The Government is looking at ways of introducing an ACC-like insurance scheme for "people who lose their jobs.
The Productivity Commission earlier this year noted most OECD countries have some form of unemployment insurance, which people can draw down on for a set period of time if they lose their job.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson told interest.co.nz New Zealand needs a sustainable scheme, which gives people security and keeps them connected to the labour market."
"The payment could be claimed for one week for each five weeks the person has worked, up to a maximum of 26 weeks per claim. So someone who has worked continuously for only one year could claim up to 10 weeks’ cover."
Im old enough to have experienced the fallout of the market reforms of the eighties and nineties…indeed I was recently married with two young children when those reforms created the conditions where for 14 months I was unemployed (the longest of a few periods) , under this proposal we would have received 6 months unemployment ……what would we have lived on for the following 8 months Grant?
If Labour are seriously considering an unemployment insurance scheme in the next electoral period then they need to front up with the policy pre election…..indeed any policy to examine would be welcome.
Funny, i thought unemployment insurance was paid for via income tax and all one had to do was to go to the Winz office, fill out some forms, be eligable and then get a hand ful of dollars.
Does the Gentlemen want to increase the taxes on the working stiffs?
funny, innit?
As for having 'unemployment insurance' why yes, in Germany we have that.
On our pay slip it states what taxes are paid for
income income tax
retirement insurance tax
accident insurance ax
unemployment insurance tax
'solidarity tax' (started witht he re-unification of Germany to pay for it,)
religion tax ( one can opt out – goes to roman catholic and protestant churches only)
for this in Germany you get
6 weeks full pay (of the job) if you have an accident at work and then ACC kicks in at 60% of last wage
6 month of unemployement for 1 year worked or 12 month if one has worked and paid into the system for longer then a year, at 60% of last wage and you can calculate that at home cause the WINZ drone in Germany has no 'discretion' they are there to give you a form to fill out, determine your eligablilty and oh, they have to be polite to you and you are allowed access to the toilets when you need. If you don't qualify then you get full social welfare costs, also with appropriate politeness and access to toilets should you need one while waiting for your appointment. Non of this, here have a starvation handful of dollars and don't be upset about it, lest i kick you out without anything. Also you are allowed to take a lover home if you so desire and it will not affect your benefit. Unemployment benefits are also calculated per the tax payer and not any family unit that may or may exist. I.e. you get the full amount irrespective of your partners earning.
Retirement is set at a certain amount of your last wage – depending on how many years one contributed. While this system is inherently bad for women – they now receive years added for child care to make up for the loss of income, the lower pays, etc. Still not great but an attempt was made. One needs to participate i.e. pay in, for a min of 15 years. in abscence of that one will receive at least full social welfare. See about politness of the case worker and access to toilets above.
(the same stipulation of all taxes paid i have also seen in Holland and France – the only country that does not do it (in my working experience)is NZ cause they 'simplyfied' the system as i was explained by my hubby many years ago)
and at the end of the year the germans get to do a tax return for such things as ‘cost of public transport for work’, ‘work clothes’ , job seeking costs ‘i.e. print/copy of references, postal cost, clothing etc’ .
but,
income tax is not as high as it is in NZ, in fact many years ago when i asked why the different parts are not listed i was told that NZ 'wiped all of at' and rolled it up in a higher income tax.
I wonder if the Gentlemen has read the news and realised that people are taking pay cuts in order to protect their jobs, does he realise that people are cutting hours worked in order to keep their jobs, or that they have and are in the process of losing their jobs?
And frankly is this the only tax that this well to do man can think of, because I think his income group could start paying some taxes too, or would that come at a hard time for him?
I never considered Germany a low tax country. Last time I worked there – around 20 years ago – I paid around 50% tax (Einkommensteuer und Gewerbesteuer). At the moment the top income tax rate in Germany is 45% plus Gewerbesteuer (business tax) of around 15%, dependent on your location.
New Zealand has the lowest income related taxes of all countries I’ve ever worked in (Germany, UK, Australia). It’s was also easiest to start a business.
If you’re an employee on a low / medium income, you might be better off tax-wise in Germany.
Germany also has lots of other taxes, Kapitalertragssteuer (CGT), Grundsteuer (Land tax), Grunderwerbssteuer (similar to stamp duty), Erbschaftssteuer (Inheritance tax)… to name a few.
IF you have paid Gewerbesteuer you were self employed.
The local business tax (Gewerbesteuer) is applied as a tax on the profits of business and the objective profitability of a business operation. It is the most important original source of income for cities and towns in Germany.
also here
Basis for taxation
Taxation is based on the profit from the balance sheet or surplus income statement of each company, which is corrected on the basis of income tax and corporate tax law.
Additionally, there are extra calculations and reduction in the profit that apply only to local business tax, for example:
Expenses for interest and rent
Share income and loss from shares in corporations and partnerships
Land
Sole proprietorships and partnerships are also allowed an exempt amount of 24,500 Euro.
so you would have paid income tax on your taxable income and Gewerbesteuer on the business that you ran, taking into account the exempt amount of 24.500 Euro Dollars around 50.000 NZD.
the list that i posted above relates to 'wage slaves' i .e. waged employees who in NZ tend to only pay taxes with no write offs and almost guaranteed humiliation while trying to get their benefits from Winz.
