Working with GST

...I thought these possum skin swimming togs of yours were supposed to be doing alright?

– Barry Crump (as himself) asks Reg (Peter Bland) about the state of Reg's small business

I see more forms, I see more tax, I see more paperwork, I see the dreams of Potter's Possum Paradise crushed like bugs on the windscreen of life. I have had it, Barry.

– Business owner Reg (Peter Bland) unloads about the new GST tax to Barry Crump

...settle down Reg, settle down. When you're in business you don't have to pay it, not in there. But there's one thing you've got to be really careful of with these things — keep all your invoices. Do that and you won't get caught by a short and curly question when GST comes in. 

– Barry Crump schools Reg on how to handle the incoming GST tax

The trendies love this gear: a pair of possum shorts, a 'Life, Be In It' tee-shirt: you're on the cover of Metro before you can say 'Tim Shadbolt'.

– Reg (Peter Bland) talks up his possum skin wares

Well thanks to the miracle of television I can show you, mate.

– Barry Crump goes meta in his blow by blow lesson about how GST works

Hey mate. I'm used to nature in the raw, but these are a bit strong aren't they?

– Barry Crump is alarmed by Reg's cardboard cut out body builders

GST was added to the mix in 1986. This ‘regressive’ tax hit the poorest the hardest, because people on low incomes spend a higher proportion of their money on basic goods and services than the better-off. The rate of GST was increased to 12.5 per cent in 1989 and to 15 per cent in 2010. Attempts to remove it from ‘essential’ items such as fruit and vegetables had had no success by 2020.

– NZ History article on the introduction of GST in New Zealand