Andrew Dickens: We're all talk, no action

It was a big deal for Rod Duke to go public with his concerns about his country yesterday.   The Managing Director of Briscoe’s was announcing his company’s full year result.   His company did well. Holding on to it’s revenue in a difficult year.   Rod and his team have been praised for their performance over a number of years. They’re smart operators who can wring blood out of a stone.  But it’s not part of the job description to pass comment on the government of the day. But he did.   Which is symptomatic of today's climate.   We’re sick of the doldrums and we want a captain to lead out out of the quicksand.   So, Rod as a Corporate Leader said the government needs to get it’s arse into gear and do something.   He said it’s been a year since the last lot so there’s been more than enough time to get proactive.   He believes the closer we get to an election the more pro-active the government will get but he’d like more action now.   But when asked what, he said it’s not his business.   And that’s the New Zealand problem right there.   We’re good at identifying problems but not finding solutions.   We ask our government to do something. They don’t so we vote for the other lot. They say have the answers but they don’t. And so we flip flop again with nothing happening.   Then yesterday we had the IMF coming out saying that New Zealand needs to lower it’s corporate tax because we’re becoming uncompetitive.   But they also say we need a capital gains tax because a country needs to balance it’s budget.     We need to spend but we also need to raise the revenue to spend.   So, the IMF come up with an answer.     Is the Government reducing corporate tax. Not so far.     Meanwhile is the Labour party championing a capital gains tax. Not so far.    Is any party offering both? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.