OnPoint: Budget 2009: “Aww, shit.” (Final Update)
139 Responses
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a fiscal chastity belt - successive governments just have to fight the temptation to hunt for the key.
Nice metaphor - but wasn't that what boomer superannuation pre-funding was meant to be, given the efforts that supposedly went into negotiating a durable cross-party consensus?
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On the R&D thing, I'm no fan of this government, but it's simply not true to state there was nothing in the budget for R&D.
1. CRIs are probably quite pleased with the 20% increase in funding to the CRI Capability Fund
2. The Marsden Fund received its biggest ever funding boost.
3. The Health Research Council got a 13% funding increase
4. A new Primary Growth Partnership has been established. I don't think we can dismiss this as "nonsense food industry funding" (to quote Matthew), given the importance of agriculture and horticulture to our economy. I'm not quite ready to write this sector off just yet. We lead the world in innovation in many parts of the primary sector, and it makes sense to invest in what we can do better than the rest of the world.
I'll acknowledge there were some losses too, but the net effect is a modest increase in funding across the board. Not quite the disaster some have suggested.
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Thanks for the reassurance Scott.
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"Jam tomorrow"
Just as well. Despite what we were told, this sandwich doesn't taste like Nutella to me.
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New Zealand is a naturally left-wing country. Our fundamental values - fairness and egaliatrianism - are values of the left. Our default policy setting since the 1890's has been to see government as a solution, rather than the problem to be ovecome. That may be born of pragmatism - we used government as a tool becuse there were no other tools available - but its still quite antiethical to right-wing ideology.
I/S, your analysis is overly simplistic. The dominance by National governments post-war is not merely a symptom of the FPP electoral system. It also possibly reflects other features of the Kiwi psyche, such as conservatism, a dislike of interfering governments, and a distrust of outsiders.
I simply don't believe we can make any reliable statement about where on the political spectrum NZers sit as a group. Other than somewhere between John Minto and Garth George.
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One Step Beyond the bucket...
THIS is beyond the pail
sorry to tie up loose threads
but THIS is beyond the pale : )and that's intertwinement
yrs
P. Alice Aide
Stakeholder in
the Pedant Patrol -
where on the political spectrum NZers sit as a group
That's if they're on the spectrum at all. Most of them (us) find politics a total snore because it consists mainly of two parties slugging out the lamest argument ever. "More government!" "Less government!" "More spending" "Less spending"
That is what Actional means when it says "ideology for ideology's sake", because when political parties cluster policies along a one dimensional spectrum, they look one dimensional. When they don't do that, they look sensible.
Even when they promise tax cuts a well educated 12 year old could identify as completely unviable.
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I/S graphs the effect on the Super fund.
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I simply don't believe we can make any reliable statement about where on the political spectrum NZers sit as a group. Other than somewhere between John Minto and Garth George.
I/S & ScottY: the 8 Tribes is a reminder of the unwritten class divide.
Speaking of Minto, what would in this day and age trigger a sequel to the 1981 Tour? It would likely follow some kind of diplomatic incident; in the case of 1981, it was the African boycott of Montreal '76 in response to Muldoon allowing the All Blacks to tour what was then-apartheid South Africa.
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Surely fairness is not a concept exclusive to any political perspective - they just disagree about what is fair and what is not.
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Even when they promise tax cuts a well educated 12 year old could identify as completely unviable.
So are you diagnosing an epidemic of underage voting last year?
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economic xenophobia
Craig, it's cos they're bankers , not foreigners.
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By the way, in all this, the one argument that is offensive is that Cullen spent all our money so there is nothing left...
The money "spent" means that our national debt is incredibly low, in fact, Don Brash argued vehemently it was too low not so long ago. It also means that we have something in the kitty to pay *our* pensions.
I would like Guyon Espiner to answer a question or two about whether he considers Cullen was justified in getting a little antsi at him a while back over the persistent tax cut questions. Cullen said they were unaffordable and folks that kept demanding them were greedy. Turns out he was right.
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WANTED: gib fixers, roading contractors, and prison wardens.
oh oh oh. I just worked out a way for NZ to make money. Sell our prison services overseas. Make NZ a prison island. That way we can all work for International Correction Inc. Building new prisons, keeping the prisoners in line. We can get them to work on our roads, on our farms and do all those messy jobs. I can't think why no-one hasn't thought of it before. Better for the environment than buying toxic waste.
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Make NZ a prison island.
John Carpenter's Escape From Otara - coming to cinemas soon!
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Make NZ a prison island.
Then we could tell Obama there is room for all Gitmo detainees , for a price.
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We are the new Number One!
Make NZ a prison island.
Only if we get those nifty menacing big white balloons for offshore security, though...
yrs
John Drake
No. 6 -
I/S graphs the effect on the Super fund.
No no no. The Labour Research Unit graphs the effect on the Super fund; I steal it.
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One matter that seems to have escaped notice (until now) is the cut to legal aid spending in the budget.
Legal aid has been chronically underfunded for years. Funding was increased in the last budget, but has been cut back again in this budget. This means hourly rates for legal aid lawyers will be reduced.
Legal aid lawyers are already the poor cousins when it comes to remuneration. One wonders why anyone would want to do the work when it pays so poorly. In the long run it may mean fewer lawyers doing legal aid, and so less access to justice.
The Law Society sent an email to its members today on the matter, so expect to hear more about this.
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The dominance by National governments post-war is not merely a symptom of the FPP electoral system. It also possibly reflects other features of the Kiwi psyche, such as conservatism, a dislike of interfering governments, and a distrust of outsiders.
Sure, but a) FPP is a very important part of that story (remember, no party has won a majority since 1951); and b) that psyche has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. The generation which gave National that dominance is dead or dying. And the psyche of those who have taken their place has been largely shaped by the Revolution and its terrible effects.
I simply don't believe we can make any reliable statement about where on the political spectrum NZers sit as a group. Other than somewhere between John Minto and Garth George.
Sure we can. That's what polling is for. I'm not denying diversity, but at the same time there are widely (but by no means universal) values and ideas which feature large in our national conversation and our political tradition. And those values - fairness, egalitarianism, the state as a solution not the problem - favour the left over the right.
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Surely fairness is not a concept exclusive to any political perspective - they just disagree about what is fair and what is not.
Sure - but the concept of fairness broadly (but not exclusively) held in New Zealand is a left-wing one, focused on substance rather than mere process, and favouring the little guy over the Big Corporate.
(And that's why John Key's origins were such a strong selling point for him. Because he is an example of that fairness in action)
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@Ian Dalziel
''Oh ain't you glad that we live on an island,
You can choose your own way of being killed,
You can jump off a cliff and get drowned in the sea,
Or be dashed 'gainst the rocks and get split,
And it could happen to you (no it won't happen to me)
It could happen to you....We are living, living in an Island..."
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Geldof of my cloud...
Oh ain't you glad that we live on an island,
me an' Janet Frame
and I don't like Mondays neither... :-)yrs
Cobol Byte-Byte
Character Support -
"what would in this day and age trigger a sequel to the 1981 Tour?"
Something totally out of the ordinary as I'm not sure if most of us want to go down that path again.
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Sure - but the concept of fairness broadly (but not exclusively) held in New Zealand is a left-wing one, focused on substance rather than mere process, and favouring the little guy over the Big Corporate.
Again, I'm going to take issue with your analysis. Fairness means different things to different people. For example, for those who consider themselves on the Right, it probably has something to do with being treated fairly by the state - i.e. being left alone and allowed to make their own decisions. Self responsibility and all that.
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