mark

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Mon, 9 May 2022, 2:08PM

Well, here it comes. 

A budget and an election. The season of politicians treating us like idiots and believing they can bribe us into their camp. 

Labour has released details of police and crime funding that will be announced formally in the budget on May 19. 

It's a 562-million-dollar package which always sounds impressive. But as always, it's spread over 4 years. In fact, when you look at the numbers and think of the current rate of inflation and cost escalation the whole thing is barely treading water. 

The headlines are about helping businesses through this ram raid epidemic. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no detail of this help because it doesn't exist yet. How stupid do they think we are. It's an example of a political party trying to shoehorn its existing policy into the news cycle of the day. 

It's just the same as National swearing black and blue that its intentions to cut tax are to help people through an increase in cost of living while knowing full well that a tax cut is even more inflationary than the same amount of government spending. People spend tax cuts on smaller consumables and not on building new hospitals. When asked if New Zealanders know how to spend their money better than governments do, you can say yes. On themselves but not on community initiatives like new roads or public transport or police forces. 

Meanwhile, ACT releases its alternative budget which features a 5.3 billion dollar cut in Government spending. They swear black and blue that health, education and policing would not be touched, but the list of cuts is impressive. 

Say goodbye to the Forestry Programme, Research and Development Tax credits, film subsidies, both international and domestic, pest control, pine control – all shovel ready projects – all funding for Callaghan Innovation. And if you're connected to any spending for Māori or women or Pasifika then say goodbye to the gravy train. Then to cap it off they want to raise the super to 67 by 2025. Which is just 3 years away. The super will rise every 2 months for 2 years. 

This is an austerity budget in all sense of the words and you'd have to wonder who would vote for it. Has nobody in ACT got a memory that goes back to Ruth Richardson's Mother of All Budgets back in the 90s and the pain that put New Zealanders through? It would be impossible to implement. It's virtue signalling. 

So, 3 parties and 3 waffly bits of policy which all miss their mark. 

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