Mr Luxon seems to be attempting a version of his hero SirKey’s Hermit Kingdom meme. Hawaii might be more suited to this miserablist–please keep him on Natzos until October 14.
I kinda agree with him , as a farm worker and dog trialer I rub shoulders with lots of wealthy people, fuck they moan alot,and some of them a just angry people,
I offered to swap places with them but none of them have taken my kind offer up 😉
It would be false of me to claim that I'm openly left in these circumstances, partly due to cowardice, also a boys got to eat, and arguing with stupid people is pointless.
That said the left is the only option of a thinking person who doesn't vote for self interest imho.
Matey I know its not cowardice…and… I can relate to the other 2. Ive tried to engage with some people…not even rich and/or right wing , for whom actually voting would be in their best interests.
Hard work….and/or not interested. But..gotta try.
Anyway…you are Rural, and what i've seen got a lot of sense.
I like your last sentence
That said the left is the only option of a thinking person who doesn't vote for self interest imho.
I do know of Rural's with similar thinking down South.
Be a good thing if the whole quote was published to give it in context. Here it is:
"We have become a very negative, wet, whiney, inward-looking country and we have lost the plot and we have got to get our mojo back," Luxon said to one farmer.
Oh tsmithfield, don’t go spoiling everyone’s fun. People are getting off in their darkened room on what they thought was said rather than what actually was said. Let them be.
Some people just love talking & hearing negative platitudes of doom & gloom. Those same people often look for a Saviour to lead them to the Promised Land aka a brighter future. Those same people believe just about anything that suits their narrative of fear & loathing. Those same people often vote National, ACT, or NZF and the likes, where bullet points and lazy populist propaganda rule. By their narrative we shall know them.
"We have become a very negative, wet, whiney, inward-looking country and we have lost the plot and we have got to get our mojo back," Luxon said to one farmer.
Negative, wet, whiney is a clear self-description of the National and ACT parties and their voters, but inward-looking is an accusation directed at Labour, the Greens and their voters.
The unfortunate truth is of free trade agreements with the EU and the impressively good deal with the UK.
And the PM is leading a trade mission to China.
And we also have the Fifa Women's World Cup here in July.
Queenstown airport is looking to expand and Christchurch airport wants to build another at Tarras.
The inward-looking claim is nothing more than a cynical political lie which some people revel in swallowing.
You might want to have a look at the date for your numbers.
The World Bank stopped calculating that number several years ago. You may find that the numbers you are quoting are from the days when Winston Peters still ruled the roost.
Thank you for this comment. I hadn't been aware that they were reviving this exercise. It had, as your link shows, started smelling rather more than a reliable exercise should. It was also being done using information that really couldn't be relied on and which was often nothing but guesses.
That isn't saying that New Zealand was corrupt in the way that China was but the evaluation done, for all countries, was pretty rudimentary and wasn't always based on up to date figures. Trying to cover all the countries in the world and doing it every year meant that if they didn't have a new number there was, as I understood it, a tendency to just assume nothing had changed since last year or the last year you did have something, if you didn't have an updated value readily available.
We need a proper Commerce Commission inquiry into bank profits [5 March 2023]
While I have the highest respect for Sir John Key, he was chairing our biggest bank, and most profitable company, within a year of leaving politics. No politician, let alone an ex-prime minister should be allowed to do that. The OECD standard is to wait at least three years.
…
The fourth question is why the New Zealand operations of Australian-owned banks are consistently more profitable than their home market.
Relative to incomes, Australian-owned banks have reliably made about 20% more from the average Kiwi customer than their Aussie equivalent. How is this possible, and why is this accepted by politicians and regulators?
But no reflection on the role opposition parties, and their proxies have played in making us like that. Relentless negativity makes for a whiney, wet country.
Uh huh…he resigned as NZ PM for reasons never satisfactorily explained–“to spend more time with the missus and kids” was more or less the offical line.
But, John Phillip Key has never resigned as a representative of international Finance Capital–which he has been most of his adult life. He is regularly roped in for this or that conference or toffs gathering like other ex senior politicians, and he injects himself into current events, e.g the swingeing “Hermit Kingdom” meme.
Gee. I changed "he" to "she" and "Key" to "Ardern" and "International Capital" to whatever the nutters on the other side of politics claim and it looked just the same as the moans made about Ms Ardern after her sudden resignarion.
But you can still feel his cold, dead hand on everything Luxton does. It's either convenient or naive to imagine Key is not consulted regularly. He did do an opinion piece/interview lambasting our ambition this weekend at the same time egg head restates the wet, whiney, inward-looking line.
Because he's a storyteller extraordinaire, I presume. They must've been impressed with the stories he told when he was a cabinet minister. Don't hold your breathe waiting for that "wider university story" to appear in the media. Media prefer narrow stories.
Still, if an enterprising journo finds someone who did actually buy his story, they could report how enthralling it was, eh? Then a uni prof economist would have the basis for a social science research project: surveying all such people, to measure the cost-effectiveness of the big spend. Universities are accountable to nobody, of course, but at least folks would see how many were thrilled by Joyce's tale-spinning.
Stephen Joyce does appear to be a bit of an old school con-man. The infamous “Stevie’s Hole” in 2017 appeared to cost NZ Labour several vital percent in the General Election.
Some Economists agreed with Joyces claim of a missing 11$bill, and more did not, but he got the media channel headlines and the perception was created.
Tl;dr – Russian's history is agin them so grassroots protest is unlikely, a coup is likely, and then it'll be back to business as usual with the West.
Meanwhile, Russia's neighbours will remain between the rock and the hard place they've been in post-USSR collapse. But now they'll know just how dangerous their terror-state neighbour is.
There will be no "popular uprising" in russia Hundreds of thousands of ru have perished, their economy continues to degrade, and there are hints of succession planning (e.g. statements by Nadezhdin and Zatulin). 1/
Max Rashbrooke points to one negative stat: "the social housing waitlist has spiralled upwards from 8,000 in March 2018 to 24,000 today." Labour apologists would probably claim that the escalation isn't entirely due to Grant's budgets during those years.
They will likely seek refuge by blaming global inflation. They won't be honest enough to blame neoliberalism or Labour's adherence to that failed ideology.
Labour does deserve credit for the upward trend in recent years in that MSD graph for 1947-2023 (ratio of benefits to average take-home pay). Fascinating to see how Muldoon maintained Kirk's socialism in his first term, then did a sharp reversal in 1979 – probably due to the winds of change blowing a whiff of Thatcherism at him.
Hey Dennis, good to see you back round these parts.
In respect to yr comment about Labour's adherence to the failed ideology of Neo-Liberalism, I wanted to ask you (or any other eader) for a title of the sort of system that has: strong government capacity for building infrastructure, a desire for local manufacture of clothing, textiles, pharmaceuticals etc.
A system that is a little more inwards looking, that can build national resilience and not be reliant on foreign shipping companies dropping stuff off to us while it is profitable for them to do so. A political system that wouldn't close Marsden Point and wouldn't allow Glenbrook to start atrophying so it becomes unviable.
Sorry, a lot in that outburst and I understand if ya don't want to acknowledge it.
Your phrase national resilience is a useful pointer, eh? I don't have anything better to offer as framing, tbh. Seems the world is trending towards interdependence – but that term is too abstract to serve as a meme/label. It can serve as ideology.
My Green trajectory points toward bioregionalism rather than nationalism, but nations will persevere as umbrella structures due to inertia. Comparative advantage will persist in guiding states as they shift in their economic policies. The case for retaining the elements of Muldoon's think-big strategy depends on pragmatic tweaking or clever economic design plus transformation.
I agree that "a little more inwards looking" is a sensible shift but having been globalist in outlook since adolescence I see activist foreign policy as essential (on a non-aligned basis). Could be Hipkins intends to frame our role similarly on his visit to China. He has done way better as PM than I expected, so good luck to him!
I am part way through Danyl McLaughlin's piece in the Listener (no link sorry, someone scanned it and sent it to me). "lost opportunities and gradual failure driven not by ideology but a lack of it". Sums up Hipkins and co nicely.
I am over 'the market deciding' in respect to our education, health, housing, infrastructure etc. It's all a race to the bottom and we folk love a bargain.
"lost opportunities and gradual failure driven not by ideology but a lack of it". Sums up Hipkins and co nicely.
That is very perceptive gsays.
I too think we have lost our ideology and the only ideology is to get back to govern after the election. The number of policies that have been thrown either on the scrap heap or the recycling pile is sad.
Covid was a major distraction…Labour gave vast quantities of money to businesses to stay afloat (many took it when it wasn't needed) that could/would have been used to build social housing instead.
Just want to re-up the mods here at TS. You do excellent work.
Look at what passes for "commentary" at TDB. I got dungeoned (and have since been let back) for pointing out the vitriol in the posts and comments (and I admit engaging in it a bit of it myself) but the ones like below are perfectly fine, as long as they stroke Martyn:
Fuck those stupid cunts at the standard beginning with Weka are making fucking it all up stupid greed and envy narratives. Martyn is correct these wealth taxes should be aimed at the productive capacity it should be directed at speculation and asset stripping. But all good. I think if Marama for one can hold back on the all cus men are evil narrative and sit down with some….
etc. etc.
Here I learn stuff, esp with the good articulate comments from those I agree and disagree with.
But all good. I think if Marama for one can hold back on the all cus men are evil narrative and sit down with some….
I think this is a rather nice Freudian slip 'cus men'. I don't like cuss men actually and would welcome someone holding back all the porn and bad language…..ah me! What a pity that he didn't mean that.
Touching that he feels Marama would be capable of throwing away the trans narrative for one second and focusing on housing or family violence.
Totally – it feels like yelling into the wind when commenting; but the worst thing about that kind of bluster for me is that it's alienating. It pits left against left making us look squabbly and ridiculous, when we have a much more formidable group of minds to get through to, if we were to amicably disagree but advance the common argument.
agree with this too. It's sobering. MB's headline "THANK BABY JESUS: Supporting the Greens finally pays off! Why their tax solution is a great start!" is bizarre. He's one of the main left wing detractors of the GP and has constantly undermined them. Also, ffs, the tax policy is a rewrite of the 2020 one, so what the fuck is he on about with the 'finally the Greens deliver' shit? Hosting his commentariat the way he does feeds this kind of left wing shooting each other in the foot stuff.
Again concentrating on the messengers and not the message.
If this is not what is meant in the policy then someone should say something. NOW.
