Thursday, May 20, 2010

too little too late Hone

Good statement Hone but with the budget today it is too little too late.
From Stuff
"Hone Harawira has broken ranks with the Maori Party to speak out against a GST rise in today's Budget as an attack on the poor.
"...the GST decision had also put it in an impossible position with its supporters who would expect the party to challenge any tax hitting the poorest New Zealanders hardest."
The Maori Party is bound by its coalition agreement to support the Budget. Mr Harawira made it clear that a decision on opposing the GST rise had been taken out of his hands by the caucus so he would still vote to support the Budget.
But he said he could not do so without speaking out – comments that could put him on a collision course with the party. He was having difficulty supporting a tax increase that made things easier for the wealthy "at the expense of those in need".
"GST hits poor people the hardest because nearly all of their money is spent on things that you pay GST on – food, petrol, electricity – so any increase is going to really hurt them."
It was an issue that affected not just Maori New Zealanders but "poor people generally".
Yes today the day when GST is raised to 15% will be a difficult day for many people. Of course the well off won't even notice but most are not well off - most are not well off at all.

So the maori party will vote for the government. It is a sad day when pragmatisim beats conviction.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My first thought was that your a bit hard on Hone Marty. Ive put my thoughts on open mike on the standard, I wont repeat them here. I have to confess, however that I do have a niggling concern that Hone might just be protecting his brand, in which case you have every reason to be hard on him.

Alexandra

Urewera traveller said...

Ummmm- GST wasn't raised on Budget day, it doesn't kick in until 1 October.

Marty Mars said...

Thanks Urewera traveller - I missed that.

I cannot see any point in hone raising the issue in the way and on the day, he raised it - it didn't score any points, it just made them look disorganised and disfunctional.

urewera traveller said...

The fact that you hadn't noticed means that you're in the well-off category then? :-)

Marty Mars said...

My path has had its ups and downs like anyones. No the mistake was that often I have a little amount of time to find something that interests me, then do a little research, put up the post and so on. Often I miss little but important things and just as often they are picked up.