Read Chippy's Lips.
"No New Taxes"
Some of you might not like, or agree, with all of the things I say in this newsletter.
So let’s get the main argument out of the way - defeating National and ACT is more important than specific policies.
That is true, a centrist Labour government would be better than a National/ACT one for anyone who is not wealthy. But it’s also not the only thing that matters, and it is also not the only option for voters.
Back in pre MMP days you often had a choice between party ‘A’, that you didn’t really want to vote for, and party ‘B’ that you really didn’t want to vote for. Fortunately we now have MMP so people have a range of options that determine no only who is in government, but the shape of that government and the relative bargaining power of the parties involved in coalition negotiations post the election.
We have a range of options on most things. From more (the Greens), to about the same (Labour), a bit less (National), to very little and possibly none at all (ACT). You can select these whether it is for health spending, the minimum wage, or taxes.
On Wednesday the Prime Minister ruled out a CGT or a Wealth Tax. My first thought was - it’s pretty clear then, if people want a more progressive tax system then the Greens are the only option available to them this election.
It was very disappointing to see Labour do all that work looking at the fairness of the tax system and then rule out doing anything to change it. They might as well just have said no new taxes to start with and closed the whole conversation down.
Some might say there is value in having that discussion, but I don't see any real benefit if you just end up ruling out those taxes ahead of every election.
Politically it absolutely makes sense, including from a left bloc point of view. The people that are further left have the option of the Greens and Labour have the middle ground to hoover up votes from those who perhaps aren’t enamoured with Christopher Luxon’s National but are concerned by the introduction of a Capital Gains or Wealth tax.
But if that was going to be the strategy why not announce it from the start rather than testing the waters on a tax and allowing National to scare monger about it?
That’s another problem. The fact that Labour had actually designed a new tax and then decided against it at the last minute adds to the impression that they are making stuff up as they go along.
Don’t get me wrong, the approach they have taken of seeking feedback, designing a solution, and then adapting is much more sensible than just calling it up front, without the required information to make a well informed choice. But we’re not talking about something sensible, we’re talking about voters.
Voters who have been told time and again by the opposition that actually doing up front analysis and design before fully costing or committing to something is a weakness, a sign of mismanagement. So now we have the media berating the Government absurdly - why are you thinking about the problem before you solve it, why don’t you just fix it?
This is where the paywall appears. I wouldn’t normally give away the ending but I’m keen to save you the trouble of sending messages saying “grrr you can’t say that about Labour, you’ve made me really sad, if I wanted to read anti Labour stuff I’d pick up the Herald - stop it now”. Firstly, you’re all far too nice to stay stop it. Secondly, yeah fair, and thirdly I’m going to give away the ending.
In the end this writer comes to the realisation that Chippy had no choice, this was the best thing for him to do in the interests of the country. Truth be told Chippy would probably like to see policies like these even more than most of us. So yeah, enjoy the rest of your day, and don’t feel obliged to send me a message putting me right. The rest of you I’ll see on the other side of the paywall.