I am not au fait with the figures but the idea was that retired people past their capacity to bring in a huge bucks by working and maybe living on National Super*, were going to be expected to pay huge figures just to remain in their own homes.
So we have this egalitarian madness of affecting everyone rather than on concentrating on fixing what we have now and then looking at what extra we need to do.
"The Green Party will introduce a 2.5% Wealth Tax on net assets – things like properties or shares. Couples who jointly own assets will only pay the Wealth Tax on assets above the $4 million threshold (minus mortgages and other debt). For an individual, the tax will only apply to assets above $2 million."
The $4 million threshold appears to be reduced to $2 million on that death.
Not only do they have reduced income, but any perceived value over $2 million will be taxed.
Given that property value increases have been inflationary and not related to material improvements, it means that there will be some who will not be able to afford the Wealth Tax on their homes they have paid for, and pay rates on. They may have lived in those properties for their whole married lives, and through no fault of their own, will now be compelled to move.
This failure to exclude the family home is poor policy. It also assumes that no personal sacrifices have been made to get to that position, and that the young couple living in a similar house with a big mortgage paying interest to a bank, is considered to be more justified to live in their house with no further costs – than a pensioner who has completed their mortgage.
"Almost all family homes in Aotearoa come under the threshold for the Green Party’s proposed Wealth Tax, whether individually or jointly owned. The Wealth Tax will be paid by 0.7% of New Zealanders – the wealthiest few property owners in the country, who can afford to contribute more. The Wealth Tax will be designed to ensure it is workable for people who own more than $2 million in assets but have only a modest income. These people, who are often retired, will be able to defer payment of the net wealth tax until their asset is sold. This is similar to the approach many councils already allow with rates payments."
Almost ALL family homes. I want to know how this figure was ascertained, and why people are required to borrow or defer to pay for a home they have likely paid extra over the years to acquire. Also would like to note that rates already tax people on their property values.
"The net wealth tax would cover most forms of wealth and assets, like property, shares, and bonds. These assets have known values because they are traded often. High value property such as artworks will also be included and can be valued on the basis of what they are insured for. "
Property values are volatile at present. So, the value is not really known or stable. No mention made of bank deposits or term investments.
"Everyday household goods like furniture, appliances, electronics, and vehicles with values less than $50,000 will be excluded for simpler application of the Wealth Tax."
Jewellery, precious metals, lego collectibles and a vast amount of other speculative investments appear not to be captured under this policy. Is there a concern that perhaps this encourages people to avoid solid investments in their own homes and businesses, and go into volatile speculation?
"Māori land under the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act would be exempt and so would the assets of Post-Settlement Governance Entities, such as land returned under a Treaty Settlement or vested in a Treaty Settlement Entity."
Well, apparently a policy can't be made without including a divisive criteria.
The scenarios in this policy document while feasible, are contrived and not reflective of those who will be affected by this policy.
A speculative tax policy would perhaps be better. If we include KiwiSaver portfolios – many working people will be close to passing the threshold by retirement with that and a family home.
This policy does seem to be punitive against those who are savers and not spenders, by assuming the ability to save has come from gross excess.
Given that property value increases have been inflationary and not related to material improvements, it means that there will be some who will not be able to afford the Wealth Tax on their homes they have paid for, and pay rates on. They may have lived in those properties for their whole married lives, and through no fault of their own, will now be compelled to move.
Why would the widow/widower not just defer until the house is later sold? Either when they naturally move, or on their death, or perhaps on passing to a relative? In which case there is no compulsion to move.
I agree such a compulsion would be problematic, I think it is in TOP's policy for instance.
@arkies link doesn't specify that the wealth tax is due EVERY year.
Actually, even the Green's full policy document doesn't ensure that is clear.
By the time retirement comes for many – this threshold may have been well breached. Especially if you are speaking of a working couple that have been putting money into KiwiSaver since it began. There is no indication that the policy will increase thresholds in line with inflation.
In order to pay a wealth tax of ‘only’ $25,000 (one of the examples given) – they may have to keep working to earn the approx $29K a year to pay that tax back. If values increase (while property materially depreciates) those earnings have to increase, and come with a secondary cost that it diverts money away from repairs and improvements, that are often beneficial to the elderly.
If house prices plummet – once again – there is no return of taxes, or change in material buildings.
Actually, the more I look at this tax policy – the more I think it is ill-conceived.
you haven't answered my question. If someone has a free hold house worth say $2.5m, and they can't afford to pay the $12,500/year in wealth tax, why would they not just defer payment until the house is later sold?
(or a couple with a house worth $4.5m)
By the time retirement comes for many – this threshold may have been well breached.
what threshold, and breached how?
There is no indication that the policy will increase thresholds in line with inflation.
not sure what you mean. Do you mean that the $2m threshold should increase as the cost of living does? Or housing prices? Valuations?
I think the underlying assumption is that those with "wealth" have accumulated it under a form of inheritance, passive income or exploitative practices. There is also an assumption that those with "wealth" have lived lives of excess or of discretionary purchase or service options.
That assumption is incorrect.
Wouldn't it make more sense to address those loopholes in tax policy?
Ensuring speculative property development was always taxed?
Ensuring exploitative businesses and labour practices were readily identified and stopped? etc
"If someone has a free hold house worth say $2.5m, and they can't afford to pay the $12,500/year in wealth tax, why would they not just defer payment until the house is later sold?"
If someone lives in a similar home that is rented, they will be materially living in a similar home to those that own their own home, but not compelled to move, or take on a form of debt in order to remain.
What assumptions must be made about the individuals in either scenario to justify that compelled donation to the government?
I think the underlying assumption is that those with "wealth" have accumulated it under a form of inheritance, passive income or exploitative practices. There is also an assumption that those with "wealth" have lived lives of excess or of discretionary purchase or service options.
This is your assumption about the policy and I'd like to know where you get it from because I haven't seen it in the policy I've been reading. It's certainly not how I see a wealth tax, and it looks like the Greens have put thought into how to protect people who have accrued assets but don't have much income.
"If someone has a free hold house worth say $2.5m, and they can't afford to pay the $12,500/year in wealth tax, why would they not just defer payment until the house is later sold?"
If someone lives in a similar home that is rented, they will be materially living in a similar home to those that own their own home, but not compelled to move, or take on a form of debt in order to remain.
I have no idea what you are on about. No-one in this policy would be forced to move or take on debt, that's the point of the deferral option. Is there a reason you won't answer that question?
Renters are compelled to move and take on debt all the time. Low income renters are particularly vulnerable. I can't believe you actually wrote that.
What assumptions must be made about the individuals in either scenario to justify that compelled donation to the government?
the assumption that in civil society we pay tax so society functions well and we all benefit from that. Fairly standard left wing concept of taxation.
There is one nation in the OECD without a CGT, wealth tax or estate tax/gift duty.
Not surprisingly the nation has a problem with property values too high to incomes and with too much focus on growing wealth by owning property, rather than the productive economy.
And from this comes a problem with poverty and dealing with costs such as rising rent cost, or high mortgage cost and or debt level on property purchase.
Yet then the claim of an onerous burden, to the point of hardship, if those who have over $2M of net wealth (individually) are subject to a wealth tax when compared to those who rent (they pay tax on the income they earn to afford to rent).
Seriously?
There will be no hardship because they can defer the charge until the property is sold. It's no more hardship than a property falling in value with a market correction. It's just a decline in their paper wealth.
For mine objection is class based, those with wealth seeking to secure it in its entirety to pass onto the next generation.
People in relatively modest houses in close-in suburbs to major cities can have property worth close to that. Some of properties in traditionally wealthy Wgtn suburbs like Kelburn, Oriental Bay Khandallah are having other less favoured suburbs now close on their heels.
Some people like me and two of my female friends are singles (through widowhood/divorce) so not even another person around to raid their Super.
The family home needs to be exempted.
All other valuables need to be included, property, shares, collections, jewellery, gold……
Meh in nations with CGT there was the exemption of the family home, then there came the MacMansion to gather up CG wealth without tax liability. Then either CGT was reformed to include the family home when it was way above the median value, or they brought in a wealth or estate tax.
You would be surprised at how many single people now own houses now worth say $1.5 -1.8m…these may get to $2m by the time we are much older. Some have other assets that would be caught.
The three women I mentioned earlier have no mortgages. I have been in my home since 1974 and one of the others was a new build in 1970. None of these have been built, occupied or had mortgages paid off other than with the earnings of the hard working owner/s let alone by underhand or exploitive means.
If you are not au fait with the figures then why are you responding to the policy as if you are?
When the wealth tax was mooted some time ago (2-3 years?) I did a fair bit of work running various scenarios through, & saw that it was a crock that unfairly imapcted at a low level on people who were asset rich and cash poor. When I saw the figures that had been done recently, and Ok you say they may be lacking it did seem that very little had changed or beeen refined.
I am not sure why the level is set so low.
I am not sure why the first port of call wasn't to find ways to rein in those (911?) who are paying less tax than someone earning $25,000.
The tax brackets are woeful, with bracket creep and we don't tax or catch the really wealthy. I feel that death duties or a stamp duty/transaction tax on sales would be fairer rather than coming down hard on people who have worked hard, have not been able to structure their own tax affairs along the way to minimise tax (ie by being wage & salary earners) and who will probably worry themselves sick at not being able to pay the tax and not being able to leave to children/grandchildren/charity.
Then there has been nothing said about the effect on the charitable sector. Many people who do not have children make huge donations to charities on their death. In Wellington we have the example of Margaret Doucas who left millions to animal welfare groups including the SPCA.
We have Lloyd Morrison the founder of Infratil who has funded several ambulances/medics for Wellington Free Ambulance.
Rather than taxing people who are cash poor, going through life, why is this not left until after death and a one step wash up similar to death duties. It sounds as though if it was charged yearly and presumably interest charged as well, that a person who dies 20 years later will not have very much left. I have based this on the fact that the amounts charged each year will more than likely increase yearly by the rate of inflation or the real estate inflation.
I don't like it, the starting rates are too low, the family home should be exempted. Why is the policy not aimed at the truly wealthy, landlords or those 911 people on megabucks paying PAYE at a lesser rate than a wage earner on $25,000?
If the wealth tax has as an aim to break up the big estates, as in the 1890s then this is not the way. If this is to extract $$$ during the life of an asset it may have some benefits for the Govt but can penalise owners. It is a grab by the Govt of private wealth, without exploring if there are better ways first. It does not logically follow to me that this form of tax is needed to pay for UBI.
