2009 Budget - A Wasted Opportunity

National takes the Soft Option

Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English, like all people who lack the guts to do what's right, have taken the soft option. They have decided to borrow and hope.

During Cullen's term, total Government spending increased in real terms by over $5,500 for every person in New Zealand. That’s how much could have been left in your pocket every year had he not ramped up Government spending. For a family of four that’s $400 a week.

And what did you get for Cullen's spending?

Some of it was wasted on the bureaucratic health, education, and welfare empires. Some of it was taken off you and then used to turn most New Zealand families into welfare beneficiaries under the Working for Families programme.

Bill English has continued in this vein, increasing health spending by over a billion dollars – an increase of around 6 percent.

And what happened to Bill English’s line by line review, which was meant to cut Government waste?

Well, he managed to find $301 million. Let’s put that in context. $301 million is just 0.4 percent of total Government spending. Was that seriously all he was able to find after Cullen increased Government spending by $18 billion?

National missed an opportunity to cut Government waste by scrapping some Government departments completely. The Families Commission, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Charities Commission are obvious candidates for immediate abolition.

If it wanted a vision, National could have looked towards a future of low taxes, personal responsibility, personal freedom, and prosperity. Instead, it has chosen high taxes, Government ownership and delivery of social services, and more power for politicians and bureaucrats.

Give the money back to those who earned it, and encourage them to purchase their own education, their own health coverage, and their own insurance against risks like job loss, accidents, and sickness.

In the status quo, the bureaucrat is all powerful. It decides where your child gets educated, it decides whether your medical treatment will go ahead, it decides what level of income assistance you require.

The recipients of handouts – be they parents, patients, or welfare recipients – are treated as children to be managed by a bureaucrat who knows very little about them, and cares even less.

Is it surprising that within this environment, more money does not deliver better outcomes?

Sir Roger Douglas
New Zealand

Where's the Tax Cuts?

Well you don't get any, but here in Hong Kong this week we have just been told that our $HK6,000 tax cut announced earlier this year has stimulused into $HK8,000.

That makes it four years running now that I have received tax cuts.

So what's happened with Bill English's budget then??

You could get a similar amount - only if you want to insulate your stupidly large New Zealand homes as Nanny State deems you all too useless to organise and pay for this yourselves. I can just see a run on insulation installers which will push the price up and make the grant a waste of everyone's time.

If you are cold do what we do in Hong Kong at winter. Go take some of your HK8,000 and buy a very large oil column or gas heater.

Cactus Kate
Hong Kong

Do we ever learn?

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Cicero
Acient Rome, 55 BC