John MacDonald: Need a receipt with that? No thanks, Christopher

I don’t know how many people I’ve spoken to recently who have said they’ve got no idea which party they’re going to vote for in the election this year. Just yesterday, a died-in-the-wool Labour leftie said the same to me. No idea who to vote for. Certainly won’t be Labour, they said. And the National Party didn’t make things any easier yesterday with this idea to start sending receipts to taxpayers. Such a stupid idea. According to what National leader Christopher Luxon said yesterday, the receipt you’d get would list what sector your taxes had been devoted to. Here’s a quote from what he said yesterday: “I am sick of taxpayers being treated like a bottomless ATM, to be raided at any time, for any reason.” No argument there. No one likes paying taxes. Even the so-called wealthy ones who came out the other day and said they want to pay more tax. I think, generally, we can agree that no one likes paying taxes. But I think we can also generally agree that we accept it and do it because we know we have to do our bit to pay for essential public services. But, do you know, I have never thought to myself “oooh, I’d really like to know what my tax has been spent on”. Never. Let alone been of a mind to go to the Government demanding evidence of what it’s been spent on. I mean, I know it goes into schools and hospitals and roads and everything else the government-of-the-day pours money into - and that’s enough for me to know. I also know that some of the tax I pay goes into things that I will never benefit from directly. Example: the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. No direct benefit for me. But who cares? I don't care. More than happy to do my bit on that front. And let’s say National does get in, and this stupid idea becomes reality. If you’re not a Pacifica person and you see that some of your tax has gone to the Ministry for Pacific Peoples - what difference is that going to make to your world? Nothing! Just like whatever other information National thinks it’s going to include in its tax receipts. Useless information. In Budget week, if that’s the best the National Party can come up with, then it’s laughable. And on the same day too that the ACT Party released its alternative budget. Which talked about income tax brackets, slashing the number of public servants and increasing the number of prison beds. Meaty stuff. You don’t have to agree with David Seymour’s politics and you don’t have to buy-in to his alternative budget, but yesterday ACT looked like a much more formidable challenge to Labour than National did. And not just because it was talking about stuff people care about. But also because someone has obviously had a word in David Seymour’s ear and told him to wind-back all the slogans and soundbites that he used to trot out at the drop of a hat. It wasn’t that long ago that all Seymour seemed to say was catchy slogans and I thought he was becoming a caricature of himself. Not anymore - but National’s started doing it now. “Coalition of Chaos” - might’ve been clever once, but that’s all I’ve heard from Christopher Luxon over the past week. Another gimmick National came up with recently was the two-for-one rule in its agriculture policy. Which means that for every new regulation central or local government wants to force on the rural sector, they have to take away two existing ones. Soundbites, slogans and gimmicks. And, as a voter, I’m sick of being treated like an idiot by political parties who think this shallow nonsense can win me over. Any political party. I don’t care who it is. If they think they can buy my vote with this sort of shallow nonsense, then I’ll call them out for it. Which is why today I’m saying that National’s idea of sending me a receipt for my tax is just lame and stupid. And if that’s the best it can do at the start of Budget week, then it is in trouble.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.