Maori Party/Nat breakup over GST?

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, February 11th, 2010 - 40 comments
Categories: maori party, national/act government, tax - Tags:

Yesterday, Rahui Katene said the Maori Party could walk away from National if they didn’t adequately compensate low and middle income people for increasing GST.

Do you think it will happen?

No way. Do you Tariana Turia is going to give up her Crown car and the other baubles of office?

Probably end up voting in favour of increasing GST. They’ll pull the old Pita Sharples ‘whoops‘ excuse:

“Sometimes we pass a bill and then we forget we passed it and talk against it. I have to ring the Prime Minister and say, ‘Whoops’. Or he rings me.”

40 comments on “Maori Party/Nat breakup over GST? ”

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  1. Lanthanide 1
    11 February 2010 at 10:14 am

    She was on National radio this morning saying it was Maori Party policy to introduce a financial transaction tax of 1%, which could then do-away with all GST and personal income tax completely.

    Sounds a bit hare-brained.

    • prism 1.1
      11 February 2010 at 10:35 am

      Don’t know that one can diss this 1% financial tax as harebrained. Isn’t this named the Tobin tax and been discussed for some time? It’s even more efficient at collecting tax than GST and from the whole population but financiers etc don’t seem to like it. I wonder why?

      • IrishBill 1.1.1
        11 February 2010 at 10:39 am

        A Tobin tax a bloody good idea but would be better set at 2%. The size of NZ’s financial sector would also make it a hard tax to avoid if implemented properly.

      • toad 1.1.2
        11 February 2010 at 11:10 am

        A Tobin tax is a tax on currency transactions. It is a great idea, but would need an international treaty including all the big economies to implement.

        A financial transaction tax is something quite different. It, presumably, attempts to tax all financial transactions done in New Zealand. It would be highly regressive and wouldn’t raise much revenue because the big players would avoid it by doing most of their financial transations overseas.

        • IrishBill 1.1.2.1
          11 February 2010 at 11:14 am

          You’re kidding? The Maori party want a financial transaction tax? I assumed Lanth was talking about a tobin tax.

          • Lanthanide 1.1.2.1.1
            11 February 2010 at 12:35 pm

            What she said was “financial transaction tax”. Whether she really meant Tobin tax, I’m not sure.

            As for why I think this is hare-brained: to think that a 1% tax (with all other current major taxes repealed) could run the country seems unlikely on the face of it. And if it really was that simple, the tax working group surely would have recommended it; what better way to cut government costs but by making most of IRD redundant?

        • Bright Red 1.1.2.2
          11 February 2010 at 11:30 am

          the terms are used interchangeably nowadays. Tobin proposed a tax on currency transactions but when I see people say Tobin tax now I assume they’re refering to tax on all financial transactions (over a certain value)
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax

      • Draco T Bastard 1.1.3
        11 February 2010 at 11:57 am

        A financial transaction tax is subtly different from a Tobin Tax. The Tobin Tax is pretty much limited to currency conversions while a financial transaction tax could be applied to every single transaction (this is impracticable BTW).

        I do think that Labour are going to have to start looking at getting rid of GST completely and replacing it with one or the other or a combination.

  2. Pat 2
    11 February 2010 at 10:32 am

    Maori Party won’t walk away from Whanau Ora and Foreshore/Seabed repeal.

  3. Neil 3
    11 February 2010 at 10:38 am

    “Do you Tariana Turia is going to give up her Crown car and the other baubles of office?”

    how many other politicians have resigned from parliament and stood for re-election on a point of principle? I’d say she has more courage of her conivictions than say anonymous bloggers hurling insults.

    by the way, have Labour promised to cut GST back to 12.5 or even lower?

    • Lanthanide 3.1
      11 February 2010 at 12:56 pm

      In terms of fiddling with GST by lowering it, I think the best thing to do would be to put specific exclusions on some areas, while keeping the rest at 12.5% (or retain 15%).

      There’s the oft-mentioned food GST change which is said to be ‘too hard’.

      But other areas that are much less hard: remove GST from local council rates. This will directly benefit those on low wages and pensioners, as well as give councils much needed breathing room. Currently every time they raise the rates to cover costs they have to tack on another 12.5%, which makes their decisions really hard.

      There’s the potential to lower GST on electricity, although they would probably encourage wasteful consumption which wouldn’t be a great idea. Scrap or lower GST on doctor and dentist visits.

  4. gobsmacked 4
    11 February 2010 at 10:42 am

    That quote from Sharples perfectly illustrates how far we’ve crossed over into Bizarro World.

    This is a government Minister. A party leader.

    Imagine this news. You have to imagine it, because we’ve never heard it, or anything close:

    “Today Jim Anderton (Winston Peters, Rodney Hide, Peter Dunne, whoever) admitted that he didn’t know what the government’s position was, what his own party policy was, what he had agreed to, or what he was doing at all, basically. The press gallery laughed and said “Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter. Coz you is so funny and cuddly.”

    Pita Sharples is a government Minister. A party leader. A joke.

    “Relaxed” has turned into farce.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 4.1
      11 February 2010 at 11:32 am

      Sharples was also going on how he is so much better off on a Ministers salary. There is a new house for his family ( not the leased Government one).

