Budget is vital Key

LAST week the Australian Government handed down its Budget. This Thursday, our Government will do the same.

The Australian Government has levied a major tax on its huge mining sector.

The Aussies have then moved to redistribute this wealth.

No Australian is taxed on their first $18,200 of earnings.

All Australians with children will obtain up to $800 per baby in child support from the Government.

At the same time, it is estimated there are more than 400,000 New Zealand-born people living in Australia.

Thousands of them happen to be Maori.

When you put together the Medic Aid and their compulsory superannuation programmes, you start to understand how far out of step we are in our ability to compete with Australia.

In fact, it is a pipe dream under present Government policies.

This is not an attack on the National-led Government, it is an acknowledgement of the failure of successive New Zealand Governments, who have continued to practise policy by small steps. What will we need to do to stem the flow of our young people across The Ditch?

Can we ever contemplate competing with Australia on wages?

Do we fold the tent and accept that all we will become is an island nation that merely educates and then exports skilled New Zealanders into the Australian economy and we get nothing in return?

We need a New Zealand Budget this week that sets an ambitious course.

We do not need a Budget that is around the margin, taking $40 million out of prescription subsidies, adding $70 million to tertiary student loans, saving $24 million at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saving $43 million a year in lifting pupil numbers and dropping teacher numbers.

We run a real risk of not seizing control of a very difficult economic situation and applying major political solutions that might not be comfortable for the Government’s mates.

The Australians are fearless about making their rich pull their weight a bit more by paying a bit more. Sooner or later heartland New Zealand will buckle and break because it carries a burden that is starting to become unbearable.

If something is not done soon, I guess I will watch my kids playing up on the Gold Coast – the GC to John Key.