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Govt tax advisor told Westpac how to cheat on taxes

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:17 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 3 comments

John Shewan is a member of the Government’s Tax Working Group. A decade ago he was advising Westpac what minimal amount of tax it should pay to avoid arousing IRD’s suspicion as it perpetrated the single biggest tax rip off in New Zealand history. Here’s the key bit from the High Court judgment: [563] In […]

EMA busts another privatisation myth

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:00 pm, October 20th, 2009 - 32 comments

When asked to explain why they want to start privatising a world-leading institution like ACC, National and ACT tend to fall back on the excuse that it will somehow lead to lower ACC premiums. Of course, the international experience and every independent report that’s been done shows the exact opposite, but they can always point […]

Poor managers hurting NZ

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:23 pm, October 14th, 2009 - 22 comments

What a sad state the management workforce of this country is in. Just think about these recent stories: Open Country, locking out their workers, employing scab labour, creating an environmental mess and blaming it on the workers they locked out – all because the workers joined the union and wanted some guaranteed hours. The appalling way that […]

Why no punishment for Westpac?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:26 am, October 13th, 2009 - 80 comments

You would have seen that Westpac was found to have undertaken the largest theft of tax money in New Zealand history. From 1998 to 2002, they hid $586 million in tax due to our government. Add about 6% interest a year and the total they owe us is $961 million. My problem is that the […]

No pay freeze at the top

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:28 am, September 23rd, 2009 - 11 comments

It seems the trend of rewarding company bosses with extravagant pay rises regardless of performance isn’t limited to Telecom’s $7 million man, Paul Reynolds. The Dom Post reports the bosses of Contact and Skellerup have been given huge pay rises, despite both companies’ profits taking a dive in the last year. Contact’s managing director David […]

Corporate bully-boys step it up a level

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:14 am, September 18th, 2009 - 16 comments

The Open Country Cheese dispute is underway. Workers are striking against the bosses’ attempts to casualise their hours and reduce their conditions. They are not striking for huge pay increases, despite the lies of Open Country. Open Country Cheese, part-owned by the notorious Talleys and tied to various National MPs via the Dairy Investment Fund […]

Brash and Banks try to profit off vulnerable

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:13 pm, September 10th, 2009 - 31 comments

Former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and Auckland Mayor John Banks love making the big bucks. And what better way to do it than hitting the most vulnerable in society. Today the National Party stalwarts are after mental patients. The Herald notes: KiwiSaver targets mental patient An Auckland woman is dismayed her 25-year-old son […]

Foodstuffs: Voluntary regulation fails

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:30 pm, September 2nd, 2009 - 44 comments

I find myself in the curious position of sympathising with a company reneging on an environmental promise. Foodstuffs announced yesterday that the charge on plastic bag was to be optional, and that they would not charge people for plastic bags if they object. Get Real, a New Zealand organisation campaigning for the elimination of disposable […]

Wee gripes: Business confidence

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:30 pm, September 2nd, 2009 - 6 comments

Question: ‘Do you expect business conditions to improve in the next 12 months?’ Answer: ‘Well, we’re in the worst recession in a life-time but everyone says it’s coming to an end and our prospects are looking a bit better, obviously that’s going to be better than now – so, yes’ Headline: ‘Business confidence hits record […]

What they’re really playing at

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 4:55 pm, July 27th, 2009 - 7 comments

Business Roundtable chair Rob McLeod has a piece in today’s Dom Post motivating the case for amending anti-discrimination laws to allow “affirmative action” in the private sector workforce. As an exercise in intellectual dishonesty it’s truly a masterpiece. Selectively quoting the Chicago School academic Richard Epstein, a favourite in BRT circles, McLeod tries to motivate […]

Stop press: Bosses support bosses’ party

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:51 am, July 14th, 2009 - 29 comments

The Herald’s ‘Mood of the Boardroom’ survey is predictable reading. Year after year, it’s the same ideologues with the same outdated ideas. The bosses are happy that their boy is in power. Can’t point to anything he’s actually done. But love him nontheless. Still hate Labour and the unions. As ever, their companies’ under-performance is […]

Who pays for swine flu?

