Act has publicly released its proposal to decimate the state should it have a say in the next Government. Its Real Change Alternative Budget may be wet dream inducing for Ayn Rand acolytes but for the rest of us the proposals should instill a deep sense of dread.
Departments for the chop under its proposal would include:
Other cuts would include:
But that would not be all. Act proposes that public service numbers are returned to 2017 levels. Every single new public servant associated with the Covid response would face the chop. The cuts would not include Police, front-line health and education workers, or the Defence Force. But if you are in a back room and your job is to make the job of front line workers easier then you are potentially gone.
Privatisation of public assets on a grand scale would happen with National’s mixed ownership model being applied to a number of organisations.
There would be tax cuts, major tax cuts. Tax brackets would be flattened. If you earned below $70,000 you would pay 17.5% on your earnings. Each dollar above $70,000 would be taxed at 28%.
This change would result in tax increases for many taxpayers, particularly the poorest. Currently if you earn $14,000 or less you pay tax at 10.5%.
To get round this particularly egregious proposal Act have come up with the Low and Middle Income Tax Offset to make sure those on lower incomes would not be stung by the changes. They could have achieved this by having a third tax bracket matching the existing bracket. One wonders why they needed an offset to achieve this.
For the rich it would be party time. Not only would the top two tax brackets go but the bright line test for land would be removed and interest deductibility for residential property investment returned.
So how has National responded to its junior partner providing some pretty terrifying stakes in the ground?
Christopher Luxon was interviewed this morning on Morning Report and was asked about Act’s budget and the suggestion that David Seymour should be a future Minister of Finance. To these suggestions he managed to come up with such banalities as:
We’re 18 months out from an election. Any talk of a coalition or possible coalition arrangements is very, very premature and very, very hypothetical.”
And
From my perspective … the bottom line is I’m interested in making sure that this Budget actually delivers for the squeezed middle, that’s what I’m focused on.”
And can someone tell me what this mean?
All I’m going to say is we’re going to be focused on what we’re focused on in the National Party right now.
Act could be acting as a stalking horse for the right and laying out potential policies that its rich backers want to see introduced. The problem is that National has some of the same backers.
This proposal would decimate New Zealand and provides even more reason for progressives to support their parties. Act is clearly wanting to reduce the state down to the size where it can be drowned in a bath tub.
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