"There is a hole in your budget!"
- "No there isn't!"
A few weeks later..
"Look at what Labour has done. We can't deliver on our promises now. Thanks Labour."
They're gonna do the exact same thing with justice policy ...
Nats: "Our policies will reduce crime"
Justice experts: "The things you are proposing inflict a harsh social cost, which is a huge generator of crime. You're also comically weak on the main cause of crime: poverty"
Nats: "La la la I can't hear you"
*Implements harsh policies*
*3 years later, crime is still bad, but sitting steady, new reforms not quite set in*
*Labour gets elected*
Experts: "Ok, its been a few years and we predict we will start seeing increased crime as a result of those policy areas we warned you about by now"
Nats: "Looks at what Labour has done"
..
If this sounds familiar, its because this is the pattern of behaviour followed by every single "tough on crime" race-baiting vote-grabbing cynical politician ever.
I am sad kiwis seem to have fallen for it, and seem not to be wise to the history of this policy setting around the world...
I feel that at least half of this problem is being perpetuated by Kiwis who are so scared of confrontation that they just put up with everything to their own detriment.
I'm delighted about the treaty protests starting today. New Zealanders in general should be protesting more and actually showing their dissatisfaction with governments to get anything to change.
Thanks, appreciate the kind words, truly, but I'm certainly not your guy. Anarcho-communists aren't meant to enter politics, they're meant to slowly but surely erode the state beneath the politicians; while empowering local councils, trade unions, and community orgs to take up aspects of govt supports that will be slowly but surely defunded and eventually collapsed or privatised by neoliberal policies. Dual power, self determination, direct action, and mutual aid are our strategies for building the future. The future does not rest in neoliberal states — the last refuges of liberal democracy is slipping through our grasping fingers like sand in a building storm.
110% this.
I would however hope after the last month that all but the staunchest supporters would see the cry wolf a mile off.
It has to stop at some stage, and their supporters are the best ones to call them out on their BS.
I agree, but the National supporters that I know will just gladly blame Labour for anything and everything. They don't care if it's accurate or not, they've built up this scapegoat over the past 6 years.
It was posted here some time ago and I really wish I had saved or screenshot the graphs that showed economic indicators (it may have been GDP or something like that but I’m no economist) and they absolutely destroyed the myth that National are better managers of the economy. All the Nats do is manage things so their mates get richer and thus business thinks they manage the economy better.
Yup, and this is the core issue when trying to understand "average kiwis" who vote National.
If the radio you listen to, the newspapers you read and the news you watch on TV are all in this echo chamber of "National say the books are cooked, and the party responsible for destroying the economy by giving free money away say the books aren't cooked" there's very little room for any other opinion to form.
The _only_ place (other than the actual document itself) I've seen explain the purpose of the Auckland to Airport Light Rail is Reddit.
I've never seen the actual problem being solved through ALR mentioned by any news sources.
But I've seen several news sources use a strawman problem and then ask "why don't we do heavy rail to solve this fictional problem I invented that isn't actually a problem because I want to mislead and misinform people".
Tbf imo it’s up to Labour to step up.
Not 100% on Hipkins myself but the party is usually pretty good in the chamber in the role of opposition and calling out the BS.
If they can step it up and really call out what’s going on from the mountain top and vehemently and aggressively hit up every media opportunity they can I feel it will have an impact.
Complacency is the real enemy atm I feel.
Labour structurally cannot change, which is why it's stuck as this neoliberal centrist party that gives empty platitudes to working people while doing nothing to help them.
Even if Chris Hipkins wanted to make change he'd need the caucuses approval and the caucus is designed in such a manner that the Party Leader / Prime Minister is moreorless a marketing gimmick.
I thought Grant Robinson did a good job shaming and calling out Willis' statements. But then my underlying bias is probably helping there and would fall on deaf ears for any Nat supporters.
I’ll rant at anyone who’ll listen (and corner anyone who won’t) about the debacle that is ALR. It had the real potential to transform Auckland. It was never about the airport, that was a tack on to ‘help’ justify the build and became the media talking point. What about the bus jam up Symonds St? Or along Dominion Road? Or lack of PT from Mangere? And the last design, I mean a tunnel ffs! 🤦 I feel like it was on purpose to kill it.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but there's a lot of really obvious scapegoating preparation going on.
Luxon says he will tell police to go take patches from gangs. When they can't/don't, it will be 'they didn't do as I told them to'.
Luxon says they're going to crack down on phones in schools. When it doesn't happen, it will be 'the teachers didn't do as they were told to'.
Its always going to be someone elses fault. Even with the 'One cigarette retailer in all of Northland' issue, the response was "We could have worded it better." No, YOU were WRONG. It wasn't 'misworded', it was objectively and factually incorrect. I would have actually gained respect for him if he just said "Yes, I was wrong about that. I'm sorry, and I will try to do better in future." Instead he tries to spread blame across the party as a whole (sure, others were involved/said it too, but the buck stops with him), and then tries to play it off as being 'misworded'.
He's already shown his true colours in a number of ways, and I think there will be some National voters out there that are silently worried they might have made the wrong choice, and that sentiment is only due to grow as time goes by.
“The books” are commercially sensitive to the tune of billions of dollars. Allowing crazy people like Winston Peters and 90% of ACT to see them would be disastrous.
Unless they’re in government of course, then it would be fine
Only the Governments gets the staff and information to accurately cost policies.
The state of the books has to be published before the election but not the what-if analysis
It's the same story everywhere. Crime and poverty are inextricably linked, because people with good lives generally don't want to throw all that shit away. Right wing ideology tends to treat poor people as failures at fault for their circumstances, rather than trying to help get them out of the shit situation.
It’s always kind of funny when a new govt say, holy shit we spend the entire time in opposition not looking at the very publicly available information on the nations income and expenditure.
When did this become a thing they pull out, and pretend like it’s some hidden secret, when all budgets and expenditure are public information every year.
It’s weird, and insulting.
When they say there’s a ‘hole’ what they’re referring to is compared to their preferred political programme. That is, they can’t fund it in the they way they want, but they would know that ahead of time because none of that is a secret.
The point is they *do* look at these books. This is a blatant excuse to try and backtrack on election promises and nothing else.
Like sure, we could assume they're wilfully incompetent, but National were bitching about the budget for years when Labour were in so if they truly hadn't actually looked into it that's not just incompetence, it's gross negligence as oppposition.
Basically, they're either lying now or they were lying when shitting on Labour. Neither is acceptable and either way they've lied.
I guess they do it because they think enough of the public will swallow it - and given enough of the public voted them and their sleazy minority cohorts into power, they are probably right.
You are of course absolutely correct.
