NZ Centre for Political Research

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*I was disgusted when I read that all the extra money they will recieve by increasing G.S.T. is going to be wasted on their useless E.T.S. Ray

*Unless the government cut spending there is no boubt that we are headed for the same fate as Greece. If the spending were cut to even the 1005 rate of GDP per capita, tax could have been cut to 20% and GST would remain at 12.5%. Until we have a politician who has the guts to make some big decisions we will never catch aus. John

*Poor apart from tax cuts which were overdue from last year. However all the cuts will disappear into the black hole of the ETS scam & GST costs. Part-Maori need not have gotten anymore after everything they were given in April! Disgraceful govt.overspending from figures out today. Monica

*This country does NOT have to BORROW money - it should be PRINTING its own, as we once used to do...then as the country picks up, the surplus is gathered in, thus causing NO inflation!! Where are the brains in this beehive? or are the usual WRECKERS in charge as they are all over the white world??? Bara

*Rubbish would be a better word. The tax cuts are a move in the right direction, but there should be a cut in government spending. The ETS is nothing but a con and the rise in GST is just more theft by this bunch of left wing losers. A budget for growth is the Libertarianz alternate. GST to zero. The first $50,000 tax free thereafter 20% flat tax, reducing. Of course there would be massive cuts in Government expenditure. Michael

*The budget has made a start at addressing the imbalance & unfairness of the tax regime. I have just finished writing to the PM to congratulate him, but have also criticised the ETS which takes away most of the gains - certainly for the average taxpayer. I have posed a number of questions which I hope will get him thinking. We shall see! Dave

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*The tax changes were a step in the right direction but for many are negated by the increase in GST. Coupled with cost to the household of implementing the controversial ETS-in the face of much international opinion if you please- the rank & file have little to look forward to. Sorry, no overall cigar!! Ian

*Maybe a small step in the right direction. However I am still concerned about Government spending, going on with the ETS and endless payments to Maori. Peter

*I am against the increase in GST as the reduction in income tx will not compensate to the beneficiaries or lower paid workers The idea is noble but negation in implementation. Rawiri

*They seem to be oblivious of our huge debt and increasing costs of servicing it. This is no time to give tax cuts. Vincent

*Exactly what I expected from this bunch of lunatic losers. They wouldn't know what day it is unless it is a day they give a bit more to the Maoris. Chris

*A really promising effort ruined by ETS. Peter

*The budget leads to a split in the society of NZ. The rich geting rich and the poor getting poorer. Judy

*Absolutely last with the ETS on top of the other so-called cuts. Geoff

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*The drive towards a production based economy is a good start as is the focus on saving rather than spending.
I support the gst increase even if it could be offset by cancelling or suspending the ETS. You already have a hearty response to this issue but your point is well made. The removal of the ability to claim depreciation on buildings will only cost others, not the owners as they will factor it into the rent rather than as a tax deduction. Either way the margin which the landlord needs to meet is mortgage payments and maintenance will simply change the source from the taxpayer to the rent payer.
However the increase in government spending indicates that ACT are not having much if any influence when it comes to nunber crunching. A budget heading in the right direction for me if a bit too slowly. Mike

*Disappointing and a lot less than what the country needs...they lack the cajones to really set the country on the right track. Ronmac

*Good in some respects, but does nopt address many others, such as welfare dependency, excessive public spending
and once again - the ETS is all about money! Ron

*They were not brave enough to attack Gvt spending. The rest is window dressing. Keith

*It seems apparent that John Key and his cohorts have forgotten why they were voted in (as has Labout still got its head in the sand as they cannot understand why they lost)If we can get out of this mess it will be a miracle, with Greece in debt, Spain and Portugal not far behind can see N Z going down the same track. Roll on another Party that has some guts to say enough is enough the people cannot be expected to continually use up any savings made or find their own golden Money tree. Marylin

*GST up is bad news and when added to the ETS hikes in fuel & energy costs (and of course everything else because of that)the Tax cuts are pretty meaningless. Jeanette

*National’s budget fails on the grounds that it has done nothing to reduce the huge bureaucracy created over the past five decades.

Yes it is satisfactory as a general rule of thumb, BUT failure to grasp the nettle of the Confidence Trick of Global Warming, together with the craven attitude into Maori subsidies to retain power, shows a lack of intestinal fortitude.

National’s credit is running on battery, and will be exhausted by the time the next election comes around. Then the Maori Party will embrace their true home the Labour Party or demand more from National.

M.M.P has become our greatest disease, the diagnosis is AID(S) in its true form.

