ACT welcomes the support of the Green Party for Brooke van Velden’s GST Sharing infrastructure Bill, but questions why Chloe Swarbrick’s wowser blitz spares drunken sailors at the viaduct.
ACT welcomes the support of the Green Party for Brooke van Velden’s GST Sharing infrastructure Bill, but questions why Chloe Swarbrick’s wowser blitz spares drunken sailors at the viaduct.
“My Bill which will share half the GST on new builds with local councils will be debated for the first time today and I’m really pleased the Greens have thrown their support behind it,” says Ms van Velden.
“Currently, local councils face poor incentives to build. Every new development involves costs to existing ratepayers to provide new roads, water, and sewerage connections. These costs discourage councils from allowing new homes.
“The GST-sharing scheme is estimated to deliver $1.2 billion every year to support local development by enabling infrastructure, and councils that consent more, get more.
“The only time you get prompt service from a council is when they’re issuing a parking ticket. They’ll come to you, anywhere, anytime, because there’s money in it. ACT will make sure there’s money in issuing consents.
“At present, central Government announces infrastructure funding in fits and starts. What development needs is predictability. Instead of forcing councils to come begging for special funds from the Government, it would provide an enduring and predictable solution for infrastructure funding.
“ACT believes in better, longer-lasting solutions.
“Meanwhile, ACT cannot support Chloë Swarbrick’s Sale and Supply of Alcohol Amendment Bill, wowerism at its worst.
“The Swarbrick Bill bans sports sponsorship, but not all of it. There’s a special clause that says the ban does ‘not apply to the display, on any craft, of any alcohol product trade mark or the company name of any alcohol product manufacturer, where that craft is participating in an international race.’
“Swarbrick is the MP for Auckland Central, where the America’s Cup is held. ACT was never going to agree with the Greens on this Bill, but since when did the Greens make special exceptions for billionaires flying around with their carbon fibre boats?
“The more you think about it, the weirder it gets. Chloë wants a wealth tax on anyone whose house costs more than a million dollars, which is nearly everyone in her Auckland Central Electorate. She’s not afraid of shaking down the moderately wealthy.
“But if you’re really, really, rich, rich enough to drop a billion on an America’s cup challenge, you get an exemption for your liquor advertising. Her anti-alcohol jihad knows no bounds, unless you’re in the America’s Cup, in which case it’s hello sailor!
"Perhaps the plan is to attract round the world The Ocean Race back to Auckland. Once upon a time the Ocean Race used to stop in Auckland, back when Peter Blake and Grant Dalton won it. Curiously they are choosing to sale 23,000km from Africa to South America, rather than visit New Zealand. Far fetched, but what other explanation is there?
“Either way, the bill is a mistake and the curious case of the drunken sailor exemption needs some explanation."