Gerard Eckhoff’s opinion piece (Wealth redistribution is not a simple or perfect tool, ODT, 25-0-20) was as revealing as it was appalling.
Mr Eckhoff revealed both the simplicity and purity of Act New Zealand’s approach to governance, and also its cruelty and unsuitability for the modern world.
We are moving deeper into a time when only unity and communal effort will ensure we have a decent future.
This may not be a financially rich future — as we’ve so long been extolled to strive for — but it will hopefully be a livable one in which we ride out a global pandemic and prevent the destruction of the natural processes on which everything depends.
It’s common for political parties to say we must get rid of this or that government at election time.
However, 2020 is different; what we absolutely must have after this election is an adaptive, forward-thinking government.
As such, the climate change-denying and poverty-denying candidates of what we call the political right are not fit for purpose. They are redundant — blinded by misplaced ideas about freedom and growth. However, it’s not their policies that would fail us should we elect them, it’s their inability to adapt and their even greater inability to provide unity or work towards common goals.
The development and maintenance of unity is indeed the single biggest challenge facing any government. We’re now dealing with a global pandemic — but climate change, inequality and housing inaffordability have not gone away. They are proving difficult issues, but they will actually tear us apart without unity. This is the ‘commodity’ — not more income or roads or freedom or a tax break — that is the first and foremost thing we need from the next government, and we’ll need everyone to help pay.
The I’m-all-right-Jack, self-centred denizens of the old right are clearly — blindingly obviously — not fit for the challenge ahead and this is what Gerard Eckhoff’s opinion piece shows us. Mr Eckhoff not only reveals his own position and that of the (principled-at-least) Act Party. He also gives a window on to the philosophy of National’s core supporters — especially those who have recently deserted the SS Collins and clambered on to the Good Ship Seymour.
Mr Eckhoff revealed the truth in complete starkness. He says that "farmers and small businesses do not, as a rule, make large or even any profit annually". They thus pay little or no tax. He admits that "they rely [instead] on a capital gain to ensure there is some money to retire with ...". Thus they barely pay any tax when they sell up either, so the obvious question is: when do they pay any tax on their effort at all?
In his article, Mr Eckhoff says 48% of all "income tax" is paid by 12% of all taxpayers. Well, these people presumably aren’t the entrepreneurial class he extols — he basically told us they don’t pay tax. No, that 12% will mostly just be earners of high salaries. It’s not them that this debate is really about, or who Gerard Eckhoff is really defending.
Instead, we should focus attention on the approximately one 10th of our population that a recent Guardian article estimates owns 59% of all assets in New Zealand. Remember of course, that the appreciation of these assets, which are often hidden in ‘trusts’, attracts little or no tax in New Zealand’s unbalanced system.
So come on all you entrepreneurs, farmers, business people and landlords, join the best examplars of your industries — the Climate Leadership Forum, the Sustainable Business Council, regenerative farmers et al — and get with the game. Join Andrew Willis and Chris Mackie of The Big Clean (featured in the ODT on September 25). They too plan to not make a profit but, instead of doing so to avoid tax themselves, they seek to better compensate their staff and to "actually give back".
All around us in fact, are great examples of corporates and business leaders waking up to doing what is needed to stave off devastating crises. So come on Mr Eckhoff, join Sky City’s board chairman who said recently that "some executives and directors are attracted by the siren calls of tax cuts and lax regulation. But those calls lead backwards and business must look forward".
- Simon Noble is a Dunedin-based consultant and keen observer of society.
