Thank you, thank you, thank you Mr Key

Wasn’t it exciting to discover this morning that from this day forth you and I will pay 3 cents a litre more* to the government to fill up our cars, to partially pay for just a few of the many monuments the Prime Minister announced last week.  That’s the multi-billion dollars worth of monuments—roads, bridges, tunnels, stadia—that Mr Key and Mr Joyce will open, and you and I and our grandchildren will have to pay for.

Understand that this will not be the only imposition to pay for the many grand schemes the Prime Minister announced. “Motorists are being warned [by the Motor Trade Association] to expect more fuel tax hikes over the next few years to fund the Government's roading projects.”

And not just fuel tax hikes: it takes more than a few cents a litre to stump up the $20 billion necessary to keep the Prime Minister smiling.

Perhaps the best single comment on the multi-billion dollar announcement came from Labour’s Phil Twyford, who said that Mr Key should have made his announcement in a kindergarten. “Because they are the ones who will be paying for it. all.”

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* The government already takes just under 90c on every litre you put into your car. This pushes up the government’s take on every litre up to 92.3c, “about 42.7 percent of the pump price.”  Or to put it another way, your petrol costs about $1.25 plus tax.  So maybe, just to remind you who to blame for high petrol prices—i.e., not the oil companies who find, collect, process and distribute the petrol, but the Government who takes nearly half of the cost—why not put a picture of that nice Mr Key inside the petrol tank flap on your car, so you can thank him every time you fill up.