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 18th, 2009 - 15 comments

A lot of people (like a million people or more according to the experts) are set to get sick from swine flu or not be able to go to work because the business is shut because of swine flu. What will happen to people’s incomes when they can’t work because of swine flu? The statutory […]

Lane Walker Rudkin

Written By: Tane - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 30th, 2009 - 54 comments

I see poor management and a bitter marital tiff have put the jobs of 470 workers at Lane Walker Rudkin on the line and cast doubt on the future of yet another iconic Kiwi company. As the NDU’s Maxine Gay points out, communities like Timaru, Greytown and Pahiatua simply can’t afford to take a hit […]

Barbaric

Written By: Tane - Date published: 12:30 pm, April 14th, 2009 - 22 comments

Restaurant Association chairman Mike Egan on how to treat your staff during a recession: “if some of our employees cannot adapt fast enough we will drag them out of the cave and leave them to the sabre-tooth tigers and find staff who can and will adapt”. Most of the people he’s talking about are on […]

Russian oligarch urges dump MMP

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:00 am, April 8th, 2009 - 43 comments

So, the Business Roundtable has resorted to calling in Russian oligarchs to aid their campaign against proportional represenation. Here’s what “Taranaki-born former Treasury economist-turned-Russian oligarch” Stephen Jennings had to say following last night’s Sir Ron Trotter address. MMP, he says, must go. We need political leaders who can lead and manage change. “They need to […]

Talleys: Corporate scum

Written By: Tane - Date published: 2:14 pm, April 6th, 2009 - 41 comments

I’ve long been of the opinion that the Talley family, owners of the Talleys food empire, are a corrosive force in this country who have a complete contempt for their workforce, the public and our democratic institutions. Sure enough, they’re at it again. NZPA reports: The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) plans to call […]

Blindly cutting away

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:08 pm, March 26th, 2009 - 23 comments

One of the most cavalier and foolish actions of the National led government during its first 100 day blitz of legislation (in itself described by many as an assault on democracy) was the cancellation of the R&D tax credit. The business community warned well in advance that cutting the credit was a very bad idea, […]

More on the Commerce Commission

Written By: Tane - Date published: 6:55 pm, March 21st, 2009 - 14 comments

On Thursday I linked to a piece in the NBR that suggested Simon Power’s appointment of Dr Mark Berry to replace Paula Rebstock at the Commerce Commission hinted at a radical shakeup of the consumer watchdog. Today John Drinnan has an in-depth piece in the Herald that suggests radical reform is indeed on the way, […]

NZ Herald: Nobody Wants It

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:00 am, January 28th, 2009 - 34 comments

It seems that Irish millionaire Tony O’Reilly won’t be solving his debt problems any time soon. O’Reilly is desperate to be shod of his major shareholding in APN “which publishes the New Zealand Herald and is the largest radio and outdoor advertising operator in Australasia”. (No conflicts of interest in APN’s rabid anti-EFA campaigning there […]

EMA Kiwisaver campaign in breach of EFA?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:53 pm, July 23rd, 2008 - 55 comments

The Employers and Manufacturers Association’s advertising campaign to defend the ability of employers to make workers pay their own Kiwisaver employer contribution while pocketing the taxpayer subsidy is the most hamfisted and transparently cynical piece of PR I’ve seen in some time. It’s outragous that the EMA should claim it’s standing up for workers’ rights […]

PSA rips Bagrie report

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:24 am, July 18th, 2008 - 7 comments

Good piece in the Herald yesterday (and the Dom Post the day before) from PSA national sec Richard Wagstaff critiquing ANZ National chief economist Cameron Bagrie’s woeful report on public sector ‘waste’. Wagstaff takes aim at the underlying assumptions of the report about ‘productive’ versus ‘non-productive’ public sector spending, then proceeds to rip through some […]

National’s Bank

Written By: Tane - Date published: 4:54 pm, July 10th, 2008 - 21 comments

After reading Steve’s post this morning mocking ANZ National for putting out confused National Party talking points dressed up as research, a reader was inspired to send us this: