Dear John,

What a humiliating week for Labour!

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Revenue Minister David Parker were caught red-handed, about to close their fingers around your retirement savings.

It’s hard to imagine something with the world’s dullest title - the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2022-23, Platform Economy, and Remedial Matters) Bill – suddenly becoming one of the biggest political stories of the year. Remember this tax on retirement savings was going to generate $225 million per year and would have wiped $103 billion off the value of Kiwis retirement savings.

However, in the short time between the bill being introduced to Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, National getting its petition up in opposition to it late that night, and the Government doing a spectacular u-turn less than an hour before Question Time on Wednesday, this was political fireworks that came wrapped in brown paper. I hope you’ve all had a chance to see Nicola Willis’s passionate speech on it to the House, and she and I talking about it on Facebook Live.

When the fireworks fade, all New Zealanders should be left with a strong sense of unease and some big takeaways.

1. This Labour Government can’t manage money, so they come after yours. This Government is utterly addicted to wasteful spending that doesn’t deliver improved outcomes for Kiwis. So, Labour is dreaming up whole new tax grabs – like the KiwiSaver Tax - to fleece Kiwis of more of their hard-earned cash to fund Labour’s addiction to spending. We may have caught them out on the KiwiSaver tax, but they’ll keep dreaming up new ones.
2. National is the party of low tax. Labour is the party of high tax. National wants you to keep more of your own money in your own pocket, and to save it or spend it as you choose, rather than as Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson choose.
3. Labour is not the transparent and open government it promised to be. In fact, it is the opposite. Labour never campaigned on introducing any new taxes at the last election and Jacinda Ardern famously said, just in May after the attempted Capital Gains Tax, “we’re not doing any work, on any additional tax policy”. And yet, they tried to sneak in the KiwiSaver tax.
4. Labour can’t manage New Zealand, or even themselves. What was going on behind the scenes in the Labour Cabinet that approved the KiwiSaver tax? Did ministers genuinely believe it was a great idea to hit Kiwis’ retirement savings, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis? Do ministers read their Cabinet papers?

Let’s hope the Labour Government now continues the u-turns and removes its other stealth taxes too.

Cost-of-Living Payments

The Auditor-General this week told the Government its performance on the Cost of Living Payment wasn’t good enough. This is the $350 payment, being made in three instalments, that was devised in haste and has wrongly gone to French backpackers, investment bankers in London, and dead people. Remember, Inland Revenue warned the Government that IRD did not have sufficient capacity to deliver this but, for its own political reasons, the Government made IRD do it anyway. What a shambles and an utter disregard for hard earned taxpayer money. For those of you who like the nitty gritty, you can read the Auditor-General’s letter to IRD here.

Labour would rather do this rinky-dink one-off Cost-of-Living Payment, but inflation adjusting tax thresholds would be a more enduring solution and would allow someone on the median wage of $57,000 to retain $800 more a year of their own earnings. It would also mean a couple on New Zealand superannuation would receive an extra by $550 a year, too.

Ram Raids

Last weekend I visited a poor shop owner in Penrose whose premises have been hit three times by ram raiders. This is an epidemic to which the Government is turning a blind eye. National’s Justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith says the prosecution of young people has halved since Labour has been in government. That’s appalling, but not unexpected from a Government that’s soft on crime. You can read Paul’s thoughts here.

Coalition Partners

You’ll recall that last week I said the single best way to change the government next year would be to party vote National and that, rather than talking about potential coalition deals or whatever, that would be my focus until the election.

That remains my view. However, this week I’ve ruled out working with Brian Tamaki as I explained to Mike Hosking here.

I was out and about meeting some amazing people in the Port Waikato electorate yesterday. Here are some pics….

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet and talk to students at Parkside School in Pukekohe

Visiting the team at NZ Steel in Glenbrook

Wishing you all a happy weekend and, to all the Dads out there, I hope Fathers’ Day treats you well!

Christopher