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The Haps
It’s all on. On Tuesday Parliament will see a lengthy debate on the Privilege Committee’s report into Te Pāti Māori’s haka hijinks, with the Committee recommending one and three-week suspensions for the offenders. Thursday will see the Coalition Government’s second Budget, pulling back spending so that the rest of the economy has more much-needed room to breathe. The week will also see the Regulatory Standards Bill debated. By making politicians justify incursions on your property rights, it will make New Zealand a wealthier, freer society.
An unexpected ACT Party Achievement
In opposition ACT was the only Party to consistently put out a fully-costed alternative Budget. Now the Greens have copycatted (except for the numbers). About 30 pages of policy propositions with numbers at the back, a nearly identical format. They’re even going on tour to promote it. We hope lots of people hear what they are saying.
Why is this an achievement? ACT’s transparent format shows the Greens’ full madness. If you’re reading Free Press you’re probably either a journalist, or someone who won’t be voting Green. If you are still considering it, please watch Chlöe Swarbrick’s interview with Jack Tame on her alternative Budget here.
If you haven’t clicked above and you’re still with us, here’s what you missed. Chlöe Swarbrick’s basic message is that New Zealand is a capitalist hellscape people are fleeing by the planeload. However, she says, another $22 billion a year of tax and spend would build the just society we all deserve.
They’ve already sold us this one. In 2017, the Government’s Budget was $76 billion. In 2023, when they left office, it was $138 billion. If an extra $52 billion didn’t solve poverty last time, $22 billion won’t fix it this time. Sure, there was inflation and population growth in that period. Yes a pandemic came and went. None of that comes close to explaining an extra $52 billion every year.
It’s more likely the Greens would simply waste the money like last time, but that’s not what their budget is about. It’s all about envy. Their basic message that your problems are cause by others’ success is toxic to the soul. It says you’re helpless unless Chlöe helps you. There’s even a tax on private jets, as if anyone with a private jet hasn’t already paid multiple times more tax than they’ll ever get back.
There’ll be an inheritance tax. If you passed a $5 million family farm to your kids you’d pay about $1.3 million inheritance tax. If you put it in trust you’d pay 1.5 per cent of the value, or $75,000 a year for that ‘crime.’ They claim only three per cent would pay more tax, as if it’s OK to pick on people if they’re small in number.
If you wonder why we’re spending so much time on Green madness this week, it’s because the Labour Party hasn’t said what it thinks of all this. Throw in the outright racism of Te Pāti Māori that would also be essential to any Labour coalition, and you can see why winning the next election is starting to occupy our mind.
Wake up. The nightmare is over. This week the Coalition Government will bring down a sensible budget with the Greens safely cauterised in opposition. The Budget will shrink Government spending as a share of the economy. It will increase spending by about one per cent while inflation runs at 2.5 and population growth runs at a per cent.
The Budget will use savings, such as from the Pay Equity changes, to invest in what matters. There will be policies that promote investment, jobs and growth for higher wages. The spirit is that we may be in a hole, but we’re not helpless. We’re capable of climbing out and all we need is for the Government to take less and use the resources we give it more efficiently.
That is the effect of the ACT Party on a Government. Crazy ideas left on the cutting room floor, big savings made possible. Smart investments in things like school attendance that have a pay off. Increasingly, the next 18 months will be about growing ACT’s influence at the next election so we can go faster instead of Venezuelan style lunacy promoted by the Greens.
