RAM - Residents Action Movement

Media release 30 October 2008

Survey shows Kiwis want people bailed out, not financiers

"A once-in-a-lifetime economic meltdown is engulfing people and institutions around the world, including New Zealand," said Oliver Woods, who is contesting Auckland Central for RAM, the Residents Action Movement. He is also co-leader of RAM's 26 electorate and list candidates.

"Currencies, credit, trade, housing, commodities, emerging markets, prices and production are in escalating turmoil on all continents. This combined global chaos means we face a combo crisis for the first time since the Great Depression which began in 1929."

"As the worst economic storm in 80 years sweeps towards us, the Labour and National parties are politicking in the run-up to polling day. They are downplaying the grave blows that the combo crisis is going to inflict on New Zealand's modest income majority unless government fronts an economic turn-around."

"At the same time, John Key and Helen Clark are flagging economic stimulus plans which will be fatally flawed in terms of extent and objective," said Oliver Woods.

"Almost certainly, the extent of the funds to be committed will be too little to fix this combo crisis. And the objective of their economic stimulus is to stabilise the market, the very mechanism whose in-built instability caused the problems that now haunt us."

"To deliver balanced production to benefit the many, rather than short-term profiteering to enrich the few, we need a very different plan from what the LabNat politicians will impose on us," said Oliver Woods. "We are offering The RAM Plan as a people-friendly alternative."

Important elements of The RAM Plan include:

SPENDING STIMULUS

Remove GST tax from food.
$2,000 "baby bonus" to every mum.
Lift the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Tax breaks for secondary & tertiary graduates who remain in New Zealand.

SOCIAL STIMULUS

Free lunches in schools serving poor areas.
Protect victims of the housing bubble from forced sales.
Return to free education at tertiary institutions.
Restore the free right to strike to workers.

INFRASTRUCTURE STIMULUS

3% state loans for first-home buyers with modest means.
Offer cheap solar panels to homeowners.
Divert motorway funds into free & frequent public transport.
Place strategic industries which are failing under state protection.

INVESTMENT STIMULUS

Return the Reserve Bank to democratic government control.
Financial Transaction Tax that nets speculators for the first time.
Expand Kiwibank as the economic stimulus banker.
Relocate Super Fund, ACC & Kiwisaver investments to New Zealand.

"At the heart of The RAM Plan is the democratic principle that elected governments, rather than greedy banksters, should have the final say over our collective economic destiny," said Oliver Woods.

Over the past fortnight, RAM has surveyed 500 people at random in Auckland, Wellington and Whangarei on three financial questions. Leaving aside the small number of "don't knows", here are the results:

Do Australian-owned banks in New Zealand charge mortgage interest rates that are too high? - 91% say "yes".
Should the NZ government offer 3% interest state loans to first-home buyers on modest incomes? - 95% say "yes".
In a financial crisis, should the NZ government bail out the people rather than the financiers? - 90% say "yes".

"The responses to RAM's financial survey reveal that an overwhelming majority are sceptical about the big financiers and want government to help out the people first and foremost. The LabNat politicians would do well to heed the voice of the people," said Oliver Woods.

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