It didn't begin well with John Key dropping his tax cut hint to reporters as a way to divert from the questions they were asking about Dirty Politics. Not only did the Prime Minister fail to provide any details, he failed to first inform his Finance Minister.John Keys' brain fart put Bill English on the spot. In fact he initially contradicted the idiot PM by saying tax cuts weren't really on the table. His bewilderment was clearly apparent when a journalist informed him that Key had made the pathetic election bribe that very day, making it appear the National party doesn't know its arse from its elbow.
Fast-forward a few week's and the news isn't any better for the panicking Prime Minister. After his official tax cut announcement yesterday in which he provided a bit of questionable detail while not really bothering to show how the government could afford it, Key dropped a number of clangers that the media has thankfully picked up on.
Yesterday, Radio NZ reported:
National pledges tax cuts, but short on detail
Apart from giving the date of tax cuts today, Prime Minister John Key had little other details to release.
Mr Key has criticised Labour opponent David Cunliffe for not knowing the detail of Labour's tax policies - but was unapologetic about not being able to spell out the specifics of National's plan.
"We ourselves haven't decided what the structure of that might look like - there's obviously rates, there's obviously thresholds, there's potentially other mechanisms," he told reporters in Wellington today.
"But what we do want to do is make sure we build up that kitty of money that's available to be returned, and that we demonstrate to New Zealanders that we want them to get ahead under their own steam."
Even John Key's biggest cheerleader, John Armstrong, got in on the act:
(No link available. The NZ Herald has pulled this online article from for some reason?)
Tax offcut all that Key offers
Not so much a tax cut; more like a tax offcut. A mere sliver - and one which will not be finding its way into your wallet for the best part of another three years.
Today, the NZ Herald also reported:
PM short-changes voters with $10 offer, says Labour
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters called the cut "widdling in the wind. This is the desperation of a party just trying to stay ahead in the polls. It's just nonsense".
Greens co-leader Russel Norman also said the announcement lacked detail.
The money earmarked for the cuts would be better spent ensuring health and education spending kept pace with inflation rather than falling in real terms as he claimed it would do under National's fiscal plan.
Today's NZ Herald editorial also damns National's pathetic election bribe:
PM's promise of tax cuts shows lack of judgment
As expected, the National Party's announcement yesterday on proposed tax cuts was short on specifics and long on conditionality. Absent was an indication of how much any individual taxpayer might get in the hand, just a pointer to the cuts being "modest". Further, said the Prime Minister, they would not apply before April 1, 2017, and be made then only if "economic and fiscal conditions apply".
But that did not make the statement any less significant. Or diminish the degree of misjudgment. In any list of the incoming Government's top priorities after the September 20 election, tax cuts should not rate a mention.
One News also reported on David Cunliffe chiming in:
Cunliffe: National's tax plan can be written on back of $5 note
Mr Cunliffe scoffed at the proposal this morning slamming it as trivial.
"(The announcement is) before the country's back in surplus so it's highly irresponsible," he said.
"Secondly it's not even a commitment it's a 'maybe if we've got debt down', and thirdly it's a trivial amount, 1% change of the second tax rates, $5 a week costs $500 million a year."
At least Cunliffe's maths skills are up to par. On One News last night, John Key stupidly claimed an extra $10 per week added up to $1000 a year in people's pockets. With fifty-two week's in a year, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the Prime Minister was entirely wrong! What a moron!
John Key looked rather pathetic in attempting such a ruse in the first place and National look even more pathetic now in trying to back him up with flawed data. National's tax cut announcement has been a complete flop of an election bribe and another resounding fail during an election campaign.
