The Nicola Willis budget

[Lilith7]

What joys await us...



https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politic...ons-worsen

[b]"Finance Minister Nicola Willis has found nearly $7.5 billion worth of public savings, but faces tough decisions as she seeks to balance the Treasury books and deliver tax relief amid a worsening economic picture with higher costs to keep the lights on in the next 12 months.  [/b]

Willis revealed her mini-Budget alongside the Treasury’s half year economic and fiscal update in Wellington, outlining a “shrunken” surplus, bigger borrowing requirements and greater fiscal risks such as those around infrastructure delivery and cyclone recovery, natural disasters and climate change. 

[b]She will reveal the plan for tax relief in the May budget, but promised to “restore a fairer balance” in the government books, reform the public finance act, and continue a savings drive in the public sector, on Wednesday.[/b]

“Tax reduction is coming but first we have to do the work. We have made a downpayment - finding $7.5b already,” she said. 


She said people wouldn’t get a “tax cut for Christmas” but would get one next year, along with stronger fiscal management." 



Ah promises, promises...if I was a betting woman I'd be willing to put money on the only 'fair' oiutcome being for those already well off. And - 'strong fiscal management?' 
What exactly does that mean?? 

Clamping down on anything & everything just to have more funds for govt projects, at the expense of everything else such as  health, housing, & welfare?


God to a hungry child


I didn’t make this world for you
You didn’t buy any stocks in my
railroad
You didn’t invest in my
Corporation
Where are your shares in Standard
Oil?
I made the world for the rich
And the will-be-rich
And the have-always-been-rich
Not for you
Hungry child.


Langston Hughes

[king1]

Their election promises are starting to sound a bit flimsy...

How on earth does she expect to fix already strained systems by demanding 6.5% savings across departments... FFS they live in a siloed world...

here's a thought, why not forgo the tax cuts and use the money somewhere meaningful, like health or education...

[harm_less]

And Willis is still harping on about how bad a state Labour left our economy in. Was she away for PREFU day, or is she just so economically illiterate that she didn't comprehend the information being presented?.

As every day goes by Luxon's government looks to have no real strategy other than to cut and burn everything Labour had put in place with no clear policies other than to pilfer coffers that were destined for real social and environmental good. Arseholes!

[Lilith7]

Their election promises are starting to sound a bit flimsy...

How on earth does she expect to fix already strained systems by demanding 6.5% savings across departments... FFS they live in a siloed world...

here's a thought, why not forgo the tax cuts and use the money somewhere meaningful, like health or education...

Oh you heretic, you!

That would make sense...

---

And Willis is still harping on about how bad a state Labour left our economy in. Was she away for PREFU day, or is she just so economically illiterate that she didn't comprehend the information being presented?.

As every day goes by Luxon's government looks to have no real strategy other than to cut and burn everything Labour had put in place with no clear policies other than to pilfer coffers that were destined for real social and environmental good. Arseholes!

It does look that way, anything & everything will be blamed on the previous govt.
Although to be fair, very often every govt does that to some extent. However they can't possibly do it indefinitely & there comes  a point where they have only themselves to blame - & will do anything & everything to avoid admitting that.

Some of them are rather good at wriggling, especially Winnie...

[Olive]

Apparently there was a veiled warning in Willis's pre-budget remarks: referring to the ACT-Nat agreement she said that no earner would be disadvantaged in 2024.   She has otherwise heavily relied on "Kiwi" as a description, so EARNER presumably excludes people relying on National Super and Jobseekers.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Of course. We are not productive.

Unless of course you count the volunteer economy. Which they won't.

[jim157]

lol suck it up whiners

[harm_less]

lol suck it up whiners

That sentiment could just as much refer to the coalition's constant bleating about the economic situation they are now addressing with continually rear view comments instead of actually producing any coherent policies to address said situation.

[alpha111]

Are you referring to Whiny Willis jim157 ? I gather one of Luxon's daemons (not the computer programmes) told her that getting rid of 10,000 public servants at $100,000 would save 10 billion dollars, then deduct the benefit costs and she is nearly there.

[Lilith7]

Of course. We are not productive.

Unless of course you count the volunteer economy. Which they won't.

And without which,this country & most others would be in dire straits.

[zqwerty]

That's the problem with "management types", you presume they do actually know how the real world works then you find out they don't really; all they are doing is robbing the poor to pay the rich, and not thinking about the welfare of all in the country.

We were really lucky with the last Labour Government headed up by Jacinda then Chris Hipkins, they really were doing their best to pull up the lower income member of our society, then the businessmen and bank mangers conspired to cause the inflation and value of money myth and people believed only National could solve the problem, fat chance of that.

[jim157]

lol suck it up whiners

That sentiment could just as much refer to the coalition's constant bleating about the economic situation they are now addressing with continually rear view comments instead of actually producing any coherent policies to address said situation.

sure

of course you forgot the constant bleating of "9 years of neglect" from arderns pack of clowns

i didnt vote national and wouldnt piss on luxon if he was on fire but he has been pm for around a month and has to sort out labours financial catastrophe 6 years in the making, the labour lovies on here constantly moaning about this government need to wake up as see what their beloved clownshow has produced

[Lilith7]

This, & many other countries have had 40 odd years of greed based Neoliberalism, resulting in inequality with the gap between rich & poor continually widening. The damage is massive & may take generations to heal if we don't soon begin to adress it.


https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/...ts-108014/

"Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.


