The Premium Debate: Use the Budget to give the team of five million a break, subscriber says

Finance Minister Grant Robertson. Photo / Warren Buckland

Opinion

It’s nearly Budget time in an election year. The Finance Minister looks out the Beehive windows and sees darkening economic skies. The country’s economy is becalmed. There is every chance it is already in recession, ahead of a predicted slowdown for the rest of the world. The Reserve Bank is continuing to lift interest rates in an attempt to cut off persistent inflation. The balance of payments has blown out to record levels, a sure sign the country is living beyond its means. The Government has lifted its spending dramatically over recent years, but it doesn’t seem to be improving public services. The public is getting restless as their after-tax incomes are squeezed. The ratings agencies are just starting to get nervous. That picture would be familiar to current Finance Minister Grant Robertson. It’s actually a description of New Zealand’s economic outlook in 2008, just before Robertson’s Labour predecessor Michael Cullen handed down what proved to be his final Budget (Opinion, Tuesday).

Read the full story: Steven Joyce: Don’t need a weatherman to feel these winds.

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There are five million things to do in this Budget. Give the team of five million a break. Though not possible, this Budget needs to be about every person and not Labour using taxpayers’ money to get re-elected.

Grant P

Where the Labour/Government support comes from is beyond me. They have failed at everything, spent like there is no tomorrow with nothing to show for it and divided the country racially - and still, people support them. They are still the same bunch they were four months ago, just with a different face at the helm.

Peter D

Fiscal prudence is not in this Government’s vocabulary. They have no idea. They need to get out, and let someone that knows a wee bit about bookkeeping have a go.

Jill G

In my view, when Cullen was Finance Minister, the mantra was to tax based on envy. I believe Robertson’s approach is less direct but equally damaging. The bloating of the Wellington public sector and interference in business only add to the problem.

Chris D

In response to Chris D: I’m so sick of this envy nonsense. It’s not envy, it’s fairness. Fact.

Steve M

Labour’s attempts to deflect from an intention to bring in a capital gains [tax] in their next term, if successful, is laughable.

David G

The outlook for New Zealand is beyond grim. The irrelevant little island at the bottom of the world basically just sunk. It flooded itself. Drowned by incompetence and ideological dreamers straight from windy Wellington.

Mark C

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