I think the problem with PG Tips is that everything is so bloody wishy-washy and qualified that tedium rises instantly to the surface leading to complete and utter frustration. It is like the ultimate fence-sitting, discussing discussions, and never actually achieving anything. Or even ffs, never actually saying anything. Nothing is ever said methinks.
There would seem to be no solution for these types, other than to banish them to local council ward board committee meetings about whether pansies or petunias should be planted in the roundabout.
Yep. He seems to be on a one man crusade to wreck the left’s chances in the next election. His behaviour improved for a while but I agree that he is back to his disruptive worst.
The problem is his control of the politicheck website. He has come out with a doozie this morning claiming that all land speculators do pay capital gains tax. The amount paid is exceedingly small and the number of transactions caught is also very small. But by applying a rather extreme interpretation and taking a few very short comments out of context he claims that Labour is not telling the truth.
This site works best when there is an unfettered sometimes robust exchange of ideas. But I have seen a number of discussion streams get wrecked.
Tax raised from Property Speculation and volume of cases nationally by tax year:
Year Ending 30 June 2011 386 Cases and $33,817,271
Year Ending 30 June 2012 232 Cases and $23,069,492
Year Ending 30 June 2013 (to 31 December 2012) 115 cases and $12,025,889
Cases closed at 30 June 2013 – 450 cases
If a 15% capital gains tax was applied instead those amounts would approximately halve.
Also from that article:
Property speculators targeted by IRD
Inland Revenue is cracking down on people who do not declare tax on properties they have made a profit on.
Under New Zealand Income Tax law, if you intend to make a profit on a property transaction, you are required to pay income tax.
“The urban myths that abound, if you own a property for six months, or 18 months or two years and you live in it as a family, then you are outside the net. Those are not true,” Tony Wilkinson, Buddle Findlay Tax Partner told ONE News.
Inland Revenue is drawing a hard line on property speculators, receiving a $6 million annual funding boost to audit property transactions.
IRD is doing something, and National appear to be boosting what they do.
Pete you should have done the research before making your claim doncha think? So a couple of hundred cases a year. And the figures are small when you compare them to the total tax take. Thanks for confirming my previous statement.
The CGT will apply across the board apart from the family home. Over time it will raise significant amounts of money.
And did you see how the number of cases is decreasing each year, interestingly at the same time that there have been cuts to IRD’s staff. National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.
“National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.”
In the link just above that you have just replied to:
Inland Revenue is drawing a hard line on property speculators, receiving a $6 million annual funding boost to audit property transactions.
The expectation is that this will recover about $45m.
It’s impossible to know how much potential tax revenue is going into a black hole, but it is certainly substantial. A clue can be found in this year’s budget, which provided an extra $6.65m to chase property investment tax compliance. The expectation is it will return about $45m a year.
Inland Revenue’s general reckoning is that the department will return in revenue five times the extra amount invested to investigate big-ticket areas such as property, the hidden economy and claimed losses.
the problem with property speculators and paying income tax in our country is that the vast bulk of rental property owners are simply dishonest lying bastards and bastardettes. They nearly all buy with a view to banking the gain in value and have little concern in the rent.
Most NZ property investors simply lie about their intent when purchasing property. Liars.
It is the single biggest rort in NZ and I think we need to introduce drug-testing on property owners and stop them from going to Australia, such is the cost to the taxpayer.
Avoidance or evasion on property transactions has been a problem for yonks, and there’s a big grey area on ‘intent’ but governments have gradually been addressing it.
Because proof of intent at the time of buying a property is central to whether tax should be paid, liability is not clear without some investigation and resources are always best directed to areas where the potential return is greatest.
Investigators are more likely to be on the trail of dealers or speculators turning over several properties a year than the little guy who, over a lifetime, buys a couple of do-ups on rising markets and makes a nice little tax-free earner.
However, don’t count on that so much in the future.
The department receives data on every property transaction in New Zealand and says that after a few years focusing on education and awareness, it is moving to “a targeted audit response” with “increased risk assessment and profiling of cases along with developing a range of tools including complex data-matching, analysis, research and evaluation”.
And it adds: “By improving our approach and techniques regarding compliance, we are able to better identify those who may be deliberately breaking the rules.”
Pete, it is only a problem of enforcement, not a problem of existence, as your quote indicates. My point stands.
Bottom line though – government raises revenue by taxing people who make money. Problem is that they only tax some of the money-making, i.e. wage and salary and income earners. There are several other ways of making money which are not taxed, such as making money by capital. Example: Some make money by pouring all their income into the capital value of their farm and minimise their income. Why should they be exempt and bludge off the wage and salary earner? Another rort.
If the government is to raise revenue by taxing money-making then all forms of money-making should be taxed. For consistency and credibility purposes ….
I don’t think anyone is ever going to read ScrittiPolitti.
But yep, Pete is on a mission to make this site unreadable. I have no idea why he is tolerated. He has no interest in or sympathy for the labour movement whatsoever.
When did thestandard become a free-for-all for right-wingers?
As for PG (Personal Grievance). I’ve been coming here on and off for two and half years and particularly enjoyed the time when PG was “on leave”. There was a time leading up to that “leave” where there was a loose consensus among commenters to simply adopt the 🙄 as a response to anything he said. Not only was it entertaining and humourous to see a huge line of 🙄 all down the page it also took all the power away from him and minimised the disruption.
I humbly would make the suggestion that the 🙄 exercise is revived.
Yep. As far as I can see, PG’s problem is a tendency to use slippery logic and very shallow analysis. It is why I rarely read or comment on his comments these days – waste of my time. More important things to focus on.
Ironic felix. You’re not trying to tell authors or moderators what to do are you? Sounds a bit like it. Contributing something positive is less stressful.
So Pete while you are here your latest politicheck post (http://www.politicheck.org.nz/factchecks/2014/4/29/property-speculators-are-taxed) is full of bunkum. Basically you are saying that because there is an obligation for speculators to pay capital gains tax they all pay capital gains tax. But if you had checked you would see that the number of transactions caught are exceedingly small and if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.
So you have twisted the words out of shape and then come out with an adverse conclusion.
And looking at the site you are wrecking it. There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.
Go on. Concisely justify your latest claim. Use figures and stuff. Then compare this with Labour’s draft figures from last time.
” if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
That’s not correct.
If you buy a property intending to:
– resell it, or
– you intend to sell it after making improvements to it
you’re likely to be a speculator or a dealer. Renting your property temporarily doesn’t change your tax treatment either – you’re still a speculator or a dealer.
How long do I need to hold the property to make it a capital gain?
There is no time limit. If you buy a property with the firm intention of resale, it doesn’t matter how long you hold it – the gain on resale will be taxable (and any loss may be tax-deductible).
Example
You buy a property with a firm plan to resell it for a profit. The property market falls and you decide to hold onto it instead. You rent it out for 15 years and then sell it when the prices are again rising rapidly. Any gain on that sale 15 years later is likely to be taxable.
Um, you can buy a house intending to rent it and intending to sell it for a capital gain. Read the IRD link.
Do you think speculators wouldn’t rent out a house if they intend to sell it? Unless it was a very quick flick that doesn’t make business sense much if not all what you gain in capital you would lose in cost of capital and non-earnings.
Lol. By all means adopt that statement weka. My hazy memory tells me that the 🙄 was previously adopted because it was non verbal and non aggressive. Also, very it’s funny, a massive army of 🙄 marching on for miles down the page. It says so much.
If you’re an investor you buy a property to use it to generate ongoing rental income and not with any firm intent of resale. The property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable (apart from clawing back any depreciation, which is now recoverable).
Pete have you actually read what you are typing? It makes no sense. My head hurts …
I am sorry everyone I have sparked this totally unproductive complete waste of time debate. It is as if the protagonists are arguing in different languages …
Yes, that refers to an investor, which IRD clearly differentiates from speculators and dealers.
A few posts up thread, MS posted, “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
You replied to that post, quoting those very words, stating, “That’s not correct.”
With me so far?
I quoted an extract from the IRD guidelines you quoted, showing that MS was correct and you were wrong – if someone buy a property to use it to generate ongoing rental income and not with any firm intent of resale the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.
You comprehend that the words I have marked in bold (which are taken near verbatim from the extract I quoted) confirm that if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then capial gains taxis not payable?
Virtually the same words that MS used, and which you said were wrong and which you now say are right, but only for investors, even though that is clearly what MS means because what on Earth do you think “buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on” means?
But “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable” is not correct.
If someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then tax on capital gain may not be payable, or it may be payable, depending on other circumstances and intent.
As I showed, immediacy doesn’t matter, nor does an intent to rent.
You understand what “if someone buys a house to rent” means, yeah?
It means the reason for buying the house was to rent it out. So “the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.”
Where as a speculator buys with the intention to sell it. that’s their purpose in buying the house, and their anticipated source of profit. Even if they don’t immediately realise that intention, due to the market collapsing or what have you it is still treated differently for tax purposes: “If you buy a property with the firm intention of resale, it doesn’t matter how long you hold it – the gain on resale will be taxable”
” There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.”
To see the truth in that statement, scroll through the posts and look at the ratio of Politicheck articles that focus on the opposition parties and not the Government.
OppositionCheck would be a more accurate title.
But he is what he is and now, like many wiser heads, I will be doing my damnedest to step over every syllable he soils the site with. He has had so many chances to join in and help build the dialogue but he is a wrecker, and only wants to be the loudest voice at the table.
Still wonder how his Budget for Poor People was shaping up though.
But if you had checked you would see that the number of transactions caught are exceedingly small
You appear to be talking about tax avoidance and evasion, i.e. lack of tax income, rather than a lack of tax code. That’s a different issue altogether.
Good stuff from Labour on the exchange rate. Plenty of commentators saying it’s not a populist issue. Clearly they don’t get the knowledge all our commodity producers (esp farmers) have of exchange rates and their personal financial interests.
Looks like a great week for Labour, with a series of announcements and media hits.
Lets see, for those on low incomes Labour is proposing a rise in the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, yay hurrah, but wait, there is more,
Labour is also proposing ”compulsory” retirement savings which i will speculate will be at least 2% of income, so scratch any benefit low income workers will gain from any pay rise to the new 15 dollar minimum wage,(and the flow on effect in wages above 15 bucks an hour if any),
i could go on, but why bother, it looks like business as usual from where i sit…
According to their website it’s 3% and increasing yearly to 9%. To get this across they’re going to have to raise the minimum wage to at least $17 per hour or go for a Universal Income.
Ouch thats really going to hurt people’s day to day living even 17ph is barely enough to scrape by in Auckland with two incomes at this level.
