Eddie Mann, Remuera.
It’s a good document
The 2025 Budget is a good but not perfect document. Its goodness stems from the fact that it is structured around well-considered matters of financial responsibility and affordability, factors that prioritise needs over wants.
This return to economic literacy and good practice will set our country on a path to improved productivity and prosperity.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
If it walks like a duck . . .
“This is not austerity – far from it. In fact, it is what you do to avoid austerity.” – Nicola Willis, Finance Minister.
As the old adage goes, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it’s austerity.
This Government, and in particular, Minister of Finance Nicola Willis, has decided that those just starting in life and new families will have less money in their accounts on payday, not to mention less money in their KiwiSavers.
The Government is also increasing spending on law and order. Meanwhile, the Government’s astounding tax breaks to businesses will generate returns in about two decades.
In all this spending, $14 a fortnight will be given to 142,000 families, $28 a month. Depending on where you go, that’s wiped out by a prescription request.
Willis has argued that this is not austerity. Decreasing spending in key areas and allowing inflation to eat away at other government departments by not providing extra funding is austerity. Instead, money is going towards businesses, giving them a tax break with meagre returns for workers and at the expense of people’s futures.
Takoda Ackerley, Gisborne.
Cuts and handouts
Cuts for working women, families and children, but handouts for the bosses.
A 20% tax credit for new expenditure does not benefit workers, it is a handout to the business. This is called a boost for the economy but it is unlikely to trickle down to any benefit to the employees of a company gratefully taking the unearned credit.
Bob van Ruyssevelt, Glendene.
How to pay for a tax package
The tax package introduced last year, costing over $12 billion, had to be paid for somehow.
One has to congratulate the Government on wiping this deficit in one single blow by sinking the pay equity legislation.
The new tax incentives for business will also be a noose around the Government’s neck. As women in lower-paid jobs will show their disappointment at election time, why not hit them with a double whammy and freeze their wages until we are back in surplus.
I’m alright, Jack, what about you?
Reg Dempster, Albany.
Leadership with backbone needed
Independent media have spent the past 19 months reporting in depth on Gaza and the West Bank, while many major human rights groups now describe Israel’s actions as tantamount to genocide.
Mainstream coverage has often lacked that depth. Palestinian resistance is typically framed as aggression, while Israeli military actions are called self-defence. A wider range of perspectives would help the public better understand the crisis.
New Zealand should not need a cue from other governments to stand up for human rights. We need leadership with backbone, guided by integrity and international law.
Dana A. Patterson, Ōneroa.
Governments silent
The world news often ignores the cruel killing fields of Gaza. The continual slaughter of innocent Palestinians, including so many children, and even aid workers.
News outlets seem loath to condemn the atrocities committed each day and governments around the world, including ours, have been silent.
Vince West, Milford.
Wealth tax debate
I fully support the letter by Takoda Ackerley (May 22) advocating for a wealth tax.
It is encouraging that references to this topic are becoming more frequent. It needs to be seriously considered by our politicians for two main reasons. The first is fairness and social justice. The gap between rich and poor continues to grow in New Zealand.
The second reason is the need to provide more revenue to the Government to carry out infrastructure and upgrades that are so urgently needed for hospitals, schools, rail and other projects.
A wealth tax will not be a silver bullet, but along with a capital gains tax, it should help to give us a more certain, stable future.
Norman Elliott, St Heliers.
Trump actions damaging
The recent Trump-Ramaphosa meeting resulted in a standoff over Trump’s claims of the genocide of white farmer settlers.
These claims have been widely discredited and the purpose of raising them was the familiar Trump ploy of “playing to his base”.
Trump’s actions by eschewing reliable, informed and established diplomatic channels does incalcuable damage to America’s standing with the rest of the world.
The optics and reality now of American exceptionalism takes the nation back nearly a century to pre-World War II isolationist hegemony. Putin may thrive ... the rest of us will end up the poorer.
Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