I guess if the idea captivates we may find better options from the other parties.
The three women I mentioned earlier have no mortgages. I have been in my home since 1974 and one of the others was a new build in 1970. None of these have been built, occupied or had mortgages paid off other than with the earnings of the hard working owner/s let alone by underhand or exploitive means.
Thanks for a more specific example. So someone bought a house in the 70s. They took out maybe a $50,000 mortgage, and over 20 or 30 years they paid it off, as you say by hard work. Allowing for a normal rate of property value between the 70s and the 90s (let's say the house was worth $150,000 by the 90s), where did the other $1,850,000 come from?
You would be surprised at how many single people now own houses now worth say $1.5 -1.8m…these may get to $2m by the time we are much older.
Yes, from capital gains, not hard work.
As far as I can tell you are making an argument that people should keep the capital gains from the grossly over inflated property market of the past 30 years. Not money they earned from hard work, but wealth they accrued from fortune: being born at time that enabled low cost home buying and later massive appreciation in value of that home. The problem here is that the societal conditions that allowed that to happen also pushed a lot of other people into poverty. What the GP is proposing is to redress some of that balance.
If you are not au fait with the figures then why are you responding to the policy as if you are?
When the wealth tax was mooted some time ago (2-3 years?) I did a fair bit of work running various scenarios through, & saw that it was a crock that unfairly imapcted at a low level on people who were asset rich and cash poor.
in 2020 the policy was 1% on assets over $1m. They've raised the threshold.
I am not sure why the first port of call wasn't to find ways to rein in those (911?) who are paying less tax than someone earning $25,000.
The tax brackets are woeful, with bracket creep and we don't tax or catch the really wealthy. I feel that death duties or a stamp duty/transaction tax on sales would be fairer rather than coming down hard on people who have worked hard, have not been able to structure their own tax affairs along the way to minimise tax (ie by being wage & salary earners)…
In the GP plan, income tax for lower earners will go down. High income earners will pay more tax.
…and who will probably worry themselves sick at not being able to pay the tax and not being able to leave to children/grandchildren/charity.
except this is just not true. If a single woman has a house worth $2m, there is no tax owed. If she has a house worth $2.2m, then she would pay $5,000/year. If she cannot afford this, then this can be deferred until such time as the house is sold. Let's say that is 30 years down the track. That's $150,000. By then the house is going to be worth a lot more, but let's say it's not. Let's say it's worth $2.5m. The house is sold, the tax paid, and she is left with $2,350,000. How is this not enough to leave to children/grandchildren? Even charity if she wants.
Then there has been nothing said about the effect on the charitable sector. Many people who do not have children make huge donations to charities on their death. In Wellington we have the example of Margaret Doucas who left millions to animal welfare groups including the SPCA.
… We have Lloyd Morrison the founder of Infratil who has funded several ambulances/medics for Wellington Free Ambulance.
no-one is going to take their millions from them. They're just not.
Rather than taxing people who are cash poor, going through life, why is this not left until after death and a one step wash up similar to death duties
Almost like deferring payment until later 😉
It sounds as though if it was charged yearly and presumably interest charged as well, that a person who dies 20 years later will not have very much left. I have based this on the fact that the amounts charged each year will more than likely increase yearly by the rate of inflation or the real estate inflation.
this doesn't make sense. For a start it's not a fact, it's an assumption. What is that assumption based on exactly? Why are you assuming interest would be charged?
And if someone were to lose say $2.1m over 20 years, they'd have to pay $100,000/year. Instead of the proposed $2,500/year. Serious Shanreagh, I know it’s a big shift in thinking around tax and assets, but it’s not even close to being as bad as you imagine.
no-one is going to take their millions from them. They're just not.
Ok are you saying that people who are intending to leave all their assets to charity such as the Doucas' and Lloyd Morrisons of this world will not have to pay this wealth tax.
Because if you are then I think that it a very good idea. These two people in Wellington have had a huge effect.
The more ambulances that others supply the less that has to be raised to keep Wellington Ambulances free to users. The way we treat animals tells us much about our humanity.
I see that it would be wonderful if on death an estate going to charity would have this wealth tax abated in some way. perhaps say 50% to charity means 50% abated off the tax. Because when you think about it an asset of $2m going to charity is much better than say $150,000. If the charity is chosen well more of the actual money will get to the end users. A point that Ian Taylor was making.
Ok are you saying that people who are intending to leave all their assets to charity such as the Doucas’ and Lloyd Morrisons of this world will not have to pay this wealth tax.
No, I’m pointing out that if someone has $5m to donate to a charity, when they die they will still have most of that $5m to donate to charity even if they paid the wealth tax every year for 20 years.
Given the amount is at the 0.7% of the population level and might rise to over 1% later, is it too low?
Couples won't be paying till $4m. The impost is greater on those singles owning.
A consideration as to determining impact would be whether the amount is adjusted to the market/indexed or not.
At the extreme property might rise to $3M over time. Initially there would be no wealth tax. Then a little and finally peaking at $1m at 2.5% – $25,000 pa.
My conclusion is that the estate would be worth well over $2m on the house sale after making all the charges made
5 years zero, c10 years $10,000, c5 years $25,000 – little over $200,000. Interest costs within $100,000. Way less than the CG during the period.
So to your claim of
It sounds as though if it was charged yearly and presumably interest charged as well, that a person who dies 20 years later will not have very much left.
Yeah right…..probably was an exageration but what is not an exageration though is that the impact is greater on singles than a couple, as you have said.
In a fundamental sense, instead of policies that provide ways to improve the options and wellbeing of those that are struggling, it is a policy that believes redistribution – using nominal thresholds – of personal assets is a solution.
This policy makes a lot of assumptions, and it's only after reading it and having questions about the blanket assertions of it – that I can actually say – I see how such policies get the accusation of "envy politics".
The consistent failures of successive governments to address the regulatory and policy drivers of poverty, housing, and the cost of living rises is ignored.
This policy instead assumes those that made it through with assets – are the ones that should pay. I have numerous examples within my acquaintance that do not fit those assumptions. Relatives with access to free housing, on benefits for years, often have more discretionary spending than working households. This is not to say that this is the situation for all beneficiaries, but the point is, poverty needs to be measured in material and well-being, and balance of income vs outgoing terms as well as in nominal terms.
It also pre-disposes governments to benefit from allowing housing inflation to continue, as there will be a financial cost to any significant housing deflation – as it will be predicated on property values in many cases. As I am someone who sincerely believes bringing house prices down will significantly improve the balance between income and outgoings – thereby addressing poverty in one way – this is a real concern. If house prices do fall – then the wealth tax received for paper profits – becomes even more unjustifiable.
Some of those who work and own properties do so with costs to their material and mental well-being.
I mentioned this possibility in a Standard post a few weeks ago:
Also, the press release is low on details on calculations, and it does strike me that the demonisation of landlords, is perhaps making it's way to the critique of anyone who owns property. I guess we'll see.
The average value of a house is under $1M. This threshold is $2m single and $4m couple. If impacts on circa 1% of homeowners – as per 0.7 total (c65% who own their home).
The complicating factor is trusts (is there some sort of threshold?).
The consistent failures of successive governments to address the regulatory and policy drivers of poverty, housing, and the cost of living rises is ignored.
We had little cost of living inflation for two or three decades (apart from power and housing). And a fairer incomes and taxation regime is part of reducing poverty.
It also pre-disposes governments to benefit from allowing housing inflation to continue, as there will be a financial cost to any significant housing deflation – as it will be predicated on property values in many cases. As I am someone who sincerely believes bringing house prices down will significantly improve the balance between income and outgoings – thereby addressing poverty in one way – this is a real concern.
If the government wants to increase levels of home ownership (which Labour Greens and TPM do) – which prevents hardship and impost on government when people retire from work, they have motive to hold down property values.
If house prices do fall – then the wealth tax received for paper profits – becomes even more unjustifiable.
It is seen as justifiable elsewhere in the OECD, and property markets rarely fall in nominal value over time, but sometimes in real value (for several years or so) – and then only because they have become overvalued.
I can't be the only one brought up with the value of not going into debt if it can be at all avoided.
I was also brought up on the aspects of Aesop's fable of the grasshopper and the ants. While I have acquaintances that have benefited from unrealised capital gains on housing, I also know of others that have accumulated what you consider excessive wealth through excessive long hours of work and sacrifice.
Putting in 60 hour weeks into their businesses, and giving up time with their children in order to provide for them in later life.
The threshold takes no account of this difference, nor of the responsibilities of individuals or couples for others.
It also assumes that no provision for the others has been made by anyone at all during their lives. It is only the government that can provide – and it will do so by taking monies from those who own private assets over what they consider moral. (But most likely relates to their calculations to what they needed to get the funds for their policy).
How many avoid debt when buying a property? How many increase the mortgage to fund a renovation/improvement?
The idea that those owning property worth over $4m couples or $2m single face a burden with a debt charge against the property, when that is less than the untaxed CG growth of the property, is absurd.
I have no opinion about what amount of wealth is excessive, I do however acknowledge we are currently unique in the OECD in having no CGT, wealth tax or estate tax/gift duty.
and it will do so by taking monies from those who own private assets over what they consider moral.
Total nonsense, it's taxation. It appears that those who have – the top 1% are the ones who whine the most.
I am not au fait with the figures but the idea was that retired people past their capacity to bring in a huge bucks by working and maybe living on National Super*, were going to be expected to pay huge figures just to remain in their own homes.
If you are not au fait with the figures then why are you responding to the policy as if you are?
Here is the basic primer that Albert Park didn't bother to read,
2.5% will be charged on wealth over a set level i.e. it's not charged on the whole amount
that level is set at $4m for couples and $2m for individuals
this means that an individual with a house worth $2.5m (mortgage paid off), will have an annual bill of $12,500
that sounds like a lot, but bear in mind two things
very few people in NZ have a mortgage free house worth $2.5m
for those that are asset rich and cash poor, payment can be deferred until the asset is sold
Thus,
Almost all family homes in Aotearoa come under the threshold for the Green Party’s proposed Wealth Tax, whether individually or jointly owned. The Wealth Tax will be paid by 0.7% of New Zealanders – the wealthiest few property owners in the country, who can afford to contribute more.
The Wealth Tax will be designed to ensure it is workable for people who own more than $2 million in assets but have only a modest income. These people, who are often retired, will be able to defer payment of the net wealth tax until their asset is sold. This is similar to the approach many councils already allow with rates payments
(not sure what they mean by net wealth tax there. Anyone?)