I can imagine that the employer contribution will be the effective pay rise for the next few years… unless they have some kind of abatement for a couple it will leave a large hole in take home pay.
The other thing I am extremely wary of is political interference in the coming years who is to say the eligibility age won’t be pushed out further etc. I worry that in 20 years or so when substantial amounts of kiwi saver come due they decide the large amount of money entering the economy will be inflationary and seek to restrict access.
I worry that in 20 years or so when substantial amounts of kiwi saver come due they decide the large amount of money entering the economy will be inflationary and seek to restrict access.
That wouldn’t surprise me 🙁
That said, I don’t think saving does anything for the economy except slow it down and boost returns to the financial sector which results, inevitably, in the economy collapsing again.
Id tend to agree with that better to spend it now and the govt collects an appropriate amount of tax to fund super. Personal savings should be personal with the ability to use them as you wish
I was reading an article yesterday suggesting that we need to ‘encourage’ people to trade their KiwiSaver for annuities at retirement, because, in essence, we can’t ‘trust’ them to spend the money ‘wisely’. It’s an incredibly patronizing attitude.
Pretty much nothing. In fact, it’sl to hurt them in the short term but over the medium to long term it should increase work here and highly paid work at that.
Of course, the real problem is that our exchange rate is set incorrectly (it’s based upon speculation rather than actual trade) and that our entire economic system is bunkum to boot.
The massive increases are going to happen one way or another as we’ve been living well beyond our means due to the misaligned exchange rate. National are, of course, promising that we can continue to live beyond our means forever.
+1 Agree, however it’s early in the day of politic’s, let alone the week.
The PR spin merchants within National will be plotting with bullshit snake oil ready to feed their gushing shill media fan-club. Just heard the Nationals Minister of War on Terrorism, Coleman just bait Goff into commenting on their huge military spend up announcement. By Coleman’s quip of the Government is just following through on the previous Governments commitment.
A little harsh on Cunliffe Phil, it’s thanks to members of the Labour party like my vet nurse flatmate that campaign for animals rights and put forward well considered remits to be thrashed out. I give DC credit for responding to F/B private messages regarding another issue of concern to her, my opinion (which was ok anyway) of him rose as a result of his long thoughtful responses. Before a some fool (not you) fires a cheapshot that it was probably someone else, the typo’s & odd spelling mistake told me it was him, had the same lol.
as i say skinny..i am optimistic the gaze (not only of cunnliffe) will now switch to this vivisection abomination..i do mean that..
(see..!..i am blocking my usual/deep cynicism that the circus will move on..and this ‘deep’/important issue..will become yesterdays’ shane jones..and the torturing/killing will just continue..unabated..)
..and i don’t really mind how it comes about/who gets credit..
..and i tip my hat to those like yr friend..those active inside (blind/unthinking) organisations like the labour party..
..who are fighting for these same reforms this situation is calling/screaming out for..
..(trying to end the usual practice of green party bbq’s..when there..i am afraid burnt me out on that route..)
What are the alternatives? Use products that don’t require animal testing. For instance there is a huge amount of information showing that marijuana is far safer than these synthetic substitutes…no testing required.
Animal rights. Mr Key slid by yesterday saying that the excuse for not acting sooner on legal highs was his concern that animals might be used for testing. Smart move. Appeal to the Animal rights people and lets him off the hook.
But wait. Mr Cunliffe agrees that he has a concern for animal rights. Check. Your next move John?
Too right phillip. I hear that Massey Uni in Palmy is one of our worst offenders for animal testing. Is that correct?
I also think that is the place where the HRT medicine is made from mare’s urine. The mares are kept permanently in stalls, they don;’t get out at all and are kept pregnant so the levels of oestrogen necessary for the production of the medicine remain high. A tragic life for an animal who is so sensitive and emotional. (I have a strong connection with equines)
Sorry, no link for that. I just recall an article on tv about it years ago and it stayed with me
I think I heard some chap on Tv saying that they could get quite good results from testing this Sh*t on poor crustaceans! Poor crabs, prawns and snails! Oh dear. Next they will think of testing it on some bacteria and broccoli.
Quite agree Phil, it is a disgusting practice that needs to stop. These sick scientists who manage to convince themselves that it is unfortunate but necessary to torture animals need to be made to account for their actions. Good to hear David speaking up against it and informing the public it is possible to do this research using computers. This will win him votes.
Sure is Bella, I read some posts on facebook by some rat club people who were giving DC the voters nod after watching his interview on the tv news covering the issue.
Got a laugh watching slippery Key who looked deceitful doing a flip flop, fronting the media with his bullshit ‘personally’ I’m uncomfortable with animal testing that’s the real reason for the hold up (funny he forgot to tell Dunne that porky, Pete didn’t utter a word about this to the press) umm not on rabbits, certainly not dogs, rodents yeah thats OK. A dog whistle to anymore nat rats thinking of jumping ship. Oh the pits, poor Johnny has to import dirty rats these days.
..who is/are the einstein/s that decided that david parker appearing on a political talkshow on sunday..
..was not a good enough platform for the announcement of new economic-policy..?
..who decided ‘no no!..we’ll put out a press-release on tuesday…!.’…was the better option..?
..and i guess it is a byre the bye..that after parker ‘teasing’ about his big tuesday announcement..(yep..!..we’re all wetting our pants in anticipation here..dave..)..that then there was nothing..
..the ensuing vaccuum leaving plenty of time/opportunity for parker to be pulled backwards thru a blackberry bush..
..over his/labours’ epic-fail/vote-killing policy to raise the age of the pension..
..who was/were the einsteins(s) who made that call..?
..you don’t need to answer that question..
..but you really need to do what needs to be done..eh..?
..you are getting some really shit tactic-advice..from whomever…
Perhaps the reason for not launching the policy on Sunday was so that the launching was controlled- an uninterrupted speed followed by question and answers. Political talk shows are very dependent on the line of questioning by the interviewer who can derail the launch. If you consider the quality and motives of most of the panellists who take part in the post interview discussion, then the wisdom of using a breakfast speech launch becomes much more attractive.
David Parker effectively states that if elected he will dip into your paypacket and leave you worse off. Is he one of the ABC majority in caucus? Democracy needs a strong and competent opposition.
Are you seriously claiming that ex-employees of a tobacco company are not supposed to be candidates? Should they be forced to wear a yellow star to let us know their sin.
The government is a fabulous manager of the economy. Just watch for the Budget.
On 20th September we have a stark choice.
Forward to a brighter and brighter future or back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.
“back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.”
like the Central Plains Water scheme, backed by your government, stealing private land and using my pay packet to finance pet irrigation ideas (which are so woeful in terms of financial return that they cannot raise the money to pay for it within their dear private sector, hence steal from taxpayers. Total failure of your political philosophies fisiani. fail fail fail)
Hey wingnut, listening to RNZ morning report, Slugger Bill Churlish saying NO to everything N-Spinner is front footing him on . Copped a bit of stick comparing the LP policy of raising to 9% super contribution, Bill got a hiding when comparing to the Ozzies 13%. Nice.
Key-Joyce and their spin merchants will be sitting slumped in their chairs cursing English’s poor showing.
Expect cheerleaders Hooton & Shrillands to turn up to try prop up PG who is already getting a pasting on here.
Exporters see their profits disappear as printed money comes crashing through the NZ dollar door.
Where have National been, we’re not talking about what may happen in the fruit loopy way National declares all Labour’s policies as awful, we’re talking how they failed in the housing market, failed exporters, failed children.
And National are worried, Labour are aim full square at craving off exporters from the National party.
Retailers are next when they realize Key’s aiming the economy at an almighty housing crash, with his high govt debt, do nothing and wait for thr GFC to have worked through and watch while milk, timber, are all sourced elsewhere.
You have to pretty dumb to think that hot money isn’t holding up our economy.
That hot money needs exchange goods, and so is buying up the cheapest bulkiest
items on the economic menu and hurting our added value sectors.
And t will all stop when the global banking system rights itself, then the banks
will come for our homes.
Most days I wake up feeling just fine, have a good breakfast, attend to my ablutions and then turn to The Standard for my daily share of intelligent comment (especially from karol) on matters political.
Why is it that time and time again I then find the whole morning ruined by comments, if they can be called that, from someone called Pete George? There is something so snide, so dog-whistling about this person’s contributions that I end up having my day shattered. There is no end to his self-assumed expertise on everything, his implied criticisms disguised as something unbiased and apparently reasonable.
Please, Pete George, for the sake of at least one person’s sanity – – – go away!
i see him as being the legal-high of political-dialogue..
..imitating the real thing..
..and getting it so so wrong…
..what particularly grates with him is the bullshit concern-tr*lling..the many ‘faces’..
..’faces’ dependant on the audience/issue being faced at that moment..
..if he came here and vigorously argued rightwing ‘ideas’..fair do’s..
..but it is the faux-concern/centreist poses he constantly strikes..
..and his never answering reasoned-challenges..
..in short..his outright/wholesale dissembling..
..(and this is kinda off the wall..i dunno a lot about astrological-profiles..but from what i do know/have observed in others..i reckon he is a virgo with taurus rising..
..or some such swamp-person mix…
..any other guesses..?..)
..and to end on a positive-note..
..like with the legal-highs..there will come a breaking-point..
..the queues of complainers will get too long/rowdy..
..we can but hope that comes soon..eh..?..
..’cos credit where credit is due..
..he is quite good at it..
..that dissembling..
..he is like an energy-sucking black hole on many threads..
..his paymasters should be rewarding him well..
..(and what’s with that edwards-the-younnger seriall=linking/being a fanboy of georges’ drivel..?
Yes, why does Bryce Edwards link “Your NZ” in his weekly round up. Not sure of the motivation or reasoning for that, but it does reduce his credibility.
I can never understand why the debate with Pete continues. He is as slippery as John Key. And the issues he seems to raise are never resolved. I tend to skip all the comments and replies after his name. Must be too old to bother.
Don’t let PG ruin your morning wyndham. There’s too much good thing going on, on this site. I share your frustration, however I when I see his name and a giant disrupted thread trailing in his wake. I just scroll- on- by until I get to something relevant . I have made a suggestion to readers and commenters at 1.2.3.1 at 9.52 am above.
Yes -i’ve noticed that Open Mike has become a PG hour and its booooorrrrrrrrrring. Boring, Boring.
Not at all what it was a few weeks ago. Is it time for the moderators to step up and put a ban on him for a while ? ?
That seems a little unfair JK, I note that the first comment was by felix today, fairly well inciting PG into making a comment. Yesterday’s (was it yesterday, can’t be arsed going to check) Open Mike was all about PG and he hadn’t even commented!