      No way will they sit on the opposition benches again.

  5. Deus ex Machina 5
    11 February 2010 at 10:43 am

    The Maori Party will walk away from National as soon as Labour looks like winning the next election.

  6. Red Rosa 6
    11 February 2010 at 10:43 am

    Whanau Ora? The Nats are scared silly that something like the ‘hip-hop trip’ (but in megabucks) will arrive within weeks of the cash getting handed over. So there won;t be much cash handed over.

    Foreshore and Seabed? Getting freehold title? Gotta be joking. JK will slide a form of words through that confirms the status quo. Didn’t they hear him the other day about expectations?

    Enjoy the ride in the back of the limo, guys. Might not last.

  7. gingercrush 7
    11 February 2010 at 10:58 am

    I think National really wants the GST raise to go ahead. Both Key and English said across-the-board tax cuts. Whanau-Ora and the Foreshore and Seabed isn’t going to be enough. The simple thing would be to increase the tax-free threshold. Something that the Maori Party could support and if I’m not mistake was part of their policy going into the 2008 election. I believe the Greens could technically support the tax-free threshold at least and even Labour would have some trouble if that is what National chose to do.

    We’ll see of course. I certainly think a tax-free threshold is much smarter than merely reducing tax rates at the lower levels.

    • sk 7.1
      11 February 2010 at 11:07 am

      a GST of 15% and higher tax-free thresholds makes perfect sense. Could also split top rate into 35% sub 150k and 38% above. But they are not thinking. It makes no sense to increase tax on lower income groups in a recession. They are the ones that spend. NACT’s approach is just a bit whacky .. . .particularly as they promised not to raise GST. What’s the rush?

      • Lanthanide 7.1.1
        11 February 2010 at 12:38 pm

        Yeah, I would like to see tax rates and thresholds of something like:
        Up to $6,000: Free
        Up to $25,000: 15%
        Up to $45,000: 30%
        Up to $70,000: 33%
        Up to $150,000: 35%
        Upwards: 38%

        I haven’t done any real numbers on this, just pulled these figures off the top of my head, but seems like it would be fairer all around, although obviously more graduated than anything we’ve had in NZ for a long time (Oz has like 6-7 bands, though).

  8. the sprout 8
    11 February 2010 at 11:02 am

    Could be a very useful face-saving excuse to exit the partnership prior to the Maori Party’s humiliation over F&S Act.

  9. marty mars 9
    11 February 2010 at 11:03 am

    you are a shocker zzzzzz – with the gnats on the ropes, as evidenced by the range and type of comments on this site and the msm you decide this is a good time to deflect the attack onto the maori party – epic fail dude

  10. Bill 10
    11 February 2010 at 11:05 am

    Maori Party/Nat breakup over Getting Special Treats?

    I don’t think so.

  11. m 11
    11 February 2010 at 11:23 am

    Small parties need to have two modes of operating in order to survive. Their leadership need to be perceived as rebels against the establishment (whether personality based or ideological) in order to win support ahead of the other main parties. They also must act as reconcilers in order to have any clout over policy or legislation (as minor parties by definition are not going to be ruling the country alone). The trick is to balance out these models of rebel and reconciler (Peters did very well for a while) in order to ensure voters still want to vote for you but other parties also still want to work with you. Look at Parties that have only operated as reconcilers (Dunne, Anderton) they cease to be relevant to voters. Before the next election the Maori party is going to need to do some mad rebelling if it wants it’s support base to see them as any different from National (Miller, R. Minor Party leadership Model)

  12. randal 12
    11 February 2010 at 12:40 pm

    hah it is not the gst bill that will finallly derail the maori party but pitas vainglorious attempt to railroad a national name change and write the new anthem himself.
    what more can be said, hahahahahahahahaha.

  13. BLiP 13
    11 February 2010 at 1:22 pm

    Did you see that last paragraph in the Herald story:

    “Actually, I got so used to the increase in salary I told the Prime Minister you’d better be good because if the other guys get in, I’ll go sell myself over there to keep my ministerial salary. I just got a new house, man I can’t afford it on a backbencher salary so I’m up for grabs.’

    Many a true word spoken in jest.

    • Lanthanide 13.1
      11 February 2010 at 2:08 pm

      He really is clueless if he thinks it is sensible to go around saying those sorts of things in public without raising eyebrows. You’d never catch one of the National ministers even hinting that they thoroughly enjoy their salary and couldn’t bear to be a backbencher again.

  14. Trevor Mallard 14
    11 February 2010 at 5:46 pm

    Is it Pita’s bread that is holding the Maori Party in there? This is from Monday’s NZ Herald.

    The Maori Party hoped to be a part of any government, regardless of its leanings. Then he confessed: “Actually, I got so used to the increase in salary I told the Prime Minister you’d better be good because if the other guys get in, I’ll go sell myself over there to keep my ministerial salary. I just got a new house, man – I can’t afford it on a backbencher salary so I’m up for grabs.”

    Hat tip Chippie

  16. grumpy 16
    11 February 2010 at 5:57 pm

    Could be good positioning for National to split with the Maori Party and go it alone with ACT.

    Get in quick and abolish the Maori seats – rule for life!

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