So a woman in her 70s with a mortgage free house valued at $2.5m, who lives in her home for another 10 years then shifts into a smaller more manageable home, would owe $125,000 when her house is sold. Again, this sounds like a lot, but what she is left with is $2,125,000. And most of that will have accrued from capital gains via the insane property market increases of the past few decades.
I wanted to make this clear so you can form a picture in your mind of the couple sitting on a freehold properties worth $5,000,000 being asked to pay $25,000 in tax to support a safety net for the lest well off. This is not dangerous or radical. It's actually good and sensible.
"I wanted to make this clear so you can form a picture in your mind of the couple sitting on a freehold properties worth $5,000,000 being asked to pay $25,000 in tax to support a safety net for the lest well off."
An alternative way of making this clear, is to call it an annual compelled donation to the government.
What is any tax if not a compelled payment? How else do we fix accelerating inequality and insufficient funding of public services? Sounding awfully taxation-is-theft libertarian here.
Might be sounding that way. But don't people who will be affected ALREADY pay tax on their income, and rates on their property values? I haven’t suggested excluding those forms of taxation.
Because this tax is in ADDITION to income tax, it must be considered in terms of it's impact on the motivation to save and be frugal, and not just assume such wealth comes from a form of exploitation and indicates a material wealth and excess discretionary spending – rather than a paper one.
yes, it's a new tax. A taxation on wealth accrual that isn't currently taxed. That's all a given.
Because this tax is in ADDITION to income tax, it must be considered in terms of it's impact on the motivation to save and be frugal, and not just assume such wealth comes from a form of exploitation and indicates a material wealth and excess discretionary spending – rather than a paper one.
sure, but you haven't made the case yet, with reference to the actual policy, for who would be unfairly impacted and how.
The policy position doesn't assume that wealth comes only from exploitation. It assumes wealth comes from a range of factors, including excessive capital gains on housing, and the kind of large wealth that can be built up from privilege that relies on collective resources but doesn't pay its way.
"The policy position doesn't assume that wealth comes only from exploitation. It assumes wealth comes from a range of factors, including excessive capital gains on housing"
The last 30+ years of increases in housing valuations doesn't equate to material improvement either. Those who own these houses that have rapidly increased in price didn't do anything material to generate that extra value, they just happened to buy at the bottom of the market.
I’m not quite sure how there isn’t material improvement on a freehold house worth over $2m. I get it in principle, but in reality having that kind of asset opens a whole bunch of doors that wouldn’t otherwise even exist. For instance, one could sell it and buy a less expensive house if one was moving to another part of the country. Or one could use it to finance a second house or a business. So much potential that the person on the same income but no freehold $2m house doesn’t have.
And, the income that was being used to pay off the mortgage is freed up. How is that not a material improvement?
I’d like to know how someone even pays off a $2m mortgage.
Surely it won't only be property – the art collection, or vintage cars, or wine cellar can easily run into hundreds of thousands.
However, those are likely to be 'pre-valued' for insurance purposes. Property is often under insured (as we've seen during the recent climate and natural disasters) – and the Council valuations are basically just a guess based on the location, size of section and number of bedrooms.
The policy position doesn't assume that wealth comes only from exploitation. It assumes wealth comes from a range of factors, including excessive capital gains on housing, and the kind of large wealth that can be built up from privilege that relies on collective resources but doesn't pay its way.
I can't help thinking that if this the crux of the issue and its raison d'etre it is more about the politics of envy than anything else.
Phrasing such as the para above is not going to 'win friends and influence people' who may have felt that a tax like death duties or something similar when they are gone was Ok as a way to leave something behind to do good for the wider populace.
I think any wider dissemination or discussion needs to build on the basis of doing good rather than seemingly punishing people for being alive when economic conditions over which they had no control, were such that did not prevent excessive (my bold) capital gains. Let alone the 'privilege' I guess from having a family that has different priorities.
This sounds a mean spirited & punishing reason for introducing a wealth tax. Especially one which may catch the family home.
I think any wider dissemination or discussion needs to build on the basis of doing good rather than seemingly punishing people for being alive when economic conditions over which they had no control, were such that did not prevent excessive (my bold) capital gains. Let alone the 'privilege' I guess from having a family that has different priorities
Doing good? Did you miss what the wealth tax was intended to pay for?
Privilege in my sentence referred to people who accrued a lot of wealth. Not a $2m dollar house via capital gains, but millions of dollars that comes from their work but where that work relies on the whole of society. I wasn't talking about people in your situation I was pointing out that 'evil greedy people' isn't the only way to understand wealth accrual. It is a privilege to make millions of dollars, no-one does this by hard work alone.
Can you please explain how paying a small proportion of the large capital gains from unearned wealth to get NZers out of poverty is a punishment? I really don't get it.
My childhood home was in a state housing area. My parents bought it when it became available.
I remember my mother mentioning in her late fifties that they had finally paid off the mortgage.
Directly across the street were state houses that remained in Housing NZ. One of the families lived there for over two decades. We lived in similar houses in terms of size and quality, went to the same schools and played together.
This house is now worth about two million. AFAIK the walls will still be uninsulated. My mother is now widowed. If she was still living there after the death of my father, she will be expected to find money or accumulate debt to pay the wealth tax.
The family living on the other side of the road, in much the same house – will not be subject to that requirement.
So, as you say, the widowed person can choose to sell, reduce assets and move from a neighbourhood where they are known and have support systems in place. Or they can "choose" to accumulate debt, in the sanitised form of deferred payments, which is something that many older people have lived their lives avoiding.
@arkie mentioned:
"The last 30+ years of increases in housing valuations doesn't equate to material improvement either. Those who own these houses that have rapidly increased in price didn't do anything material to generate that extra value, they just happened to buy at the bottom of the market."
Long term home owners do not benefit from paper profits. It doesn't insulate houses, fix roofs, pay for maintenance or rates.
Address the failure of not taxing speculative housing transactions appropriately, rather than assume all property owners are materially better off when property values rise. Those who own single properties are often not as both insurance costs and rates rise.
There is going to be very well organised and funded opposition to any attempt to redistribute wealth (even slightly). This astroturfing is just the earliest beginning, I suspect.
The Bannon model; never mind the merits or otherwise, just confuse and distort.
“The Democrats don’t matter,” he had said to me over our lunch. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
darklol. Yes, research universities can redefine lesbianism and openly practice misogyny, because they're allowed to say what they want, but people are compelled to use specified pronouns or can lose their job for saying that male people are male.
1. The word gay has been taken from woman – some identified as gay women. It is now only, gay men.
2. The word lesbian is not associated with women, even though word gay is with men.
3. Gay (men) do not include the non binary, but lesbian does.
4. The inclusion of non binary, apart from women in the lesbian group – indicates inclusion of those born male who identify as non binary if they prefer female partners. Why? Because anyone born female who identifies as non binary and prefers female partners is a lesbian already.
I suppose the logic is if they accept people who have not transitioned as transgender women, why not the non binary born male as well.
They have made a compelling case for self ID as a development leading towards the primacy of the gay male in his identity and the subordination of the lesbian woman in hers.
Thus identified, in their own way, that their liberalism is one that will be subject to a counter-offensive because it is not a secure position to stand on.
Standard Operating Procedure
A non binary woman, born female, who prefers female partners is a lesbian woman.
A non binary man, born male, who prefers female partners is only going to interest bi-sexual women, not lesbian ones. And not as a lesbian, but as a person they might find more interesting than cis gender heterosexual men. Thus seen as bi-sexual women friendly.
A person born male and who transitions to the female form, and who prefers female partners – might interest bi-sexual women and even be a partner to a lesbian woman, as someone lesbian women friendly. But not qualify for a lesbian identity, or group except as someones guest/partner or honorary (a bit like how the transsexuals were accepted without question pre gender ID).
to link to a specific tweet, click on the date/time stamp on the individual tweet. This will set the URL in the address bar to that tweet. You can then copy and paste it to TS.
What you have done is just copy the URL/address of the person's account (presumably you were reading their timeline), which is why no-one knows what you are talking about. The tweet you were referring to has disappeared down the timeline.
Also, TS doesn't embed tweets atm, so best to also copy and paste the words in the tweet and put them on TS inside some quotations or such to make it clear they are quote. Still needs the direct link as well.
removing the word militant (to describe armed Palestinian groups – left referred to as as gunmen of).
"Hamas, the elected government of the blockaded Gaza Strip." It has been reverted to say, "Hamas, which runs the blockaded Gaza Strip."
The only thing is that there is this thing called accuracy – the last Palestinian elections were in 2006 and Hamas won. They were later removed from government in the West Bank by forces loyal to PA President Abbas in 2007 (there have been no elections since). The West and Israel recognise Abbas only.
Abbas was a fool and allowed Hamas to stand in elections for PA governance without signing up to the Oslo Accords.
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.Jonti Horner Meteors – commonly known as shooting stars – can be seen on any night of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Current concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere are unprecedented in human history. But CO₂ levels today, and those that might occur in coming decades, did occur millions of years ago. ...
Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 1 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Emotional scenes played out in the Invercargill courthouse on the first two days of the coronial inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones, in which the boy’s mother was accused of disposing of her son’s body. The second season of Newsroom’s award-nominated podcast The Boy in the Water ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
NZ a “wet and whiny place” according to Baldrick Mark Luxon.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132301337/christopher-luxon-calls-nz-a-very-negative-wet-whiny-inwardlooking-country
Well it certainly might be if you happen to be a poor farm beast subject to the mud slurry of “winter grazing” or a Groundswell/Fed Farmers moan fest.
Yes, we have had a bit of rain…Climate Disaster related…but he wants to give the farming faithful still more time out from taking responsibility.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130144119/national-promises-to-repeal-potential-farming-emission-changes
Mr Luxon seems to be attempting a version of his hero SirKey’s Hermit Kingdom meme. Hawaii might be more suited to this miserablist–please keep him on Natzos until October 14.
I kinda agree with him , as a farm worker and dog trialer I rub shoulders with lots of wealthy people, fuck they moan alot,and some of them a just angry people,
I offered to swap places with them but none of them have taken my kind offer up 😉
Onya mate! I rate that you maintain your "left" . And..sense of humour…essential
) Keep on
It would be false of me to claim that I'm openly left in these circumstances, partly due to cowardice, also a boys got to eat, and arguing with stupid people is pointless.