I mean we could start with all the taxes you listed last CGT, Grundsteuer etc, but that would be levying taxes at the rich and very rich which in this country we are loath to do and make no mistake Grant Roberston is not going to increase the taxes on his income class cause that would be so unpleasant and wrong for his peers and even himself.
You are right, 3 month after the PM promised these pay cuts they have come into effect. 10% of 200.000 would come to 20.000 – an amount beneficiaries would love to have as an anual income. So no i am not crying any tears for the poor hard done by Grant Robertson and friends.
Last, this pay cut is a voluntary thing, and something that quite a few Kiwis are currently living with in order to keep their jobs. That is the big difference, that unless Dear Grant decides to quit for good he can live until the end of his life on the government tit to the tune of a few millions or unless he gets voted out.
But for him to call for a new tax on the workers of this country to 'pay for ' unemployment – which already is paid for via Taxation is stink, lazy, tonedeaf.
good post satty. too many tax whiners have never actually worked or started businesses overseas. it is a real eye opener to have to wade through mountains of forms , and the regulations! and the extra taxes that we DONT HAVE.
Nope not a good post dear Woodart, as the taxes Satty talks about relate to businesses and not to waged workers while Grant Robertson is trying to increase the taxes of the waged workers. (He is right about Germany being a High Tax country, its the price they pay for relatively decent benefits and social net – while not perfect for all)
Two different pair of shoes. See the link in my comment to Satty.
Btw, this is not a whinging about paying taxes, this is calling Grant Robertson to task for thinking about raising taxes on the workers – who are the ones currently getting pummeled by the covid recession/depression, while not loudly thinking about the other Taxes Satty mentioned, which are all levyied at the rich and well to do in Germany. I.e. Land tax, CGT and the likes.
Also no we don't have to wade through mountains of 'paper' either, they get monthly pay checks that list what their earnings is, the %age of taxes levied for the individual points, and a end of year statement which is then used to claim back some of the income tax . I.e. cost of transport, cost of finding a job, cost of workclothes and shoes, cost of internet, phone, computer etc if needed for jobs. It can be a good grand or two depending on hte expenses one has to maintain a professional life.
I am all for Grant Robertson levying a few taxes – on his income group, those above him. He can start with CGT, a financial transaction tax, or eve a solidarity tax, but he is talking about pinching pennies from the working poor of this country and that is fucking pathetic and sad.
here from 2015 – and i don't think anything has changed about that
Those who come under the scrutiny of this IRD division must have, or be in control of, more than $50 million.
According to IRD's investigation and advice manager Tracey Lloyd, the unit has identified 200 people who met the criteria.
Of these 200 people, 93 declared their personal income in the 2013 financial year as less than $70,000 – the point at which one is required pay the top tax rate of 33 cents in the dollar.
Maybe they just need to instruct IRD to go as hard after these guys as Winz goes after a single mum with child who may have been overpaid 5.50 in an emergency grant.
and maybe sabine, you shouldnt be so precious and defensive. wasnt commenting about you or your post. I have been a wage slave and started businesses here and overseas,and have hired staff and had premises. so probably know more about tax and paperwork than you. have an ice day..
Yeah, having worked in large international companies here and overseas, having a degree in accountancy, speaking three languages, and having created my own business in a foreign land and actually knowing about tax structures in Germany/France/Holland/NZ and such make me a complete fool.
There's an extremely good analysis of social media sexism on Stuff. I'll just reproduce a single portion but could easily multiple-post with others, the author has provided so many highly-topical quotes & pertinent comments in this comprehensive report.
Leading-edge tech is being applied to measure the toxicity:
They built ParityBOT with the help of student volunteer coders, using the New York Times comments section to develop its natural language processing capabilities. In the 2019 Canadian general election, it tracked 228,255 tweets sent to 314 women candidates, 9987 of which were deemed hateful – a “toxicity” rate of 4.38 per cent.
Colleague Jacqueline Comer, now a Wellingtonian, convinced them to launch in New Zealand and in the 23 days since, @ParityBOT_NZ has tweeted around 3000 times, for a slightly lower toxicity rate than in Canada, of 2.75 per cent.
The trio is now hoping to attract “a small amount” of funding, around $15,000, to develop the system’s capabilities in New Zealand.
One of ParityBOT’s standout features is the data it collects as it automatically measures and tweets; by election day, it should have gathered a much clearer picture of online hate towards women candidates than currently exists.
"“What we do is we maybe employ farmers and breed bucket loads of the bastards and we put them back in huge numbers, so by the time we’ve finished they’re waking up every kid through the night with the incessant croaking of their calls.”"
'It’s going to be our way now': the guerrilla rewilder shaking up British farming
To many ecologists he’s a visionary; to government officials he’s a pain in the arse. In the afternoon I spend with him he swears more than most people would in a lifetime.
So he'd be the right person to bring here on tour. Telling right-wing groups of kiwi males how to do Green farming, his lingo would resonate. Could get mass conversion as a result. Maybe even a political party of deep green rightists.
The Eurasian beaver became extinct in Great Britain in the 16th century. The last reference to beavers in England dates to 1526. A population of Eurasian beaver of unknown origin has been present on the River Otter, Devon in south-west England since 2008. An additional pair was released to increase genetic diversity in 2016.