I don’t agree with all Pete George says or his tactics at times, however a lot of the noise recently has been to do how people are responding to him, rather than due to PG. Some of his comments do assist some pretty important debates.
It would be good if those responding to and inciting PG got a grip and thought a bit about how their own actions are affecting this ‘issue’…because it is starting to look more like a schoolyard dynamic that bring to mind a certain statement that Dick Emery was famous for more than anything else.
There are some pretty important events occurring in this country, if you wish to focus on them – focus on them.
I think you underestimate how distruptive many people find PG. For those that don’t mind him so much, your comment makes sense. For those of us that see him as an out and out tr8ll*, then the upscaling of antagonism to him recently also makes sense.
I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.
Sometimes DFTT is in order.
Sometimes that doesn’t cut it but…
I think it is getting a bit rubbish to incite him to comment and then complain about Open Mike being dedicated to him, when he hasn’t even started the subject. JK @ 8.2 didn’t do this – but this is what has occurred twice now on Open Mike.
DFTT implies that he is in fact a tr8ll. Which means the normal rules of discourse don’t apply.
“I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.”
Everything PG does and says is bullshit. Even on the occasions that his comments make sense, it’s still bullshit because it’s part of the whole centrist, I’m more of a reasonable person than anyone else persona that masks the fact that he is right wing and undermines the left at any opportunity he gets. That persona does damage. He is not someone I am willing to take a face value, comment by comment, because every commment he makes is part of a larger context of clusterfucked communication and bullshit.
All that amounts to is you don’t tolerate views you don’t like so make things up to try and discredit. This demonstrates your intolerance and nastiness towards alternatives and helps highlight the issues being raised. It doesn’t seem to be a very smart approach but may reflect frustration at a lack of success with your own agenda. If you had a good case to argue that’s what you’d do instead of lashing out at different views and approaches.
Anger doesn’t make a good argument. It’s curious to see such bitter anti-centrists.
1) No, it shows that weka understands you very well. Probably better than you do.
2) It’s not your “views”, it’s your behaviour, The only views you have ever put forward are the occasional bit of racism.
3) You have never, ever offered an “alternative” to anything.
4) You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has observed your behaviour online over a couple of years who wouldn’t agree with weka. You’ll always be able to fool a few noobs though.
felix and weka, speaking for just about everyone. Very funny. Keep trying felix, that’s all you seem to do. I presume it amuses you but you seem to get more frustrated than anything. You know what they say about repeating the same mistakes.
Breaking news on TVNZ – The Government has announced it’s investing $100.9 million into strengthening the Defence Force.
So what’s that then? Using not having money as an excuse to fund social welfare projects or night classes and the like, and after running the military down to save costs, they find enough to stump up enough to buy some nod doubt American made nonsense or half a wing of one of the Australian fleet that doesn’t work properly.
Can’t wait for the spin show to start. My guess is Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific, in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
China won’t like that.
We are being caught in a vice between two powers trying to control the Pacific.
Key’s subservient approach to both will cost us big time in the future.
And they will grip hard too. My best suggestion would be to declare NZ neutral, failing that, and the opposite of Key, choose the winning side at the UN and have productive trade negotiations minus the taste of corruption lingering on the lips of cabinet ministers.
The article says $535m over four years, so that’s a full wing of a wonky Joint Strike Fighter.
After reading what Coleman says, I’m amending my spin guess a little. I now pick Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific under a cloak of aid and relief to the islands in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
At least Key didn’t buy as much as Abbott during his free round of golf time share presentation with the president. He got suckered for $24 billion.
There are some strong advantages to remaining allied to the west, albeit we need to bolster our reputation as fair and honest brokers in all international affairs.
what’s happened to our benign strategic environment? (one of Helen Clark’s most gob-smackingly silly utterances, and there weren’t too many of those..)
I’ve not googled it yet, so I don’t know. But milk, food and kiwi ingenuity to all who come in peace sounds better than the mess trying to butter both sides of the bread will make.
Been coming across a lot of Pikkety lately. For those who haven’t, his book ” Capital in the Twenty First Century” has a central argument/observation that any democracy we have is inevitably devolving into plutocracy.
Piketty’s argument is that, in an economy where the rate of return on capital outstrips the rate of growth, inherited wealth will always grow faster than earned wealth.
Piketty’s prescription includes (to quote from Bill’s link) ‘an 80% tax on incomes above $500,000 a year in the US, assuring his readers there would be neither a flight of top execs to Canada nor a slowdown in growth, since the outcome would simply be to suppress such incomes’.
Labour and the Greens should adopt this as policy.
It will not raise a lot in revenue in New Zealand, but that is not the point.
These excessive salaries are immoral and extortionate.
And even the CEOs themselves are starting to acknowledge the fact – The Warehouse boss Mark Powell recently described his $1.7 million salary as a ‘ridiculous amount’.
Piketty’s ideas are decent, but they are 25 years too late. We’ve actually moved far past the time the assumptions he uses will actually hold. Care of one of favourite websites Zerohedge:
By Charles Hugh-Smith:
The real problem with Piketty’s taxation/social welfare solution to wealth inequality is that it does nothing to change the source of systemic inequality, debt-based neofeudalism and neocolonialism. Simply raising more taxes to fund more social welfare programs leaves the unjust, rapacious, and ultimately destabilizing Status Quo entirely intact.
I have laid out another path in my books: refuse serfdom, abandon participation in neofeudalism and neocolonialism, and build parallel systems of cooperation and wealth-building that are not debt-dependent.
I doubt that the Warren Buffets and Jamie Dimons of the world will see their wealth confiscated via some new policy of the Internal Revenue Service — e.g. the proposed “tax on wealth.” Rather, its more likely that they’ll be strung up on lampposts or dragged over three miles of pavement behind their own limousines. After all, the second leading delusion in our culture these days, after the wish for a something-for-nothing magic energy rescue remedy, is the idea that we can politically organize our way out of the epochal predicament of civilization that we face. Piketty just feeds that secondary delusion.
In relation to today’s conversations, my view is that Reserve Bank goals and interest rate settings are akin to trying to cleverly keep steam pressure up on the Titanic’s engines while the compartments are filling up with water. At this point nothing apart from getting ready for fossil fuel energy depletion, climate change, GFC II and permanent global economic contraction matters one whit.
I don’t think that PG ruins the site. He’s a bit pompous – and his theme song could be ‘I can see clearly now the brain has gone’ – but I think he’s an excellent example of a right-whinger trying hard to prove that he occupies the political centre – and that’s always good for a laugh.
Why do those survey firms who phone and ask for a portion of your day to answer their questions never pay for the service? I make a point of responding “yes sure, I can participate but like you we charge for our time, so if you can give me a name and address for sending an invoice we can proceed”
the responses range from a laugh to a pause to a short no. it brings the call to a rapid end.
can I recommend that others take such an approach?
Interesting article in the Grauniad about the difficulties of dealing to the racist party UKIP. One conclusion is very relevent to the upcoming election here; that attacking UKIP for being racist implies that voters attracted to them are also racist. The lesson for NZ? Attacking Key can be counter productive because it can seen as an attack on swinging voters who like him, even if it’s not in their interests to vote for him.
Disappointing to see your negative comment on Monetary policy, Karol. As several Labour MPs noted recently, you have to generate income before you can redistribute it. I am making no aims as an economics expert but it looks like Parkers ideas are bold and very smart. Not more handouts or bleeding interest payments to foreign banks, instead he proposes to channel inflation control back into the local economy though kiwisaver. Note he has written in out clauses for low income earners Karol. Overseas banks will hate ths policy expect some vicious attacks by corporate interests. But the main thing is this will be great for higher wage employment and local industry. The guy is a genius and the miracle is that it didn’t get leaked. Key was left blundering around suggesting old hat mortgage controls. Well done Labour.
In the meantime that hoary old line that a gumboot could get elected in Clutha-Southland if it was a National gumboot should be revisited on the basis that a gumboot would have a more benign public safety record.
Plenty of campaign fodder here. Has a Green candidate been selected for Clutha-Southland yet?
I see another tobacco industry lobbyist, Chris Bishop, is contesting Hutt South for the Nats. Wonder if they will throw Carrick Graham a seat as well?
Lolz, i lived in Clutha-Southland for a couple of years, Greens are more than frowned on down there, i remember walking into the post-shop the morning after 9/11 and one old bloke had to be quieted by the postie as he started whining in a loud voice that i was ”one of them”…
All the old hippies are coming out the wordwork down there, so I think things have changed a bit in recent years. Robert Guyton’s just been elected to his second term on the regional council and he doesn’t seem to hide his green light under a bushel 😉
Chris Bishop has not been selected. The National Party has a lot of potential candidates and not one is a union hack and no one cares about their sexuality.
Of course National is full of union hacks – they’re just called business associations instead. National are quite fine with their own unions, they just don’t like the workers having theirs.
“This significant investment in our defence force, combined with the savings and reinvestment achieved through recent reforms, means the Government is addressing the long term funding gap which we inherited,” Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman said.
Because I’m pretty sure that Labour ramped up defence spending after National ran it down in the 1990s. It’s why we have the LAVs, the new aircraft and the new patrol boats. I’d heard that National had run it down from their first budget this term as well.
NACTs have just announced that they are obtaining more defence infrastructure “which Labour had ordered”. Like spending is something that Labour does, the profligate wasters, whereas the high-minded wisearses of NACT make considered investments when they spend the taxpayers money in a very tight-fisted manner. Such poseurs.
dv
Are you trying to make sense of it all? If you haven’t so far then don’t think too hard, it can seem like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland where they all shift around one place every so often. At least that seems to have been the case in the recent past. Now we might change the scenario, and myself I’d prefer to move away from Alice’s arena this time.
Allow me to answer for Pete: ‘National didn’t completely de-fund the defence force when they got in to power so it’s inaccurate to say they ran down the budget. And Labour didn’t completely fund every single thing the defence force wanted with a few spare million on top, so it may be accurate to say they left a funding gap.’
“Today’s pre-Budget announcement shows the Government has been forced to admit the damage it has done in Defence. Minister Jonathan Coleman’s cuts have put our Defence Force at risk and seriously undermined our armed services.
“Funding of about $134 million a year is less than half the amount the Government sought to cut from the Defence Force with its cost cutting target of $350 million a year.
Yeah, that’s what I thought – National, despite always going on about having a decent defence force, had been cutting the defence budget again.
National have been like rats in the pantry busy eating away at things behind the scenes.
Quietly cutting spending on everything desperately in order to make up for the fact that they haven’t got enough revenue to achieve the targets they promised re returning to surplus – due to their stupid tax cuts and asset sales.
