Inflation is back. Almost everyone in New Zealand is aware of it, except perhaps those working at Statistics New Zealand publishing the official statistics. You go and talk to people in the trades—they say sometimes prices and quotes only last seven days because their suppliers say prices are going to go up. You talk to people who are trying to hire staff—they say there is a bidding war on for skilled staff in this labour shortage. Wage inflation is going up, and what that means is that people have to earn more to buy the same stuff. As incomes rise so people can buy the things they need, what they find is they can't buy more stuff but their incomes have pushed them further and further into higher tax brackets. So the average amount of tax they pay on a dollar they earn goes up because more of their dollars are in higher tax brackets, not because they can buy more but because inflation's put the prices up—they're just paying more tax.