As part of a scientific study, a pair of Eurasian beaver was released in 2011 near Dartmoor in southern Devon. The 13 beaver ponds now in place impacted flooding to the extent of releasing precipitation over days to weeks instead of hours.
Free-living beaver populations also occur around the River Tay and Knapdale areas in Scotland. The Knapdale population was released by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, while the other populations are of unknown origin. Sixteen beavers were released between 2009 and 2014 in Knapdale forest, Argyll. In 2016, the Scottish government declared that the beaver populations in Knapdale and Tayside could remain and naturally expand. This is the first successful reintroduction of a wild mammal in the United Kingdom.
Another good farming – environmental happening and activity to learn from or compare to what is already started here.
Savory Institute is recognised as a world leader in the education and implementation of regenerative agriculture around the globe, with Allan’s 2013 TED talk ‘
Allan Savory’s mission is to regenerate the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management. His long-term goal is to positively influence the management of 1 billion hectares of grasslands by 2025, thereby contributing to global climate, water and food-security….
Since I started paying attention to their rhetoric in 1970, there's been a half-century of leftists united on only one thing: belief that providing a positive alternative to capitalism is too hard. Suddenly, one of these fish has turned around and is swimming upstream against the flow.
In a bid to incorporate into my socialist blueprint different, often clashing, perspectives I decided to conjure up three complex characters whose dialogues would narrate the story – each representing different parts of my thinking: a Marxist-feminist, a libertarian ex-banker and a maverick technologist.
Another Now begins in the late 1970s, straddles the crises of 2008 and 2020 but also sketches outan imaginary future, and concludes in 2036. There is a moment in the story, on a Sunday evening in November 2025 to be precise, when my characters try to make sense of their circumstances by looking back to the events of 2020. The first thing they note is how drastically the lockdown changed people’s perception of politics.
Before 2020, politics seemed almost like a game, but with Covid came the realisation that governments everywhere possessed immense powers.
The thrilling thing about younger generations is that their steadfast refusal to learn the lessons of history gives them the tantalising possibility of reinventing the wheel.
The massive government interventions misled naive leftists into the daydream that revived state power would prove a force for good. They forgot what Lenin had once said: politics is about who does what to whom. They allowed themselves to hope that something good might transpire if the same elites that had hitherto condemned so many to untold indignities were handed immeasurable power.
Statism is good, thinks the left. Total control. So when the people elect the right…
"They allowed themselves to hope that something good might transpire if the same elites that had hitherto condemned so many to untold indignities were handed immeasurable power."
The first thing you need to do is establish who the elites (or their representatives) are.
"As in oligarchic Rome, financial interests in today’s world have gained control of governments and captured the political and regulatory agencies, leaving democratic reformers powerless to suspend debt service, rent arrears, evictions and depression. The West is becoming a highly centrally planned economy, but its planning center is Wall Street, not Washington or state and local governments."
@Dennis.
" belief that providing a positive alternative to capitalism is too hard. ".
Only in your mind.
Blinkered by the idea that capitalism and socialism are alternatives, you haven't seen the many ideas and effective proposals for progress.
Capitalism, at the level of the tradesperson investing in tools to make money from his work, works.
Yanis, who I’ve been reading for a long time, is not proposing to remove that,
However it doesn't work without the social agreement to pay him/her enough to live, to have a rule of law so the next warlord doesn't steal his earnings, to have a decent State infrastructure. Socialism.
Rightly we condemn dictatorship and totalitarian control. A State which is really democratically controlled is a different kettle of fish.
You seem to have missed all the “lefties” supporting less Government power and more decentralised Democracy,
We don't even need "fresh ideas". We already know what works, Portugal is showing us right now.
"This is an age-old problem. It was solved in the ancient Near East simply by annulling these debt and rent charges. But the West, shaped as it still is by the legacy of the Roman Empire, has left itself prone to the massive unemployment, business closedowns and resulting arrears for these basic costs of living and doing business."
Participatory democracy is certainly that – far older than the Greeks or even literacy, it goes back to the earliest form of human societies, the band cultures.
@Pat. The many different ideas from the left are a good thing.
A difference from the Right, who are determined to march us in lock step towards an Oligarchy of increasing wealth for a few and a failing society.
Dennis and Redlogix have a rather one dimensional view of “The left”. A more typically right wing perspective. As evidenced by their continual repetition of bad faith inaccurate right wing memes.
Describing middle class Greens who want a little more social justice and fairness as “Marxist revolutionaries” FFS.
a rather one dimensional view of “The left”. A more typically right wing perspective
Not really. I don't have a problem with nuances – they often alert us to important dimensions of situations not immediately apparent.
My view of the left is based on the culture of intermittent bouts of internecine intellectual warfare interspersed with periods of bland support of the status quo. The former is evidence of groups who are at least trying – while being hamstrung by their inability to agree on common ground. The latter happens when the forelock-tuggers operate in unison. Servants of capitalist masters.
The cool thing about winning the numbers game, as Jacinda is showing a new generation, is that you can front as a master because few people get how the control system operates. Note how she's never told us she agrees with socialism.
It's great to read the thoughtful ideas coming from you Dennis F and KJT. There is enough in your comments to explain the thought and possible efficacy of whatever's posited so that people can sort of take a bite size and chew on it! Short thoughts are useful too, but good to have substance in comments.
