In case you hadn't noticed petrol and diesel are a tad more expensive than they were, well yesterday for instance. And the day before that and the month before etc. etc. To be perfectly honest I don't care. I chose to drive a gas guzzler (in fact I have not one but two four litre cars at present and would dearly love a six litre jobby). I was a little surprised at the weekend when a can of 91 for the quad and other powered odds and ends and a couple of cans of diesel for the tractor came to $63 but I didn't contemplate running a hot bath and advising my survivors to buy shares in Gillette. I long ago learnt (not long ago enough to be fair) that worrying about things over which you have no control is a recipe for mental instability on a biblical scale. I personally can do nothing about the price of gas. I can chose to either buy it or not - end of story.
However there is a bloke in this land who could with one stroke of the pen influence the price of fuel and it would not be by writing out supermarket vouchers for all. The AA (the car mob not the ex -boozers) has come out today saying 'The gummint must do something'. The something they have in mind is waiving the GST on the excise levied on petrol. Good stuff this; tax on a tax that they can say is nothing they can do anything about. A barrel of crude goes up in price the excise charged as a percentage of that automatically rises as does the fixed GST on that excise. You couldn't print money faster but as the government does that as well they don't have to. The AA reckon this would reduce the price of gas by about five cents a litre instantly.
What is the reply to this call for a bit of commonsense from my least favourite man on the planet? Cullen says that to do this would involve compliance costs that would have to be passed on to the consumer and they wouldn't see any benefit and in addition 'If the New Zealand Government had changed GST rules along these lines 12 months ago, no one would have even noticed as the benefits would have been wiped out almost immediately by the global rise in oil prices'. If you can understand that you are a better man than I Gungadin. The arrogant dismissal of a suggestion from a group bloody Cullen is supposed to be serving is couched in terms that suggests he thinks we should be grateful that he hasn't cut GST on petrol excise. If we ask him nicely perhaps he could double it for us.
I really don't (and don't want to) understand how someone like Cullen works. What the hell goes on inside his head? Why does he behave like he does? He has no qualifications whatsoever for the job of running a country's finances and he runs the thing like his own personal wallet. He takes money off us and then makes it look like a big favour if he gives any of it back in any form. The country (who after all elected the slimy toad to parliament in the first place) has been well and truly shafted on the tax front for years and are crying out for some relief. 'Tax cuts' are bandied about as what we all want and are pinning our hopes on. Bloody Cullen has had nine years to deliver something along these lines and has flatly refused to do so. He has even given a bit and then snatched it away again - cruel and unnatural punishment. He is apparently now saying we can't have any relief this year because it doesn't fit in with what he, know it all big eared financial dick head, wants. Well sod off. For once in your pitiable life listen to what other people want and get of your patronising 'I know what is best for you' high horse. In fact, of course, tax cuts are not what we really need - although I won't be turning one down. What is really required is a realignment of the tax brackets. Having the top tax bracket cutting in for the rich pricks at $60000 is a joke and has to be fixed. I mean how much petrol can you buy for $60000 this week.
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