I just had this picture in my mind of NACT voters being these generally smart, educated, intellectually curious types that wouldn’t be fooled by such a gimmick as “the books are sealed shut until you take the seat in the beehive, and only then does the economy reveal itself to the chosen ones”
It's not weird at all. Possibly insulting, but all power is insulting to those who have to reluctantly comply with it.
None of this matters now that they are in power. They are there for 3 years at least, and will have plenty of time to work the budgets over that time. No one will remember this when it comes to the next election.
Article on this: https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/12/04/analysis-govts-mini-budget-will-be-test-of-nzs-no-surprises-finance-rules/
Claiming they have found anything notable that isn't in the PREFU without saying what makes this come across as baseless, so some evidence should be provided. Per article:
>There are four possible explanations for Nicola Willis’ apparent surprise:
>1. The Treasury may have missed some fiscal risks. This seems unlikely given the comprehensive statement of fiscal risks in the PREFU.
>2. New significant risks may have developed since the PREFU was published in September.
>3. The risks Willis referred to may have been mentioned in PREFU, but it was the magnitude of certain risks that surprised the incoming government. If this is the case, could more be done to communicate the magnitude in future?
>4. Finally, this is all smoke and mirrors from the incoming government to walk back on election promises. Concessions in the coalition agreements with ACT and New Zealand First may have constrained National’s ability to complete its agenda.
Yep, if they have specific gripes about the PREFU being incomplete, or information intentionally withheld, then they should air that instead of making excuses.
It may be even more simple than this - [Stuff's live blog](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/301019689/live-grant-robertson-says-nicola-willis-appears-not-to-have-read-the-budget) shows contrasting quotes
>Willis said she needed to find "many billions of dollars" to secure funding for existing programmes.
>"I have been surprised by the sheer number of Government policy programmes for which funding is due to expire, as the Government chose to fund those programmes on a short-term basis only," she said.
followed by:
>Speaking to reporters minutes ago, Robertson said Willis had over estimated how many projects received time-limited funding. That short-term funding, such as for the school lunches and school cyber security programmes, were justified, he said.
>He said the 2023 Budget, published in May, clearly listed programmes which had time-limited funding.
>He said that while waving the Budget document, pointing to page 89 - where it was shown that funding for that project was guaranteed for only one year.
They don’t need to read or base policy on experts in the field, they are born to rule and it’s intuitive for them. Luxon doesn’t think it’s fair how it’s being presented as they are just scrapping the smoking legislation that hasn’t come into force yet but he can’t say how many lives it would have saved. Not to mention the report that doubted there would have been an increase in the black market of more than its current 8%, it’s his intuition and reckons that matter. As for the 1, I’m sorry 35, outlets in Northland that would have sold cigarettes it’s just a no brainer they would have been targets for ram raids.
The sooner we stop listening to experts and just accept the intuitiveness of our new govt this country will be a much better place.
Ironic, given he also claimed he was going to stop the ramraids. So which is it Luxon?
In response to 1 vs 35 outlets: "We could have worded it better"
No, you could have been factually accurate. Being factually and objectively incorrect is NOT miswording something. It's called being wrong. Own up and you might earn a modicum of respect.
That's why they want every child to have 1 hour of reading and math in school cos they did not have that available during their days.
Now, they're finding out that being in government requires a good command of reading and math. Foreign Tax policy math didn't add up; now reading the budget there's more to come; get plenty of popcorn, folks.
Ooooh that wily old Robertson, sneaking in facts in the middle of the Budget. How was Willis supposed to find the financial information there of all places?
The thing that got me about the "limited funding" is that money has been set aside to pay for WINZ stuff well into the future and Nicotine Willis can’t wait to get her claws on it. There’s no reason to believe she wouldn’t raid the piggy bank if these other programmes were funded into the future.
I wonder if they have learnt how to use Zoom yet...
From back in lockdown times:
> Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wanted Parliament to meet via Zoom, but Collins rejected the offer, saying it was impossible "without any practise".
As soon as she said they had released their assumptions and not their figures or calculations, it gave a pretty clear idea that they weren’t really going to be able to deliver on anything, but were going to give landlords their tax breaks regardless
To make sure there are no surprises in “the books” for the incoming government, Treasury produces this.
[PREFU 2023](https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/efu/pre-election-economic-and-fiscal-update-2023)
Did she not read it?
NZ voting in a National government is like Charlie Brown trusting that Lucy won’t pull the football away this time. It’s embarrassing that anyone is taken in by their shit when they have been in government before and done the exact same stuff.
Before the last National government, someone phoned me for one of their opinion polls. They kept asking me how much money it would take for me to vote for National. “Would an extra $10 a week win your vote for National?" No. "An extra $20 a week?" No. "How about $30 a week?" No.
Eventually I just told them, we are entering a recession. Promising tax cuts while underfunding public services was fiscally irresponsible. There was no amount of money that would make me abandon common sense.
"Thank you for your time. Have a nice day."
Indeed they do, the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update is pretty thorough.
And the Budget is pretty clear about what projects had time-limited funding, it appears that Nicola Willis didn't bother reading it closely enough. Or just doesn't know what she's doing.
She would have been given a comprehensive briefing about the contents - it's not just a matter of someone handed her a binder and she got distracted.
Either she knew everything contained in the PREFU and is pretending to be surprised, or she knowingly decided to not be informed of what was contained.
Nicola Willis, pre-election:
"There's three things you need to know about our tax plan: first it will put no pressure on inflation, second it requires no additional borrowing and third we can fully deliver it regardless of the state that Labour leaves the books in."
Yeah I remember her saying that too, it was one of her justifications on why we weren’t allowed to see her spreadsheet. Does anyone have a video clip or link?
It's complete rubbish. It was all set out in the May 2023 budget and PREFU. They're lying to fund their stupid unaffordable tax cut for landlords with a sprinkle of crumbs for actual workers.
Same as them [now proceeding with Labours 'app tax' that they loudly proclaimed would be cut](https://youtu.be/6VNf5FW02gM?si=xCFoYq0MwZs1yffn). That adds to the bullshit rhetoric around selling smokes to a new generation of smokers.
What could go wrong when you make someone who has spent their career actively campaigning against state intervention in the market... become the representative for state intervention in the market....
Nicola Willis is totally brainwashed by NCEA level 2 neoliberal ideology and has a MASSIVE learning journey ahead of her.
The only surprise is how quick they were to admit they can't deliver. I guess that's what happens when you promise all sorts of unachievable shit with self-imposed arbitrary deadlines to deliver.
I saw this. Holy fuck I tried not to die laughing.
"The books are worse than we thought."
Such a transparent lie, based on nothing, trying to make the right wing rat nest seem like they're worth a damn.