It is a great pity people didn’t vote for a left-wing government last time around – who were making more conservative promises- that they most-likely would have achieved – and without doing the damage that National have done and are doing to our country.
Politicians – WTF
In the discussion on synthetic marijuana moves I heard John Key say he was uncomfortable about something. Was that reported in the MSM? I realised a simple fact about the PM.
He works on a simple binary principle – comfortable/uncomfortable!
And the good old USA is stirring up controversy and commenting from its superior high ground on both the Russian/Ukraine afffair that the USA has had some effect on warming up through its activities along with its NATO sidekicks, and now on the China-Philippines argument over sea area control around their coastlines. UbiquitoUSA.
Great comment from John Banks a few minutes ago on TV3 news, re: testing synthetic drugs on animals….”rats need to live in dignity too” While to some extent I agree with him I think he should know best.
New Zealand infant formula exporters are having to take “corrective actions” over issues ranging from a dirty computer keyboard to factory air quality and temperature control in order to comply with strict new Chinese import regulations, a top official says.
The Government announced last week that 12 of this country’s 13 baby milk manufacturers had to carry out changes at their production facilities before they could become registered for export under the rules that come into force on Thursday.
The 13 manufacturers include Fonterra, South Island dairy processors Westland Milk Products and Synlait, as well as Auckland-based exporters Sutton Group and New Image. A ministry spokesman declined to name the one manufacturer that had been immediately able to comply with the new regulations.
Who is the one manufacturer that met with the new regulations? Are there any ties to a certain company staring with “O” and linked to a compromised cabinet minister?
FYI – Just posted this on Kiwiblog in response to this article:
“Crime reduction targets on track
April 29th, 2014 at 10:00 am by David Farrar
Judith Collins announced:
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the latest Justice sector Better Public Services results for reducing crime and re-offending, are the best quarterly results since the targets were set.
The Better Public Services (BPS) targets set a goal of a 15 per cent reduction in total crime by June 2017, compared to baseline figures from June 2011.
“It’s fantastic news that our latest Justice sector BPS results show the total crime rate has reduced by 14 per cent between June 2011 and December 2013,” says Ms Collins.
“The latest results for this period also show the youth crime rate has dropped by 27 per cent, violent crime is down 10 per cent and overall re-offending is down by 11.7 per cent.
“New Zealand now has the lowest crime rate since 1978 but most importantly, the results mean New Zealanders are experiencing around 56,000 fewer crimes a year, leading to fewer victims of crime. ….”
MY COMMENT:
Where are the ‘white collar’ crime statistics?
Are there any?
How about ‘bribery and corruption’ statistics?
How come on the watch of Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins , New Zealand has STILL not ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)?
How come Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins promised Transparency International last year, that her ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ would be presented to Parliament in 2013, and it STILL has yet to surface in the NZ Parliamentary legislation ‘sausage machine’?
Ten years after signing UNCAC in 2003, New Zealand appears almost ready to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption. New Zealand’s failure for a decade to take action to ratify the UN Convention disappointing for a country that prides itself on its clean international image. TINZ has actively encouraged ratification for the last 10 years as noted in our letter to several ministers in August.
In a much welcomed development in a letter to Transparency International New Zealand dated 7 August 2013, the Hon Judith Collins, Minister of Justice, states that she has “announced a package of legislative reforms that will allow New Zealand to ratify UNCAC.”
The necessary amendments to make New Zealand’s domestic law compliant with the treaty obligations will be included in the Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Bill. Once passed, the minister has confirmed that “officials will promptly take steps to deposit New Zealand’s instrument of ratification of UNCAC.”
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins and her (in my considered opinion) CORRUPT conflict of interest, in TOADYING for her friends and husband’s private company – Oravida?
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for BRIBERY (oops! ) Foreign Affairs – Murray McCully, with his, in my considered opinion offer of a job ( errr…. BRIBE) as ‘Pacific Economic Ambassador’ to shifty Shane JUDA$ Jones – treacherous, whopper waka swapper?
After looking at the Transparency International New Zealand website – I see nothing covering these developments.
I guess that if Transparency International New Zealand starts doing some REAL anti-corruption ‘whistleblowing’ – they might lose their Government funding from a variety of sources?
Actually if you work with police prosecutors on a daily basis as I do you’d know that the word from on police high is that now people gotta be given ‘warnings’ first off rather than charging and proceeding to court.
Don’t really want to say – ‘unless you’re young, black and scum’ – but that’s the guts of it.
The Milky Bar Krud is cooking the books. While keeping the confidence of Serco’s shareholders more or less
Edit: sorry, this was meant to be a response to DTB below.
xox
Did you know NZ has an arrangement for 1000 young Chinese to stay/work in NZ for one year? This has been going for a few years now. I spoke to one last weekend. Most illuminating. The offer is online in China and is snapped up in 5 minutes! I was lucky to talk about what is happening in China from a well spoken, albeit with an American accent, young guy about global and internet issues. A real highlight of my visit to Christchurch.
Hahahahaha ! What a Dork Dunney ? Gets nothing right. Except the salary and the super’ and the spot at the trough. And lay preacher at some bilious bastion of anal white privilege white wooden church somewhere out Karori way.
Nearly sixty years ago there was a fulla used to turn up at Ellerslie Primary School where I started my education. Called the ‘Funny Doctor’ – wore a bow tie, clown’s nose, drove a little round mudguards Austiny thing – magic tricks – bold checked pants – we loved him us easily pleased five year olds.
Reckon Petey’s the dodgy remittance man of that family.
Paul Henry. TV3. Tonight. Vicious Old Visceral Tory Queen ! On 3 Hundy. Couldn’t give a fuck about ChCh. Where he and his darling ShonKey Python don’t live. But Oh How They Care ! Piece of shit is that Old Queen.
… a New Zealand government using immigration to keep house prices low? Yeah right. Everyone knows that every government opens the immigration taps 12-18 months out from an election. Helen Clark did it. John Key is doing it right now. As long as immigration sits at around 30,000 p.a. then we have upward pressure on house values, and that keeps everyone voting for the incumbent government no matter what.
I just do not believe that a Labour government would not again open the immigration taps to enhance their chances of re-election in the future.
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Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
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 ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Pete laid down the law last night.
Authors take note, you don’t get to tell him what he can or can’t do here. He makes the rules for the site now.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28042014/#comment-805885
I think the problem with PG Tips is that everything is so bloody wishy-washy and qualified that tedium rises instantly to the surface leading to complete and utter frustration. It is like the ultimate fence-sitting, discussing discussions, and never actually achieving anything. Or even ffs, never actually saying anything. Nothing is ever said methinks.
There would seem to be no solution for these types, other than to banish them to local council ward board committee meetings about whether pansies or petunias should be planted in the roundabout.
+1 Well said vto.
Yep. He seems to be on a one man crusade to wreck the left’s chances in the next election. His behaviour improved for a while but I agree that he is back to his disruptive worst.
The problem is his control of the politicheck website. He has come out with a doozie this morning claiming that all land speculators do pay capital gains tax. The amount paid is exceedingly small and the number of transactions caught is also very small. But by applying a rather extreme interpretation and taking a few very short comments out of context he claims that Labour is not telling the truth.
This site works best when there is an unfettered sometimes robust exchange of ideas. But I have seen a number of discussion streams get wrecked.
The politicheck reference is at http://www.politicheck.org.nz/factchecks/2014/4/29/property-speculators-are-taxed
It may be time to factcheck the politicheck website.
“claiming that all land speculators do pay capital gains tax”
I didn’t claim that.
“The amount paid is exceedingly small and the number of transactions caught is also very small.”
Facts would help your case.
I thought you were the fact checker Pete. Or do you ignore the facts that do not support your world view?
You made the claims. You should back them up.
If a 15% capital gains tax was applied instead those amounts would approximately halve.
Also from that article:
IRD is doing something, and National appear to be boosting what they do.
What % of your fact checks are made of National Party claims?
None.
Says it all.
Pete you should have done the research before making your claim doncha think? So a couple of hundred cases a year. And the figures are small when you compare them to the total tax take. Thanks for confirming my previous statement.
The CGT will apply across the board apart from the family home. Over time it will raise significant amounts of money.
And did you see how the number of cases is decreasing each year, interestingly at the same time that there have been cuts to IRD’s staff. National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.
“National do not appear to be boosting what they do. It has put the process into reverse.”
In the link just above that you have just replied to:
The expectation is that this will recover about $45m.
That’s doing something, a boost. Not nothing, not “into reverse”.
the problem with property speculators and paying income tax in our country is that the vast bulk of rental property owners are simply dishonest lying bastards and bastardettes. They nearly all buy with a view to banking the gain in value and have little concern in the rent.
Most NZ property investors simply lie about their intent when purchasing property. Liars.
It is the single biggest rort in NZ and I think we need to introduce drug-testing on property owners and stop them from going to Australia, such is the cost to the taxpayer.
I think we need to introduce drug-testing on property owners and stop them from going to Australia, such is the cost to the taxpayer.
Lol.
Ta.
Avoidance or evasion on property transactions has been a problem for yonks, and there’s a big grey area on ‘intent’ but governments have gradually been addressing it.
Pete, it is only a problem of enforcement, not a problem of existence, as your quote indicates. My point stands.
Bottom line though – government raises revenue by taxing people who make money. Problem is that they only tax some of the money-making, i.e. wage and salary and income earners. There are several other ways of making money which are not taxed, such as making money by capital. Example: Some make money by pouring all their income into the capital value of their farm and minimise their income. Why should they be exempt and bludge off the wage and salary earner? Another rort.
If the government is to raise revenue by taxing money-making then all forms of money-making should be taxed. For consistency and credibility purposes ….
I don’t think anyone is ever going to read ScrittiPolitti.
But yep, Pete is on a mission to make this site unreadable. I have no idea why he is tolerated. He has no interest in or sympathy for the labour movement whatsoever.
When did thestandard become a free-for-all for right-wingers?
I like the Scritti Politti reference Felix.
As for PG (Personal Grievance). I’ve been coming here on and off for two and half years and particularly enjoyed the time when PG was “on leave”. There was a time leading up to that “leave” where there was a loose consensus among commenters to simply adopt the 🙄 as a response to anything he said. Not only was it entertaining and humourous to see a huge line of 🙄 all down the page it also took all the power away from him and minimised the disruption.
I humbly would make the suggestion that the 🙄 exercise is revived.
Whaddya’s reckon?
Is that < arrow, eyeroll (one word) arrow > ?
