Petrol tax goneburger

David Farrar writes –

Chris Bishop announced:

Cabinet has agreed to a series of important legislative changes to enable the transition of New Zealand’s 3.5 million light vehicles to paying for our roading network through electronic road user charges, rather than petrol tax, says Transport Minister Chris Bishop.

“The abolition of petrol tax, and the move towards all vehicles (whether they be petrol, diesel, electric or hybrid) paying for roads based on distance and weight, is the biggest change to how we fund our roading network in 50 years,” Mr Bishop says.

Road user charges is a far fairer way of funding roads, than petrol tax (which is very simple though). Paying based on distance travelled and weight is fair.

When the pipes are rationed

Roger Partridge writes –

This week’s Herald reported the plight of an Ōrewa family hit with a 72% rates hike – more than $10,000 a year. The jump arises from rezoning, with new subdivisions now creeping up to their boundary. Yet Watercare has decreed the wastewater connection will not arrive until 2031 – leaving the land stranded and unsaleable. 

We cannot let the bullies win

Elliot Ikilei writes –

Our entire billboard campaign has been shut down – not by debate, not by democracy, but by intimidation.

Remember what the R in RNZ is for

Peter Williams writes –

If RNZ wanted a warts and all report on its failings and reasons for the catastrophic audience decline in the last five years it certainly received one this week.

The former Head of News for the organisation – a man who’s also had senior or supervisory roles in newsrooms at Newstalk ZB, TVNZ and Newshub – delivered a withering assessment of the state owned broadcaster.

Mitchell’s injuries

David Farrar writes –

Audrey Young chatted to Mark Mitchell, and he revealed his various health challenges from past injuries.

The death of public sector expertise: How the rise of the generic official hollowed out the state

Roger Partridge writes –

Something has gone badly wrong in the public service. From energy policy to financial regulation to education, ministers are too often advised by officials lacking the deep technical background their roles demand.

To what policy problem is this the solution?

Eric Crampton writes –

On my drive in to work yesterday, RNZ’s Corin Dann challenged the Prime Minister about one part of his meeting with Australian PM Albanese. They had apparently promised to work toward some kind of joint ID and driver license system. 

Treasury states what we all knew

David Farrar writes –

The Herald reports:

A new Treasury paper has criticised the last Government for overspending during the pandemic, leaving the country with a high level of public debt that makes it vulnerable to future shocks.

The paper calculated the total cost of the pandemic at about $66 billion. It put the total fiscal contribution to the pandemic – measured by additional spending and foregone tax revenue – as about 20.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), making the response “one of the largest among advanced economies“.

There will, almost beyond doubt, be another global finance shock in the next decade. If we have not reduced our debt significantly by then, we will be in a far worse position to respond to it. You pay down debt when times are good, so you can borrow when times are bad.

Willis pointed in particular to Treasury’s criticism of the last Government for spending the Covid-19 fund on things that were only tangentially related to the Covid response, such as the school lunch programme.

Stuff like the wage subsidy was a sensible intervention. But Labour turned it into a giant slush fund for all sorts of programmes. This meant that they left behind a spending track tens of billions higher than previously.

This article by David Farrar is sourced from his Kiwiblog.

One more Treasury OIA about RB spending

Michael Reddell writes –

All the interest in the Orr-departure story – the background, and the subsequent and ongoing efforts to mislead the public by the Board and the temporary Governor – seems to now centre on the Ombudsman. Various people, including me, have appealed the Bank’s OIA obstructionism on specific requests and the Ombudsman seems to be pursuing the issue reasonably expeditiously. I received a draft of a provisional opinion the other day for comment (which I have now provided extensive comments on) but I’m guessing it might be a couple of weeks before we get a final decision. I’m going to be away for a while so I don’t expect to write anything more after this post for at least a couple of weeks.

Short memories

Ele Ludemann writes –

A lot of people who responded to the latest Taxpayer Union Curia poll must have very short memories.

They must have forgotten that after the 2017 election, and  in spite of then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s high rating, National was either more popular or only slightly less popular than Labour in poll after poll.