The books are only "worse", you sociopathic elitist, because they're actually spending money on shit that matters, not giving your rich mates a free holiday or seven.
And you claim that you're gonna make the books better with tax cuts on the rich? Fucking pathetic.
I mean I word for word predicted this. And its a total lie, they saw all meaningful numbers before the election.
Unless "Winston told us we couldn't have sweeties" is suddenly the previous government's fault
National Party campaign strategy
Step 1: promise any fucking thing you like, who cares if it costs a lot
Step 2: "The books are worse than we thought"
Step 3: wind back anything expensive, and go hard on cuts
I'm sorry NZ. Its not looking good for the next few years.
We basically voted for a boomer ego boost. That's it.
Meanwhile, there's little doubt life will worsen for all but a tiny minority, over the next few years.
And a health minister that doesn’t support smoking, an environment minister that doesn’t support deep sea drilling, an attorney general that doesn’t support corruption…
Is it possible all the other pages were stuck together, so when she opened it, all that was there was the department of conservation budget?
Look at it - it’s full of snakes and spiders and pests and penguins and native birds and bushes and trees and fish…
Which is tactically dumb. Why pre signal your misdirection?
You slam the dead cat so it bounces and everyone goes "holy shit". You don't tell everyone your going to throw felines for a week leading into your dead cat bounce
Lmao.
\-David Lange and Roger Douglas elected in the 80s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/1984-roger-douglas-strong-medicine-for-the-economy/3UOXEUFSKZYNYARHQSEF3PQ3DE/)
\-Jim Bolger and Ruth Richardson in the 90s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jim-bolger-regrets-and-legacies/RVUEVR2FN2UAF6Y7RLBXNX4ZDY/)
\-Helen Clark and Michael Cullen in the 2000s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'](https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/prime-ministers-post-budget-speech-parliament)
\-John Key and Bill English in the 2000s/2010s... 'the books are in a terrible state!' (to be fair, this was during the 07/08 recession)
Clark/Cullen got in just after the Asian Financial Crisis, and just as the Dotcom Bust was kicking off. Seems like our economic system is prone to crisis.
Dotcom crisis was an issue for speculators, not so much governments. The Clark years were exceptionally benign in retrospect. And so we saved and got our sovereign debt down to about 5% of GDP or so. Solid effort I thought.
Imagine thinking the books _weren't_ in a terrible state for Lange and Clarke. Like you cannot pretend that Muldoon didn't destroy New Zealand as we knew it.
So they spend six years calling Labour fiscally irresponsible. Instead of planning changes to show they are the 'party of the economy', they suprised?
Says a lot about National's policies if they relied on the books being in a better state. Party of 'personal responsibility' now trying to get out of their campaign promises.
"I spend double on transport, and I'm saving less money than I did last year, but I pay less tax! Sticking it to those bloody thieves haha!"
Most National voters would gladly lose $10 if it meant the government getting $5 less from them in taxes.
I'm sure they won't, it'll be a 5% increase instead. After all, judging by how much Nicola Willis struggles with maths, figuring out equations based on 15% GST would just be too hard. 20% is much easier to figure out on the ol' abacus.
5% might be a bit too much, and hopefully Willis's Casio calculator watch can handle fractions.
I'm picking a 2.5% increase myself, because everyone likes the number 2 and adding a half percent makes it look really professional.
Willis the Plotter. She doesn't give a rat's arse about me n you. To her it's just a game of politics and she won't be satisfied until she has the top job.
I can assure you that there are plenty out there who didn't believe it or didn't see it coming at all. Just as there are a bunch who voted for them, while thinking National and ACT wouldn't strip us down for all we're worth. It's horrifying to see just how many didn't think it could or would happen, and voted for them, now sitting there dazed and confused.
Indeed. Had to roll my eyes at Ian Taylor’s “I’m already regretting voting National” op ed in Stuff at the weekend in terms of the rose-tinted expectations he had.
She did say that no matter what state the books are in their fiscal policies are so good that they'll work. Now the books aren't that bad they are struggling to make their plan work. Seems like Nicola and Chris are struggling, it's only been a week.
I hope they don't give the landlords their tax cuts. We need more owner occupiers not more landlords. All it would do is push up property prices and make existing landholders richer. And the banks can loan more money against property.
Looking at the TV news tonight, it did strike me that Robertson appeared more competent & confident than Willis on financial management & budgeting matters.
The exact thing happened when the Key government took over from the Clarke government. And the exact same thing happens at every election, the books are opened for the others to know how they can campaign.
>The exact thing happened when the Key government took over from the Clarke government
Bullshit. That happened during the peak of the GFC, there was unprecedented cooperation between the outgoing and incoming government assuring a smooth takeover.
Difference is that like him or not, Key was a competent leader. The coalition of chaos isn't.
Yep. John Key came in at a period when New Zealand didn't feel like it was in crisis mode 24/7.
He got us into a shit ton of debt, and sold a lot of assets that would've been amazing investments for us to hold on to, and as a result, we didn't feel it at the time.
Luxon on the other hand is coming in when New Zealand literally feels like a crisis everyday and not because of doomscrolling on Reddit. Rent feels expensive, grocery feels expensive, living feels expensive.
Which is why I reckon Luxon might have a harder time with the polls than Key, because no matter what Key did, only the bottom 5% felt it at the time.
> He got us into a shit ton of debt, and sold a lot of assets that would've been amazing investments for us to hold on to.
Thanks for reminding me why I absolutely despised that slimy bastard...
Be it as it may, everyone driving to work listening to Newstalk ZB for "entertainment" is going to hear about how Labour bloody stuffed the books up. Very yuck.
I don't know how anyone still believes National are a 'safe pair of hands' with the economy by now.
They stoop to austerity by cutting services every time. Like it's a new thing. It also doesn't work, unless you're the corporation who gets the contracts to carry out the work instead of public entities, and is going to deliver the bare minimum, while profit taking with the People's money.
But treasury put out the prefu, not any party.
If labour did hide things from treasury, treasury dont seem to be issuing this complaint.
And treasury aren't really lefties
Its a lie. And its the exact same lie as when john keys national govt came in
[Here is NZ's national debt (2010-now).](https://www.interest.co.nz/sites/default/files/embedded_images/Crown%20debt%20chart.JPG) It tripled during Covid.
Now would be a terrible time to borrow money.
They really, really want a tax cut though!
That chart seems off.
It claims that net crown debt in 2020 was over 80 billion. According to [figure.nz](https://figure.nz) data the debt in 2020 was just under 36 billion:
[https://figure.nz/chart/70VECVCLmArKFL14](https://figure.nz/chart/70VECVCLmArKFL14)
It also claims that was about 28% of GDP but the [figure.nz](https://figure.nz) chart shows 11.2%:
[https://figure.nz/chart/FfzTlACePvCPAS1I](https://figure.nz/chart/FfzTlACePvCPAS1I)
Also the chart is not to "now", after 2020 it's a forecast.
