Dave Stewart,
Piripai
In response to K Ingram’s letter to the editor (Beacon, November 6) I have some very good news for him.

He states: “However, the money pot is empty, so those requests for funding can only be achieved by increasing taxes or reducing the financing of currently funded recipients or reducing governmental services such as health care, education and transport et al.”

The good news is, the money pot isn’t empty at all. Thanks to the financial expertise of the previous government, Aotearoa has a very good credit rating and is able to borrow.

For example, the new National-led coalition government was able to borrow billions and billions of dollars to give welfare handouts with $3 billion every four years so landlords could increase their private tax-free wealth and we were well off enough to borrow $15 billion for tax cuts that only benefitted the very well off.

We have borrowed and will spend $7 billion just scoping to build new roads – note, not building, just scoping.

We have millions and millions of dollars to throw at donors, especially the tobacco industry.

Of course, to fund this we have to make 7000 plus hard working, tax paying public service workers unemployed and then harass and harangue them for not having a job.

We can’t fund hospitals and have to put up with people dying in waiting rooms or on endless waiting lists.

Hungry school kids lose nutritional lunches and we’re asked instead to accept prison food.

Programmes targeted at Māori communities are dropped in order to find the millions and millions of dollars it will cost to fund the six-month-long racist hate-fest called the Treaty Amendments Bill Select Committee to appease the demands of an extremist minority party.

The list of this new Government’s poor choices goes on and on and grows every day.

There is no shortage of money for the things they want to spend it on.

The problem is, they have got their priorities wrong.

The good news is we can do something about it and that is to never stop accepting these priorities are simply good examples of the kind of wasteful spending that are destroying out health system, educations system and our children’s future.

And the best news of all is that, as for increasing taxes, Mr Ingram will be pleased to learn that a recent RNZ poll confirmed what previous polls told us – that two thirds of voters support the introduction of a capital gains tax so people who are currently tax bludgers can be chased down and made to pay their share finally.

Oh, happy days.

The current situation is a terrible indictment on a Government that was going to change direction.

Sadly for the people who voted for them, that direction isn’t what anyone wanted.