“Out with you! You have sat too long in this House, for God’s sake GO.” Apologies for an amended Quotation. Brian

*ETS is a false religion. We might as well poor that money down the drain...such a waste. Max

*The ETS will be a huge problem for the people when its cost start to bite. Bill

*The ETS is complete waste of tax payers money. Government spending must come down. Terry

*Scrap ETS etc, reduce govt spending, leave GST at 12%. David

*Superanuants are going to be so far behind the eight ball. Phil

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*I believe it is a poor bdget because it does nothing to cut government spending. On the face of it, the tax cuts for all seem to be a good thing, even though those on fixed incomes and minimum wages will not have much to show for it. However, since the government seems to be determined to go ahead with the ETS, once this kicks in, I do believe we are all going to be worse off because of the rising prices. Dorothy

*Not bad for a group that doesn't listen. Rick

*How can we rate it anyway but poor when there is an increase in Govt expenditure and the introduction of an ETS. Robyn

*I did NOT vote for an increase in Government Expenditure. The ETS is daylight robbery. To whom is the monet that is going to be stolen from taxpayers going to be handed over? John

*Though rated well amongst most New Zealanders. The budget was being compared in peoples' minds to the multitude of ‘do little’ smoke and mirror budgets of years past. Given that as a benchmark, no wonder there was an 80% approval rating given. The fact that the underlying problem with all social democracies in the West, that of massive growth in the state bureaucracies at a time when tax takes teeter on the brink of demographic decline, bodes ill for NZ.
No NZ government seems capable of taking on the public service. Instead they cower in the Beehive, whilst the mandarins of The Terrace lord it over us all as they have for decades. Immune from the realities of New Zealand's economic outlook, they continue to build their personal empires as edifices to their own inflated egos.
Unless and until some future PM and Finance Minister finds the intestinal fortitude to face down these bureaucratic spendthrift monsters, this nation will be condemned to follow Europe's nations into the economic maul. Given the fact that the average tax take for 3/4 of New Zealanders is 17.5%, what's stopping Bill English instituting a flat rate of tax of 15%, to match the recent GST increase? With a 25% company tax rate falling by a 1% factor annually as the economy reboots and booms, as has been shown time and again, when low tax regimes are instituted, ending up with a company rate also of 15%. Only the accounting and legal industries would suffer! Bloated tax and compliance bureaucracies would be immediately redundant. and the economy would boom, just in time to attract all that global investment cash, sloshing around the world, looking for a safe haven in the economic storm that hovers on the World's economic horizon.
So will this ever happen in NZ? Of course not, as we have too many vested interests in the status quo, even when that status quo is bound to end in economic tragedy eventually. The socialism - lite that has infected NZ for the past century will fail as all socialist plans do . The old shibboleth. that Socialism is condemned to fail because it eventually runs out of other peoples' money, holds still. As long as NZ has tweedle dum / tweedle dee socialism - lite revolving door governments, as the status quo, it will eventually fail. Nothing is surer. Only penury will jolt the NZ public out of their century long addiction to the false promises social economic solutions based on current policies, constrained as they are by self serving public organizational structures and public service egos bloated on public money, that underpin the current NZ polity. Peter

*The budget took care of some areas well, but the ETS should go and GST need not have been raised because there are plenty areas where spending could have been cut instead. Colleen

*We should forget the idea about catching up with Australia, which is impossible, and look after our own back yard. A good start would be to scrap the emissions trading scheme, and stop wasting so much money "enhancing" the Maori partnership. Alan

*Bill English led National almost to third party status once. Given his head he will do it again. George

*So many opportunities to produce a really fine budget were missed, yet at the same time so much more cash is being spent. For this reason I rate this budget as poor. In report card terms, Bill English could definitely do better. Perhaps he just does not understand the fundamentals.

Here's the crux of the matter for those who are preoccupied with the notion of having New Zealand catch up with Australia. I say that this is impossible in any time scale. The fundamentals of our economies are so different. Australia's economy is largely propped up by the Western Australian mining boom. I am talking about tens of billions of dollars of contribution to the Australian economy. The minerals are on or in the ground, close enough to the surface to be mined by open cast methods and not subject to degradation. That is, the minerals are there. There will be there tomorrow, next week, next year, in 50 years or 500 years. The cost of removal of the overburden is readily calculable and the state's infrastructure is geared around extraction and transport of these minerals with major input from private companies and contractors. In the case of iron ore, the highest bearing ore approaches close to 70% purity and high margins are made. In the case of precious metals such as gold, the world's best practices are being employed to extract the gold and refine it on site to greater than 99% purity.

The untapped reserves will likely underpin the Australian economy for hundreds of years.

