Roger Douglas explains why he should not be in Cabinet
Roger Douglas is deluded if he thinks his policy is going to assist low income earners, irrespective of what ACT's policy is.ACT's policy has always been designed to ensure that disadvantaged people have the same opportunity, security and dignity as more affluent people do. ACT's objective is to move low-income people from a system that locks them into state dependency into a system where all New Zealanders can make constructive personal choices. Surely that is basic to the dignity of human beings.I`m not so concerned about what ACTs policy is designed to do, I`m more concerned what it will actually do and how Douglas is misrepresenting it with the full blessing of Rodney Hide. Douglas wants to remove Working for Families and provide tax cuts instead, but for families who are getting more WFF than they pay in tax, how is a tax cut going to ensure that disadvantaged people have the same opportunity as affluent people? He continues.
What's "hard right", then, about giving all New Zealanders a tax break so they can purchase a health policy like mine and get immediate treatment when they need it?... I also suggested we might rent hospital wards to doctors, provided they could demonstrate an increase in productivity of 50 per cent and pay them a fee for services provided. Well, that "tax break" is actually a policy providing the first $20,000 of income tax free and that won't be enough to assist low income people in paying a mortgage on a house, which is hardly giving disadvangaged people the same opportunity security and dignity as affluent people do - as affluent people will also get the first $20,000 of income tax-free while the poorest families lose Working for Families payouts.
Douglas wants the rich to get richer and the poor comparatively poorer. That's one reason why he should not be in Cabinet. Most , if not all, average families on the average family wage or under will not be be better off with WFF scrapped and a 20k tax free threshold.
There.