I'll give credit (without having read his book) to Yanis for operating as theoretician and providing an alternative plan for the future:
it is the granting of a single non-tradeable share to each employee-partner that holds the key to this economy. By granting employee-partners the right to vote in the corporation’s general assemblies, an idea proposed by the early anarcho-syndicalists, the distinction between wages and profits is terminated and democracy, at last, enters the workplace.
From a firm’s senior engineers and key strategic thinkers to its secretaries and janitors, everyone receives a basic wage plus a bonus that is decided collectively.
Since the one-employee-one-vote rule favours smaller decision-making units, corpo-syndicalism causes conglomerates voluntarily to break up into smaller companies, thus reviving market competition.
Even more strikingly, share markets vanish completely since shares, like IDs and library cards, are now non-tradeable. Once share markets have disappeared, the need for gargantuan debt to fund mergers and acquisitions evaporates – along with commercial finance. And given that the Central Bank provides everyone with a free bank account, private banking shrinks into utter insignificance.
I'd be happy to give this model a try. It does indeed look likely to tame the capitalist beast (may reserve a diminished role for capital perhaps).
edit
The advances by lefties followed by 'bland' co-operation with capitalism, is because the advance is only in materialistic values. Once the principled as they think themselves, get enough money they then get co-opted into a space made available in the money-tree-house.
This can be likened to the generations in a family where the founder made a success and money in some line, after that the rest of the family follow on expecting to share in the wealth.
The children find useful niches for themselves so they can enjoy their second and third generation advances in the materialistic culture. Even if they remain relatively poor, being part of a monied background is likely to have made a division between them and those from a poor background. And a for instance, the Douglas family had been in Labour a long time, long enough to have come to disregard workers' needs and the ideals of the betterment of the common man and woman.
…His family had strong ties with the trade-union movement, and actively engaged in politics. His grandfather, William Theophilus "Bill" Anderton, (1891–1966), was a left-wing Methodist lay preacher…Roger Douglas's father, Norman Vazey Douglas, (1910–1985), a former trade union secretary, served as MP for Auckland Central from 1960–1975, and as opposition spokesman for labour, education, and social security from 1967–1972. Roger's brother Malcolm Douglas was briefly Labour MP for Hunua 1978– 1979. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Douglas#Early_life_and_background
Oh it'll work alright…for everyone except those made unemployed.
It is essentially the same system used in the US…works real well for them….lots of downward pressure on wages, huge pool of gig economy workers, less tax for corporates and wealthy, less pressure on politicians,
its a win win….if youre a politician or in business.
Or are they only so high because no one else in this country can be forced to pay taxes like the wage slave (- wage slave i term i was given by Gareth Morgan).
not everyone who is a wage slave has debts, just saying, but they all pay taxes through their noses with nothing to write off.
However there are a lot of rich people who are slaves to debt, in fact they would not be 'asset' rich if banks would not loan the money on the other properties that they are still paying mortgage on.
ACC, as originally conceived was a big advance for injured workers.
Previously if injured you either had to be a member of a powerful Union, or rely on the expensive vagaries of the courts, to get compensation. Which is still the US system.
The fact that it is also cheaper for employers than the US system, is why we still have it.
I was working in management, in a company which dabbled in it, when National bought in privatisation options for ACC cover. A short lived and costly failure.
ACC has no (official) time limitation…..as Sabine notes, we have a contributory scheme now (poorly funded as it is) …its called taxation.
Now if the government wishes to make that scheme self funding then the solution lies more in a sovereign wealth fund not an insurance scheme which without details I expect will be administered (and milked of fees) by some private or semi private organisation.
Curious that this should be floated as a shit storm of unemployment is about to hit our economy for years to come.
If you have experience with ACC – or know people trying to access it – the original idea is totally gone. You are treated with all the disdain given to WINZ 'clients' and the sole goal is to decline any claim and reduce any payments. It has devolved into grudging charity – not a right you have earned because you gave up your right to sue the person who injured you.
He is talking about raising taxes on the few of us that still have jobs. Now if he wants to talk about raising the taxes on his class and that of his owners i might be game, but to raise taxes on those that already don't have any money is tone deaf and devoid of any clarity of the situation in regards to the actual people who may i add pay his wages.
And hey the tax system is to narrow, so lets increase taxes on those that can't swindle themself out of paying taxes, or are too poor to hide it in a tax haven, or are too poor to just buy property and flip them for a Tax free Gain.
Surely there are other Taxes he can find he if he gave it a good luck.
Personally if Grant is thinking this then he is absolutely nuts – it's a RW dream. The people who currently work pay say 20% tax, !5% gst ,12% in student loans so 47% in total are now going to pay for their own unemployment? And they will – companies will make sure that this doesn't impact on them and next thing it will be privatised..
Just about anything else would be better.
Measures spreading the available work and money over more people rather than only some being pushed down to zero would be a good start and a hedge against automation. Rather than redundancy – giving people fewer hours, cutting executive payrolls to the agreed minimum and then topping up with welfare and dragging the gig economy in would all be a good start. Booting off our economy the predatory overseas ownership of some sectors and units with a sinking lid policy
Reducing welfare costs by streamlining the power and telco sectors and making them community owned, rearranging over time the rent subsidies to be ownership subsides and putting people into house that they own or co own with the state.
