'Talk to the hand'

Photo / Mark Mitchell

I'm beginning to lose faith in John Key's willingness to truly reform this economy so his grandkids and my grandkids have an economic future that will keep them (and us) here.

I've listened for the last year to John Key's comments about wanting to catch up with Australia by 2025 and about making changes to improve productivity and real wages so that we remain an attractive destination for our very mobile labour force. But will he actually do anything? Will he take some tough decisions and show some leadership?

All we've heard so far is what John Key won't do. He won't put up the retirement age from 65, despite everyone in officialdom saying the current threshold for entry into our universal pension scheme cannot be sustained. He won't change the pension from its current 66% of the average way, again despite everyone saying it's unsustainable. He won't entertain even the idea of a capital gains tax.

And now he won't allow the cabinet to think about a flat tax, despite National saying in its election campaign that it aspired to flat (corporate/income/trust) tax rate of 30%.

Maybe John Key is playing a clever long game where he plays everything down until the very moment he announces it, possibly before the next election. Or somehow he has left himself enough wiggle room to announce reforms that haven't already been ruled out.

Right now, he seems like the Prime Minister who is always saying: 'Talk to the hand'.

This is a pity. It stifles the sort of debate we need to have and it suggests he is a follower, not a leader.

I hope I'm wrong.

 

Bernard Hickey

 

 

photo / Mark Mitchell