11-09-2023, 03:36 PM
The media are starting to nibble at his heels for facts about National's tax plan. If the council of Trade Unions has it right & they intend to use funds from things such as Search & rescue, the courts system & Naitonal emergency funding then that's really concerning.
I think the Nats do need to be open about this.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...-plan.html
"National is still refusing to say which parts of what it calls the back office bureaucracy of government it would cut to fund its tax cuts.
I think the Nats do need to be open about this.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/...-plan.html
"National is still refusing to say which parts of what it calls the back office bureaucracy of government it would cut to fund its tax cuts.
But the Council of Trade Unions has done an analysis and found the pool of money they are proposing to cut from includes the courts system, passport processing, national emergency management and search and rescue funding.
National leader Christopher Luxon refused to answer our questions on what was off the table.
To pay for its tax cuts National needs to find $594 million a year to slice out of the public service. It's ruled out any cuts from health and education, but everything else is up to be chopped.
So that $594 million equates to a 6.5 percent cut in spending across the other organisations.
"We think there are significant savings to be made, particularly in the back office functions," Luxon said.
But Craig Renney from the Council of Trade Unions has been buried in budget documents trying to find National's cuts and says the pool they have to cut from is actually much smaller.
That's because National says it will only cut what it calls back room bureaucracy.
"I would much sooner have nurses and midwives and doctors than communication consultants and spin doctors," Luxon said.
The total pool of cash among the ministries up for cuts is $9.1 billion, but when Renney calculated how much of that is back office, or things labelled policy research and communications, the pool shrinks to $1.9 billion.
To find its $594m, National would need to cut 31 percent of that.
"But in reality, when we look inside there, it's areas like the court systems, it's areas like biosecurity, it's areas like cybersecurity. Troublingly, it includes areas like family violence and sexual violence."
"I would much sooner have nurses and midwives and doctors than communication consultants and spin doctors," Luxon said.
The total pool of cash among the ministries up for cuts is $9.1 billion, but when Renney calculated how much of that is back office, or things labelled policy research and communications, the pool shrinks to $1.9 billion.
To find its $594m, National would need to cut 31 percent of that.
"But in reality, when we look inside there, it's areas like the court systems, it's areas like biosecurity, it's areas like cybersecurity. Troublingly, it includes areas like family violence and sexual violence."
The revenue-gathering elements of National's tax plan have been called fanciful by Labour.
There are big question marks over how much their foreign buyer's tax and gambling tax will bring in.
Renney reckons if those don't live up to expectations, there's not even enough back room spending to cut to make up for it. "