A ROTTEN BUDGET FROM A ROTTEN GOVERNMENT

As I speculated in a previous post, this Budget represents a shifting of wealth from labour to capital and represents a serious and orchestrated attack on the already marginal living standards of many workers and their families.

Someone on $40,000 - and great many New Zealanders earn less than this - will get in the region of $9 more a week. This will vanish like a puff of smoke, blown away by increased prices across the board and by rising inflation.

For the 475,000 New Zealanders who are in find part time or casual work these tax cuts are a sick joke indeed.

For the government to claim that no-one will be worse off because of this Budget is just risible.

The Maori Party stands condemned for supporting this Budget. Working class Maori have been once again been betrayed by a bunch of right wing and well-heeled Maori politicians. They get worked up about Pakeha pronouncing Maori words wrong but they support neoliberal economic politics that are damaging working class Maori communities.

Maori might like to consider why Tariana Turia congratulated the Minister of Finance Bill English for a Budget that will do nothing to improve their living standards.

It looks like all Turia is offering them is a more regimented welfare system led by the likes of beneficiary basher John Tamihere and his feckless mate Willie Jackson.

While the devil is in the detail the broad thrust of Government policy is for further cuts in public expenditure. This is being described as 'better delivery of services' and a move from 'low priority spending'.

The point of these cuts, as I said in a previous post, is not to improve the economy. Instead the purpose of the cuts is to produce a long-term reduction in the share of national income attributable to labour. There will be a fall in working class living standards and but these cuts will increase the living standards of the rich.

This Budget will only deepen the level of social deprivation and widen the level of social and economic inequality.

In the face of this new attack we can expect both the CTU and PSA leaderships to do what they always do - nothing.

If this Budget is appalling then the gutless response from the so-called trade union 'leaders' is equally as appalling.