That said the left is the only option of a thinking person who doesn't vote for self interest imho.
Matey I know its not cowardice…and… I can relate to the other 2. Ive tried to engage with some people…not even rich and/or right wing , for whom actually voting would be in their best interests.
Hard work….and/or not interested. But..gotta try.
Anyway…you are Rural, and what i've seen got a lot of sense.
I like your last sentence
I do know of Rural's with similar thinking down South.
Priceless bwaghorn.
Negative, wet, whiny, inward looking? He's been spending too much time in the National caucus.
Be a good thing if the whole quote was published to give it in context. Here it is:
Not to much I disagree with to be honest.
Well, still not quite in the JFK, Obama or Jacinda league…
Oh tsmithfield, don’t go spoiling everyone’s fun. People are getting off in their darkened room on what they thought was said rather than what actually was said. Let them be.
Enlighten us with what was actually said, troll.
And nuzzling farmer nethers by kicking the emissions can down the paddock by five years is the epitome of positive, dry, stoicism.
/
Magical thinking kiwis
once were magic
Some people just love talking & hearing negative platitudes of doom & gloom. Those same people often look for a Saviour to lead them to the Promised Land aka a brighter future. Those same people believe just about anything that suits their narrative of fear & loathing. Those same people often vote National, ACT, or NZF and the likes, where bullet points and lazy populist propaganda rule. By their narrative we shall know them.
Yr first two sentences sounds like you are describing The Disinformation Project.
Nope, it’s the other way round.
"We have become a very negative, wet, whiney, inward-looking country and we have lost the plot and we have got to get our mojo back," Luxon said to one farmer.
Has Luxon taken to reading the Standard ?
'Mojo'- magic charm, talisman, a spell. Just what we need…… Bald Lemon Luxon singing the Blues. "I got my mojo workin' but it just don't work on you."
Negative, wet, whiney is a clear self-description of the National and ACT parties and their voters, but inward-looking is an accusation directed at Labour, the Greens and their voters.
The unfortunate truth is of free trade agreements with the EU and the impressively good deal with the UK.
And the PM is leading a trade mission to China.
And we also have the Fifa Women's World Cup here in July.
Queenstown airport is looking to expand and Christchurch airport wants to build another at Tarras.
The inward-looking claim is nothing more than a cynical political lie which some people revel in swallowing.
MOJO back .
Yeah baby yeah!!
I hunt down the cd compilations they used to have on their covers..
Quality stuff..
New Zealand is ranked by none other than the World Bank as the best country in the world for ease of doing business. What is Luxon's problem?
https://graphics.wsj.com/table/DoingBusiness
His problem is he wants to be pm, and he'll say and do anything to get there!!
You might want to have a look at the date for your numbers.
The World Bank stopped calculating that number several years ago. You may find that the numbers you are quoting are from the days when Winston Peters still ruled the roost.
Its dated 2019 on another site….after 2 years of the Labour government….NZ has probably gone further ahead since
"probably gone further ahead"
Now that is the confidence we need. I don't know whether I would bet on it though.
So positive left wing comment, draws whiney negative right wing response!!!luxon was right
A very positive result, but (apparently) some of the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings are a bit suspect – what do you expect from a bank.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_doing_business_index#Controversies
Thank you for this comment. I hadn't been aware that they were reviving this exercise. It had, as your link shows, started smelling rather more than a reliable exercise should. It was also being done using information that really couldn't be relied on and which was often nothing but guesses.
That isn't saying that New Zealand was corrupt in the way that China was but the evaluation done, for all countries, was pretty rudimentary and wasn't always based on up to date figures. Trying to cover all the countries in the world and doing it every year meant that if they didn't have a new number there was, as I understood it, a tendency to just assume nothing had changed since last year or the last year you did have something, if you didn't have an updated value readily available.
By the way the World Bank isn’t really a bank.
Likening the World Bank to a real bank would be unkind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZ_(bank)#Controversies
A 'culture' of greed? Say it isn't so!
https://www.fdic.gov/resources/resolutions/bank-failures/failed-bank-list/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barings_Bank#Corruption
The collapse of Credit Suisse earlier this year came just in time
But no reflection on the role opposition parties, and their proxies have played in making us like that. Relentless negativity makes for a whiney, wet country.
It seems deliberate and straight out of the Jong Khee emotionally abusive dad handbook.
He must be banking on enough people feeling naughty and worthless, and in need of a good smacking, to get him over the line.
This is definitely the strategy of Luxton's mentor, who openly spoke of only needing a certain number of voters.
Key resigned at the end of 2016, it's halfway through 2023 now dear boy.
Uh huh…he resigned as NZ PM for reasons never satisfactorily explained–“to spend more time with the missus and kids” was more or less the offical line.
But, John Phillip Key has never resigned as a representative of international Finance Capital–which he has been most of his adult life. He is regularly roped in for this or that conference or toffs gathering like other ex senior politicians, and he injects himself into current events, e.g the swingeing “Hermit Kingdom” meme.
Gone and not forgotten.
Gee. I changed "he" to "she" and "Key" to "Ardern" and "International Capital" to whatever the nutters on the other side of politics claim and it looked just the same as the moans made about Ms Ardern after her sudden resignarion.
Both stories seem equally ridiculous.
But you can still feel his cold, dead hand on everything Luxton does. It's either convenient or naive to imagine Key is not consulted regularly. He did do an opinion piece/interview lambasting our ambition this weekend at the same time egg head restates the wet, whiney, inward-looking line.
He may be long gone…but the hangover lingers…
And luxon is trying to do a key redux…
And it is kinda painful to watch…
He wants to take nz back to 2016…
Probably further back than 2016, back to when the little woman where breeding and feeding their men .
So Waikato Uni gave Steven Joyce a million bucks for
Because he's a storyteller extraordinaire, I presume. They must've been impressed with the stories he told when he was a cabinet minister. Don't hold your breathe waiting for that "wider university story" to appear in the media. Media prefer narrow stories.
Still, if an enterprising journo finds someone who did actually buy his story, they could report how enthralling it was, eh? Then a uni prof economist would have the basis for a social science research project: surveying all such people, to measure the cost-effectiveness of the big spend. Universities are accountable to nobody, of course, but at least folks would see how many were thrilled by Joyce's tale-spinning.
Stephen Joyce does appear to be a bit of an old school con-man. The infamous “Stevie’s Hole” in 2017 appeared to cost NZ Labour several vital percent in the General Election.
Some Economists agreed with Joyces claim of a missing 11$bill, and more did not, but he got the media channel headlines and the perception was created.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/04-09-2017/is-there-really-an-11-billion-hole-in-labours-election-plan
TEU–Te Whanga a-Nui-a-Tara members at the university are falling behind as this type of largesse is ladled out to Mr Joyce’s consulting company.
Seems like it’s these consultants ruining education…
Waikato must be mad or stupid. Joyce is a dinosaur-remember his RONS?
Likely the old boys n girls club at play with Stevie cultivating the sector leveraging his time when he was the minister.
What a basket case that institution is.
The National party are not serious people.
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/nationals-delay-and-hope-policy-for?publication_id=102473&post_id=127832466&isFreemail=true
Tl;dr – Russian's history is agin them so grassroots protest is unlikely, a coup is likely, and then it'll be back to business as usual with the West.
Meanwhile, Russia's neighbours will remain between the rock and the hard place they've been in post-USSR collapse. But now they'll know just how dangerous their terror-state neighbour is.
Madi Kapparov
@MuKappa
·
Jun 12
There will be no "popular uprising" in russia Hundreds of thousands of ru have perished, their economy continues to degrade, and there are hints of succession planning (e.g. statements by Nadezhdin and Zatulin). 1/
https://twitter.com/MuKappa/status/1667916593714667523
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1667916593714667523.html
The sixth Labour Government's track record on poverty reduction gets expert analysis here: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/12-06-2023/the-two-poverties
Max Rashbrooke points to one negative stat: "the social housing waitlist has spiralled upwards from 8,000 in March 2018 to 24,000 today." Labour apologists would probably claim that the escalation isn't entirely due to Grant's budgets during those years.
They will likely seek refuge by blaming global inflation. They won't be honest enough to blame neoliberalism or Labour's adherence to that failed ideology.
Labour does deserve credit for the upward trend in recent years in that MSD graph for 1947-2023 (ratio of benefits to average take-home pay). Fascinating to see how Muldoon maintained Kirk's socialism in his first term, then did a sharp reversal in 1979 – probably due to the winds of change blowing a whiff of Thatcherism at him.
Hey Dennis, good to see you back round these parts.
In respect to yr comment about Labour's adherence to the failed ideology of Neo-Liberalism, I wanted to ask you (or any other eader) for a title of the sort of system that has: strong government capacity for building infrastructure, a desire for local manufacture of clothing, textiles, pharmaceuticals etc.
A system that is a little more inwards looking, that can build national resilience and not be reliant on foreign shipping companies dropping stuff off to us while it is profitable for them to do so. A political system that wouldn't close Marsden Point and wouldn't allow Glenbrook to start atrophying so it becomes unviable.
Sorry, a lot in that outburst and I understand if ya don't want to acknowledge it.
Your phrase national resilience is a useful pointer, eh? I don't have anything better to offer as framing, tbh. Seems the world is trending towards interdependence – but that term is too abstract to serve as a meme/label. It can serve as ideology.
My Green trajectory points toward bioregionalism rather than nationalism, but nations will persevere as umbrella structures due to inertia. Comparative advantage will persist in guiding states as they shift in their economic policies. The case for retaining the elements of Muldoon's think-big strategy depends on pragmatic tweaking or clever economic design plus transformation.
I agree that "a little more inwards looking" is a sensible shift but having been globalist in outlook since adolescence I see activist foreign policy as essential (on a non-aligned basis). Could be Hipkins intends to frame our role similarly on his visit to China. He has done way better as PM than I expected, so good luck to him!
I am part way through Danyl McLaughlin's piece in the Listener (no link sorry, someone scanned it and sent it to me). "lost opportunities and gradual failure driven not by ideology but a lack of it". Sums up Hipkins and co nicely.
I am over 'the market deciding' in respect to our education, health, housing, infrastructure etc. It's all a race to the bottom and we folk love a bargain.
It ain't serving us well.
That is very perceptive gsays.
I too think we have lost our ideology and the only ideology is to get back to govern after the election. The number of policies that have been thrown either on the scrap heap or the recycling pile is sad.