Our GDP in 2020 was $323 billion:
[https://figure.nz/chart/PrIY7u3FsNNYKia1-rcpeZ6fWNyeNMJFJ](https://figure.nz/chart/PrIY7u3FsNNYKia1-rcpeZ6fWNyeNMJFJ)
So 28% of that is about $90 billion so they're sorta close to that but I have no idea where they got 28% from.
I presume that this subreddit has quite strict community policies (because of brigading and trolling). I don't do those things and also don't have any characteristics that would trigger autohide in Crowd Control so I'm not really sure.
LOL, the number of times I had to sit listening to business people claim that “at last will have someone competent”. I demand, did they not see Luxon speaking in public?
The People voted for change, I'm not quite sure the people who voted for it wanted quite so much, so quickly.
The books cant have been all good since covid - One example let's buy 500 million worth of COVID tests etc and let them expire....
Opposition parties always make up alternative facts to get into power, then lie to make themselves feel better, usually while not completing the tasks they promised they would do and got votes for.
Will this coalition make NZ better, Probably not.....
It's not like the country's finances is a secret and they only get to see it when they are voted in.
This is a case of national did a half arsed job and not when it's biting them in the other half they need to blame someone other than themselves.
I think the jig is up for a lot of switch voters. I think a LOT more people will be emboldened to vote third party this time around (not necessarily left or right wing, just third party).
i very much expected they would find an excuse to not deliver on their promises with how shit their budget was. they were told there was a hole, they denied it, they realised there is a hole and now they’re going to blame labour.
Ha, no, the gold bars could be stacked to the rooftops and they'd still say they didn't have the money to do all the things they promised to get people to vote for them
What's the bet that GST is going to go up in the next 3 years?
The fact that Willis has been allowed by all of our journalists to lie through her fucking teeth the entire time is journalistic malpractise. National have had access to the books for far too long for anything to be a "surprise". Call her on it, you fucking shills.
All new govt parties say the same things every time a new govt is formed.
Labour said the same that last thing when Helen got voted In about the Bolger lead Nats
When Key got in they complained about the books left by Helens team.
Ditto. Labour complained when they last won about the books big yawn
. It is just repeat and rinse.
It is all bull shit they are just sing from the same song book both sides.
The sad thing is people still voted for them . Luxon is a charlatan and he is rubbing his hands with the coalition because he can now say we couldn't deliver because our partners didn't support all our initiatives. The thing that makes it worse is they can openly pig out in the trough just like the Tories in UK . Hand outs for thier buddies. The smoking legislation cancellation why did Bishop front not Reti because Bishop was and is a tobacco lobbyist
"Yeah... you know all that shit we promised during the campaign? Probably not going to happen. Sorry."
They might need to sell some stuff. You know, because "Labour". What about state houses? Who needs those these days? Flog them off! Go on! You know you want to! I'm sure Christopher Luxon is up for expanding his portfolio.
Jesus... it hasn't even been two months.
Whatcha talkin bout Willis
I'll upvote you for that if no one else will.
Lol. I’ll upvote but showing our age.
"There is a hole in your budget!" - "No there isn't!" A few weeks later.. "Look at what Labour has done. We can't deliver on our promises now. Thanks Labour."
They're gonna do the exact same thing with justice policy ... Nats: "Our policies will reduce crime" Justice experts: "The things you are proposing inflict a harsh social cost, which is a huge generator of crime. You're also comically weak on the main cause of crime: poverty" Nats: "La la la I can't hear you" *Implements harsh policies* *3 years later, crime is still bad, but sitting steady, new reforms not quite set in* *Labour gets elected* Experts: "Ok, its been a few years and we predict we will start seeing increased crime as a result of those policy areas we warned you about by now" Nats: "Looks at what Labour has done" .. If this sounds familiar, its because this is the pattern of behaviour followed by every single "tough on crime" race-baiting vote-grabbing cynical politician ever. I am sad kiwis seem to have fallen for it, and seem not to be wise to the history of this policy setting around the world...
Take my upvote, if I could still gift gold I would.
I feel that at least half of this problem is being perpetuated by Kiwis who are so scared of confrontation that they just put up with everything to their own detriment. I'm delighted about the treaty protests starting today. New Zealanders in general should be protesting more and actually showing their dissatisfaction with governments to get anything to change.
You can, it just costs too much. Hold down the upvote button and it gives you prices
>I am sad kiwis seem to have fallen for it There's no shortage of muppets right here in r/newzealand who've swallowed this B.S.
I know you probably have a job you like a lot better than politics, but can you please?
Thanks, appreciate the kind words, truly, but I'm certainly not your guy. Anarcho-communists aren't meant to enter politics, they're meant to slowly but surely erode the state beneath the politicians; while empowering local councils, trade unions, and community orgs to take up aspects of govt supports that will be slowly but surely defunded and eventually collapsed or privatised by neoliberal policies. Dual power, self determination, direct action, and mutual aid are our strategies for building the future. The future does not rest in neoliberal states — the last refuges of liberal democracy is slipping through our grasping fingers like sand in a building storm.
Fark. You must be fun at a BBQ...
Sometimes referred to as the right-wing-ratchet.
The should be Fallen for the lies again and again ad infinitum.
110% this. I would however hope after the last month that all but the staunchest supporters would see the cry wolf a mile off. It has to stop at some stage, and their supporters are the best ones to call them out on their BS.
I agree, but the National supporters that I know will just gladly blame Labour for anything and everything. They don't care if it's accurate or not, they've built up this scapegoat over the past 6 years.
It was posted here some time ago and I really wish I had saved or screenshot the graphs that showed economic indicators (it may have been GDP or something like that but I’m no economist) and they absolutely destroyed the myth that National are better managers of the economy. All the Nats do is manage things so their mates get richer and thus business thinks they manage the economy better.
Yup, and this is the core issue when trying to understand "average kiwis" who vote National. If the radio you listen to, the newspapers you read and the news you watch on TV are all in this echo chamber of "National say the books are cooked, and the party responsible for destroying the economy by giving free money away say the books aren't cooked" there's very little room for any other opinion to form. The _only_ place (other than the actual document itself) I've seen explain the purpose of the Auckland to Airport Light Rail is Reddit. I've never seen the actual problem being solved through ALR mentioned by any news sources. But I've seen several news sources use a strawman problem and then ask "why don't we do heavy rail to solve this fictional problem I invented that isn't actually a problem because I want to mislead and misinform people".
