With all the government's handbrake turns and wheelies, the Beehive may soon rival tracts of the Hutt Valley as a hot venue for boy racers of a Friday night.
A fair amount of rubber was burnt halting the Rotorua Māoriwards legislation, and the skid marks from reverse laps around the Three Waters reforms are still smoking. It's all pedal to the metal and hang the speed cameras now Labour has decided grocery regulation is urgent after all.
With Labour's re-election chances hairier than ever, more backtracks on controversial policies are likely, with potentially popular ones reaching ear-popping acceleration rates.
But oh, the whiplash when something unexpected shows up in the road. Revenue Minister David Parker's new mission to soak the rich came as a spray of road spikes. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was so spooked as to perform the equivalent of that heart-stopping accidental manoeuvre where you throw your gearbox into reverse while belting along a motorway. Her attempts to rule out a wealth tax, given Parker's Wagnerian declaration of vengeance, were less convincing than she might have hoped.
Ardern has previously ruled out a wealth tax both "this term" and "under her watch", but this week has fallen conspicuously short of reiterating that pledge with respect to next term. Her caution was probably because "wealth tax" can mean so many different things, many of which are always under consideration, from imposts on mansions, inheritance, vacant land and financial transactions to incursions into trust fund rules.
This was emphatically not the debate the government wanted to have now. What Parker announced was a new research programme into the affairs of the superrich to inform future tax-net finetuning. Alas, he made it sound as though Judgment Day was nigh. The message the media took was, “Big, fat, rich bastards' tax coming right up!"
This story is from the May 14, 2022 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 14, 2022 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Morning songs
On a recent early and glorious Saturday morning - it was 4°C outside I let the complaining chickens out. Chickens never stop complaining.
Upwardly mobile
Climate-friendly e-scooters are proliferating but there are stumbling blocks for users and non-users.
A potent brew
There's a correlation between moderate coffee drinking and reduced risk of colorectal cancer - but evidence of a causal link is still percolating.
Food saviours
A little bit of silliness lightens the mood on the serious topic of food waste.
Ode to old masters
The Polynesian sound and Auckland's ska-punk scene are remembered in new releases.
Weaving Welsh with waiata
Te reo meets Cymraeg in a musical project partly spearheaded by Kawiti Waetford, an opera singer with connections to Wales.
Culture warrior
Activist and scholar Ngahuia te Awek6otuku achieved several firsts in society but had to fight many battles to get there.
An age-old problem
Is our lifespan fixed, or might we be able to slow down or even abolish ageing? And what would we do if we could?
When Jim becomes James
'What would white people do to a slave who had learned to read?' This impressive reimagining of Huckleberry Finn seeks to find out.
Manhattan transfer
A Kiwi movie star led the charge for an Anzac garden atop New York's Rockefeller Centre that's still in use today.