Ryan Bridge: Cycle bridges to nowhere and consultant money scrambles don't feel like love to me

Tory Whanau's admission she sold her car to help keep on top of the bills is ironic, given she's the mayor of a city now famous for its double-digit rate hikes. 

Wellington City Council saw an 18.5% rise this year and 13% the year before. Wellington Regional Council is up 25% this year. 

They reckon over the next four years many will be paying an extra $3000 a year. 

I hope the Mayor's got a bike she can sell, or some furniture, or a nice handbag - something she can whack on Trade Me to stay afloat. 

People are commenting that a salary of $190,000 a year is more than enough to live on in Wellington. I don't know her personal information and frankly I don't want to, this is not about her. This is about us, voters. Taxpayers and ratepayers. 

We're all in this forced ship being sailed by captains half of us didn't vote for on what can sometimes feel a bit like the Titanic. 

We can all work more, work smarter, invest more, grow our eggs a bit more, and many of us do. The median net worth of a kiwi household in 2021 was around $400,000. 

Some take great risks to grow theirs, and they deserve the rewards. Many fail and we don't talk about that much. 

Many have mortgaged their family home, and you'll find them inside there at night time, light on in the bedroom, not sleeping with the stress of how they'll make it work. Keep the lights on, innovate, keep staff on, hire more staff, even. 

Others work one, two, three or more jobs to improve their lot. 

And most people aspire to create more wealth, not out of shear selfishness, well some do, sure. But for most it's about providing for their family. Leaving something behind for their kids. Being set-up so their husband or wife is taken care of if they die early. 

For most, wealth is not evil, it's actually the act of loving those around you, those you care for. 

Which is why when politicians come knocking, demanding the so-called 'wealthy' pay more not just in income tax, but also taxes on imaginary money i.e. wealth taxes and the like, we get so tetchy. 

We're like my dog when you try get close while she's eating dinner – bark. Get away. It's mine. Hands off. 

The irony in this story is that Tory Whanau is part of the Greens who advocate for exactly this type of approach. 

They say tax is love, not wealth is love. And sure, when money is spent well and services delivered, maybe tax is love. 

But cycle bridges to nowhere, half a million-dollar bike racks, contractor and consultant money scrambles, they don't feel like love to me. They feel like abuse. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
People are talking about Tory Farno one hundred and ninety
thousand dollars a year, having to sell a car just
to get by, and I don't want to talk about
her and her personal finances. Frankly, this is about us.
This is about us, the voters, the taxpayers, the ratepayers.
We're all forced on this ship being sailed by captains
that half of us didn't vote for, and what can

(00:20):
sometimes feel a little bit like the Titanic. And we
can all work more to get more. This is salary
and wages, wealth. We can all work more to get more.
We can work smarter, we can invest more, we can
grow our eggs a little bit more, and many of
us do. The median net worth of a Kiwi household
in twenty twenty one was around four hundred thousand dollars.
And some people take great risks to grow theirs, and

(00:43):
they deserve the rewards of that. Many of us fail
in business, and we don't talk about that much. Many
have mortgage their family homes and you'll find them inside
there at night time, light on in the bedroom, not sleeping,
with the stress of how they're going to make it work,
how they're going to keep them on how they're going
to innovate, keep staff on, hire more staff, etc. Others

(01:04):
with one, two, three jobs to improve their lot. And
most people aspire to create more wealth, not out of
sheer selfishness. Well some do, sure, but for most of
us it's about providing for their families, leaving something behind
for their kids, and being set up so that their
husband or wife is taken care of if they are
to die early. And for most of us, wealth is

(01:26):
not evil. It's actually an act of loving those people
around you, those people you care about, which is why
when politicians come knocking at the door demanding a so
called wealth tax, or that the wealthy pay more, not
just income tax, but those imaginary wealth taxes too, we
get so touchy about it, don't we. We're like when

(01:47):
my dog's eating dinner and I try and approach it.
That's how we feel. As a collective, get away, it's mine,
hands off. The irony in this is that Tory Farno
is part of the Greens who advocate for exactly this
type of approach. They say tax is love, not wealth
is love, and sure, when money is well spent and

(02:09):
services delivered, maybe tax is love. But cycle bridges to
know where half million dollar bike racks, contractor and consultant
money scrambles. They don't feel like love to me. They
feel more like abuse. For more from News Talks B
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