Now contrast the position here in New Zealand. Like it or not, our economy is largely dependant on primary produce, not mineral extraction. Farmers grow grass for animal feed, other crops or trees. The first two are susceptible to the vagaries of weather. Disease, world pricing, small scale costs of operation and transport to markets all have significant pressures on profitability. Trees are susceptible disease. Fire is a major concern. The crop cycle is long, at 25 plus years for most varieties.

New Zealand can never catch Australia! That is not where our opportunity lies.

To suggest that we can is misleading the public with a medium term goal which will only ever culminate in disappoinment.

Is that so difficult to grasp?

We New Zealanders need to focus on doing better at what we already do well. We need to live within our incomes, borrow less and save more.

I say, wake up New Zealand and get a grip on reality. Yes we have lignite in Southland which could be used to generate electricity, but will our mineral resources ever compare with those of Australia? In a word, never! Peter

*One cannot rate as poor a budget which takes some, albeit minimal, positive action. Alcohol is the major cause of social disruption in this country. Much as I enjoy a beer or glass of wine I believe grog should be treated as are cigarettes i.e 3 10% tax increases over progressive years. Lowering consumption over time should limit a wide range of social expenditure. Peter

*Despite its shortfalls it was still full of good intentions and offered some hope. Rocky

*It's a good budget as far as it goes ... but Govt spending must come down and New Zealand must stop paying layabouts to lay about. There is no dole for people who genuinely lose their jobs ... it is only available for lay abouts with no assets. As for the DPB ... it must be stopped. No new DPB recipients under 25 years old unless their husbands have been killed or there is some really, really good reason why a mother is suddenly unsupported!!! Dianna

*Welfare dependency and Government spending are the two biggest money gobblers and this gutless govt has in fact stated that they are INCREASING spending when every effort should be made to diminish the constant waste of our money. Getting rid of wasteful and useless departments like womens affairs, childrens affairs, Maori and Pacific affairs would be a good start. Carolyn

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*It does nothing to bring local and regional government costs back to a level that can be paid through fair taxes. The GST increase will hurt all the working people, as prices will a compound increase not a single % increase. For this budget to work, it totally depends on NZ being able to generate more income = more tax. Rural is hurting, i.e. 60-70% GDP is at threat, and you cannot have a healthy economy when 4% of the population generates 60-70% of GDP. Donald

*Wasteage still needs attention. Tony

*It had more to do with adding money to Government coffers and retaining votes than solving the financial woes of NZ. Shirley

*It has pointed us in a direction away from destination Greece by virtue of its focus on controlling debt and incentivising the earnings sector. However it should have taken this opportunity to radically address the issues of tax alignment of business top personal and trust rates and given greater incentive to the earnings sector. All of that could have been financed by cutting out the extraordinary waste that still remains in the many areas of inefficient or ineffective Government expenditure. Greg

*Should have been bigger cuts on public spending. Graham

*The whole ETS scheme was noticably absent from the budget. The creation of this new industry will provide the government with more than enough money to keep GST for instance at 12.5%, but then, who pays for all the 'officials' that 'need' to be involved to administer the scam, sorry scheme. This will cost NZ's small and medium businesses the competitive edge so desperately needed in these tough economic times, which I do not see easing in the foreseeable future. Many more businesses will have to close the doors because of rising costs and - as in agriculture and horticulture - no ability to pass these costs on to the consumers. That seems to be the priviledge of the middle man, called retailer. Jacoba

*I fear the incorporation of ETS increases. Alastair

*It is nice to get something as a tax cut after all those years of Labour stripping so-called high income earners of any incentive to work harder - even if the GST rise and all the other ETS-related increases will take most of it back again. Gary

*I should say better than nothing, but it is shocking. Typical of politicians and liars alike. Walter

*The tax changes, and the adjustments affecting Real Estate, are all positive for the economy. The endless giving to Maori in all sorts of ways, and appearing yet again in this Budget, are strong negatives. As is the constant growth in the State services. Hugh

*They still dont get it. Govt spending has always been the problem. Our present govt are like the polish communists in the 1980's - content to tinker with the problem in the hope the problems will go away. It can be termed "Potempkin govt" a huge pretence guaranteed to fail at some future date. Lech

*Your rating system does not go low enough. Keith

*Cynical disregard for the lowest income. Leo

*Govt spending out of control! Bruce

*Good start. Roll on the rest of the tax reform. Terry

*There is still no mention of the wealthy who pay no tax by living 6 months overseas and 6 months in NZ. If ETS was scrapped GST could be abolished or left as it is. Mary

