pn760. What David Seymour and the ACT Party are really about

 Got a spare $10,000? Have lunch and a tour of Parliament with ... guess who? David Seymour. TradeMe Advert.

Much of the  ACT party's recent increase in popular polls seems due to the unflappable leadership of David Seymour, with more than a little help from National Judith Collins' raised eyebrows and muttering as she bores even more voters with her wild tales about the Labour's supposed "separatism" policies to share legislature power with Māori.

Some of those polled seem to have forsaken  National, some shifting left to Labour; others right to ACT.  

I suspect most of the former will move back to National, but many who moved to ACT will probably stay there.  A weak National Party (Collins's attempts to retain National Party leadership comes after over 12-months of  internal party blunders) has made ACT stronger. 

pn750 Fiji Institute of Accounts budget submission: an example of the well-off attacking the poor

FTUC leader Felix Anthony

Rarely have class interests been so blatantly exposed in Fiji as in the Fiji Institute of Accountants' current budget submission in which they call for an increase in VAT (value-added tax) from 10 to 15%, the removal of family care leave and a reduction in the pay of civil servants. 

Across-the-board taxes on food and other essential items always affect the poor and those on low incomes more than the well-off because such items comprise a much higher proportion of their income. Their other submissions also impact more heavily on lower-paid workers. A truly Fiji First government should expose the FIA's submission for what it, and dismiss it without consideration. 

Trade Union leader Felix Anthony (read the original article for his views)  thinks the submission untimely because the country is suffering the effects of the Covid-19 virus. Any time is untimely for such class-biased submissions. -- ACW

pn730. If there's a lower and a middle, there's also an upper NZ

Yesterday I was talking with my son-in-law's brother who is a fireman and part-time builder's assistant. He complained about the Budget, saying it gave nothing to hard-working middle NZ, and most to beneficiaries many of whom would spend the extra money on booze.

Have you noticed how we often choose worst-case scenarios to support our arguments?  I don't think most or even many beneficiaries —but I have no idea how many— will spend their extra dollars on booze.  Food is the most likely expenditure.

Here's another argument. 

If, in terms of income, there's a lower and middle NZ, there's also an upper NZ  that's very well off. Have you noticed how rarely we complain that they have too much?  And yet this is where most dollars go, not to beneficiaries who at least spend their money which circulates in the economy, helping our retailers and helping growth. The very rich, by comparison, invest most of their money often in non-productive enterprises like company shares in NZ but more typically overseas. There is little to no benefit to NZ.

Take, for instance, the banks:

Gordon Campbell has an article in our local rag, "About time banks were called into line" noting that last week Government announced its intention to crack down on the fees banks charge our retailers when we use credit and debit cards.

For credit cards, they typically charge 1.6%. If you purchase something for $100, the retailer takes $98.40 and bank $1.60. This may not sound very much but when the spending of thousands of their customers is added up it's a small fortune.

When we use contactless debit cards the banks charge 1.2%, much more than in comparable countries. In the UK, for instance, banks charge 0.2%, and in Australia 0.6% — half of what they charge here.

All our major banks are Australian-owned. Their estimated $74 million profits from the cards, which comprises only part of their pofits,  are distributed among their shareholders in Australia. Think how much more the public and our retailers would save if the Australian-owned banks reduced their fees and if the money stayed in NZ.

Banks are only one example of how the very rich get richer at the expense of the poor and middle NZ. 

 I think it's time middle NZers focused more on them, and give the poor a break, or at least the benefit of doubt. They are not all boozers.

-- ACW