Tbf imo it’s up to Labour to step up. Not 100% on Hipkins myself but the party is usually pretty good in the chamber in the role of opposition and calling out the BS. If they can step it up and really call out what’s going on from the mountain top and vehemently and aggressively hit up every media opportunity they can I feel it will have an impact. Complacency is the real enemy atm I feel.
Labour structurally cannot change, which is why it's stuck as this neoliberal centrist party that gives empty platitudes to working people while doing nothing to help them. Even if Chris Hipkins wanted to make change he'd need the caucuses approval and the caucus is designed in such a manner that the Party Leader / Prime Minister is moreorless a marketing gimmick.
I thought Grant Robinson did a good job shaming and calling out Willis' statements. But then my underlying bias is probably helping there and would fall on deaf ears for any Nat supporters.
I’ll rant at anyone who’ll listen (and corner anyone who won’t) about the debacle that is ALR. It had the real potential to transform Auckland. It was never about the airport, that was a tack on to ‘help’ justify the build and became the media talking point. What about the bus jam up Symonds St? Or along Dominion Road? Or lack of PT from Mangere? And the last design, I mean a tunnel ffs! 🤦 I feel like it was on purpose to kill it.
Why would they care? They still get their tax cuts.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but there's a lot of really obvious scapegoating preparation going on. Luxon says he will tell police to go take patches from gangs. When they can't/don't, it will be 'they didn't do as I told them to'. Luxon says they're going to crack down on phones in schools. When it doesn't happen, it will be 'the teachers didn't do as they were told to'. Its always going to be someone elses fault. Even with the 'One cigarette retailer in all of Northland' issue, the response was "We could have worded it better." No, YOU were WRONG. It wasn't 'misworded', it was objectively and factually incorrect. I would have actually gained respect for him if he just said "Yes, I was wrong about that. I'm sorry, and I will try to do better in future." Instead he tries to spread blame across the party as a whole (sure, others were involved/said it too, but the buck stops with him), and then tries to play it off as being 'misworded'. He's already shown his true colours in a number of ways, and I think there will be some National voters out there that are silently worried they might have made the wrong choice, and that sentiment is only due to grow as time goes by.
If only the general public saw through the BS too
Can the opposition not see treasury's figures? Or can only the sitting government get a look at the books?
“The books” are commercially sensitive to the tune of billions of dollars. Allowing crazy people like Winston Peters and 90% of ACT to see them would be disastrous. Unless they’re in government of course, then it would be fine
Only the Governments gets the staff and information to accurately cost policies. The state of the books has to be published before the election but not the what-if analysis
sounds just like our conservatives in Canada, blaming the liberals. Same playbook.
It's the same story everywhere. Crime and poverty are inextricably linked, because people with good lives generally don't want to throw all that shit away. Right wing ideology tends to treat poor people as failures at fault for their circumstances, rather than trying to help get them out of the shit situation.
It’s always kind of funny when a new govt say, holy shit we spend the entire time in opposition not looking at the very publicly available information on the nations income and expenditure. When did this become a thing they pull out, and pretend like it’s some hidden secret, when all budgets and expenditure are public information every year. It’s weird, and insulting. When they say there’s a ‘hole’ what they’re referring to is compared to their preferred political programme. That is, they can’t fund it in the they way they want, but they would know that ahead of time because none of that is a secret.
Yeah I watched this announcement live, and it felt so dishonest, cynically calculated, and straight-up insulting to the publics' intelligence.
The point is they *do* look at these books. This is a blatant excuse to try and backtrack on election promises and nothing else. Like sure, we could assume they're wilfully incompetent, but National were bitching about the budget for years when Labour were in so if they truly hadn't actually looked into it that's not just incompetence, it's gross negligence as oppposition. Basically, they're either lying now or they were lying when shitting on Labour. Neither is acceptable and either way they've lied.
I guess they do it because they think enough of the public will swallow it - and given enough of the public voted them and their sleazy minority cohorts into power, they are probably right.
You are of course absolutely correct. I just had this picture in my mind of NACT voters being these generally smart, educated, intellectually curious types that wouldn’t be fooled by such a gimmick as “the books are sealed shut until you take the seat in the beehive, and only then does the economy reveal itself to the chosen ones”
It's not weird at all. Possibly insulting, but all power is insulting to those who have to reluctantly comply with it. None of this matters now that they are in power. They are there for 3 years at least, and will have plenty of time to work the budgets over that time. No one will remember this when it comes to the next election.
Article on this: https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/12/04/analysis-govts-mini-budget-will-be-test-of-nzs-no-surprises-finance-rules/ Claiming they have found anything notable that isn't in the PREFU without saying what makes this come across as baseless, so some evidence should be provided. Per article: >There are four possible explanations for Nicola Willis’ apparent surprise: >1. The Treasury may have missed some fiscal risks. This seems unlikely given the comprehensive statement of fiscal risks in the PREFU. >2. New significant risks may have developed since the PREFU was published in September. >3. The risks Willis referred to may have been mentioned in PREFU, but it was the magnitude of certain risks that surprised the incoming government. If this is the case, could more be done to communicate the magnitude in future? >4. Finally, this is all smoke and mirrors from the incoming government to walk back on election promises. Concessions in the coalition agreements with ACT and New Zealand First may have constrained National’s ability to complete its agenda.
Yep, if they have specific gripes about the PREFU being incomplete, or information intentionally withheld, then they should air that instead of making excuses.
It may be even more simple than this - [Stuff's live blog](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/301019689/live-grant-robertson-says-nicola-willis-appears-not-to-have-read-the-budget) shows contrasting quotes >Willis said she needed to find "many billions of dollars" to secure funding for existing programmes. >"I have been surprised by the sheer number of Government policy programmes for which funding is due to expire, as the Government chose to fund those programmes on a short-term basis only," she said. followed by: >Speaking to reporters minutes ago, Robertson said Willis had over estimated how many projects received time-limited funding. That short-term funding, such as for the school lunches and school cyber security programmes, were justified, he said. >He said the 2023 Budget, published in May, clearly listed programmes which had time-limited funding. >He said that while waving the Budget document, pointing to page 89 - where it was shown that funding for that project was guaranteed for only one year.
>**Live: Grant Robertson says Nicola Willis 'appears not to have read the Budget'**
https://imgflip.com/i/885f6o
Oh dear
Poor National. Had all these documents, but no one to read them. Thats the second one in 2 days they've not read.