Covid was a major distraction…Labour gave vast quantities of money to businesses to stay afloat (many took it when it wasn't needed) that could/would have been used to build social housing instead.
The regressive, condescending, gammon boot certainly fits.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/06/senior-national-mp-michael-woodhouse-apologises-for-calling-education-minister-jan-tinetti-a-good-girl.html
Woodhouse has form….
She should go and have babies
Steven Joyce, what a bloody Hypocrite
( NZ Herald today )
Has there is ever a politician in this country to be bigger arsole I have yet to see.
A greedy, money hungry bastard, he is.
Just want to re-up the mods here at TS. You do excellent work.
Look at what passes for "commentary" at TDB. I got dungeoned (and have since been let back) for pointing out the vitriol in the posts and comments (and I admit engaging in it a bit of it myself) but the ones like below are perfectly fine, as long as they stroke Martyn:
etc. etc.
Here I learn stuff, esp with the good articulate comments from those I agree and disagree with.
I, for one, am happy to be a "s.c." at the Standard.
I think this is a rather nice Freudian slip 'cus men'. I don't like cuss men actually and would welcome someone holding back all the porn and bad language…..ah me! What a pity that he didn't mean that.
Touching that he feels Marama would be capable of throwing away the trans narrative for one second and focusing on housing or family violence.
Cheers roy. I completely agree, I'm a fan of the 'my blog, my rules' principle, but I couldn't stand commenting in an environment like that.
Totally – it feels like yelling into the wind when commenting; but the worst thing about that kind of bluster for me is that it's alienating. It pits left against left making us look squabbly and ridiculous, when we have a much more formidable group of minds to get through to, if we were to amicably disagree but advance the common argument.
agree with this too. It's sobering. MB's headline "THANK BABY JESUS: Supporting the Greens finally pays off! Why their tax solution is a great start!" is bizarre. He's one of the main left wing detractors of the GP and has constantly undermined them. Also, ffs, the tax policy is a rewrite of the 2020 one, so what the fuck is he on about with the 'finally the Greens deliver' shit? Hosting his commentariat the way he does feeds this kind of left wing shooting each other in the foot stuff.
needs better trolls.
Eddie Clark
@Publicwrongs
Also looks like a wee bit of concerted sock puppeting going on.
https://twitter.com/Publicwrongs/status/1667988948864598
Again concentrating on the messengers and not the message.
If this is not what is meant in the policy then someone should say something. NOW.
I am not au fait with the figures but the idea was that retired people past their capacity to bring in a huge bucks by working and maybe living on National Super*, were going to be expected to pay huge figures just to remain in their own homes.
So we have this egalitarian madness of affecting everyone rather than on concentrating on fixing what we have now and then looking at what extra we need to do.
*Standard NZ Super Rates (for tax code M)
from https://sorted.org.nz/guides/retirement/this-years-nz-super-rates
Qualifying as
Weekly rate Annual rate
Single: living alone
$496 $25,811
Single: sharing
$458 $23,825
Married, civil union or de facto couple: one partner qualifies (and the other is not included)
$382 $19,855
Married, civil union or de facto couple: both partners qualify
$764 pw $39,709
Married, civil union or de facto couple: one partner qualifies and the other is included
$726 $37,744
Again concentrating on the messengers and not the message.
No, it's exactly focused on the message. The maths is obviously wrong.
no, Clark and Joe are pointing out that the same meme of lies about the GP policy is being shared on social media. That's likely to be astroturfing.
A number of us pointed out the problem with the tweet, including me here,
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1667845523636883458
Albert and co made fundamental reading error of the most basic social media information shared from the Greens about their own policy. Or they lied.
Their maths is incorrect.
But the scenario that was brought up by George yesterday (.https://thestandard.org.nz/this-is-what-ending-poverty-looks-like-in-new-zealand/#comment-1953928), brings to mind another common situation where one partner dies years before the other in retirement.
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/beachheroes/pages/17574/attachments/original/1686379147/Tax_Full_Policy_Document_v4.pdf?1686379147
"The Green Party will introduce a 2.5% Wealth Tax on net assets – things like properties or shares. Couples who jointly own assets will only pay the Wealth Tax on assets above the $4 million threshold (minus mortgages and other debt). For an individual, the tax will only apply to assets above $2 million."
The $4 million threshold appears to be reduced to $2 million on that death.
Not only do they have reduced income, but any perceived value over $2 million will be taxed.
Given that property value increases have been inflationary and not related to material improvements, it means that there will be some who will not be able to afford the Wealth Tax on their homes they have paid for, and pay rates on. They may have lived in those properties for their whole married lives, and through no fault of their own, will now be compelled to move.
This failure to exclude the family home is poor policy. It also assumes that no personal sacrifices have been made to get to that position, and that the young couple living in a similar house with a big mortgage paying interest to a bank, is considered to be more justified to live in their house with no further costs – than a pensioner who has completed their mortgage.
"Almost all family homes in Aotearoa come under the threshold for the Green Party’s proposed Wealth Tax, whether individually or jointly owned. The Wealth Tax will be paid by 0.7% of New Zealanders – the wealthiest few property owners in the country, who can afford to contribute more. The Wealth Tax will be designed to ensure it is workable for people who own more than $2 million in assets but have only a modest income. These people, who are often retired, will be able to defer payment of the net wealth tax until their asset is sold. This is similar to the approach many councils already allow with rates payments."
Almost ALL family homes. I want to know how this figure was ascertained, and why people are required to borrow or defer to pay for a home they have likely paid extra over the years to acquire. Also would like to note that rates already tax people on their property values.
"The net wealth tax would cover most forms of wealth and assets, like property, shares, and bonds. These assets have known values because they are traded often. High value property such as artworks will also be included and can be valued on the basis of what they are insured for. "
Property values are volatile at present. So, the value is not really known or stable. No mention made of bank deposits or term investments.
"Everyday household goods like furniture, appliances, electronics, and vehicles with values less than $50,000 will be excluded for simpler application of the Wealth Tax."
Jewellery, precious metals, lego collectibles and a vast amount of other speculative investments appear not to be captured under this policy. Is there a concern that perhaps this encourages people to avoid solid investments in their own homes and businesses, and go into volatile speculation?
"Māori land under the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act would be exempt and so would the assets of Post-Settlement Governance Entities, such as land returned under a Treaty Settlement or vested in a Treaty Settlement Entity."
Well, apparently a policy can't be made without including a divisive criteria.
The scenarios in this policy document while feasible, are contrived and not reflective of those who will be affected by this policy.
A speculative tax policy would perhaps be better. If we include KiwiSaver portfolios – many working people will be close to passing the threshold by retirement with that and a family home.
This policy does seem to be punitive against those who are savers and not spenders, by assuming the ability to save has come from gross excess.
Why would the widow/widower not just defer until the house is later sold? Either when they naturally move, or on their death, or perhaps on passing to a relative? In which case there is no compulsion to move.
I agree such a compulsion would be problematic, I think it is in TOP's policy for instance.
also, how many couples in NZ own a freehold property worth more than $2m?
see my policy explanation below, and arkie's link,
.https://thestandard.org.nz/this-is-what-ending-poverty-looks-like-in-new-zealand/#comment-1953928
@arkies link doesn't specify that the wealth tax is due EVERY year.
Actually, even the Green's full policy document doesn't ensure that is clear.
By the time retirement comes for many – this threshold may have been well breached. Especially if you are speaking of a working couple that have been putting money into KiwiSaver since it began. There is no indication that the policy will increase thresholds in line with inflation.
In order to pay a wealth tax of ‘only’ $25,000 (one of the examples given) – they may have to keep working to earn the approx $29K a year to pay that tax back. If values increase (while property materially depreciates) those earnings have to increase, and come with a secondary cost that it diverts money away from repairs and improvements, that are often beneficial to the elderly.
If house prices plummet – once again – there is no return of taxes, or change in material buildings.
Actually, the more I look at this tax policy – the more I think it is ill-conceived.
you haven't answered my question. If someone has a free hold house worth say $2.5m, and they can't afford to pay the $12,500/year in wealth tax, why would they not just defer payment until the house is later sold?
(or a couple with a house worth $4.5m)
what threshold, and breached how?
not sure what you mean. Do you mean that the $2m threshold should increase as the cost of living does? Or housing prices? Valuations?
I think the underlying assumption is that those with "wealth" have accumulated it under a form of inheritance, passive income or exploitative practices. There is also an assumption that those with "wealth" have lived lives of excess or of discretionary purchase or service options.
That assumption is incorrect.
Wouldn't it make more sense to address those loopholes in tax policy?
Ensuring speculative property development was always taxed?
Ensuring exploitative businesses and labour practices were readily identified and stopped? etc
"If someone has a free hold house worth say $2.5m, and they can't afford to pay the $12,500/year in wealth tax, why would they not just defer payment until the house is later sold?"
If someone lives in a similar home that is rented, they will be materially living in a similar home to those that own their own home, but not compelled to move, or take on a form of debt in order to remain.
What assumptions must be made about the individuals in either scenario to justify that compelled donation to the government?
This is your assumption about the policy and I'd like to know where you get it from because I haven't seen it in the policy I've been reading. It's certainly not how I see a wealth tax, and it looks like the Greens have put thought into how to protect people who have accrued assets but don't have much income.
I have no idea what you are on about. No-one in this policy would be forced to move or take on debt, that's the point of the deferral option. Is there a reason you won't answer that question?
Renters are compelled to move and take on debt all the time. Low income renters are particularly vulnerable. I can't believe you actually wrote that.
the assumption that in civil society we pay tax so society functions well and we all benefit from that. Fairly standard left wing concept of taxation.
There is one nation in the OECD without a CGT, wealth tax or estate tax/gift duty.
Not surprisingly the nation has a problem with property values too high to incomes and with too much focus on growing wealth by owning property, rather than the productive economy.
And from this comes a problem with poverty and dealing with costs such as rising rent cost, or high mortgage cost and or debt level on property purchase.
Yet then the claim of an onerous burden, to the point of hardship, if those who have over $2M of net wealth (individually) are subject to a wealth tax when compared to those who rent (they pay tax on the income they earn to afford to rent).
Seriously?
There will be no hardship because they can defer the charge until the property is sold. It's no more hardship than a property falling in value with a market correction. It's just a decline in their paper wealth.
For mine objection is class based, those with wealth seeking to secure it in its entirety to pass onto the next generation.
