NZ Herald comparison

The NZ Herald has a nice comparison of Labour and National’s packages.

The big lines of 0s for single people under Labour is telling.

In the story we also see the personal attacks from Cullen, suggesting this is two multi-millionaires doing it to get $92 a week extra. How pathetic.

Don Brash took a $400,000 pay cut to enter politics. To suggest he is motivated by personal gain is ridiculous. Likewise I would suggest that John Key (who grew up in a state home and made his own fortune) is not particularly focused on $92 a week for him.

I suspect the reason Cullen is so upset is because National in fact resisted giving him an easy target by lowering the 39% rate. If that had been lowered to 33%, then he would be out saying that someone earning $1 million a year will get a $60,000 tax cut. By only moving the threshold, National has in fact ensured that the super-rich are the ones who get the smallest tax cut, relative to what they earn.