@Weka. Desktop/cellphone and a selection of 4 different browsers. Played with security and pop up settings also. Haven't managed to get replies to work on any of them. They work for my post in the dashboard though.
Even comments only work after refreshing the browser each time.
Originally, like super, and many other tax provided social wages, ACC was a fully funded PAYGO scheme.
Which works fine as we are paying through current taxes/fees for current consumption, and the amount needed is predictable and constant.
Neither need to accumulate money to work. That is just taking more fees than are required to make private finance, money.
The idea of both being like private insurance, where you accumulate investment funds, from fees, to pay out later, is both theft from the fee payers/claimants and a means of making private provision/sale look more competitive and attractive.
Works fine until you have a huge demographic bubble come through at the same time as increasing lifespans. I don't think it is fine for young people to be carrying the burden of Super for the boomers. This problem was obvious for the future when Muldoon set the system up. Not such an issue now with our birthrate consistently at or just below replacement and lifespans becoming stable, but certainly something that should have been more effectively addressed while the situation was unfolding.
Boomer superannuation would not be such a big deal if Bill English had kept the top tax rate up and also the contributions to the Cullen fund. The top tax rate was effectively being levied on basically the boomers in good high earning jobs at the height of their earnings ( and a few others)as a group and being put into the Cullen group fund to level out the super impact of the same boomers. With the youngest boomers now around sixty we could revisit it but it’s fairly late in the day.
Key absolutely squandered an awful lot of financial future proofing.
If, and it currently is a big if, you believe that MMT is a viable theory, then there is no need for taxation or a sovereign wealth fund…personally im undecided but I err to the MMT argument which would mean that the need to generate a return is unnecessary….but either way there is no requirement for that return to be held by the private sector….it could (and imo ) be public
Then take a squiz at this chart and ponder whether military veterans are really a group the tinyfingers twittertwat really wants to go out of his way to personally directly insult.
No mention of the fact that Labour is also against money going to private schools and was involved in the decision and could have blocked it if it had any principles.
No mention of the Green's Wealth Tax. Surely a leftie like Trotter should support this and so give a balanced view of the Greens? errr no it seems.
No mention of Shaw's excellent work on Climate Change-the major issue for this election and for future generations.
No its all about an all-government decision relating to a paltry $11.7m (actually it turns out $2.9m) being sheeted home to Shaw 100%.
Don't worry, BG, ole Chris is just doing his thing. When you write an essay, you need an angle to provide perspective, you need framing so others can get it, and you need to dress it up with rhetoric to give it a bit of punch.
Dunno how much those newspapers who publish his columns pay him, but it would at least supply a steady stream of pocket money, eh?
So there's a thrust of professionalism involved in his writing that we ought to take into account. I wouldn't dismiss his point in this one: James sets himself up for it by presenting as the archetypal suit-wearer. As a bridge between centrists & leftists, he's been fully functional until now. Marketing 1.01 says you gotta talk to customers in the language they understand, right?
So to sell the green message to mainstreamers he must present as someone who exemplifies a professional politician who is competent at working the system while retaining authenticity. The corporate image from his prior career is handy for that.
a genuine Green Party
When Chris wrote those words, he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. An authentic Green Party would represent the entire Green movement. Not just the third of it that self-identifies as leftist.
His political experience was in the New Labour Party 30 years ago when I became a Greens activist. So you're right – he was an Andertonian dinosaur clinging onto the form of the Labour Party the Rogernomes had trashed.
He has admitted in print that his political stance derives from his father. Unreasonable, therefore, to expect him to be able to think for himself – the past defeats the future, being genuinely progressive is rendered impossible. As for being sufficiently radical to provide a positive alternative, forget it! If he was capable of charting new conceptual terrain for us to explore, he'd have done so long ago…
Cheers Dennis…all very true. The problem is that Trotter writes very well, has wide circulation and my guess is that enough people believe what he spouts to do damage to the Green vote.
Chris Trotter may not have a vision for the future (and he is hardly alone in that) but he does have a knowledge of the past…curious thing is the past (especially recent) keeps showing itself to influence the current…whod have thought?
Yeah he's often good with drawing conclusions from the past & pointing to current relevance. That's usually helpful to readers, particularly when reminding us of factors which may have slipped our minds.
Our necessity being post-covid recovery, however, alerts us to a likelihood of the past being irrelevant. Brave new world. The Greek gets that…
Thanks lprent – hope the updating goes smoothly and you can have a glass of something with Lyn and stick your nose outside into fresh air and be in the greenery.
"Super has always been paid for by current production. However you finingle it financially, whether through current taxation or savings, it still comes from the production of the current generation.
If we want to keep super affordable we should tax the current generation to invest in a sustainable future. Invest in energy, housing, education and other infrastructure so that we can keep all our people. Not in financial ponzi schemes which will fall over in the next GFC."
NZ second to Germany, South Korea third even though they have had such a big outbreak. The point is that this can happen anywhere and they take measures to control it unlike some.
Next down – (I looked up Forbes info to find Australia. Why wouldn't Radionz include Australia in their report? Oz is after us again to continue tourism with Queensland and NSW I think!)
