Latest / The Kākā by Bernard Hickey
How not to win friends and tax people
Morena. Long stories short:
* Simeon Brown is pushing ahead with a congestion charging plan that centralises control in Wellington and fails to first show the benefits to drivers or offer public transport alternatives, guaranteeing an easy policy-killing ‘brand new tax’ backlash.
* Louise Upston has launched an evidence-free new toughening of benefit sanctions and plans electronic controls of half of benefit spending, just as the Reserve Bank is deliberately engineering higher unemployment to offset inflation partially caused by the Government’s own actions.
* Simeon Brown looks set to order…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.