So much for the nuclear moment

Remember the emotional statement from Jacinda Ardern that climate change was our nuclear moment?

Like so much else since 2017, it was high on aspiration and low on action.

Imposing the carbon tax was accompanied by emotional rhetoric that was forgotten when fuel prices climbed and the cost of living started biting people and eating into Labour’s support.

The government reduced the tax supposedly temporarily but now it’s just extended it to June. Does anyone believe it will be put back on just three months before the election?

I am philosophically in support of lower taxes but think extending the tax cut is being done for the wrong reasons.

The government should stop using the National Land Transport Fund for anything other than roading and costs directly related to roading to enable the tax to be permanently lower.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“Today’s announcement will come as a welcome reprieve to families and businesses who were facing steep price increases at the pump in addition to all the other inflationary pressures driving up the cost of living.

“Opponents of the fuel tax reduction argue that those who use our roads should pay for their maintenance and improvement. We agree. But the reality is that road users are subsiding public transport services, walking and cycling routes, loss-making rail services, and advertising campaigns through the NLTF.

“The Government should return the NLTF to its original purpose – paying for our roads. If it wishes to continue to fund these other programmes, it should do so by finding savings elsewhere rather than force road users to pick up the tab. This would allow for fuel taxes to be kept lower than they were before the cut, increased investment in our roads or some combination of the two.”

Finance Minister Grant Robertson claims the cost will be covered by savings elsewhere, even though it’s all borrowed money.

If he can find $700 million to fund the tax cut extension why can’t he find $90 million to save the cuts being made to the new Dunedin Hospital?

As for that nuclear moment, cutting the tax showed the political impossibility of selling environmental policies that will leave us colder, hungrier and poorer.