Well the signals are going out to say the future tax cuts may not eventuate. The reason being given is the economic down turn. There seems some sort of irony in this as the tax cuts were one of the major planks put forward in the last election campaign. Another inferred justification is that the initial tax cuts which were meant to be the first of three are not stimulating the economy as it was thought they would. People have not rushed out and spent their extra money preferring to save the money or use it to service debt. I also think that many have used the money simple to help bridge the ever widening gap between the out goings and the income received.
The Race For Government Hots Up
With the National party as much as 20 points a head of the government for many months, there was both relief and concern depending on your political allegiances. Tonight two different polls have been released one puts the government 3 points behind and the other shows a gap of six points. What has changed? Well I believe the public are a lot more astute than the politicians often think. Members of the opposition have spoken out of turn, been less than forthcoming, over promised and under delivered. The race is well and truly on now and it looks as if it will be the minor parties who will be called on to form a coalition that will be the key to the make up of the new government.
People in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Stones
The leader of the opposition has been less than forthcoming over his ownership of Tranz Rail shares..
“(A One News interview once again had Mr Key faltering when he was asked about the shares, initially saying his family owned 25,000-50,000 shares, then shifting to “sometimes 50,000, sometimes 100,000” then finally “yeah, sorry, it was 100,000 in total”.Asked why he had only ever admitted to the 30,000 shares owned by the family trust, Mr Key said: “No one’s ever asked me the number I owned.”)”
As we move towards the election we need to consider……Is the polish starting to come off? Are the cracks starting to show?
NZ economy insulated from the worst effects of the global financial crisis
Due to the care and attention the government has paid the economy over the last nine years it would seem that New Zealand is in better shape to weather the global economic storm than it could well have been.
Just imagine if the opposition had been in power, NZ would be in the same position we have been in during every other recession, the government would have owed billions to overseas banks and our exposure would be so much worse.
With an election now scheduled for the 8th of November it will be critical that people look long and hard at how they use their vote.
General Election
The fever builds towards the next general election. Each day the news papers are featuring those with political aspirations and what the have or have not done. With an MMP system those who want to gain power are very keen to get the party vote and are keen to discredit those who would take it away from them. To be honest it is getting a bit hard to take and there is a long way to go yet ….months and months. The leader of the opposition had his photo in the main news paper this morning and a story about being one of the richest people in NZ. It won’t make me vote for him. Wel at least it looks kie it might be a decent day. Hope so….