August 26, 2019 4:00pm by David Farrar

The fleecer in chief

And, since the PM told us we’re being fleeced, it’s added more tax with a 3.5 per cent increase in the petrol tax this year.
So, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it?
If we’re really being fleeced, then surely a government that really felt that would alleviate the pain and drop away some of that tax.
Now the government can go ahead and fight this battle if it wants, because you never know, it could maybe win and consumers could be grateful. But it’s a high risk one.
Because (a) this will take years – will this government be there to take the credit if petrol prices come down? And (b) it wouldn’t take much for argument to swing against the government.
It wouldn’t take lot of effort for the petrol companies or the opposition to turn that ‘fleecing’ narrative onto the government itself.
We saw that start today when Simon Bridges called the pm the fleecer in chief. Now, Bridges doesn’t get a lot of cut through so I wouldn’t’ be too worried about him, but if that takes a hold, and it can with this government, it’ll hurt.

People don’t realise what a massive proportion of the price of petrol, is Government charges. The current rates are: