Hickey on Key

Bernard Hickey writes:

I’m beginning to lose faith in John Key’s willingness to truly reform this economy so his grandkids and my grandkids have an economic future that will keep them (and us) here.

I’ve listened for the last year to John Key’s comments about wanting to catch up with Australia by 2025 and about making changes to improve productivity and real wages so that we remain an attractive destination for our very mobile labour force. But will he actually do anything? Will he take some tough decisions and show some leadership?

All we’ve heard so far is what John Key won’t do. He won’t put up the retirement age from 65, despite everyone in officialdom saying the current threshold for entry into our universal pension scheme cannot be sustained. He won’t change the pension from its current 66% of the average way, again despite everyone saying it’s unsustainable. He won’t entertain even the idea of a capital gains tax.

The superannuation decision is just a political reality. Key promised before the election he would resign as both PM and an MP if he changed the age or floor for super. It is naive to keep lobbying on an issue after that. If he did what Bernard said, he would be finished in politics.

The capital gains tax is a more fair criticism. While Key has not ruled it out entirely, I think it is unhelpful he has been so dismissive of the possibility, while the tax working group does its stuff.

And now he won’t allow the cabinet to think about a flat tax, despite National saying in its election campaign that it aspired to flat (corporate/income/trust) tax rate of 30%.

Now here Bernard is being naughty. National did not in any way say it aspired to a flat tax. Even ACT did not campaign on a flat tax.

National said it aspired to a top tax rate of 30% for individuals, companies and trusts. And that is a laudable goal. But that is not a flat tax. Under the 30c tax rate you have a 15c tax rate and a 21c tax rate.

Maybe John Key is playing a clever long game where he plays everything down until the very moment he announces it, possibly before the next election. Or somehow he has left himself enough wiggle room to announce reforms that haven’t already been ruled out.

While disagreeing with Bernard on a couple of the specifics, I do think he has highlighted that the Government does have a real challenge ahead of it. The gap with Australia will not close without significant reforms, and the more reforms that get ruled out, the harder it is to be credible about closing that gap. Expectations are high for the 2010 budget.