People in relatively modest houses in close-in suburbs to major cities can have property worth close to that. Some of properties in traditionally wealthy Wgtn suburbs like Kelburn, Oriental Bay Khandallah are having other less favoured suburbs now close on their heels.
Some people like me and two of my female friends are singles (through widowhood/divorce) so not even another person around to raid their Super.
The family home needs to be exempted.
All other valuables need to be included, property, shares, collections, jewellery, gold……
how many couples do you know have a $4m dollar house with no mortgage?
how many single people do you know with a $2m house with no mortgage?
It's not the market value of the house that is taxed, it's the actual assets above $2m or $4m
And, if someone who isn't income wealthy can't afford the tax, they can defer it until such time as the house that is so grossly over valued is sold.
If the family home was exempt, they'd have to lower the thresholds and my guess is this would create more problems than it solves.
Meh in nations with CGT there was the exemption of the family home, then there came the MacMansion to gather up CG wealth without tax liability. Then either CGT was reformed to include the family home when it was way above the median value, or they brought in a wealth or estate tax.
You would be surprised at how many single people now own houses now worth say $1.5 -1.8m…these may get to $2m by the time we are much older. Some have other assets that would be caught.
The three women I mentioned earlier have no mortgages. I have been in my home since 1974 and one of the others was a new build in 1970. None of these have been built, occupied or had mortgages paid off other than with the earnings of the hard working owner/s let alone by underhand or exploitive means.
When the wealth tax was mooted some time ago (2-3 years?) I did a fair bit of work running various scenarios through, & saw that it was a crock that unfairly imapcted at a low level on people who were asset rich and cash poor. When I saw the figures that had been done recently, and Ok you say they may be lacking it did seem that very little had changed or beeen refined.
I am not sure why the level is set so low.
I am not sure why the first port of call wasn't to find ways to rein in those (911?) who are paying less tax than someone earning $25,000.
The tax brackets are woeful, with bracket creep and we don't tax or catch the really wealthy. I feel that death duties or a stamp duty/transaction tax on sales would be fairer rather than coming down hard on people who have worked hard, have not been able to structure their own tax affairs along the way to minimise tax (ie by being wage & salary earners) and who will probably worry themselves sick at not being able to pay the tax and not being able to leave to children/grandchildren/charity.
Then there has been nothing said about the effect on the charitable sector. Many people who do not have children make huge donations to charities on their death. In Wellington we have the example of Margaret Doucas who left millions to animal welfare groups including the SPCA.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-woman-margaret-doucas-leaves-millions-to-spca-in-will/DPVQ2EUXTOXNXAUZ3QHYAHGTNY/
We have Lloyd Morrison the founder of Infratil who has funded several ambulances/medics for Wellington Free Ambulance.
Rather than taxing people who are cash poor, going through life, why is this not left until after death and a one step wash up similar to death duties. It sounds as though if it was charged yearly and presumably interest charged as well, that a person who dies 20 years later will not have very much left. I have based this on the fact that the amounts charged each year will more than likely increase yearly by the rate of inflation or the real estate inflation.
I don't like it, the starting rates are too low, the family home should be exempted. Why is the policy not aimed at the truly wealthy, landlords or those 911 people on megabucks paying PAYE at a lesser rate than a wage earner on $25,000?
If the wealth tax has as an aim to break up the big estates, as in the 1890s then this is not the way. If this is to extract $$$ during the life of an asset it may have some benefits for the Govt but can penalise owners. It is a grab by the Govt of private wealth, without exploring if there are better ways first. It does not logically follow to me that this form of tax is needed to pay for UBI.
I guess if the idea captivates we may find better options from the other parties.
Thanks for a more specific example. So someone bought a house in the 70s. They took out maybe a $50,000 mortgage, and over 20 or 30 years they paid it off, as you say by hard work. Allowing for a normal rate of property value between the 70s and the 90s (let's say the house was worth $150,000 by the 90s), where did the other $1,850,000 come from?
Yes, from capital gains, not hard work.
As far as I can tell you are making an argument that people should keep the capital gains from the grossly over inflated property market of the past 30 years. Not money they earned from hard work, but wealth they accrued from fortune: being born at time that enabled low cost home buying and later massive appreciation in value of that home. The problem here is that the societal conditions that allowed that to happen also pushed a lot of other people into poverty. What the GP is proposing is to redress some of that balance.
Citation needed. Afaik the 2020 policy also allowed for deferment of payments. Here's a post about it https://thestandard.org.nz/green-party-rocks-their-new-guaranteed-minimum-income-policy/
in 2020 the policy was 1% on assets over $1m. They've raised the threshold.
In the GP plan, income tax for lower earners will go down. High income earners will pay more tax.
except this is just not true. If a single woman has a house worth $2m, there is no tax owed. If she has a house worth $2.2m, then she would pay $5,000/year. If she cannot afford this, then this can be deferred until such time as the house is sold. Let's say that is 30 years down the track. That's $150,000. By then the house is going to be worth a lot more, but let's say it's not. Let's say it's worth $2.5m. The house is sold, the tax paid, and she is left with $2,350,000. How is this not enough to leave to children/grandchildren? Even charity if she wants.
no-one is going to take their millions from them. They're just not.
Almost like deferring payment until later 😉
this doesn't make sense. For a start it's not a fact, it's an assumption. What is that assumption based on exactly? Why are you assuming interest would be charged?
And if someone were to lose say $2.1m over 20 years, they'd have to pay $100,000/year. Instead of the proposed $2,500/year. Serious Shanreagh, I know it’s a big shift in thinking around tax and assets, but it’s not even close to being as bad as you imagine.
Ok are you saying that people who are intending to leave all their assets to charity such as the Doucas' and Lloyd Morrisons of this world will not have to pay this wealth tax.
Because if you are then I think that it a very good idea. These two people in Wellington have had a huge effect.
The more ambulances that others supply the less that has to be raised to keep Wellington Ambulances free to users. The way we treat animals tells us much about our humanity.
I see that it would be wonderful if on death an estate going to charity would have this wealth tax abated in some way. perhaps say 50% to charity means 50% abated off the tax. Because when you think about it an asset of $2m going to charity is much better than say $150,000. If the charity is chosen well more of the actual money will get to the end users. A point that Ian Taylor was making.
No, I’m pointing out that if someone has $5m to donate to a charity, when they die they will still have most of that $5m to donate to charity even if they paid the wealth tax every year for 20 years.
Given the amount is at the 0.7% of the population level and might rise to over 1% later, is it too low?
Couples won't be paying till $4m. The impost is greater on those singles owning.
A consideration as to determining impact would be whether the amount is adjusted to the market/indexed or not.
At the extreme property might rise to $3M over time. Initially there would be no wealth tax. Then a little and finally peaking at $1m at 2.5% – $25,000 pa.
My conclusion is that the estate would be worth well over $2m on the house sale after making all the charges made
5 years zero, c10 years $10,000, c5 years $25,000 – little over $200,000. Interest costs within $100,000. Way less than the CG during the period.
So to your claim of
Total nonsense.
Yeah right…..probably was an exageration but what is not an exageration though is that the impact is greater on singles than a couple, as you have said.
In a fundamental sense, instead of policies that provide ways to improve the options and wellbeing of those that are struggling, it is a policy that believes redistribution – using nominal thresholds – of personal assets is a solution.
This policy makes a lot of assumptions, and it's only after reading it and having questions about the blanket assertions of it – that I can actually say – I see how such policies get the accusation of "envy politics".
The consistent failures of successive governments to address the regulatory and policy drivers of poverty, housing, and the cost of living rises is ignored.
This policy instead assumes those that made it through with assets – are the ones that should pay. I have numerous examples within my acquaintance that do not fit those assumptions. Relatives with access to free housing, on benefits for years, often have more discretionary spending than working households. This is not to say that this is the situation for all beneficiaries, but the point is, poverty needs to be measured in material and well-being, and balance of income vs outgoing terms as well as in nominal terms.
It also pre-disposes governments to benefit from allowing housing inflation to continue, as there will be a financial cost to any significant housing deflation – as it will be predicated on property values in many cases. As I am someone who sincerely believes bringing house prices down will significantly improve the balance between income and outgoings – thereby addressing poverty in one way – this is a real concern. If house prices do fall – then the wealth tax received for paper profits – becomes even more unjustifiable.
Some of those who work and own properties do so with costs to their material and mental well-being.
I mentioned this possibility in a Standard post a few weeks ago:
.https://thestandard.org.nz/why-a-capital-gains-tax-is-necessary/#comment-1947494
Well, I can see it.
I guess others see a resource for covering failed government policies.
The average value of a house is under $1M. This threshold is $2m single and $4m couple. If impacts on circa 1% of homeowners – as per 0.7 total (c65% who own their home).
The complicating factor is trusts (is there some sort of threshold?).
We had little cost of living inflation for two or three decades (apart from power and housing). And a fairer incomes and taxation regime is part of reducing poverty.
If the government wants to increase levels of home ownership (which Labour Greens and TPM do) – which prevents hardship and impost on government when people retire from work, they have motive to hold down property values.
It is seen as justifiable elsewhere in the OECD, and property markets rarely fall in nominal value over time, but sometimes in real value (for several years or so) – and then only because they have become overvalued.
Edit: …Given that property value increases have been inflationary and not necessarily related to material improvements
Nonsense.
The tax is only on property worth over $2M (individual).
And it is not hard to charge unpaid rates and wealth tax against the home and collect the money when it is sold.
I can't be the only one brought up with the value of not going into debt if it can be at all avoided.
I was also brought up on the aspects of Aesop's fable of the grasshopper and the ants. While I have acquaintances that have benefited from unrealised capital gains on housing, I also know of others that have accumulated what you consider excessive wealth through excessive long hours of work and sacrifice.
Putting in 60 hour weeks into their businesses, and giving up time with their children in order to provide for them in later life.
The threshold takes no account of this difference, nor of the responsibilities of individuals or couples for others.
It also assumes that no provision for the others has been made by anyone at all during their lives. It is only the government that can provide – and it will do so by taking monies from those who own private assets over what they consider moral. (But most likely relates to their calculations to what they needed to get the funds for their policy).
How many avoid debt when buying a property? How many increase the mortgage to fund a renovation/improvement?
The idea that those owning property worth over $4m couples or $2m single face a burden with a debt charge against the property, when that is less than the untaxed CG growth of the property, is absurd.
I have no opinion about what amount of wealth is excessive, I do however acknowledge we are currently unique in the OECD in having no CGT, wealth tax or estate tax/gift duty.