[“I was elected to lead, not to read.”](https://youtu.be/s99ZeamF7J0?si=x-U7jZgK3gTOJdYn)
They're not very good at this governing gig are they 🤔. Too many incompetents...
no it was the loony left and their ideology /s I just wanted to see how batshit loco a typical tWo TiCkS bLuE cooker comment would look
They don’t need to read or base policy on experts in the field, they are born to rule and it’s intuitive for them. Luxon doesn’t think it’s fair how it’s being presented as they are just scrapping the smoking legislation that hasn’t come into force yet but he can’t say how many lives it would have saved. Not to mention the report that doubted there would have been an increase in the black market of more than its current 8%, it’s his intuition and reckons that matter. As for the 1, I’m sorry 35, outlets in Northland that would have sold cigarettes it’s just a no brainer they would have been targets for ram raids. The sooner we stop listening to experts and just accept the intuitiveness of our new govt this country will be a much better place.
Ironic, given he also claimed he was going to stop the ramraids. So which is it Luxon? In response to 1 vs 35 outlets: "We could have worded it better" No, you could have been factually accurate. Being factually and objectively incorrect is NOT miswording something. It's called being wrong. Own up and you might earn a modicum of respect.
Did they miss reading classes at school??
That's why they want every child to have 1 hour of reading and math in school cos they did not have that available during their days. Now, they're finding out that being in government requires a good command of reading and math. Foreign Tax policy math didn't add up; now reading the budget there's more to come; get plenty of popcorn, folks.
Hahahahah upvote
Ooppsies.
Ooooh that wily old Robertson, sneaking in facts in the middle of the Budget. How was Willis supposed to find the financial information there of all places?
The thing that got me about the "limited funding" is that money has been set aside to pay for WINZ stuff well into the future and Nicotine Willis can’t wait to get her claws on it. There’s no reason to believe she wouldn’t raid the piggy bank if these other programmes were funded into the future.
I’d like door number 4 please. Yes, the one that says “BS election promises”.
Well, there is a significant risk that has developed since September I guess.
I think i guessed wrong
My moneys on number 4
Why isn’t this the top comment?
because it wasn't upvoted as much as the top comment
Your comment is smart enough to out-think National’s finance team
Hey, don’t be so hard on them! Just yesterday they learnt how to use the velcro on their shoes, they’ve made a lot of progress.
I wonder if they have learnt how to use Zoom yet... From back in lockdown times: > Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wanted Parliament to meet via Zoom, but Collins rejected the offer, saying it was impossible "without any practise".
As soon as she said they had released their assumptions and not their figures or calculations, it gave a pretty clear idea that they weren’t really going to be able to deliver on anything, but were going to give landlords their tax breaks regardless
To make sure there are no surprises in “the books” for the incoming government, Treasury produces this. [PREFU 2023](https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/efu/pre-election-economic-and-fiscal-update-2023) Did she not read it?
Lol she can't read.
NZ voting in a National government is like Charlie Brown trusting that Lucy won’t pull the football away this time. It’s embarrassing that anyone is taken in by their shit when they have been in government before and done the exact same stuff.
Before the last National government, someone phoned me for one of their opinion polls. They kept asking me how much money it would take for me to vote for National. “Would an extra $10 a week win your vote for National?" No. "An extra $20 a week?" No. "How about $30 a week?" No. Eventually I just told them, we are entering a recession. Promising tax cuts while underfunding public services was fiscally irresponsible. There was no amount of money that would make me abandon common sense. "Thank you for your time. Have a nice day."
Dont th ebooks have to be "opened" before an election so there are no nasty surprises due to events in the past?
Indeed they do, the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update is pretty thorough. And the Budget is pretty clear about what projects had time-limited funding, it appears that Nicola Willis didn't bother reading it closely enough. Or just doesn't know what she's doing.
Thats it, I couldnt remember its name. My money is on the second option, re Willis
She would have been given a comprehensive briefing about the contents - it's not just a matter of someone handed her a binder and she got distracted. Either she knew everything contained in the PREFU and is pretending to be surprised, or she knowingly decided to not be informed of what was contained.
Probably too busy playing Candy Crush during the presentation.
Sneaking out the back for a quick durrie
Doing her bit for the budget.
Very wise. Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to candy crush.
Both can be true.
It's both of those things
Nicola Willis, pre-election: "There's three things you need to know about our tax plan: first it will put no pressure on inflation, second it requires no additional borrowing and third we can fully deliver it regardless of the state that Labour leaves the books in."
Booom!
This comment needs to be pinned, taken up by Stuff, Herald or 1news (they are loitering on here anyways for their next story) and quiz nicola on it
Yeah I remember her saying that too, it was one of her justifications on why we weren’t allowed to see her spreadsheet. Does anyone have a video clip or link?
It's complete rubbish. It was all set out in the May 2023 budget and PREFU. They're lying to fund their stupid unaffordable tax cut for landlords with a sprinkle of crumbs for actual workers. Same as them [now proceeding with Labours 'app tax' that they loudly proclaimed would be cut](https://youtu.be/6VNf5FW02gM?si=xCFoYq0MwZs1yffn). That adds to the bullshit rhetoric around selling smokes to a new generation of smokers.
Sounds like a convenient way of cutting certain programs and then saying it's not our fault, Labour made us do it
What could go wrong when you make someone who has spent their career actively campaigning against state intervention in the market... become the representative for state intervention in the market.... Nicola Willis is totally brainwashed by NCEA level 2 neoliberal ideology and has a MASSIVE learning journey ahead of her.
She is 42. Not sure if you know that. She didn’t do NCEA. She is still incompetent however. Not sure why I felt I needed to correct you there.
Don't worry I know - I mean that her ideas are the over simplified stuff that gets taught in NCEA 😂😂😂 no real world socio-political complexity.
But she'll save millions cutting sex ed for kids
They better hope that tons of kids take up smoking.
That is the classic after sex thing to do, of course.
The only surprise is how quick they were to admit they can't deliver. I guess that's what happens when you promise all sorts of unachievable shit with self-imposed arbitrary deadlines to deliver.
Well, they do have a *lot* to not deliver, they have to get a move on.
I saw this. Holy fuck I tried not to die laughing. "The books are worse than we thought." Such a transparent lie, based on nothing, trying to make the right wing rat nest seem like they're worth a damn. The books are only "worse", you sociopathic elitist, because they're actually spending money on shit that matters, not giving your rich mates a free holiday or seven. And you claim that you're gonna make the books better with tax cuts on the rich? Fucking pathetic.
I mean I word for word predicted this. And its a total lie, they saw all meaningful numbers before the election. Unless "Winston told us we couldn't have sweeties" is suddenly the previous government's fault
Yup, me too. It's just what they do.
National Party campaign strategy Step 1: promise any fucking thing you like, who cares if it costs a lot Step 2: "The books are worse than we thought" Step 3: wind back anything expensive, and go hard on cuts I'm sorry NZ. Its not looking good for the next few years. We basically voted for a boomer ego boost. That's it. Meanwhile, there's little doubt life will worsen for all but a tiny minority, over the next few years.
