I'm gonna back up Steven Joyce on something that he’s said today.  

He's written a piece for the Herald arguing for why we need tax cuts - which is an argument at the moment. 

Because you have commentators and economists lining up saying Nicola Willis is doing the wrong thing by giving us tax relief. Because she can’t afford it, because she’s got a deficit and therefore she's basically borrowing for tax cuts.  

Steven Joyce's basic argument is that Kiwi workers deserve it because of the cost-of-living pressure on household budgets. And it’ll drive economic growth by increasing the reward for every hour of work you do.  

Bang on. I couldn’t agree more.  

Because I was thinking about how we stop this brain drain at the moment to Australia. I went back and looked at the 2025 taskforce recommendations  

Remember that?  that was the Don Brash led taskforce John Key commissioned to close the wage gap between us and Australia.  

And one of the key recommendations was to cut taxes.  Because it immediately closes the wage gap. And it fires the economy  

We are well overdue a tax cut. The last meaningful tax cut was from Steven Joyce himself... in 2017 in the Bill English government  

But we never got it,  because Labour reversed it when they won the election.  

I tell you what: we need Kiwis to feel like they are earning a just reward for the work they’re doing.  

One easy way to do that... is cut taxes  

Steven Joyce is right... Nicola Willis is right... tax cuts are right. 

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