Switzerland, which was first, has dropped back to fourth. Japan is fifth, and Australia and China are sixth and seventh.
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Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Photo by Jari Hytönen on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Williams Veazey, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, University of Sydney DavideAngelini/Shutterstock In the 2007 film The Bucket List Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two main characters who respond to their terminal cancer diagnoses by rejecting experimental treatment. Instead, they go ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohan Singh, Professor of Agri-Food Biotechnology, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Melbourne., The University of Melbourne Tanja Esser/Shutterstock Australia’s vital agriculture sector will be hit hard by steadily rising global temperatures. Our climate is already ...
The Acumen Edelman Trust barometer reported that New Zealand’s political trust score now sits below the global average, a topic explored in a recent discussion paper by Maxim Institute. ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman says, "The Fast-Track Bill is the most damaging piece of environmental legislation any Government has introduced in living memory. People are angry, and it’s time to march." ...
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The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
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The Government is looking at ways of introducing an ACC-like insurance scheme for "people who lose their jobs.
The Productivity Commission earlier this year noted most OECD countries have some form of unemployment insurance, which people can draw down on for a set period of time if they lose their job.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson told interest.co.nz New Zealand needs a sustainable scheme, which gives people security and keeps them connected to the labour market."
https://www.interest.co.nz/insurance/106364/could-labours-first-major-policy-announcement-be-permanent-unemployment-insurance
"The payment could be claimed for one week for each five weeks the person has worked, up to a maximum of 26 weeks per claim. So someone who has worked continuously for only one year could claim up to 10 weeks’ cover."
Im old enough to have experienced the fallout of the market reforms of the eighties and nineties…indeed I was recently married with two young children when those reforms created the conditions where for 14 months I was unemployed (the longest of a few periods) , under this proposal we would have received 6 months unemployment ……what would we have lived on for the following 8 months Grant?
If Labour are seriously considering an unemployment insurance scheme in the next electoral period then they need to front up with the policy pre election…..indeed any policy to examine would be welcome.
Funny, i thought unemployment insurance was paid for via income tax and all one had to do was to go to the Winz office, fill out some forms, be eligable and then get a hand ful of dollars.
Does the Gentlemen want to increase the taxes on the working stiffs?
funny, innit?
As for having 'unemployment insurance' why yes, in Germany we have that.
On our pay slip it states what taxes are paid for
income income tax
retirement insurance tax
accident insurance ax
unemployment insurance tax
'solidarity tax' (started witht he re-unification of Germany to pay for it,)
religion tax ( one can opt out – goes to roman catholic and protestant churches only)
for this in Germany you get
(the same stipulation of all taxes paid i have also seen in Holland and France – the only country that does not do it (in my working experience)is NZ cause they 'simplyfied' the system as i was explained by my hubby many years ago)
and at the end of the year the germans get to do a tax return for such things as ‘cost of public transport for work’, ‘work clothes’ , job seeking costs ‘i.e. print/copy of references, postal cost, clothing etc’ .
but,
income tax is not as high as it is in NZ, in fact many years ago when i asked why the different parts are not listed i was told that NZ 'wiped all of at' and rolled it up in a higher income tax.
I wonder if the Gentlemen has read the news and realised that people are taking pay cuts in order to protect their jobs, does he realise that people are cutting hours worked in order to keep their jobs, or that they have and are in the process of losing their jobs?
And frankly is this the only tax that this well to do man can think of, because I think his income group could start paying some taxes too, or would that come at a hard time for him?
I never considered Germany a low tax country. Last time I worked there – around 20 years ago – I paid around 50% tax (Einkommensteuer und Gewerbesteuer). At the moment the top income tax rate in Germany is 45% plus Gewerbesteuer (business tax) of around 15%, dependent on your location.
New Zealand has the lowest income related taxes of all countries I’ve ever worked in (Germany, UK, Australia). It’s was also easiest to start a business.
If you’re an employee on a low / medium income, you might be better off tax-wise in Germany.
Germany also has lots of other taxes, Kapitalertragssteuer (CGT), Grundsteuer (Land tax), Grunderwerbssteuer (similar to stamp duty), Erbschaftssteuer (Inheritance tax)… to name a few.
IF you have paid Gewerbesteuer you were self employed.
also here
https://wwkn.de/en/about-german-taxes/local-business-tax-gewerbesteuer/
so you would have paid income tax on your taxable income and Gewerbesteuer on the business that you ran, taking into account the exempt amount of 24.500 Euro Dollars around 50.000 NZD.
the list that i posted above relates to 'wage slaves' i .e. waged employees who in NZ tend to only pay taxes with no write offs and almost guaranteed humiliation while trying to get their benefits from Winz.
I mean we could start with all the taxes you listed last CGT, Grundsteuer etc, but that would be levying taxes at the rich and very rich which in this country we are loath to do and make no mistake Grant Roberston is not going to increase the taxes on his income class cause that would be so unpleasant and wrong for his peers and even himself.
They have lowered their income for 6 months. Some 20% most 10%. Tell all Sabine..Good and Bad.
The promised pay cut of our suits in parliament?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12351018
You are right, 3 month after the PM promised these pay cuts they have come into effect. 10% of 200.000 would come to 20.000 – an amount beneficiaries would love to have as an anual income. So no i am not crying any tears for the poor hard done by Grant Robertson and friends.