Haven’t had to use the eyeroll tag since the last time, so I’ve forgotten
Use a colon before and after roll
:roll followed immediately by another colon
Ta, Karol.
Testing;
🙄
: roll :
– without the spaces
🙄
With thanks to One Anonymous Bloke and Tracey for teaching me that trick recently 😀
🙄
Jest rolling. Oops, just jest testing.
Yes Rosie I reckon too.
Yep. As far as I can see, PG’s problem is a tendency to use slippery logic and very shallow analysis. It is why I rarely read or comment on his comments these days – waste of my time. More important things to focus on.
Ironic felix. You’re not trying to tell authors or moderators what to do are you? Sounds a bit like it. Contributing something positive is less stressful.
Where did I do that, Pete? Link or apology please.
1 “Authors take note”
🙄 Learn english, moran.
What is it I’m “telling” anyone to do?
🙄
So Pete while you are here your latest politicheck post (http://www.politicheck.org.nz/factchecks/2014/4/29/property-speculators-are-taxed) is full of bunkum. Basically you are saying that because there is an obligation for speculators to pay capital gains tax they all pay capital gains tax. But if you had checked you would see that the number of transactions caught are exceedingly small and if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.
So you have twisted the words out of shape and then come out with an adverse conclusion.
And looking at the site you are wrecking it. There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.
Go on. Concisely justify your latest claim. Use figures and stuff. Then compare this with Labour’s draft figures from last time.
It’s true if you’re a legitimate property developer, spec builder etc you pay tax on any profit made.
How else do you claim your building expenses, if you’re not legit.?
” if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
That’s not correct.
http://www.ird.govt.nz/property/property-common-mistakes/mistake-dealing-with-investment/
Um it is correct. If you buy the house intending to rent it then by definition you are not intending to resell it.
Um, you can buy a house intending to rent it and intending to sell it for a capital gain. Read the IRD link.
Do you think speculators wouldn’t rent out a house if they intend to sell it? Unless it was a very quick flick that doesn’t make business sense much if not all what you gain in capital you would lose in cost of capital and non-earnings.
what the fuck does that mean.
you are just spouting nonsense.
why dont you fuck off.
Lol @ hook. I reckon we should use that for Rosie’s suggestion rather than 🙄
Everytime PG says something, anything, respond with
Because it’s an appropriate response to pretty much everything he says.
+1
I may not have been here long but I agree.
PG talks absolute crap
Dont feed it . it might go back under its rock
Lol. By all means adopt that statement weka. My hazy memory tells me that the 🙄 was previously adopted because it was non verbal and non aggressive. Also, very it’s funny, a massive army of 🙄 marching on for miles down the page. It says so much.
I like the simplicity and ease of 🙄 too. Maybe we keep hook’s quote for special occasions.
lol
From your own link, pete:
Yes, that refers to an investor, which IRD clearly differentiates from speculators and dealers.
Pete have you actually read what you are typing? It makes no sense. My head hurts …
I am sorry everyone I have sparked this totally unproductive complete waste of time debate. It is as if the protagonists are arguing in different languages …
I am going back to performing paid work …
Property or tax?
🙄
A few posts up thread, MS posted, “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable.”
You replied to that post, quoting those very words, stating, “That’s not correct.”
With me so far?
I quoted an extract from the IRD guidelines you quoted, showing that MS was correct and you were wrong – if someone buy a property to use it to generate ongoing rental income and not with any firm intent of resale the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.
You comprehend that the words I have marked in bold (which are taken near verbatim from the extract I quoted) confirm that if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then capial gains taxis not payable?
Virtually the same words that MS used, and which you said were wrong and which you now say are right, but only for investors, even though that is clearly what MS means because what on Earth do you think “buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on” means?
But “if someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then it is not payable” is not correct.
If someone buys a house to rent rather than immediately sell on then tax on capital gain may not be payable, or it may be payable, depending on other circumstances and intent.
As I showed, immediacy doesn’t matter, nor does an intent to rent.
You understand what “if someone buys a house to rent” means, yeah?
It means the reason for buying the house was to rent it out. So “the property is a capital asset and any later profit or loss from selling the property is capital and isn’t taxable.”
Where as a speculator buys with the intention to sell it. that’s their purpose in buying the house, and their anticipated source of profit. Even if they don’t immediately realise that intention, due to the market collapsing or what have you it is still treated differently for tax purposes: “If you buy a property with the firm intention of resale, it doesn’t matter how long you hold it – the gain on resale will be taxable”
” There is so much that could be analysed but you are mostly siding with the Government and bashing the opposition parties.”
To see the truth in that statement, scroll through the posts and look at the ratio of Politicheck articles that focus on the opposition parties and not the Government.
OppositionCheck would be a more accurate title.
But he is what he is and now, like many wiser heads, I will be doing my damnedest to step over every syllable he soils the site with. He has had so many chances to join in and help build the dialogue but he is a wrecker, and only wants to be the loudest voice at the table.
Still wonder how his Budget for Poor People was shaping up though.
bye bye Pete
You appear to be talking about tax avoidance and evasion, i.e. lack of tax income, rather than a lack of tax code. That’s a different issue altogether.
You can’t avoid non-existent taxes, after all.
Good stuff from Labour on the exchange rate. Plenty of commentators saying it’s not a populist issue. Clearly they don’t get the knowledge all our commodity producers (esp farmers) have of exchange rates and their personal financial interests.
Looks like a great week for Labour, with a series of announcements and media hits.
As far as I can see the policy benefits the middle class property buyers/owners and export businesses. What’s in it for those on low incomes?
“What’s in it for those on low incomes?
More expensive everything.
Lets see, for those on low incomes Labour is proposing a rise in the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, yay hurrah, but wait, there is more,
Labour is also proposing ”compulsory” retirement savings which i will speculate will be at least 2% of income, so scratch any benefit low income workers will gain from any pay rise to the new 15 dollar minimum wage,(and the flow on effect in wages above 15 bucks an hour if any),
i could go on, but why bother, it looks like business as usual from where i sit…
According to their website it’s 3% and increasing yearly to 9%. To get this across they’re going to have to raise the minimum wage to at least $17 per hour or go for a Universal Income.
Ouch thats really going to hurt people’s day to day living even 17ph is barely enough to scrape by in Auckland with two incomes at this level.
I can imagine that the employer contribution will be the effective pay rise for the next few years… unless they have some kind of abatement for a couple it will leave a large hole in take home pay.
The other thing I am extremely wary of is political interference in the coming years who is to say the eligibility age won’t be pushed out further etc. I worry that in 20 years or so when substantial amounts of kiwi saver come due they decide the large amount of money entering the economy will be inflationary and seek to restrict access.
That wouldn’t surprise me 🙁
That said, I don’t think saving does anything for the economy except slow it down and boost returns to the financial sector which results, inevitably, in the economy collapsing again.
Id tend to agree with that better to spend it now and the govt collects an appropriate amount of tax to fund super. Personal savings should be personal with the ability to use them as you wish
I was reading an article yesterday suggesting that we need to ‘encourage’ people to trade their KiwiSaver for annuities at retirement, because, in essence, we can’t ‘trust’ them to spend the money ‘wisely’. It’s an incredibly patronizing attitude.
Pretty much nothing. In fact, it’sl to hurt them in the short term but over the medium to long term it should increase work here and highly paid work at that.
Of course, the real problem is that our exchange rate is set incorrectly (it’s based upon speculation rather than actual trade) and that our entire economic system is bunkum to boot.
Yeah, massive increases in living costs, nice one Labour.
The massive increases are going to happen one way or another as we’ve been living well beyond our means due to the misaligned exchange rate. National are, of course, promising that we can continue to live beyond our means forever.
+1 Agree, however it’s early in the day of politic’s, let alone the week.
The PR spin merchants within National will be plotting with bullshit snake oil ready to feed their gushing shill media fan-club. Just heard the Nationals Minister of War on Terrorism, Coleman just bait Goff into commenting on their huge military spend up announcement. By Coleman’s quip of the Government is just following through on the previous Governments commitment.
i am still reeling from the transformation of david cunnliffe into an animal rights activist..
..and am i silly to hope that the disgust expressed by cunnliffe on testing legal highs on rats/rabbits/dogs..
..that this will also apply/spread to the (approx) 370,000 such animals that are vivisected/tested to death..?
..(‘testing’ yr cosmetics/dishwashing liquids/makeup etc etc..)
..especially as as cunnliffe said..there is no need to test these on animals..when computer-models etc. can do the job..
..’cos..y’see that ‘no need’ also applies to most/all? of those over 370,000 animals that are tortured..and then killed..each and every year..
..computor-modelling etc would also do the job there..
..so why don’t they use computors then..?..i hear you ask..
..money..money..money..
..these vile excuses for human beings are part of a self-perpetuating industry..
..an unholy/bloody alliance between the torturers/breeders/’researchers’..
..a lot of money is made from being an animal-torturer..(they don’t want no computer-models messing with their gigs..
..it’s ‘a good little earner’..being a vivisecter..
..(the universities in nz alone vivisect 300,000 animals each and every year..’research/training’ being the reasons given for the/that need..)
..(what these stats/facts mean is that over 1,000 animals each and every day are killed after they have been used/tortured/vivisected..)
..so..as i say..i welcome the expected scrutiny/spotlight being shone on these torturing scumbags..
..by david cunnliffe/labour..
..in his/their reborn animal rights dudes roles…
A little harsh on Cunliffe Phil, it’s thanks to members of the Labour party like my vet nurse flatmate that campaign for animals rights and put forward well considered remits to be thrashed out. I give DC credit for responding to F/B private messages regarding another issue of concern to her, my opinion (which was ok anyway) of him rose as a result of his long thoughtful responses. Before a some fool (not you) fires a cheapshot that it was probably someone else, the typo’s & odd spelling mistake told me it was him, had the same lol.
as i say skinny..i am optimistic the gaze (not only of cunnliffe) will now switch to this vivisection abomination..i do mean that..
(see..!..i am blocking my usual/deep cynicism that the circus will move on..and this ‘deep’/important issue..will become yesterdays’ shane jones..and the torturing/killing will just continue..unabated..)
..and i don’t really mind how it comes about/who gets credit..
..and i tip my hat to those like yr friend..those active inside (blind/unthinking) organisations like the labour party..
..who are fighting for these same reforms this situation is calling/screaming out for..
..(trying to end the usual practice of green party bbq’s..when there..i am afraid burnt me out on that route..)
what are the alternatives …?
..testing on people.. ?
.. a new role for those on Paula’s benefit .. perhaps …?
What are the alternatives? Use products that don’t require animal testing. For instance there is a huge amount of information showing that marijuana is far safer than these synthetic substitutes…no testing required.
