So hard to pick and choose but the $2.9 billion tax break for landlords still stands out as the coalition government’s most abject surrender to corporate interests. That indefensible handout should return to haunt the centre-right later this year, in what is shaping up to be an election fought on cost-of-living issues.
On that point, another egregious handout to property speculators has flown almost entirely under the radar. The IRD crackdown on businesses to recoup their tax arrears has led directly to a very high level of company liquidations – which in 2025 and continuing into this year, have been running at 15 year highs. Reportedly, some 70% of the “winding up” applications lodged in January and February (193 out of 275) were driven by the IRD.
Point being, these IRD-triggered bankruptcies have seen liquidators disposing of assets – including commercial properties and equipment – to property investors at fire sale prices.
On the face of it, the IRD crackdown – some of it chasing arrears generated by Covid, some of it GST arrears – may seem surprising, coming from a government that likes to paint itself as being the friend of small business (With friends like the Luxon government, our small business sector has no need of enemies). For IRD to be given the ministerial green light to carry out this crackdown in the midst of a recession has seemed particularly heartless.
Surely, the role of a good government is to nurture and assist small business through the hard times. (That’s what the Ardern government did during Covid). Instead, the IRD has used the current hard times to send these firms to the wall, generating garage sale disposals of their assets. Thanks to IRD, there have been bargains aplenty for landlords and property speculators. There are even guides on how best to avail oneself of the opportunities:
Acquiring assets like property or machinery from an insolvent company is very different to buying on the open market. Often it’s appealing to buyers because assets are sold at a bargain and sometimes sold separately – a unique opportunity for business owners and competitors.
Politically speaking, this situation should be a gift to the centre-left opposition, in that it demonstrates once again that the Luxon government exists to advance the interests only of the big battalions of commerce. It seems to have no time for the small, family firms doing it tough in metropolitan and provincial New Zealand. Urgently, someone needs to call off the dogs at IRD, at least until the long-promised economic recovery actually arrives.
Footnote One: Want another example of this government using small business as a punching bag? Take the planned scrapping of credit card charges, a change that had been tentatively scheduled to kick in from May 2026.
Assuming the legislation finally goes ahead with only minor changes, yes, customers will benefit from not having to pay the charges for in-store use of their credit cards or EFTPOS. But as things currently stand, small businesses – motel owners, retail firms etc – will have to suck it up, absorb the cost, and still pay the banks, anyway. Under current settings, those small firms just on-pass to the banks the fee that their customers have paid them. In future, they may well have to take the amount out of their own operating income.
You might have thought those very profitable Aussie-owned banks (that are already charging circa 19% interest rates on their credit cards) would be far better placed to absorb any scrapped credit card charges. But National hasn’t asked them to do so, under the draft legislation. As I said, this government appears to exist solely to serve Big Business, not the battlers running small firms.
Footnote Two: During 2025, 2,934 firms went into liquidation, the highest annual number since 2010. As mentioned, that pace has not let up so far, into 2026. This has put a correspondingly high amount of assets – commercial property, machinery and equipment – onto the market, in order to help repay creditors.
By happy circumstance, these fire sales have coincided with the Budget 2025 handout to business, which gave a 20% “Investment Boost” on the cost of buying plant, machinery and commercial buildings purchased after May 22, 2025. Reportedly, this provision enables an upfront write-off of 20% on the cost of acquisition during the first year, with the usual depreciation rate applying on the remaining 80%. IRD bankrupts then, Finance Minister Nicola Willis helps property speculators buy their stuff, via a tax write-off. Sweet as.
Clearly, bad news for some equals very good news for others.
Strait of Hormuz – as is, where is
Has Donald Trump got a great, great real estate deal to offer the world. The Strait of Hormuz, essential trade route, absentee owner in no shape to run it, going dirt cheap to anyone for the nominal fee of doing whatever it takes to keep the Strait open. Should be no problem. Call Mar-a-Lago, but be quick. Other countries that cannot be named at this point in time, have shown a keen interest in taking over responsibility for this very beautiful, very pristine waterway in a much sought after location.
Clearly Trump is looking for a credible chance to declare victory in Iran, and run for home. Luring other countries into sending ships to patrol the Strait of Hormuz is his way of suckering them into taking over the hard and dangerous part of the war. So far, no country in Europe or Asia has taken the bait.
TACO, meet WACO
From time to time, Trump earns flak for what his critics have called his TACO tendency (Trump Always Chickens Out.) Supposedly, many of Trump’s threats, boasts and bluffs tend to melt away, once the heat goes on/someone calls his bluff. (Yet as Slate recently pointed out, Trump is also remarkably stubborn at re-grouping e.g. over his tariff policy, and resuming the fight).
This TACO aspect of US foreign policy didn’t start with Trump. Long before Trump arrived in the White House, the US had been keen on starting wars and then bailing out once the economic cost and American casualties began to mount. It has been a legacy of the Vietnam war. Domestic politics mean that American lives are now held to be so innately precious that (if at all possible) other countries must be induced to send their troops to fight and die on America’s behalf.
Call it the WACO syndrome: Washington Always Chickens Out. Eight years after the invasion of Iraq, Barack Obama bailed out in 2011, and brought US troops home. Similarly, Joe Biden bailed out of Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war. Obviously, Trump now wants to bail from Iran. He never had a plan for the war in which the future well-being of Iranians was a remote consideration. On his watch though, failure is always something to be owned by other people.
That being so, if the war does drag on and energy prices tank the global economy that will be because NATO countries failed to police the Strait of Hormuz. If the war fails to dislodge the mullahs, that will be because the Iranian people failed to take the opportunity he had given them to rise up and win their “freedom.” In his book, Iranians will have only themselves to blame if their country turns into a failed state.
Once again a weak, ungrateful world will have failed America. That’s how Trump rolls. Other people are born to inherit the lethal messes that Washington creates, and then moves on.
Donne and Dusted
Recently, author slash musician slash music critic Nick Bollinger hosted a gathering in Wellington to commemorate the life and work of his father, the writer/activist Conrad Bollinger – who died suddenly 50 years ago, at the age of 46. Time and again, those who met Conrad Bollinger would come away feeling uplifted – by his warmth, by his inquisitive concern, and by his generosity of spirit. Somehow, he always made you feel that you were being seen.
In the late 1960s, I’d been tutored in English by Conrad. At the time, I was feeling a fish out of water, having ended up at Victoria University by accident, after a formative period in San Francisco and Berkeley. Conrad marked my essay on John Donne’s love poems. Those poems are justly famous for their fiendishly intricate metaphors for love. Each poem locks together like the insides of a Swiss watch. It means they’re very teachable.
For my part, I’d tried to argue that while Donne was writing clever, witty metaphors about love, Jefferson Airplane were seeking to communicate the awestruck, overwhelming sensation of being in love. It being the late 1960s, I’d tried to argue that the Airplane were in the service of a higher purpose.
Point being: 99 out of 100 English lecturers would have treated this as offensive rubbish, and tossed it in the bin. Conrad Bollinger seemed interested, and amused. He was encouraging. It helped make me feel for the first time, that maybe university wasn’t an entirely alien environment. The commemorative speech by Nick- who generously embodies many of his father’s qualities – can be found here.
And here is the Jefferson Airplane track central to the essay. Jerry Garcia on guitar.