Tax Lies, Perverse Pay Packets and Social Media Meltdowns

Well, there are some very interesting topics in the sort of the takiwa of New Zealand and political conversation Phil seems to be coalescing around tax which will perhaps benefit some and not others there was also a conversation this week which really interested me and I have to be honest which revolted me and that was the CEO zero getting a whopping 30 million dollar remuneration packet so it would maybe we'll talk about that for a minute particularly while the stop was tanking.

And of course, there's been the usual back and forth on social media bans.

So there's a lot to talk about tonight, as I say, within the boundaries of New Zealand.

And you will have been up to play on the current tax positions, making some very definitive statements early on.

And it seems to me it's not really helping Labour at this stage of the election season.

What do you think?

Well, I don't really think it's helping anyone.

You know, what I hate about election campaigns is that election campaigns are like wars.

The first casualty is always the truth.

So we've had a massive campaign led by Simeon Brown alleging that Labour was introducing 9 to 11 new taxes.

Now, I saw Stuff did a fact check on that and said it's simply not true.

Labour is talking about one tax, and that's the capital gains tax, which has been well canvassed, but not much focused on by National, which leads me to think that maybe They don't believe that that's a big election winner for them to focus on.

But they're obviously creating the sense that, you know, Labour is spending big and taxing big.

But it reminds me, you know, some of the dishonesty of that reminds me a little of the Muldoon claim in campaign in 1975, you know, with the Hanna-Barbara Cossacks dancing across the screen and communism taking over New Zealand because Kirk had set up the superannuation fund.

And I guess Labour hasn't covered itself with glory in the sense that it's... it's jumped on the bandwagon and said that it's not going to adjust the fuel excise tax, which could be billions of dollars that will be foregone.

And the cost of that is, how do you do the maintenance and the repair work on roads? So you've got this frenzy of the two major parties promising not to tax, even when There are cases that there needs to be increases in tax that you could argue for, such as health.

And then you've got the minor parties jumping in with, well, the minor parties on the left jumping in with promises or undertakings that they want these taxes, which will, of course, never come about because there's no support broader than the small number of people that support those parties themselves.

What's your thoughts on it?

Well, I'm always careful to avoid definitive statements.

And I recall, I'll tell you a story now.

In 1988, I was very keen to go to a political convention in America.

And I ended up going to New Orleans, believe it or not, as an observer in the American Samoan delegation when G.H.W. Bush was crowned to follow the late, great Ronald Reagan.

And you may recall that was the convention where the normally sensible and sober G.H.W., nominated that dimwit Dan Quayle as his running mate, and everyone was going, Dan who? But you may also recall that's where he stood up and gave a definitive statement, which has gone down in history since that convention, and it was, read my lips, no more taxes.

And all the delegates yelled and screamed and were delighted.

And then two years later, he had to raise taxes.