Animal rights. Mr Key slid by yesterday saying that the excuse for not acting sooner on legal highs was his concern that animals might be used for testing. Smart move. Appeal to the Animal rights people and lets him off the hook.
But wait. Mr Cunliffe agrees that he has a concern for animal rights. Check. Your next move John?
Too right phillip. I hear that Massey Uni in Palmy is one of our worst offenders for animal testing. Is that correct?
I also think that is the place where the HRT medicine is made from mare’s urine. The mares are kept permanently in stalls, they don;’t get out at all and are kept pregnant so the levels of oestrogen necessary for the production of the medicine remain high. A tragic life for an animal who is so sensitive and emotional. (I have a strong connection with equines)
Sorry, no link for that. I just recall an article on tv about it years ago and it stayed with me
I think I heard some chap on Tv saying that they could get quite good results from testing this Sh*t on poor crustaceans! Poor crabs, prawns and snails! Oh dear. Next they will think of testing it on some bacteria and broccoli.
Quite agree Phil, it is a disgusting practice that needs to stop. These sick scientists who manage to convince themselves that it is unfortunate but necessary to torture animals need to be made to account for their actions. Good to hear David speaking up against it and informing the public it is possible to do this research using computers. This will win him votes.
Sure is Bella, I read some posts on facebook by some rat club people who were giving DC the voters nod after watching his interview on the tv news covering the issue.
Got a laugh watching slippery Key who looked deceitful doing a flip flop, fronting the media with his bullshit ‘personally’ I’m uncomfortable with animal testing that’s the real reason for the hold up (funny he forgot to tell Dunne that porky, Pete didn’t utter a word about this to the press) umm not on rabbits, certainly not dogs, rodents yeah thats OK. A dog whistle to anymore nat rats thinking of jumping ship. Oh the pits, poor Johnny has to import dirty rats these days.
a question for the ‘strategists’ in labour..
..who is/are the einstein/s that decided that david parker appearing on a political talkshow on sunday..
..was not a good enough platform for the announcement of new economic-policy..?
..who decided ‘no no!..we’ll put out a press-release on tuesday…!.’…was the better option..?
..and i guess it is a byre the bye..that after parker ‘teasing’ about his big tuesday announcement..(yep..!..we’re all wetting our pants in anticipation here..dave..)..that then there was nothing..
..the ensuing vaccuum leaving plenty of time/opportunity for parker to be pulled backwards thru a blackberry bush..
..over his/labours’ epic-fail/vote-killing policy to raise the age of the pension..
..who was/were the einsteins(s) who made that call..?
..you don’t need to answer that question..
..but you really need to do what needs to be done..eh..?
..you are getting some really shit tactic-advice..from whomever…
“Nothing”, Phil?
Are you sufficiently versed in economics to make that judgement?
What were you expecting? It’s finance policy.
Parker raised interest in the proposal on Sunday. Today it’s getting headlines and has induced another of Key’s trademark lies:
“What will make a difference is Labour spending so much money, rates will rise faster.”
Fact: rates have risen “faster” since 2009.
Pretty sure the Oravida party is spending more too.
no..oab..
..he had nothing to talk about..hence the blackberry-bush episode..
..did you see it..?
..tell me how i have got that wrong..
Perhaps the reason for not launching the policy on Sunday was so that the launching was controlled- an uninterrupted speed followed by question and answers. Political talk shows are very dependent on the line of questioning by the interviewer who can derail the launch. If you consider the quality and motives of most of the panellists who take part in the post interview discussion, then the wisdom of using a breakfast speech launch becomes much more attractive.
David Parker effectively states that if elected he will dip into your paypacket and leave you worse off. Is he one of the ABC majority in caucus? Democracy needs a strong and competent opposition.
concern-tr*lling there..fisi..?
Fisiani, wouldn’t it be better if you concerned yourself with problems the Nats have, as you are one of their supporters?
Is it a concern that they are taking on tobacco lobbyists?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/9984445/Ex-lobbyist-to-contest-Englishs-seat
Is the government a competent manager of the economy having blown out the debt to over $60 billion?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9380846/Public-debt-climbs-by-27m-a-day
Just a couple of more important things for you to be concerned about…
Are you seriously claiming that ex-employees of a tobacco company are not supposed to be candidates? Should they be forced to wear a yellow star to let us know their sin.
The government is a fabulous manager of the economy. Just watch for the Budget.
On 20th September we have a stark choice.
Forward to a brighter and brighter future or back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.
$60 billion debt and growing.
Wonderful.
“back to the seventies with a government that steals private land and steals from your pay packet to finance pet ideas.”
like the Central Plains Water scheme, backed by your government, stealing private land and using my pay packet to finance pet irrigation ideas (which are so woeful in terms of financial return that they cannot raise the money to pay for it within their dear private sector, hence steal from taxpayers. Total failure of your political philosophies fisiani. fail fail fail)
The fact that you believe that shows just how disconnected from reality you are.
Has the 170,000 jobs from National’s budgeting turned up yet?
Thread officially Godwinned. Recommended course of action: nothin’ but 🙄
Hey wingnut, listening to RNZ morning report, Slugger Bill Churlish saying NO to everything N-Spinner is front footing him on . Copped a bit of stick comparing the LP policy of raising to 9% super contribution, Bill got a hiding when comparing to the Ozzies 13%. Nice.
Key-Joyce and their spin merchants will be sitting slumped in their chairs cursing English’s poor showing.
Expect cheerleaders Hooton & Shrillands to turn up to try prop up PG who is already getting a pasting on here.
English was as usual very predictable. Had to turn him off. Good to hear Cunliffe putting espiner in his place. GE got quite cross.
“.. Democracy needs a strong and competent opposition..”
let’s hope national are up to the task..eh..?..
Exporters see their profits disappear as printed money comes crashing through the NZ dollar door.
Where have National been, we’re not talking about what may happen in the fruit loopy way National declares all Labour’s policies as awful, we’re talking how they failed in the housing market, failed exporters, failed children.
And National are worried, Labour are aim full square at craving off exporters from the National party.
Retailers are next when they realize Key’s aiming the economy at an almighty housing crash, with his high govt debt, do nothing and wait for thr GFC to have worked through and watch while milk, timber, are all sourced elsewhere.
You have to pretty dumb to think that hot money isn’t holding up our economy.
That hot money needs exchange goods, and so is buying up the cheapest bulkiest
items on the economic menu and hurting our added value sectors.
And t will all stop when the global banking system rights itself, then the banks
will come for our homes.
Most days I wake up feeling just fine, have a good breakfast, attend to my ablutions and then turn to The Standard for my daily share of intelligent comment (especially from karol) on matters political.
Why is it that time and time again I then find the whole morning ruined by comments, if they can be called that, from someone called Pete George? There is something so snide, so dog-whistling about this person’s contributions that I end up having my day shattered. There is no end to his self-assumed expertise on everything, his implied criticisms disguised as something unbiased and apparently reasonable.
Please, Pete George, for the sake of at least one person’s sanity – – – go away!
+100
He ruins this site.
i see him as being the legal-high of political-dialogue..
..imitating the real thing..
..and getting it so so wrong…
..what particularly grates with him is the bullshit concern-tr*lling..the many ‘faces’..
..’faces’ dependant on the audience/issue being faced at that moment..
..if he came here and vigorously argued rightwing ‘ideas’..fair do’s..
..but it is the faux-concern/centreist poses he constantly strikes..
..and his never answering reasoned-challenges..
..in short..his outright/wholesale dissembling..
..(and this is kinda off the wall..i dunno a lot about astrological-profiles..but from what i do know/have observed in others..i reckon he is a virgo with taurus rising..
..or some such swamp-person mix…
..any other guesses..?..)
..and to end on a positive-note..
..like with the legal-highs..there will come a breaking-point..
..the queues of complainers will get too long/rowdy..
..we can but hope that comes soon..eh..?..
..’cos credit where credit is due..
..he is quite good at it..
..that dissembling..
..he is like an energy-sucking black hole on many threads..
..his paymasters should be rewarding him well..
..(and what’s with that edwards-the-younnger seriall=linking/being a fanboy of georges’ drivel..?
..and here is the scary bit..
..that edwards-the-younger moulds young/impressionable brains..
..at a university..(!)
..whoar..!..eh..?..
..does he have the unmentionable one as a guest-speaker..?
..does he scar their minds this way..?..
Yes, why does Bryce Edwards link “Your NZ” in his weekly round up. Not sure of the motivation or reasoning for that, but it does reduce his credibility.
+100
Have had the same reaction, but am trying now to use the glimpse of his avatar to practise empathy and compassion for those that are “without”.
Will keep you updated on how I go…
I can never understand why the debate with Pete continues. He is as slippery as John Key. And the issues he seems to raise are never resolved. I tend to skip all the comments and replies after his name. Must be too old to bother.
Don’t let PG ruin your morning wyndham. There’s too much good thing going on, on this site. I share your frustration, however I when I see his name and a giant disrupted thread trailing in his wake. I just scroll- on- by until I get to something relevant . I have made a suggestion to readers and commenters at 1.2.3.1 at 9.52 am above.
I would love to see the 🙄 response reignited.
Open mike is rapidly degenerating into the Pete George hour.
Totally. Is he related to m hooton?
To be honest, I think that may be an insult to Hooton.
Naa Hooten writes Hootens Horse shit on NBR.
Petey writes Horse shit where ever he goes. He’s like a Puppy dog He just can’t help pissing on the carpet.
Yes -i’ve noticed that Open Mike has become a PG hour and its booooorrrrrrrrrring. Boring, Boring.
Not at all what it was a few weeks ago. Is it time for the moderators to step up and put a ban on him for a while ? ?
Banning him for awhile doesn’t make any difference – you just feel the same pain when he comes back.
That seems a little unfair JK, I note that the first comment was by felix today, fairly well inciting PG into making a comment. Yesterday’s (was it yesterday, can’t be arsed going to check) Open Mike was all about PG and he hadn’t even commented!
I don’t agree with all Pete George says or his tactics at times, however a lot of the noise recently has been to do how people are responding to him, rather than due to PG. Some of his comments do assist some pretty important debates.
It would be good if those responding to and inciting PG got a grip and thought a bit about how their own actions are affecting this ‘issue’…because it is starting to look more like a schoolyard dynamic that bring to mind a certain statement that Dick Emery was famous for more than anything else.
There are some pretty important events occurring in this country, if you wish to focus on them – focus on them.
I think you underestimate how distruptive many people find PG. For those that don’t mind him so much, your comment makes sense. For those of us that see him as an out and out tr8ll*, then the upscaling of antagonism to him recently also makes sense.
