"I SAY, WHERE ARE THE GALLUS GALLUS DOMESTICA?"

"Life moves on. I leave National in great heart and with momentum for the first time in a while. I think Chris Luxon will make a great Prime Minister."

Said ex National leader and MP  Simon Bridges today making it a record even for him in making  two false assertions in the one short statement.

Bridges had very little to offer as leader and thank Robert's god he didn't become Prime Minister so his opinion is neither here nor there.

Luxon is no better and probably worse. He reminds me of a wobbly blancmange whose blandness will appeal obviously to the die-in-the-wool National voters but also, like Mr Insipid, John Key will likely appeal to older and uncertain Labour voters.

"We should be letting people keep their hard earned money, not forcing them to hand more of it over to Grant Robertson to spend. So here's my commitment to you. When I become Prime Minister, I'll reverse Labour's tax grab, National will repeal each of these tax increases implemented by Labour."
 - Chris Luxon in his state of the nation speech.

 

Yeah right - I like what Gordon Campbell said about this:

To regard Luxon as a credible champion of those struggling with the rising costs of food and rent requires a bit of stretch. Luxon and the party he leads have consistently opposed raising the minimum wage and making any significant changes to benefit levels. They have also opposed fair pay agreements. In short, National – and Luxon – have opposed any policy changes likely to help low income earners cope with the rising cost of living.

More to the point, the tax bracket changes that Luxon mooted in his State of The Union speech would vastly favour the people who are feeling the least amount of pain from the rising cost of living. Those earning $40,000 would earn $2 a week extra. Those earning over $180,000 would benefit by at least $8,000 a year. (See other details in footnote below.)

In brief, the top 3% of earners and the country’s 120,000 landlords would be the big winners from (a) the proposed changes to the tax brackets and from (b) the scrapping of Labour’s ban on landlords’ ability to claim interest deductions on their rental properties.

As an added bonus to landlords, National also proposes to reduce the “bright line” test from 10 years to two years, thereby making it easier for people engaged in the speculative turnover of rental properties to avoid tax.

                   - Gordon Campbell - WEREWOLF 14 March 2022



Gordon Campbell has said some pretty insightful things on Luxon and is worth following.

Yes, we are truly blessed to have the love child of David Cameron and John Key as our next prospective leader. Since we know God is on his advisory team, I’d keep an eye on Luxon making greater use of those “faith based organisations” for his welfare policy delivery. (It worked in the 19th century after all.) Otherwise if elected, a Luxon-led National government appears to be readying itself to deliver another same old package of tax cuts, public service cutbacks, punitive law and order policies and all the other budget-balancing, austerity measures that failed New Zealand previously.

It feels uneasily like we’re watching a hologram of a political leader, one pre-programmed to play only the Solid Gold National Party hits of yesteryear. Even Luxon’s commitment yesterday to raise the age of pension eligibility from 65 to 67 was an old idea exhumed from some mildewed policy crypt. It’s going to be hard though, to find all that fabled wasteful government spending that he’ll need to uncover if he’s going to fund what he also claims is work left undone in education and health. Maybe, as in days gone by, he needs to announce a Razor Gang. Because that worked so well the last time that National tried to take a razor to public health.

          - Gordon Campbell 2 February 2022

We should watch closely what's going on here and not let mealy-mouthed foxes run off with our chickens.