Finally caught up with this week's edition of The Bradbury Group and it's a really good one, with NZ Herald columnist Simon Wilson, former Winston First and Nat MP Tau Henare, and Green MP Steve Abel;
They talk about the challenge of funding local government, and public perception differences between tax and rates. Again, I think both need to be collected by IRD and split between central and local;
"...it's certainly true that as a result of their tax cut package, and their failure to substantially cut spending, despite their rhetoric, they have widened the operating deficit, to more than it may have even been under Labour.
So if you want to call that borrowing for tax cuts, they have done that. Its certainly true that the amount of borrowing by the government is as bad as it was under Labour..."
(1/2)
Bomber is running the 4-year Parliamentary term up the flagpole;
I hope this was a provocation. As @norightturnnz pointed out a few months back, NZ governments already have a default 6 year term. No MMP govt has ever been turfed out after one term, so the first election they face after getting Executive power is really just a sanity check. Any govt chucked out at this point would clearly deserve it (like the current one).