Last, this pay cut is a voluntary thing, and something that quite a few Kiwis are currently living with in order to keep their jobs. That is the big difference, that unless Dear Grant decides to quit for good he can live until the end of his life on the government tit to the tune of a few millions or unless he gets voted out.
But for him to call for a new tax on the workers of this country to 'pay for ' unemployment – which already is paid for via Taxation is stink, lazy, tonedeaf.
good post satty. too many tax whiners have never actually worked or started businesses overseas. it is a real eye opener to have to wade through mountains of forms , and the regulations! and the extra taxes that we DONT HAVE.
Nope not a good post dear Woodart, as the taxes Satty talks about relate to businesses and not to waged workers while Grant Robertson is trying to increase the taxes of the waged workers. (He is right about Germany being a High Tax country, its the price they pay for relatively decent benefits and social net – while not perfect for all)
Two different pair of shoes. See the link in my comment to Satty.
Btw, this is not a whinging about paying taxes, this is calling Grant Robertson to task for thinking about raising taxes on the workers – who are the ones currently getting pummeled by the covid recession/depression, while not loudly thinking about the other Taxes Satty mentioned, which are all levyied at the rich and well to do in Germany. I.e. Land tax, CGT and the likes.
Also no we don't have to wade through mountains of 'paper' either, they get monthly pay checks that list what their earnings is, the %age of taxes levied for the individual points, and a end of year statement which is then used to claim back some of the income tax . I.e. cost of transport, cost of finding a job, cost of workclothes and shoes, cost of internet, phone, computer etc if needed for jobs. It can be a good grand or two depending on hte expenses one has to maintain a professional life.
I am all for Grant Robertson levying a few taxes – on his income group, those above him. He can start with CGT, a financial transaction tax, or eve a solidarity tax, but he is talking about pinching pennies from the working poor of this country and that is fucking pathetic and sad.
here from 2015 – and i don't think anything has changed about that
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?_id=3&objectid=11392100
Maybe they just need to instruct IRD to go as hard after these guys as Winz goes after a single mum with child who may have been overpaid 5.50 in an emergency grant.
and maybe sabine, you shouldnt be so precious and defensive. wasnt commenting about you or your post. I have been a wage slave and started businesses here and overseas,and have hired staff and had premises. so probably know more about tax and paperwork than you. have an ice day..
Yeah, having worked in large international companies here and overseas, having a degree in accountancy, speaking three languages, and having created my own business in a foreign land and actually knowing about tax structures in Germany/France/Holland/NZ and such make me a complete fool.
Yes dear.
There's an extremely good analysis of social media sexism on Stuff. I'll just reproduce a single portion but could easily multiple-post with others, the author has provided so many highly-topical quotes & pertinent comments in this comprehensive report.
Leading-edge tech is being applied to measure the toxicity:
"“What we do is we maybe employ farmers and breed bucket loads of the bastards and we put them back in huge numbers, so by the time we’ve finished they’re waking up every kid through the night with the incessant croaking of their calls.”"
'It’s going to be our way now': the guerrilla rewilder shaking up British farming
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/04/its-going-to-be-our-way-now-the-guerrilla-rewilder-shaking-up-british-farming-aoe
That link seems to be truncated, try this one:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/04/its-going-to-be-our-way-now-the-guerrilla-rewilder-shaking-up-british-farming-aoe
Yeah, chopped link though.
So he'd be the right person to bring here on tour. Telling right-wing groups of kiwi males how to do Green farming, his lingo would resonate. Could get mass conversion as a result. Maybe even a political party of deep green rightists.
There's a history of speculation about beavers in Aotearoa, see https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown-lakes/did-beavers-once-live-south
Another good farming – environmental happening and activity to learn from or compare to what is already started here.
Savory Institute is recognised as a world leader in the education and implementation of regenerative agriculture around the globe, with Allan’s 2013 TED talk ‘
Allan Savory’s mission is to regenerate the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management. His long-term goal is to positively influence the management of 1 billion hectares of grasslands by 2025, thereby contributing to global climate, water and food-security….
The Mulloon Institute
Tony Coote AM Memorial Lecture with Allan Savory
Wed 16th Sep 2020, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm AEST
https://events.humanitix.com/tony-coote-am-memorial-lecture-with-allan-savory
Since I started paying attention to their rhetoric in 1970, there's been a half-century of leftists united on only one thing: belief that providing a positive alternative to capitalism is too hard. Suddenly, one of these fish has turned around and is swimming upstream against the flow.
The thrilling thing about younger generations is that their steadfast refusal to learn the lessons of history gives them the tantalising possibility of reinventing the wheel.
Statism is good, thinks the left. Total control. So when the people elect the right…
"They allowed themselves to hope that something good might transpire if the same elites that had hitherto condemned so many to untold indignities were handed immeasurable power."
The first thing you need to do is establish who the elites (or their representatives) are.
A clue…
"As in oligarchic Rome, financial interests in today’s world have gained control of governments and captured the political and regulatory agencies, leaving democratic reformers powerless to suspend debt service, rent arrears, evictions and depression. The West is becoming a highly centrally planned economy, but its planning center is Wall Street, not Washington or state and local governments."
https://michael-hudson.com/2020/08/how-an-act-of-god-pandemic-is-destroying-the-west/
@Dennis.
