Explosive: Chris Luxon threatens New Zealanders with The Big Fiscal Stick

Jan 31, 2022

Remember Day One of Christopher Luxon's role as Leader of the National Party? In his post-annointing speech in Parliament's Banquet Hall, he made this chilling remark (@ 0.45):

"I bring a fresh set of eyes. And What I see is that this place and this country, needs a real shake-up."

As I pointed out on 1 December last year, with a global pandemic impacting on every single aspect of our lives, the last thing Aotearoa New Zealand needed right now was "a real shake-up".

Fast forward to 31 January this year. Current National Leader, Chris Luxon, held a caucus retreat with his MPs in Queenstown. In an interview on RNZ, Mr Luxon was at pains to reassure listeners that National cared deeply about the poorest in our society. And nothing quite demonstrated a Tory’s empathy than having your Party's soirée in a holiday resort for the upwardly mobile.

No South Auckland or Cannons Creek for these empathetic folk.

Perhaps the most chilling aspect from the interview was another admission from Mr Luxon. If elected, his Party would be implementing strict fiscal cuts to government spending. At 7:47, he made this threat:

"...We're asking Grant Robertson to start to tweak and think about government spending, that's up 68% in five years, because if he doesn't start to get it refined and focus on the things that really matter, we will be making some severe cuts.
And if you care deeply about poor and vulnerable people, you don't want to make to make big cuts to programmes because they end up being impacted the most.
So my challenge to Grant is you know, fundamentally, if you care deeply about vulnerable people you would manage the books well and you would be [a] fiscally conservative."

Unbelievably, programme Host Lisa Owen did not challenge this explosive statement. Instead, she closed it down.

This was all the more unbelievable considering Mr Luxon had spent the entire eight minute, eighteen second interview promising that his Party would have "social heart" if elected as government.

Ms Owen failed to challenge the National Leader when he practically bragged his Party's intention to implement severe cuts to government spending.

Not only was he unchallenged during the live interview, the RNZ webpage report made no reference to his startling remark

This wasn't just a "free pass", it was the key to the whole damn city.

When Mr Luxon promised "a real shake-up" last year, it wasn't just a slip-of -the-tongue of a fresh-faced, inexperienced Leader. Two months later he has spelled it out:

"... we will be making some severe cuts."

Little wonder that National's guest speaker was arch-fiscal-conservative, UK politician George Osborne. This was the Conservative Party's answer to Roger Douglas and his cuts to UK government spending in June 2010 impacted harshly on British society:

Child benefit was frozen, housing benefit reduced and the income level for family tax credits was changed among other amendments aimed at saving $11 billion pounds by 2014/2015. Public sector workers were also up in arms when told they faced a two-year pay freeze. Osborne tried to stimulate business activity by cutting corporation tax, however.
With such measures, Osborne predicted back in 2010 that the U.K. would “balance the books” by 2016 and by 2013, buoyed by a better performance by the U.K. economy, Osborne committed himself to achieving a budget surplus by 2020 – a target he abandoned earlier this month after the Brexit vote.
Despite warnings over too much austerity from the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the U.K. was able to point to its robust economic growth and record low unemployment in recent years as proof that austerity had not damaged the economy.

With the present torrent of stories critical directly or indirectly of the government, the media pack is in full flight. They have the scent of blood of a supposedly 'weak' Third Term government and the baying hounds are in mindless pursuit.

We can expect more of the same in coming months.