ACT is Winning

The Haps

The Government has managed its finances carefully, so it’s possible to do things like funding ambulances ($35 million) and fighting wilding pines ($79 million). This is being done in the middle of a global economic oil shock, with less new spending ($2.1 billion) than previously planned ($2.4 billion).

ACT is Winning…

…and the prize is economic recovery for New Zealand. Many New Zealanders have been economically down, but we are not out. This week’s Budget holds just a glimpse of growing hope after years of false starts and gloom.

Why do we say that now? The reaction from overseas, and the fact ACT is winning (and so is New Zealand) on the big question.

The big question is how to balance the budget. Tax more, or spend less? The Australian Government went down the wrong track last week. They put more tax on capital assets the way ACT’s political opponents would like to do here.

Free Press is especially heartened that young Australians are pushing back against capital taxes, they see a threat to their share portfolios. The wider threat is to their culture. If they think the path to prosperity is getting better at taxing each other, they will get poorer.

The Australian media is talking up New Zealand as a ‘tax haven.’ Streuth, not quite, but we look like a place where you can save, invest, and make progress to more and more of them.

Just digging up the outback and sharing the loot by taxing anything that moves (and subsidising anything that doesn’t) ain’t looking so lucky any more, cobber. Add in a bit more mining of our own, and New Zealand is looking good.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand approach is what ACT has been saying for years. The Government is not going as far or as fast as ACT would, but you can see ACT’s influence in this Budget.

The number of public servants is being capped, with a sinking lid, driven back to 2017 levels. Should have happened in year one of this Government but, if at first you don’t succeed, try again. We did and we have.

Then there is an official Government policy to reduce the number of departments, another ACT fingerprint. Media commentators are now asking ‘is it possible to merge departments without reducing the number of Cabinet Ministers?’ David Seymour’s been saying that for a year.

But, rust never sleeps. On the big question, our enemies and even our allies will want to tax more, because spending less is harder for politicians.

This month the Australians have helped make our choices clear. For the first time in a long time it feels like we might be able to get our tails up while they repeat hard lessons we learned under our own Labour government.

The hope is only a glimpse, and we’ve been burned before. Who knew the American President would start a trade war with the entire world one year and blow up a fifth of the world’s oil supply the next?

After Thursday’s Budget is a 163-day sprint to the line, being the November 7 election. If you read Free Press this far you are a core ACT supporter. Please know that we are winning, there is a path to a low tax, high growth New Zealand while others turn in on themselves like snakes eating their tails.

If you’ve ever felt like you should help the Party, or help it more, this will be the time.