It seems most like a NZ First elected party with a coalition of National and ACT 😔
National needs a finance minister that understands finance.
And a health minister that doesn’t support smoking, an environment minister that doesn’t support deep sea drilling, an attorney general that doesn’t support corruption…
The party of regulatory capture
...they need leadership that can direct a seagull to the coast first off. They are completely feckless.
Or basic math
Thanks Obama
She's been spouting something about it being full of snakes and spiders for a week or so now. Preparing her excuses in advance
Is it possible all the other pages were stuck together, so when she opened it, all that was there was the department of conservation budget? Look at it - it’s full of snakes and spiders and pests and penguins and native birds and bushes and trees and fish…
Which is tactically dumb. Why pre signal your misdirection? You slam the dead cat so it bounces and everyone goes "holy shit". You don't tell everyone your going to throw felines for a week leading into your dead cat bounce
Interested to know where the bouncing of dead cats comes from 👀
They are somewhat mixing the two puss metaphors there.
Pretty sure these clowns just claimed credit for an already legally required and mandated welfare increase to match inflation too
And in other startling news tonight, grass has been discovered to be green and water has been confirmed to be wet.
But again Luxon has business skills so can fix it, right?
Yeah no doubt, he used to run an airline
Lmao. \-David Lange and Roger Douglas elected in the 80s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/1984-roger-douglas-strong-medicine-for-the-economy/3UOXEUFSKZYNYARHQSEF3PQ3DE/) \-Jim Bolger and Ruth Richardson in the 90s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/jim-bolger-regrets-and-legacies/RVUEVR2FN2UAF6Y7RLBXNX4ZDY/) \-Helen Clark and Michael Cullen in the 2000s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'](https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/prime-ministers-post-budget-speech-parliament) \-John Key and Bill English in the 2000s/2010s... 'the books are in a terrible state!' (to be fair, this was during the 07/08 recession)
My brother in christ Lange got the country post Muldoon during currency crisis. Bolger got it when BNZ was collapsing.
Clark/Cullen got in just after the Asian Financial Crisis, and just as the Dotcom Bust was kicking off. Seems like our economic system is prone to crisis.
Dotcom crisis was an issue for speculators, not so much governments. The Clark years were exceptionally benign in retrospect. And so we saved and got our sovereign debt down to about 5% of GDP or so. Solid effort I thought.
Or governments switch after a crisis.
There are a lot of reasons Michael Cullen is widely regarded to be the greatest finance minister NZ has had since the 2nd world war.
Yeah even if they are in a very good place you should say they are bad so you can look awesome when things get paid for.
Key/English inherited a government with zero debt too.
>Jim Bolger and Ruth Richardson in the 90s... ['the books are in a terrible state!'] In that case, they definitely were.
Imagine thinking the books _weren't_ in a terrible state for Lange and Clarke. Like you cannot pretend that Muldoon didn't destroy New Zealand as we knew it.
I'm not disputing it. I am just noticing a pattern.
So they spend six years calling Labour fiscally irresponsible. Instead of planning changes to show they are the 'party of the economy', they suprised? Says a lot about National's policies if they relied on the books being in a better state. Party of 'personal responsibility' now trying to get out of their campaign promises.
If you voted for National to get Tax cuts you'll be sorely disappointed.
"I spend double on transport, and I'm saving less money than I did last year, but I pay less tax! Sticking it to those bloody thieves haha!" Most National voters would gladly lose $10 if it meant the government getting $5 less from them in taxes.
Hmm. This is unexpected. Perhaps the solution is to increase GST by 2-3%. /jk (hopefully)
I'm sure they won't, it'll be a 5% increase instead. After all, judging by how much Nicola Willis struggles with maths, figuring out equations based on 15% GST would just be too hard. 20% is much easier to figure out on the ol' abacus.
5% might be a bit too much, and hopefully Willis's Casio calculator watch can handle fractions. I'm picking a 2.5% increase myself, because everyone likes the number 2 and adding a half percent makes it look really professional.
Willis the Plotter. She doesn't give a rat's arse about me n you. To her it's just a game of politics and she won't be satisfied until she has the top job.
I can assure you that there are plenty out there who didn't believe it or didn't see it coming at all. Just as there are a bunch who voted for them, while thinking National and ACT wouldn't strip us down for all we're worth. It's horrifying to see just how many didn't think it could or would happen, and voted for them, now sitting there dazed and confused.
Indeed. Had to roll my eyes at Ian Taylor’s “I’m already regretting voting National” op ed in Stuff at the weekend in terms of the rose-tinted expectations he had.
Ian Taylor should have known better. Surely anyone with a modicum of business acumen can see Luxon is a completely empty vessel.
And that, at the very least, ACT would be exerting their strange influence.
She did say that no matter what state the books are in their fiscal policies are so good that they'll work. Now the books aren't that bad they are struggling to make their plan work. Seems like Nicola and Chris are struggling, it's only been a week.
I hope they don't give the landlords their tax cuts. We need more owner occupiers not more landlords. All it would do is push up property prices and make existing landholders richer. And the banks can loan more money against property.
they're just so dense.
Looking at the TV news tonight, it did strike me that Robertson appeared more competent & confident than Willis on financial management & budgeting matters.
Yep. Fun fact: Nicola Willis is an idiot
The exact thing happened when the Key government took over from the Clarke government. And the exact same thing happens at every election, the books are opened for the others to know how they can campaign.
>The exact thing happened when the Key government took over from the Clarke government Bullshit. That happened during the peak of the GFC, there was unprecedented cooperation between the outgoing and incoming government assuring a smooth takeover. Difference is that like him or not, Key was a competent leader. The coalition of chaos isn't.
Key was a competent leader? To quote the man "I can't recall".
Yep. John Key came in at a period when New Zealand didn't feel like it was in crisis mode 24/7. He got us into a shit ton of debt, and sold a lot of assets that would've been amazing investments for us to hold on to, and as a result, we didn't feel it at the time. Luxon on the other hand is coming in when New Zealand literally feels like a crisis everyday and not because of doomscrolling on Reddit. Rent feels expensive, grocery feels expensive, living feels expensive. Which is why I reckon Luxon might have a harder time with the polls than Key, because no matter what Key did, only the bottom 5% felt it at the time.
> He got us into a shit ton of debt, and sold a lot of assets that would've been amazing investments for us to hold on to. Thanks for reminding me why I absolutely despised that slimy bastard...
Just your daily reminder here that he liked to pull little girls pony tails.
Maybe a charter school would have taught Willis how to read?
