Pensioners complained that they
won’t escape the rise in food prices that is now inevitable.
Higher-income earners with no children complained that they are yet again subsidising the country’s breeders, many of whom pay no tax anyway because of Working for Families. And all the while, the high earners are still stuck on a 39% tax bracket that this Government promised to scrap and still hasn’t.
The maths always made grumpiness possible. There are roughly 1.9 million households that miss out, and only 143,000 who get the $50 a week payment.
But you’d like to think there was a day when the rest of us, especially those who have raised children at some point or those who are comfortable on higher incomes, would have thought it only fair to help low-income parents feed the kids in a crisis.
Not this week.
Maybe that’s because we’re collectively running low on goodwill. We’ve done six hard years. A pandemic, three years of an on-off recession, and – just when we were turning a corner – this fuel crisis.
Our reserves are running low. Empathy and bank balances both.
It feels pretty bloody hard to imagine starting the recovery all over again. We know how this goes. First, the crisis with its associated restrictions. Then another round of inflation and a pounding of the economy. Then another slow grind back out of it.
Maybe we’re also a bit hooked on the Government teat. After all, we’ve had the wage subsidy, the cost-of-living payment and then the fuel-tax cut that got extended so many times we lost count.
I suspect many of us have got a bit accustomed to the idea of free Government money arriving to relieve our pain, and now, when the free money is limited to a select few, it’s hard to accept.
Which brings us to the Government’s election fortunes as a result of this crisis.
If this is the national mood, it’s hard to be sure how the crisis helps the Government in the polls.
Comparisons with Dame Jacinda Ardern and Covid aren’t worthwhile. Covid was a threat to life that freaked people out. Ardern could close the border and go full elimination to save lives. Her resulting polling surge was a vote of fear.
We may feel afraid again, but this time there is no way for the Government to save us without sending New Zealand even more broke. Plus, by the time we vote, the crisis of getting fuel into the country should be mostly over and we’ll be left with only a battered economy again. That usually creates the opposite of a polling surge.
It’s not to say the Government is handling this badly.
Willis has resisted the temptation to throw money at the crisis, as Grant Robertson did. That would require racking up more debt, which Fitch has just warned about. She stepped up to save the PM from his early mistake by taking over. Her communication has been calm and clear.
Fuel-wise, we are in a better position than Australia. None of our tankers has yet been diverted or cancelled.
But unfortunately, if there’s anything we’ve learned this week, it’s that New Zealand is not in a mood to be charitable.
Assuming the immediate fuel crisis is over by November, we’ll be left with the economic consequences. Slower growth, higher inflation and less money in our pockets.
That’s not a vote-winner.