I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.
Sometimes DFTT is in order.
Sometimes that doesn’t cut it but…
I think it is getting a bit rubbish to incite him to comment and then complain about Open Mike being dedicated to him, when he hasn’t even started the subject. JK @ 8.2 didn’t do this – but this is what has occurred twice now on Open Mike.
DFTT implies that he is in fact a tr8ll. Which means the normal rules of discourse don’t apply.
“I don’t mind at all when people call bullshit on bullshit, it is good to do that.”
Everything PG does and says is bullshit. Even on the occasions that his comments make sense, it’s still bullshit because it’s part of the whole centrist, I’m more of a reasonable person than anyone else persona that masks the fact that he is right wing and undermines the left at any opportunity he gets. That persona does damage. He is not someone I am willing to take a face value, comment by comment, because every commment he makes is part of a larger context of clusterfucked communication and bullshit.
All that amounts to is you don’t tolerate views you don’t like so make things up to try and discredit. This demonstrates your intolerance and nastiness towards alternatives and helps highlight the issues being raised. It doesn’t seem to be a very smart approach but may reflect frustration at a lack of success with your own agenda. If you had a good case to argue that’s what you’d do instead of lashing out at different views and approaches.
Anger doesn’t make a good argument. It’s curious to see such bitter anti-centrists.
1) No, it shows that weka understands you very well. Probably better than you do.
2) It’s not your “views”, it’s your behaviour, The only views you have ever put forward are the occasional bit of racism.
3) You have never, ever offered an “alternative” to anything.
4) You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who has observed your behaviour online over a couple of years who wouldn’t agree with weka. You’ll always be able to fool a few noobs though.
felix and weka, speaking for just about everyone. Very funny. Keep trying felix, that’s all you seem to do. I presume it amuses you but you seem to get more frustrated than anything. You know what they say about repeating the same mistakes.
🙄
🙄
🙄
“All that amounts to is you don’t tolerate views you don’t like so make things up to try and discredit.”
Pretty strange coincidence then that of all the people on this site that I disagree with, the only person I call a tr*ll is you.
Breaking news on TVNZ – The Government has announced it’s investing $100.9 million into strengthening the Defence Force.
So what’s that then? Using not having money as an excuse to fund social welfare projects or night classes and the like, and after running the military down to save costs, they find enough to stump up enough to buy some nod doubt American made nonsense or half a wing of one of the Australian fleet that doesn’t work properly.
Can’t wait for the spin show to start. My guess is Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific, in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
China won’t like that.
We are being caught in a vice between two powers trying to control the Pacific.
Key’s subservient approach to both will cost us big time in the future.
And they will grip hard too. My best suggestion would be to declare NZ neutral, failing that, and the opposite of Key, choose the winning side at the UN and have productive trade negotiations minus the taste of corruption lingering on the lips of cabinet ministers.
The article says $535m over four years, so that’s a full wing of a wonky Joint Strike Fighter.
After reading what Coleman says, I’m amending my spin guess a little. I now pick Key hides the US request to curb the yellow peril in the pacific under a cloak of aid and relief to the islands in the style of drunken cabaret crooner.
At least Key didn’t buy as much as Abbott during his free round of golf time share presentation with the president. He got suckered for $24 billion.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/government-invest-100-9-million-in-defence-force-5943266
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s3990812.htm
NZ’s only real option at this point in time is to declare ourselves completely, totally and utterly neutral. Nothing less will do.
There are some strong advantages to remaining allied to the west, albeit we need to bolster our reputation as fair and honest brokers in all international affairs.
I can’t think of any. Did you read this? I have a tendency to agree with him about our Western allies.
THanks for the link, DTB
Probably buying Australia’s F/A18’s after they buy the new F35 JSF.
Doesn’t really matter what it is though as the end result will be more dependence upon the US for defence and a totally useless defence capability.
what’s happened to our benign strategic environment? (one of Helen Clark’s most gob-smackingly silly utterances, and there weren’t too many of those..)
I’ve not googled it yet, so I don’t know. But milk, food and kiwi ingenuity to all who come in peace sounds better than the mess trying to butter both sides of the bread will make.
The global economy is collapsing and, yeah, it was a rather stupid thing for Clark to say.
‘
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/9987907/US-braces-for-more-tornados
With more energy in the system, will Auckland see its third deadly tornado in three years?
Been coming across a lot of Pikkety lately. For those who haven’t, his book ” Capital in the Twenty First Century” has a central argument/observation that any democracy we have is inevitably devolving into plutocracy.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/28/thomas-piketty-capital-surprise-bestseller
pikettys’ book is the most important tome in a long time…
..put that together with the spirit level..
..and you have your rationales/a blueprint for a new/much better way of doing things..
..i consider myself an early-adopter of piketty..
..here is what i have found/collected…
..a (rough) primer/archive of his words/ideas..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=piketty
Yep, really need to read that one but, then, I’ve been saying that the biggest problem we have is the rich for years.
Thanks for the tip.
Piketty’s prescription includes (to quote from Bill’s link) ‘an 80% tax on incomes above $500,000 a year in the US, assuring his readers there would be neither a flight of top execs to Canada nor a slowdown in growth, since the outcome would simply be to suppress such incomes’.
Labour and the Greens should adopt this as policy.
It will not raise a lot in revenue in New Zealand, but that is not the point.
These excessive salaries are immoral and extortionate.
And even the CEOs themselves are starting to acknowledge the fact – The Warehouse boss Mark Powell recently described his $1.7 million salary as a ‘ridiculous amount’.
In NZ, anything over about $500k should be taxed at 90% or more.
snap
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26042014/#comment-804540
Piketty’s ideas are decent, but they are 25 years too late. We’ve actually moved far past the time the assumptions he uses will actually hold. Care of one of favourite websites Zerohedge:
By Charles Hugh-Smith:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-28/critique-pikettys-solution-widening-wealth-inequality
And by James Kunstler:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-28/second-biggest-delusion-us-culture
In relation to today’s conversations, my view is that Reserve Bank goals and interest rate settings are akin to trying to cleverly keep steam pressure up on the Titanic’s engines while the compartments are filling up with water. At this point nothing apart from getting ready for fossil fuel energy depletion, climate change, GFC II and permanent global economic contraction matters one whit.
I don’t think that PG ruins the site. He’s a bit pompous – and his theme song could be ‘I can see clearly now the brain has gone’ – but I think he’s an excellent example of a right-whinger trying hard to prove that he occupies the political centre – and that’s always good for a laugh.
Why do those survey firms who phone and ask for a portion of your day to answer their questions never pay for the service? I make a point of responding “yes sure, I can participate but like you we charge for our time, so if you can give me a name and address for sending an invoice we can proceed”
the responses range from a laugh to a pause to a short no. it brings the call to a rapid end.
can I recommend that others take such an approach?
Surprisingly good editorial in the Dom Post today on Dunne’s actions re the Psychoactive Substances bill. A good read:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/9986208/Editorial-Dunne-drops-synthetics-ball
Interesting article in the Grauniad about the difficulties of dealing to the racist party UKIP. One conclusion is very relevent to the upcoming election here; that attacking UKIP for being racist implies that voters attracted to them are also racist. The lesson for NZ? Attacking Key can be counter productive because it can seen as an attack on swinging voters who like him, even if it’s not in their interests to vote for him.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/28/ukip-european-election-accused-of-racism
Disappointing to see your negative comment on Monetary policy, Karol. As several Labour MPs noted recently, you have to generate income before you can redistribute it. I am making no aims as an economics expert but it looks like Parkers ideas are bold and very smart. Not more handouts or bleeding interest payments to foreign banks, instead he proposes to channel inflation control back into the local economy though kiwisaver. Note he has written in out clauses for low income earners Karol. Overseas banks will hate ths policy expect some vicious attacks by corporate interests. But the main thing is this will be great for higher wage employment and local industry. The guy is a genius and the miracle is that it didn’t get leaked. Key was left blundering around suggesting old hat mortgage controls. Well done Labour.
Southland Times editorial on new Nat Clutha/Southland candidate Todd Barclay (tobacco industry lobbyist)
OPINION: The staff of legal high shops up and down the country might suddenly find themselves contemplating a change of career. Can we suggest they consider trying for a National Party candidacy somewhere?
It worked for Todd Barclay.
Hard on the news that all legal highs will be off the shelves in a couple of weeks, what with them being so harmful and everything, the Nats have chosen for one of their safest seats, Clutha-Southland, a man whose job it was to represent the interests of the tobacco industry.
The one that kills about 5000 of us each year.
Not that Barclay’s employer, Philip Morris, is denying any more that tobacco is a dangerous product. It now openly acknowledges as much.
The thing is, this oh-so-slowly dawning self-awareness hasn’t stopped the company defending, as best it can, its right to keep making money from the stuff anyway.
Because, after all, it’s legal.
Can we at least muster a sharp intake of breath, perhaps followed by a wheezy cough, at the audacity of this candidacy selection?
To be fair, Barclay has come and gone from Philip Morris in short order. He had his tobacco job for eight months and says he joined the company to learn about corporate politics. In fact, he says he doesn’t condone smoking. (Small point: if you don’t condone something you really shouldn’t make money in its service.)
There are things that an eager-to-learn young man should want to know about the tobacco industry even before he gets into it. And one of those, surely, would be the legitimacy of that whole “millions of dead people” kerfuffle. Was he really untroubled by that? Does he know something reassuring the rest of us don’t?
Before this, Barclay was a Beehive insider. A 24-year-old who grew up in the south, he has worked for Cabinet ministers Bill English, Gerry Brownlee and Hekia Parata. Make what you will that after those three Big Tobacco seemed an agreeable next step.
The extent to which his electorate will be willing to set aside this poisonous background remains to be seen. It’s up to Clutha-Southland voters to determine what significance, if any, to afford the fact that Barclay chose that career move, however temporarily. But it must be said that for a man barely in his mid-20s, he has a past to live down.
In the meantime that hoary old line that a gumboot could get elected in Clutha-Southland if it was a National gumboot should be revisited on the basis that a gumboot would have a more benign public safety record.
As for Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne’s announcement that, come to think of it, by golly it would be better if all legal highs were taken off the shelves and returned only once their safety was proven — that’s a case of better late than never. But not nearly as good as getting it right the first time.
The grace period that had allowed 41 legal highs to keep being sold before the new testing regime was in place was far too long and intense public unhappiness resulted.
Dunne’s insistence that had his hand not been forced by Opposition pressure the law change would still have gone ahead, but without warning and therefore without stockpiling, may be true. But the Opposition can hardly be blamed for preparing its own policy to do something the public wanted but the Government had not displayed any interest in doing.
