Copyright thestandard
Poor old Christopher Luxon cannot get a break. Here he is wanting to impress people that he is just a good old kiwi like the rest of us but he keeps getting hit by news that he is attempting to maximise her personal wealth at the expense of public institutions. He said before the last election that under his leadership the culture of treating taxpayers like an ATM would end. But his obvious instinct to maximise his personal wealth and privilege keeps popping up and ruins any carefully crafted PR spin job that tries to make him more relatable and likeable. This instinct was there from the start ofhis leadership. On day one of his reign as leader to deliver him to the steps of Parliament so he could appear all powerful the National Party hired a black limousine to drive him from his apartment across the road and onto Parliament’s forecourt, a total of 200 metres. One wonders why he could not have walked. Nicola Willis was also delivered by Black Mercedes. Obviously the visuals of being ferried around in expensive cars is more important to National than the climate and health benefits of walking. He who used to run an airline on the campaign trail in 2017 said that he would not use the Airforce planes to travel internationally and then, yes you guessed it, made a feature of their use and even recently bought a couple of new Airbus planes to underline how hypocritical and deceptive his statements were. Vehicles or airplanes, he sure prefers the upper end of the market. He who is wealthy and sorted and who used to own seven properties changed the Bright Line Test rules with retrospective effect so that he could sell some of them without having to pay capital gains tax. He purchased his Wellington apartment in 2020 for $795,000 and then sold it for $975,000. Under the Bright Line Test applicable at the time if he sold he would have to pay up to an estimated $70,000 in tax. Thanks to his Government’s policy change he paid no tax on the profit. Who can forget when he signed up to claim $52,000 of Taxpayer’s money a year to live in his own apartment. He said publicly that he took the accommodation allowance because he was entitled to although he did begrudgingly pay the money back. His latest effort is to contest Auckland Council Valuation of his Waiheke mansion so that he can pay less rates, $8,100 a year in fact. This is cleptocracy on a Trumpian scale. And it looks like he may have removed this land from the LINZ system which is no mean feat. At a time where ordinary workers are being offered effectivepay cuts Luxon’s efforts to increase his already substantial wealth will jar.