*Although the move to reduce company and top personal tax rates is a move in the right direction, the fundamental problem with the NZ economy is that the government is doing things which should be left to the market. The government needs to get out of people's lives and leave people's money in their own pockets so they can decide for themselves what to spend it on. The stubborn, illogical commitment to the ETS is like a ball and chain. How can the economy take off with that attached to it? Key and Smith are playing to the international (UN) gallery. Do they think if they play this game they'll get kudos (and a fancy, well-paid UN job) like Helen Clark? Duncan

*National are held back from large Govt expenditure reforms to hold onto political gain. Tim

*When is there going to be any curtailment of spending on "Treaty Issues" let alone examining spending on the hundreds of "Qwangos" still operating? Maurice

*A year ago the author of this budget did not know right from wrong regarding his housing allowance. John

*I would have been happy with the status quo if they had cancelled the ETS. Steve

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*Lower income tax. Fantastic! Peter

*Generally good, giving a tax break with one hand so it can be grabbed back with the other (carbon tax) is a bit rich, sort of shoot's down the message Key is trying to give that he is intersted in getting industry moving, I still think He is going for a coalition with Labour next election. John

*The ETS and GST increase are huge mistakes. Bruce

*Too little, too late. It is clear that National has fully bought into the one-worlder's "vision" for NZ: heavily "policed" by the eco-Nazis & socialist PC terrorists, on the road to a backwards tribal oligarchy run by the wickedly-racist Maoris. If only there were either someone with an army available for a coup, or a better place to emigrate to. Welcome to the last days of planet earth... Peter

*If it was not for the ETS coming in I would have rated it higher, as always with National they get things half right and never go far enough. Chris

*Think they should be looking at the first $16000 being tax free like Aussie. It is the poor who spend all their money and keep economies going not the rich who spend it overseas. Allan

*I believe the reason for the support of ets is a protection of our green image and how this may effect tourism. Desmond

*If they'd scrapped the ETS I would have given it a 'satisfactory' but as it is, for most people, any tax breaks will be eaten up by the ETS before the tax changes even come into force. I agree with you Muriel if they'd scrapped the ETS they wouldn't have found it necessary to increase GST. Margaret

*Our government needs to reduce wasteful government spending and social welfare spending. And to cancel all plans to pass the farcical ETS. Robin

*Govt spending must be cut and I can't understand why they are insisting on bringing in the ETS Is it just a way of gaining more tax? Helen

*Taxes partially discretionally by taxing spending not income therefore facilitating increased saving saving. Allister

*We cannot have a successful nation (unless we find lots of oil or minerals) with the level of waste the Government seems to enjoy. Moreover, the Government must make a great deal more effort to heal all of the racial divisions created by this and the former Government. Lets get real. Peter

*Ho Hum with the next 12 months likely to very difficult for many households. Sandra

*John Key is not fit to be a Prime Minister. Lorna

*I'd love to give it a good rating but knowing the ETS is coming .... it somewhat nullifies any positives. Andy

*Not perfect by any means but the best I have seen in 25 years. Mark

*It's a real pity Key and his RED-coats don't have the BOLLOCKS he claimed to have before he got elected. Because Key hasn't the BOLLOCKS for the job, we find the likes of BENEFICIARY-Bennett has him running scared that the DPB is not high enough. Dear John, How I hate to write.... (we wish). Mark

*If you and I can see the flaws in this Nat. Govt. and it's modus operandi, who is paying them off to turn a blind eye? Grahame

*We are still borrowing printed money to pay the bills. Thats what Greece has been doing. Sam

*Scrap the ETS!! Mike

*As usual don't we look good with tax cuts but as always by the end of the year we are all going to be a whole lot worse off get two in one hand thee out the other. Russell

This week's poll asks:

How do you rate National’s second budget - good, satisfactory, or poor?

*I think its just the first part of a bigger picture that will include a compulsory super scheme and partial sale of state owned assets (but in the form of shares restricted to NZ residents only). All good things! JD

*I think the tax cuts are very good but they would be better if the top rate was aligned at 28%. Also I don't believe we should have had the GST rise - all they had to do was cut spending and then National would find that it can live within its means and tax rises are unnecessary. Sue

*I find it outrageous that National is increasing government spending more than Labour did, yet they spent nine years moaning about it. It just shows that you can't belive anything politicians say! Jim

*All in all this is a very good start on the tax reform path. I just hope they continue on next year and don't think that the job is done. You just have to look at some of those low flat taxes in OECD countries to see where we should be heading. Now that the main tax rate is 17.5%, aligning the top rate and company tax to that would be pretty good!!! Tony

*On the economic front, National haven't done a bad job. Its when it comes to race issues that I believe they have totally lost the plot. Brian