And something, we might and, that it had previously portrayed as pretty much impossible. Turns out where there’s a will, there’s a way.
– © Fairfax NZ News
Plenty of campaign fodder here. Has a Green candidate been selected for Clutha-Southland yet?
I see another tobacco industry lobbyist, Chris Bishop, is contesting Hutt South for the Nats. Wonder if they will throw Carrick Graham a seat as well?
Lolz, i lived in Clutha-Southland for a couple of years, Greens are more than frowned on down there, i remember walking into the post-shop the morning after 9/11 and one old bloke had to be quieted by the postie as he started whining in a loud voice that i was ”one of them”…
All the old hippies are coming out the wordwork down there, so I think things have changed a bit in recent years. Robert Guyton’s just been elected to his second term on the regional council and he doesn’t seem to hide his green light under a bushel 😉
Chris Bishop has not been selected. The National Party has a lot of potential candidates and not one is a union hack and no one cares about their sexuality.
indeed.
But in Clutha-Southland, national selected a corporate tobacco salesman and Labour selected a specialist in public health.
Says it all, really.
Good point – it should be stressed.
“no one cares about their sexuality”
Well, apart from hoping that none of them will breed……..
chortle
Of course National is full of union hacks – they’re just called business associations instead. National are quite fine with their own unions, they just don’t like the workers having theirs.
Here’s something that needs fact checking:
Because I’m pretty sure that Labour ramped up defence spending after National ran it down in the 1990s. It’s why we have the LAVs, the new aircraft and the new patrol boats. I’d heard that National had run it down from their first budget this term as well.
NACTs have just announced that they are obtaining more defence infrastructure “which Labour had ordered”. Like spending is something that Labour does, the profligate wasters, whereas the high-minded wisearses of NACT make considered investments when they spend the taxpayers money in a very tight-fisted manner. Such poseurs.
“”“which Labour had ordered”.
So why did we bother to change to NACTs?
dv
Are you trying to make sense of it all? If you haven’t so far then don’t think too hard, it can seem like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland where they all shift around one place every so often. At least that seems to have been the case in the recent past. Now we might change the scenario, and myself I’d prefer to move away from Alice’s arena this time.
Allow me to answer for Pete: ‘National didn’t completely de-fund the defence force when they got in to power so it’s inaccurate to say they ran down the budget. And Labour didn’t completely fund every single thing the defence force wanted with a few spare million on top, so it may be accurate to say they left a funding gap.’
if only there were an impartial,/i> fact checking website for NZ political claims…
Labour’s response
Yeah, that’s what I thought – National, despite always going on about having a decent defence force, had been cutting the defence budget again.
+1 DTB
National have been like rats in the pantry busy eating away at things behind the scenes.
Quietly cutting spending on everything desperately in order to make up for the fact that they haven’t got enough revenue to achieve the targets they promised re returning to surplus – due to their stupid tax cuts and asset sales.
It is a great pity people didn’t vote for a left-wing government last time around – who were making more conservative promises- that they most-likely would have achieved – and without doing the damage that National have done and are doing to our country.
Politicians – WTF
In the discussion on synthetic marijuana moves I heard John Key say he was uncomfortable about something. Was that reported in the MSM? I realised a simple fact about the PM.
He works on a simple binary principle – comfortable/uncomfortable!
And the good old USA is stirring up controversy and commenting from its superior high ground on both the Russian/Ukraine afffair that the USA has had some effect on warming up through its activities along with its NATO sidekicks, and now on the China-Philippines argument over sea area control around their coastlines. UbiquitoUSA.
and John Kerry is saying Israel is at risk of becoming an apartheid state.
Past tense must mean something different in the northern hemisphere
Great comment from John Banks a few minutes ago on TV3 news, re: testing synthetic drugs on animals….”rats need to live in dignity too” While to some extent I agree with him I think he should know best.
I didn’t hear it but am somewhat cynical. He has been in a position for years when he could have done something about it but hasn’t.
banks is an example of the premise that nobody is all bad..
..he had tears in his eyes when speaking opposing this bill..
..and on the grounds of his objections to dogs/animals being tortured/overdosed to death..
..testing this crap..
..so i don’t doubt his sincerity on that/then..
..and auckland has a lot of dog parks..
..and that is down to banks when mayor..
..(but that’s pretty much all i’ve got..)
(oh..!..and i know he has given money to/supported animal rights groups..in a variety of ways..)
..but funny thing..i think he still eats them..(maybe not dogs..)
From the Herald today:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11245825
Who is the one manufacturer that met with the new regulations? Are there any ties to a certain company staring with “O” and linked to a compromised cabinet minister?
FYI – Just posted this on Kiwiblog in response to this article:
“Crime reduction targets on track
April 29th, 2014 at 10:00 am by David Farrar
Judith Collins announced:
Justice Minister Judith Collins says the latest Justice sector Better Public Services results for reducing crime and re-offending, are the best quarterly results since the targets were set.
The Better Public Services (BPS) targets set a goal of a 15 per cent reduction in total crime by June 2017, compared to baseline figures from June 2011.
“It’s fantastic news that our latest Justice sector BPS results show the total crime rate has reduced by 14 per cent between June 2011 and December 2013,” says Ms Collins.
“The latest results for this period also show the youth crime rate has dropped by 27 per cent, violent crime is down 10 per cent and overall re-offending is down by 11.7 per cent.
“New Zealand now has the lowest crime rate since 1978 but most importantly, the results mean New Zealanders are experiencing around 56,000 fewer crimes a year, leading to fewer victims of crime. ….”
MY COMMENT:
Where are the ‘white collar’ crime statistics?
Are there any?
How about ‘bribery and corruption’ statistics?
How come on the watch of Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins , New Zealand has STILL not ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)?
How come Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins promised Transparency International last year, that her ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ would be presented to Parliament in 2013, and it STILL has yet to surface in the NZ Parliamentary legislation ‘sausage machine’?
(I double-checked with her Parliamentary Office).
http://www.transparency.org.nz/UNCAC-Ratification
Most Recent Report on UNCAC Ratification:
New Zealand Almost Ready to Ratify UNCAC!
Ten years after signing UNCAC in 2003, New Zealand appears almost ready to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption. New Zealand’s failure for a decade to take action to ratify the UN Convention disappointing for a country that prides itself on its clean international image. TINZ has actively encouraged ratification for the last 10 years as noted in our letter to several ministers in August.
In a much welcomed development in a letter to Transparency International New Zealand dated 7 August 2013, the Hon Judith Collins, Minister of Justice, states that she has “announced a package of legislative reforms that will allow New Zealand to ratify UNCAC.”
The necessary amendments to make New Zealand’s domestic law compliant with the treaty obligations will be included in the Organized Crime and Anti-Corruption Bill. Once passed, the minister has confirmed that “officials will promptly take steps to deposit New Zealand’s instrument of ratification of UNCAC.”
http://www.transparency.org.nz/docs/2013/UNCAC-Letter-%20to-Hon-Ministers-McCully-Collins-Groser-30-May-2013.pdf
http://www.transparency.org.nz/docs/2013/Hon-Judith-Collins-Minister-of-Justice-Letter-to-TINZ.pdf
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for CORRUPTION (oops!) Justice, Judith Collins and her (in my considered opinion) CORRUPT conflict of interest, in TOADYING for her friends and husband’s private company – Oravida?
Has Transparency International New Zealand had anything to say about the recent developments involving Minister for BRIBERY (oops! ) Foreign Affairs – Murray McCully, with his, in my considered opinion offer of a job ( errr…. BRIBE) as ‘Pacific Economic Ambassador’ to shifty Shane JUDA$ Jones – treacherous, whopper waka swapper?
After looking at the Transparency International New Zealand website – I see nothing covering these developments.
I guess that if Transparency International New Zealand starts doing some REAL anti-corruption ‘whistleblowing’ – they might lose their Government funding from a variety of sources?
Of which there seems to be a considerable amount?
http://www.transparency.org.nz/Partners-and-Sponsors
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’.
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
www,dodgyjohnhasgone.com
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz
Actually if you work with police prosecutors on a daily basis as I do you’d know that the word from on police high is that now people gotta be given ‘warnings’ first off rather than charging and proceeding to court.
Don’t really want to say – ‘unless you’re young, black and scum’ – but that’s the guts of it.
The Milky Bar Krud is cooking the books. While keeping the confidence of Serco’s shareholders more or less
Edit: sorry, this was meant to be a response to DTB below.
xox
Did you know NZ has an arrangement for 1000 young Chinese to stay/work in NZ for one year? This has been going for a few years now. I spoke to one last weekend. Most illuminating. The offer is online in China and is snapped up in 5 minutes! I was lucky to talk about what is happening in China from a well spoken, albeit with an American accent, young guy about global and internet issues. A real highlight of my visit to Christchurch.
Ah, Serco, the little big company that just couldn’t.
Public purse private sector parasite
Outsourcing eh? A begging bowl held by private firms to collect the public’s money.
Aue ! This lady is pissed off…….wonder why ? That it might simply be ‘balance’ is a horrible thought.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/9989399/Legal-highs-about-face-a-mockery
Hahahahaha ! What a Dork Dunney ? Gets nothing right. Except the salary and the super’ and the spot at the trough. And lay preacher at some bilious bastion of anal white privilege white wooden church somewhere out Karori way.
Nearly sixty years ago there was a fulla used to turn up at Ellerslie Primary School where I started my education. Called the ‘Funny Doctor’ – wore a bow tie, clown’s nose, drove a little round mudguards Austiny thing – magic tricks – bold checked pants – we loved him us easily pleased five year olds.
Reckon Petey’s the dodgy remittance man of that family.
Paul Henry. TV3. Tonight. Vicious Old Visceral Tory Queen ! On 3 Hundy. Couldn’t give a fuck about ChCh. Where he and his darling ShonKey Python don’t live. But Oh How They Care ! Piece of shit is that Old Queen.
Dull Old Parker. Had VOQ backing off a bit there. Well done DOP. Sad for you VOQ. On two and a half hundy now darling.
This is a likely story http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9992233/Immigration-controls-to-dampen-house-prices
… a New Zealand government using immigration to keep house prices low? Yeah right. Everyone knows that every government opens the immigration taps 12-18 months out from an election. Helen Clark did it. John Key is doing it right now. As long as immigration sits at around 30,000 p.a. then we have upward pressure on house values, and that keeps everyone voting for the incumbent government no matter what.
I just do not believe that a Labour government would not again open the immigration taps to enhance their chances of re-election in the future.
It is the oldest trick in the book.