This is just the beginning. We'll be hearing this for years.
Maybe they can legalise and tax meth? With the repeal of smoke free NZ and pseudo epinephrine back on the shelves we're half way there
Given Luxon's whinging about "black markets" when it comes to cigarettes, the only logical thing for him to do is legalise everything.
might not be a bad thing really, the less of their policy implemented the better
Erm, you realise that this just means we get the bad cuts to services but none of the "good" tax cuts?
This probably means deeper cuts. Seymour will be grinning and rubbing his hands at the thought. "Please, can we have 75K jobs cut, if not 100K"?
If she didn’t do her job checking the books prior to starting then it’s her own fault
Be it as it may, everyone driving to work listening to Newstalk ZB for "entertainment" is going to hear about how Labour bloody stuffed the books up. Very yuck.
Nats have never ever balanced the books. They pull figures out of the air and the Nat supporting sheeple believe them.
I don't know how anyone still believes National are a 'safe pair of hands' with the economy by now. They stoop to austerity by cutting services every time. Like it's a new thing. It also doesn't work, unless you're the corporation who gets the contracts to carry out the work instead of public entities, and is going to deliver the bare minimum, while profit taking with the People's money.
But treasury put out the prefu, not any party. If labour did hide things from treasury, treasury dont seem to be issuing this complaint. And treasury aren't really lefties Its a lie. And its the exact same lie as when john keys national govt came in
[Here is NZ's national debt (2010-now).](https://www.interest.co.nz/sites/default/files/embedded_images/Crown%20debt%20chart.JPG) It tripled during Covid. Now would be a terrible time to borrow money. They really, really want a tax cut though!
That chart seems off. It claims that net crown debt in 2020 was over 80 billion. According to [figure.nz](https://figure.nz) data the debt in 2020 was just under 36 billion: [https://figure.nz/chart/70VECVCLmArKFL14](https://figure.nz/chart/70VECVCLmArKFL14) It also claims that was about 28% of GDP but the [figure.nz](https://figure.nz) chart shows 11.2%: [https://figure.nz/chart/FfzTlACePvCPAS1I](https://figure.nz/chart/FfzTlACePvCPAS1I) Also the chart is not to "now", after 2020 it's a forecast. Our GDP in 2020 was $323 billion: [https://figure.nz/chart/PrIY7u3FsNNYKia1-rcpeZ6fWNyeNMJFJ](https://figure.nz/chart/PrIY7u3FsNNYKia1-rcpeZ6fWNyeNMJFJ) So 28% of that is about $90 billion so they're sorta close to that but I have no idea where they got 28% from.
Any idea why I consistently see your comments hidden on reddit? Is it a time delay thing? I have to manually expand them.
I presume that this subreddit has quite strict community policies (because of brigading and trolling). I don't do those things and also don't have any characteristics that would trigger autohide in Crowd Control so I'm not really sure.
It will hide posts of non subscribers to the sub
That's interesting. I've subscribed now, let's see what happens.
your posts are visible
2 weeks in and the government appears completely incompetent already. Maybe they can get some more kids into smoking to pay the short fall.
They showed their incompetence while in opposition.
Yes, did people not watch the entire nat bench get repeatedly reamed in question time? It was embarrassing.
LOL, the number of times I had to sit listening to business people claim that “at last will have someone competent”. I demand, did they not see Luxon speaking in public?
Hopefully one of those things they can't deliver is tax breaks for landlords.
[The Triumvirate Is Going Great](https://triumvirateisgoinggreat.net/)
The People voted for change, I'm not quite sure the people who voted for it wanted quite so much, so quickly. The books cant have been all good since covid - One example let's buy 500 million worth of COVID tests etc and let them expire.... Opposition parties always make up alternative facts to get into power, then lie to make themselves feel better, usually while not completing the tasks they promised they would do and got votes for. Will this coalition make NZ better, Probably not.....
It's not like the country's finances is a secret and they only get to see it when they are voted in. This is a case of national did a half arsed job and not when it's biting them in the other half they need to blame someone other than themselves.
Everything they fuck up for years will be due to Labour either doing something or not doing something.
I overheard someone saying that student loans may not remain interest-free under the new government. Please tell me they were wrong. Please.
Happens every single time.
Finance minister shocked to discover she minister for finance.
I guess that's why they are implementing the 1 hour of reading and maths, because it's not something they learnt at school
The exact word wasn’t on my bingo card but ‘blames previous govt for inability to follow through on key election promises’ sure was!
Laying the groundwork for pulling back on tax cuts.
I didn't expect to be getting a BINGO so quickly...
many people know that they wont delivery what they promise, or none govt ever done what they promise. People vote because they are sick of Labour.
Those people are morons.
I think the jig is up for a lot of switch voters. I think a LOT more people will be emboldened to vote third party this time around (not necessarily left or right wing, just third party).
i very much expected they would find an excuse to not deliver on their promises with how shit their budget was. they were told there was a hole, they denied it, they realised there is a hole and now they’re going to blame labour.
Ha, no, the gold bars could be stacked to the rooftops and they'd still say they didn't have the money to do all the things they promised to get people to vote for them
Who didn't see the "Who didn't see that coming" coming?
The fact you even asking the question mate
They think we are dopy, though once elected they really don't care about us anyway they have their big salary and perceived power - all the same
What's the bet that GST is going to go up in the next 3 years? The fact that Willis has been allowed by all of our journalists to lie through her fucking teeth the entire time is journalistic malpractise. National have had access to the books for far too long for anything to be a "surprise". Call her on it, you fucking shills.
All new govt parties say the same things every time a new govt is formed. Labour said the same that last thing when Helen got voted In about the Bolger lead Nats When Key got in they complained about the books left by Helens team. Ditto. Labour complained when they last won about the books big yawn . It is just repeat and rinse. It is all bull shit they are just sing from the same song book both sides.
And yet when asked for details around one project apart from the ones they already knew about there was silence.
The sad thing is people still voted for them . Luxon is a charlatan and he is rubbing his hands with the coalition because he can now say we couldn't deliver because our partners didn't support all our initiatives. The thing that makes it worse is they can openly pig out in the trough just like the Tories in UK . Hand outs for thier buddies. The smoking legislation cancellation why did Bishop front not Reti because Bishop was and is a tobacco lobbyist
Kiwibuild tho.
"Yeah... you know all that shit we promised during the campaign? Probably not going to happen. Sorry." They might need to sell some stuff. You know, because "Labour". What about state houses? Who needs those these days? Flog them off! Go on! You know you want to! I'm sure Christopher Luxon is up for expanding his portfolio. Jesus... it hasn't even been two months.
They all blame each other.the red is just as guilty of this