The most ironic thing about rising inequality is how completely unnecessary and self-defeating it is. If we do something about it, if we adjust our policies in the way that, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression—so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer."

---

It seems greed is a mental illness....


https://www.talkspace.com/blog/the-psych...ir%20peers.

"Addiction is often about the pursuit of a reward in the face of risk. For dangerous or illegal substances, the reward is a high and the risk is bodily damage, dependency, or legal consequences. No matter how many times they use, people who live with addiction cannot fill the void that attracted them to drugs to begin with. If they don’t find treatment, they gradually up the dosage because the body develops a tolerance to the substance. The high isn’t high enough anymore.

Certain types of greed operate on similar principles. 
Greed and drug use activate similar pleasure pathways in the brain, according to psychologist Victor Shamas, Ph.D. Unsurprisingly, gambling addiction has a particularly strong connection to avarice. In both scenarios, the feeling of pleasure comes from the process of pursuing the reward, Shamas said, not only the final result.

In an article for Psychology Today, psychologist Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D., argued that greed, like addiction, is often a coping mechanism for unresolved mental health issues. By obtaining incredible wealth or success, people with deep insecurities strive to feel like they are finally good enough, or at least better than their peers. The logic is similar to how substances can provide temporary relief for emotional and physical pain."

[Zurdo]

All this cost cutting to pay for a tax cut...I really don't understand. Who was hoodwinked into voting them in on this tax cut thing ? We've got no money, because of the Labour government, and now we've got even less because we are getting less tax from our own policy.

[king1]

That sentiment could just as much refer to the coalition's constant bleating about the economic situation they are now addressing with continually rear view comments instead of actually producing any coherent policies to address said situation.

sure

of course you forgot the constant bleating of "9 years of neglect" from arderns pack of clowns

i didnt vote national and wouldnt piss on luxon if he was on fire but he has been pm for around a month and has to sort out labours financial catastrophe 6 years in the making, the labour lovies on here constantly moaning about this government need to wake up as see what their beloved clownshow has produced

hmmm, several hundred thousand jobs saved - 20,000+ New Zealanders alive that would otherwise be dead... I'm sure they missed the mark on that one...

It was always going to come at a cost and most sensible people understood that...

[king1]

All this cost cutting to pay for a tax cut...I really don't understand. Who was hoodwinked into voting them in on this tax cut thing ?  We've got no money, because of the Labour government, and now we've got even less because we are getting less tax from our own policy.

TBH the fiscally responsible thing for National to do would be to suck it up and cancel the tax cuts

[Lilith7]

All this cost cutting to pay for a tax cut...I really don't understand. Who was hoodwinked into voting them in on this tax cut thing ?  We've got no money, because of the Labour government, and now we've got even less because we are getting less tax from our own policy.

TBH the fiscally responsible thing for National to do would be to suck it up and cancel the tax cuts

I'm not sure there's a politican living who would do that...although, possibly some dead ones might.

[Olive]

sure

of course you forgot the constant bleating of "9 years of neglect" from arderns pack of clowns

i didnt vote national and wouldnt piss on luxon if he was on fire but he has been pm for around a month and has to sort out labours financial catastrophe 6 years in the making, the labour lovies on here constantly moaning about this government need to wake up as see what their beloved clownshow has produced

hmmm, several hundred thousand jobs saved -  20,000+ New Zealanders alive that would otherwise be dead... I'm sure they missed the mark on that one...

It was always going to come at a cost and most sensible people understood that...

Exactly.   It is shameful that the coalition government continues to gaslight our community by pretending that Covid-19 didn't exist; a real insult to all of the families that were deeply affected by it.   Ditto the way the January floods and Cyclone Gabrielle are fading from the nation's consciousness.

[harm_less]

That sentiment could just as much refer to the coalition's constant bleating about the economic situation they are now addressing with continually rear view comments instead of actually producing any coherent policies to address said situation.

sure

of course you forgot the constant bleating of "9 years of neglect" from arderns pack of clowns

i didnt vote national and wouldnt piss on luxon if he was on fire but he has been pm for around a month and has to sort out labours financial catastrophe 6 years in the making, the labour lovies on here constantly moaning about this government need to wake up as see what their beloved clownshow has produced

And Labour's stewardship was in turn addressing 9 years of social spending neglect by the Key government. It's disappointing to say the least to see Luxon & his clownshow doing their level best to revisit the inequities of the Key era. It seems they are doing their best to become a single term (or less) government.

[Lilith7]

sure

of course you forgot the constant bleating of "9 years of neglect" from arderns pack of clowns

i didnt vote national and wouldnt piss on luxon if he was on fire but he has been pm for around a month and has to sort out labours financial catastrophe 6 years in the making, the labour lovies on here constantly moaning about this government need to wake up as see what their beloved clownshow has produced

And Labour's stewardship was in turn addressing 9 years of social spending neglect by the Key government. It's disappointing to say the least to see Luxon & his clownshow doing their level best to revisit the inequities of the Key era. It seems they are doing their best to become a single term (or less) government.

We can only hope. Luxon does faintly remind me of Key, in the way he speaks. Both are skilled at avoiding things while using lots of words to appear to be saying something on the subject.