Opinion – The Trojan Foreign Buyers Tax.
So much money had been donated by powerful interests to the National Party in order to benefit property investors and their affiliated benefactors, that it seemed unbelievable that Winston had defeated the Foreign Buyers Tax in coalition negotiations back in late November 2023.
We all remembered those long tedious days when Chris Bishop fell off his bike and Luxon repeated that he was working at incredible pace, when in reality the Foreign Buyers tax was off the table and Nicola was beside herself.
I imagine Winston proposed the alternative ….the BS thing about Big Tobacco talking points – and the black market – and how those taxes on cigarettes would stay high…worth $500 Million per year once that smoke-free legislation was repealed and that ongoing revenue – would almost replace the missing $700 Million if you took away that Foreign Buyers tax from the tax-take.
It was all done in secret, so we cannot be sure how the horse trading went down – but it’s fair to say that both small parties knew they had massive leverage.
The “eat your crow early” maxim applied so Luxon was dishing up as much small party harm as possible hoping his polling would hold…but last week it started to unravel…like a ball of wool…rolling between Chris Bishop’s leg and down a parliamentary corridor …out the door, down the steps and into NewsTalk ZB where Mike Hosking screamed “He’s not connecting, he lost three points, why is he not cutting through?”
It was not helped by Penny Simmonds being a total block of ice towards the carers of the disabled, and Nicola’s numbers resembling Swiss Cheese, while Hate Crimes popped up around New Zealand…and Russell Coutts pouted at scientists and the Greens and Maori and Labour sided with Hector.
Worse Chippy was deeply resonating on the left and talking about a set of values and the public were finally waking up and the huge wealth transfer to property investors looked crude as they took away the wheelchairs and sacked 63 people at the Ministry of Pasific peoples.
There was a wealth tax and a capital gains tax in the air…as the public now recoiled and opened it’s eyes…three chuppa chups a week and don’t forget to send in your invoices – every three months cos Nicola was a moron.
Everyone was saying delay the tax cuts – the cuts that gave Christopher Bishop far more money per week than those who need it most …because it was all Bullshit anyway.
Three chuppa chups hooray !!!
A choir of economists sang loudly from the same hymn sheet – not to spend tomorrow’s money on tax cuts in July – but to delay, delay…why won’t they listen …and who benefits from driving up inflation?
Wait for things to come back down, save yourselves billions …but no the Three Headed Taniwha could not be told, it was a zombie now …clothed in the play book of old.
The whole thing was proven not to work, but still they lied to our faces like jerks.
The Nats had sold us the story we had not had a tax cut since 2010 but they never mentioned that GST increase Sir John slipped in – the old tax switch.
Most saw this latest gesture as a meaningless election bribe that never helped the people who really needed help…while all those much larger billions flowed back into the hands of the monied asset owning class.
The big spending doners who needed to be paid out first.
This was a donut – a circular path – paying off the investor – who got us across that election – I mean whoever heard of “we care deeply” from a room full of Tories?
No question the more in need the less we feed …was the deal here…and the dark days of small party domination now spread across the communities of voters and the finger of racist malice pointed across the sky.
Shane Jones had come across as a pudding of pomposity and Erica had gone awol fighting Winston over University designated places…and now…it looks like Nicola and Winston could not agree the exact budget policy statement allowance numbers…so they delayed …and then the leak sprung to Maiki – over delaying the repeal of legislation on Maori Wards – forcing expensive referenda… ….leaking like a long cool threat to Luxon’s tenure as Prime Minister.
With all of this a backdrop – suddenly Winston was talking publicly about reversing his absolute position on no foreign buyers tax, as the belief in Winston hissed out of a nozel and floated away into the atmosphere.
Chippy had been wise to rule him out and now there was a sound of hammering and sawing going on behind the scenes …as armies of Neoliberal workers rebuilt the Trogan Foreign Buyers Tax and intended to wheel it into the Budget as Nicola’s new source of revenue she had smugly kept secret so far.
I imagined Property Investors raising housing prices as Foreign people took all the best locations in Aotearoa New Zealand – and Winston in return won some kind of reward from the monied powerful interests …but he had not signed up yet…oh know…this was not his first Rodeo sunshine…but it could be his last.
People would wake to the sense that this was a scam.
The whole thing was marketing …as property investors ate us like cancer and nobody could come to help until 2026 …while the Atlas Network gripped the nation in it’s talons and the white paint of hate, was slapped across the land.
Soon after the election, that Foreign Buyers Tax would crack open and run into the headlines where it would be welcomed.
Thirty pieces of silver would be sent to NZ First and we’d all remember the Sex Pistols saying…
“Ever felt like you’ve been cheated? “
Opinion – The Trojan Foreign Buyers Tax.
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