A government in panic

by Christie on October 10, 2018 at 9:30am

Don’t you just love Judith? While the government fluffs around with unnecessary urgent legislation and yet another working group, this time on fuel prices, Judith just cuts to the chase and she does it so well.

TVNZ News  reports: quote:

Judith Collins says the Government is in a panic about the fuel price crisis and has called for them to cut the regional fuel tax.

On TVNZ1’s Breakfast, Ms Collins said the Government’s plans didn’t go far enough.

“If the Government wants to do something right now, it could cut that tax, say we’re not going to have that regional fuel tax, 11.5 cents a litre in Auckland plus everything else that’s going on,” she said.

“Right now, with the fuel prices so high and the Government saying it’s all so terrible, they’ve just worked that out, at 11.5 cents a litre in Auckland alone plus everything else round the country, right now is the time for the Government to say we’re going to put that on hold while we sort it out.”

Mrs Collins said for every litre of petrol sold, $1.25 went to the Government and 31 cents went to the fuel companies. end quote.

 

Spot on, Judith. If the government was really concerned about people being ‘fleeced’ over fuel prices, they could actually do something more or less instantaneously. Instead, they are just going to go through the motions of looking concerned, rush through legislation and then wait for about a year for the report to come out. Wow. They are really concerned about motorists being fleeced, aren’t they? quote:

“The dollar has dropped, oil prices internationally have gone up, every time that happens, the Government’s tax take goes up because it’s basically a percentage of the fuel.” end quote.

Another reason why they will do as little as possible. The tax take actually gets bigger because of the GST content. 15% of $2.42 is more than 15% of $2.25. They are laughing all the way to the bank. quote:

“In my electorate Papakura for instance, people have to travel around, don’t have much choice at all and they’re the people paying for it.” end quote.

It is not just individuals, although they are certainly being squeezed at present. I heard a story of a small trucking company today where the monthly fuel bill has increased by $13,000 and, I assume that this is only going to get worse.

Those costs will have to be passed on, and then the price of everything starts to rocket. We will be looking at significant inflation in a very short time, the likes of which we haven’t seen for over a decade.

I feel sorry for the people on low incomes who voted for this government. Yes, you can always argue that it is their own fault. But for reasons known only to themselves, they believe that Labour is the party for the working man, and that they will look after the ordinary guy just trying to make a living.

There was a time when all of that was true but nowadays Labour is the party of the elite. Good on Judith Collins for calling them to account. We need more of this.