Total nonsense, it's taxation. It appears that those who have – the top 1% are the ones who whine the most.
If you are not au fait with the figures then why are you responding to the policy as if you are?
Here is the basic primer that Albert Park didn't bother to read,
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/beachheroes/pages/17574/attachments/original/1686379155/Tax_Policy_Summary1.pdf?1686379155
Here's the gist of the wealth tax,
Thus,
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/beachheroes/pages/17574/attachments/original/1686379147/Tax_Full_Policy_Document_v4.pdf?1686379147
(not sure what they mean by net wealth tax there. Anyone?)
So a woman in her 70s with a mortgage free house valued at $2.5m, who lives in her home for another 10 years then shifts into a smaller more manageable home, would owe $125,000 when her house is sold. Again, this sounds like a lot, but what she is left with is $2,125,000. And most of that will have accrued from capital gains via the insane property market increases of the past few decades.
Good, quick simple explainer thread here: https://twitter.com/Tim_Batt/status/1668035800263708672
thanks! that's really good.
"I wanted to make this clear so you can form a picture in your mind of the couple sitting on a freehold properties worth $5,000,000 being asked to pay $25,000 in tax to support a safety net for the lest well off."
An alternative way of making this clear, is to call it an annual compelled donation to the government.
just so long as we can call all tax an 'annual compelled donation to the government as well'.
If you think that makes it clear…
I think it's messaging designed to convey something negative, so no 😉
(PS. How did you get your emoticon to wink on the other side? In awe of your skill)
What is any tax if not a compelled payment? How else do we fix accelerating inequality and insufficient funding of public services? Sounding awfully taxation-is-theft libertarian here.
edit: snap weka
Might be sounding that way. But don't people who will be affected ALREADY pay tax on their income, and rates on their property values? I haven’t suggested excluding those forms of taxation.
Because this tax is in ADDITION to income tax, it must be considered in terms of it's impact on the motivation to save and be frugal, and not just assume such wealth comes from a form of exploitation and indicates a material wealth and excess discretionary spending – rather than a paper one.
yes, it's a new tax. A taxation on wealth accrual that isn't currently taxed. That's all a given.
sure, but you haven't made the case yet, with reference to the actual policy, for who would be unfairly impacted and how.
The policy position doesn't assume that wealth comes only from exploitation. It assumes wealth comes from a range of factors, including excessive capital gains on housing, and the kind of large wealth that can be built up from privilege that relies on collective resources but doesn't pay its way.
"The policy position doesn't assume that wealth comes only from exploitation. It assumes wealth comes from a range of factors, including excessive capital gains on housing"
Doesn't equate to material improvement.
so? Please address the deferred payment issue, because otherwise we're going round in circles.
Why does that matter?
The last 30+ years of increases in housing valuations doesn't equate to material improvement either. Those who own these houses that have rapidly increased in price didn't do anything material to generate that extra value, they just happened to buy at the bottom of the market.
edit: snap again weka
I’m not quite sure how there isn’t material improvement on a freehold house worth over $2m. I get it in principle, but in reality having that kind of asset opens a whole bunch of doors that wouldn’t otherwise even exist. For instance, one could sell it and buy a less expensive house if one was moving to another part of the country. Or one could use it to finance a second house or a business. So much potential that the person on the same income but no freehold $2m house doesn’t have.
And, the income that was being used to pay off the mortgage is freed up. How is that not a material improvement?
I’d like to know how someone even pays off a $2m mortgage.
Has anyone addressed the issue of the calculation of nett wealth for the Greens proposed tax?
Pardon me if this has been explained elsewhere.
I haven't seen these addressed either.
Surely it won't only be property – the art collection, or vintage cars, or wine cellar can easily run into hundreds of thousands.
However, those are likely to be 'pre-valued' for insurance purposes. Property is often under insured (as we've seen during the recent climate and natural disasters) – and the Council valuations are basically just a guess based on the location, size of section and number of bedrooms.
I can't help thinking that if this the crux of the issue and its raison d'etre it is more about the politics of envy than anything else.
Phrasing such as the para above is not going to 'win friends and influence people' who may have felt that a tax like death duties or something similar when they are gone was Ok as a way to leave something behind to do good for the wider populace.
I think any wider dissemination or discussion needs to build on the basis of doing good rather than seemingly punishing people for being alive when economic conditions over which they had no control, were such that did not prevent excessive (my bold) capital gains. Let alone the 'privilege' I guess from having a family that has different priorities.
This sounds a mean spirited & punishing reason for introducing a wealth tax. Especially one which may catch the family home.
.
Doing good? Did you miss what the wealth tax was intended to pay for?
Privilege in my sentence referred to people who accrued a lot of wealth. Not a $2m dollar house via capital gains, but millions of dollars that comes from their work but where that work relies on the whole of society. I wasn't talking about people in your situation I was pointing out that 'evil greedy people' isn't the only way to understand wealth accrual. It is a privilege to make millions of dollars, no-one does this by hard work alone.
Can you please explain how paying a small proportion of the large capital gains from unearned wealth to get NZers out of poverty is a punishment? I really don't get it.
My childhood home was in a state housing area. My parents bought it when it became available.
I remember my mother mentioning in her late fifties that they had finally paid off the mortgage.
Directly across the street were state houses that remained in Housing NZ. One of the families lived there for over two decades. We lived in similar houses in terms of size and quality, went to the same schools and played together.
This house is now worth about two million. AFAIK the walls will still be uninsulated. My mother is now widowed. If she was still living there after the death of my father, she will be expected to find money or accumulate debt to pay the wealth tax.
The family living on the other side of the road, in much the same house – will not be subject to that requirement.
So, as you say, the widowed person can choose to sell, reduce assets and move from a neighbourhood where they are known and have support systems in place. Or they can "choose" to accumulate debt, in the sanitised form of deferred payments, which is something that many older people have lived their lives avoiding.
@arkie mentioned:
"The last 30+ years of increases in housing valuations doesn't equate to material improvement either. Those who own these houses that have rapidly increased in price didn't do anything material to generate that extra value, they just happened to buy at the bottom of the market."
Long term home owners do not benefit from paper profits. It doesn't insulate houses, fix roofs, pay for maintenance or rates.
Address the failure of not taxing speculative housing transactions appropriately, rather than assume all property owners are materially better off when property values rise. Those who own single properties are often not as both insurance costs and rates rise.
"annual compelled donation to the government."
i.e. to society, or the community. Sounds good.
"annual required contribution to community and societal wealth"
aka social contract
There is going to be very well organised and funded opposition to any attempt to redistribute wealth (even slightly). This astroturfing is just the earliest beginning, I suspect.
The Bannon model; never mind the merits or otherwise, just confuse and distort.
“The Democrats don’t matter,” he had said to me over our lunch. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-02-09/has-anyone-seen-the-president
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/advice/300903339/new-zealand-farmers-should-be-celebrated-for-addressing-climate-change
Please let us know where the party is so the Hawkes Bay and the Coromandel can attend!
At least 20 years of telling the rest of us to ggf and now they want us to pick up their tab too.
The latest insanity from Gender Ideology.
I am a woman – not a "non man".
Sorry admin – I don’t know how to resize the image.
do you have a link to the original tweet for this please?
nevermind, I see quite a few people are tweeting it 😉
https://twitter.com/search?q=john%20hopkins%20lesbian&src=typed_query
The world has gone quite potty.
It's a private research university with an endowment of $9Billion. Surely they can say what they want?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University
darklol. Yes, research universities can redefine lesbianism and openly practice misogyny, because they're allowed to say what they want, but people are compelled to use specified pronouns or can lose their job for saying that male people are male.
This is going to get real.
1. The word gay has been taken from woman – some identified as gay women. It is now only, gay men.
2. The word lesbian is not associated with women, even though word gay is with men.
3. Gay (men) do not include the non binary, but lesbian does.
4. The inclusion of non binary, apart from women in the lesbian group – indicates inclusion of those born male who identify as non binary if they prefer female partners. Why? Because anyone born female who identifies as non binary and prefers female partners is a lesbian already.
I suppose the logic is if they accept people who have not transitioned as transgender women, why not the non binary born male as well.
They have made a compelling case for self ID as a development leading towards the primacy of the gay male in his identity and the subordination of the lesbian woman in hers.
Thus identified, in their own way, that their liberalism is one that will be subject to a counter-offensive because it is not a secure position to stand on.
Standard Operating Procedure
A non binary woman, born female, who prefers female partners is a lesbian woman.
A non binary man, born male, who prefers female partners is only going to interest bi-sexual women, not lesbian ones. And not as a lesbian, but as a person they might find more interesting than cis gender heterosexual men. Thus seen as bi-sexual women friendly.
A person born male and who transitions to the female form, and who prefers female partners – might interest bi-sexual women and even be a partner to a lesbian woman, as someone lesbian women friendly. But not qualify for a lesbian identity, or group except as someones guest/partner or honorary (a bit like how the transsexuals were accepted without question pre gender ID).
More dodgy editing at RNZ
https://twitter.com/CranmerWrites
Surely some senior heads at RNZ need to role ASAP ?
I've got zero idea what the issue is. Hard to get upset by this unless you are an Israeli sympathiser.
'I've got zero idea …..'
That's been evident for some time.
And that comment is a Higher Standard? Yeah right.
Here's the article as published by Reuters so no, nothing at all dodgy about RNZ editing.
Cranmer, however….
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-settlers-clash-with-palestinians-flashpoint-west-bank-town-2023-03-07/
to link to a specific tweet, click on the date/time stamp on the individual tweet. This will set the URL in the address bar to that tweet. You can then copy and paste it to TS.
What you have done is just copy the URL/address of the person's account (presumably you were reading their timeline), which is why no-one knows what you are talking about. The tweet you were referring to has disappeared down the timeline.
Also, TS doesn't embed tweets atm, so best to also copy and paste the words in the tweet and put them on TS inside some quotations or such to make it clear they are quote. Still needs the direct link as well.
Really?
The edits
The only thing is that there is this thing called accuracy – the last Palestinian elections were in 2006 and Hamas won. They were later removed from government in the West Bank by forces loyal to PA President Abbas in 2007 (there have been no elections since). The West and Israel recognise Abbas only.
Abbas was a fool and allowed Hamas to stand in elections for PA governance without signing up to the Oslo Accords.
6 min guardian explains drivers of Australia's rental crisis and possible solutions
Would love to see a similar back-of-the-envelope for NZ.