Battle Of The Taxes
Illustrated by Sara Moana
Our current political sphere is looking fun. Like a disco ball, spinning to ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, except the disco ball is on fire and the Government are just rickrolling us. Basically, what is trying to be said is that, as usual, everything's a little chaotic; especially to us students who have to choose between spending money on groceries or getting to uni.
Currently, we have our loving but rather frazzled mother Ardern, and slippery businessman Luxon both playing the match of the year and competing for the grand title of ‘cares the most about the poor’.
Ardern of course announced the cost of living as a crisis which was a very brave move. Especially seeing as she literally said “I wouldn’t call it a crisis” a week prior to this.
Labour’s big ‘save the people’ campaign is a complicated and well thought out multi-step process.
Cut tax on fuel.
Make public transport free.
But only for three months.
This isn’t an actual plan. It’s an afterthought band-aid that’s coming off whether or not the economy stops bleeding.
It would be a solid plan if we treated the working class well, actually had bus drivers and had bus services that aren't randomly cancelled, and you don’t notice until your common sense finally kicks in 10 minutes after the bus was due.
Luxon has pulled out the big guns. He understands us struggling Kiwis. In the wise words of his press release, “It’s time for the Government to take action... People will have to dig even deeper into their pockets just to fill up the car and put food on the table.”
These big guns are (if he gets elected next year) adjusting tax brackets to account for inflation.
Inflation means that the value of your money is decreasing. It’s a big ol’ complicated mess of math and geopolitics, but the gist of it is the number in your bank stays the same, but its value decreases. This means businesses need to raise the price of goods (e.g., rent, food, what have you) to match the value of the good being sold. But your income won’t rise, your savings won’t rise. Just the price of living.
We’ve seen a significant rate of inflation since Labour took power, of course the whole pandemic thing had a significant part to blame. We can’t entirely blame Labour.
This rate of inflation means Kiwis are spending an estimated $4-5k extra annually.
Luxon’s plan is to make our tax brackets lift to ‘match the rate of inflation,’ which sounds fine on paper, but when you look at it logistically, his big plan will only significantly benefit higher tax brackets.
Re: The people who aren’t struggling to make ends meet.
The Prime Minister's salary ($471,049) would save over $18k in tax after these cuts. Someone on an annual income of $45k (which, let's be honest, we’re students, even this is a dream salary) would save a whopping $112 a year. That’s an extra $2.70 a week, all courtesy of ol’ mate Luxon.
We can go out and buy an extra two servings of mi goreng from the supermarket per week. Or, we could save up all that extra money and after a year we can afford enough petrol to go to open homes. Don’t worry though, you won’t be making any bids anytime soon.
Meanwhile the PM’s tax break is literally more than what StudyLink offers in living costs on loan.
In the wise words of Luxon, “We believe in equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.”
Basically, once you hit 18, if you’re still poor, that’s on you. National say no to equal outcomes.
The Māori Party have also brought forward a proposal to cut GST on food. This would save 15 per cent of spending and honestly this is a change that would be felt by the working classes.
But still...
ARE THERE ANY OPTIONS THAT DON’T INVOLVE CUTTING TAX?
If any politicians come up with any cost-of-living solutions, please do feel free to share with the class. This means the whole class, not just the upper class.
It’s good that conversations about the cost of living have finally made it onto media and politicians’ radars with significance, but this goes to show how issues affecting lower classes are only really emphasised when middle and upper classes feel them.
Stories about the housing crisis only really began when the focus was on middle-class families struggling to buy their first home. To this day these stories take the spotlight over those who can’t even make rent, let alone consider buying a house.
It can be exhausting as hell, but unfortunately, it’s in our hands as students to deal with this fallout, and I really hope that when we’re the baddies in power, we learn to address issues before it’s too late. But really, who knows, maybe we’ll be the ones student media moan about in 30 years' time.
In parting words, enjoy voting next year.