Who’s ripping off who?

The talking point at the moment is petrol prices. Are we being ripped off? The Commerce Commission says the fuel companies aren’t being competitive enough with their pricing, and if one looks at prices across the Tasman we certainly pay a lot more for a litre when the exchange rate is taken into account.

My story on P10, however, paints a more complete picture. It’s not just that we are paying more, but it’s also that a larger percentage of our salaries or pay packets are going on a tank of petrol than the Aussies pay. Almost double, in fact.

One of the reasons for this is the large amount of tax the Government puts on each litre, tax which comes out of our pockets. And the continual eroding of the amount of take-home pay we get as a result of other taxation, coupled with the fact that Kiwis get paid a lot less for their work than Australians.

What’s more, it’s going to get worse. Although we were promised there would be no new taxes in the first three years under Labour, this, like most of the promises made, has proven to be false. The next round of taxation is going to be slapped onto motor vehicles. Not luxury cars, as it is in Australia, but on the working vehicles you use every day.

No matter how you cut the cake, you can’t get a set of ladders and five lengths of 150mm pipe onto the roof of a Nissan Leaf or a Suzuki Swift, or put a wheelbarrow and a set of shovels inside, and you can’t take either of them onto a muddy building site. But these are the vehicles the Government wants us to drive.

Of course, the consultation process for the proposed emissions “feebate” scheme is unbelievably short – it’s probably expired as I write – and in any case this Government seems to totally disregard submissions made during consultation, witness the changes to vocational training, which, as I forecast way back in our April issue, were already decided even before they were first revealed to the public.

I do so hope things aren’t going to get worse, but with three different agendas at work in the Beehive, I won’t be holding my breath…