" belief that providing a positive alternative to capitalism is too hard. ".
Only in your mind.
Blinkered by the idea that capitalism and socialism are alternatives, you haven't seen the many ideas and effective proposals for progress.
Capitalism, at the level of the tradesperson investing in tools to make money from his work, works.
Yanis, who I’ve been reading for a long time, is not proposing to remove that,
However it doesn't work without the social agreement to pay him/her enough to live, to have a rule of law so the next warlord doesn't steal his earnings, to have a decent State infrastructure. Socialism.
Rightly we condemn dictatorship and totalitarian control. A State which is really democratically controlled is a different kettle of fish.
You seem to have missed all the “lefties” supporting less Government power and more decentralised Democracy,
We don't even need "fresh ideas". We already know what works, Portugal is showing us right now.
We in fact need some very old ideas
"This is an age-old problem. It was solved in the ancient Near East simply by annulling these debt and rent charges. But the West, shaped as it still is by the legacy of the Roman Empire, has left itself prone to the massive unemployment, business closedowns and resulting arrears for these basic costs of living and doing business."
https://michael-hudson.com/2020/08/how-an-act-of-god-pandemic-is-destroying-the-west/
We in fact need some very old ideas
Participatory democracy is certainly that – far older than the Greeks or even literacy, it goes back to the earliest form of human societies, the band cultures.
@Pat. The many different ideas from the left are a good thing.
A difference from the Right, who are determined to march us in lock step towards an Oligarchy of increasing wealth for a few and a failing society.
Dennis and Redlogix have a rather one dimensional view of “The left”. A more typically right wing perspective. As evidenced by their continual repetition of bad faith inaccurate right wing memes.
Describing middle class Greens who want a little more social justice and fairness as “Marxist revolutionaries” FFS.
a rather one dimensional view of “The left”. A more typically right wing perspective
Not really. I don't have a problem with nuances – they often alert us to important dimensions of situations not immediately apparent.
My view of the left is based on the culture of intermittent bouts of internecine intellectual warfare interspersed with periods of bland support of the status quo. The former is evidence of groups who are at least trying – while being hamstrung by their inability to agree on common ground. The latter happens when the forelock-tuggers operate in unison. Servants of capitalist masters.
The cool thing about winning the numbers game, as Jacinda is showing a new generation, is that you can front as a master because few people get how the control system operates. Note how she's never told us she agrees with socialism.
It's great to read the thoughtful ideas coming from you Dennis F and KJT. There is enough in your comments to explain the thought and possible efficacy of whatever's posited so that people can sort of take a bite size and chew on it! Short thoughts are useful too, but good to have substance in comments.
I'll give credit (without having read his book) to Yanis for operating as theoretician and providing an alternative plan for the future:
I'd be happy to give this model a try. It does indeed look likely to tame the capitalist beast (may reserve a diminished role for capital perhaps).
edit
The advances by lefties followed by 'bland' co-operation with capitalism, is because the advance is only in materialistic values. Once the principled as they think themselves, get enough money they then get co-opted into a space made available in the money-tree-house.
This can be likened to the generations in a family where the founder made a success and money in some line, after that the rest of the family follow on expecting to share in the wealth.
The saying is: “The first generation makes it, the second generation spends it, and the third generation blows it.” https://mustardseedmoney.com/wealthy-lose-money/
The children find useful niches for themselves so they can enjoy their second and third generation advances in the materialistic culture. Even if they remain relatively poor, being part of a monied background is likely to have made a division between them and those from a poor background. And a for instance, the Douglas family had been in Labour a long time, long enough to have come to disregard workers' needs and the ideals of the betterment of the common man and woman.
…His family had strong ties with the trade-union movement, and actively engaged in politics. His grandfather, William Theophilus "Bill" Anderton, (1891–1966), was a left-wing Methodist lay preacher…Roger Douglas's father, Norman Vazey Douglas, (1910–1985), a former trade union secretary, served as MP for Auckland Central from 1960–1975, and as opposition spokesman for labour, education, and social security from 1967–1972. Roger's brother Malcolm Douglas was briefly Labour MP for Hunua 1978– 1979. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Douglas#Early_life_and_background
@Pat.
An ACC like scheme for illness, disability and unemployment may work.
I know many people including businesses, who would support extending it to sickness for one.
Provided it worked more like the original.
And not the deliberately crippled, to feed demand for privatisation, scheme we have now.
Oh it'll work alright…for everyone except those made unemployed.
It is essentially the same system used in the US…works real well for them….lots of downward pressure on wages, huge pool of gig economy workers, less tax for corporates and wealthy, less pressure on politicians,
its a win win….if youre a politician or in business.
Who does the Labour Party represent again?
we already pay for it tho, via our Income taxes.
Or are they only so high because no one else in this country can be forced to pay taxes like the wage slave (- wage slave i term i was given by Gareth Morgan).
A more accurate term is 'debt slave'
not everyone who is a wage slave has debts, just saying, but they all pay taxes through their noses with nothing to write off.
However there are a lot of rich people who are slaves to debt, in fact they would not be 'asset' rich if banks would not loan the money on the other properties that they are still paying mortgage on.
The debt cycle is what requires the continuation of production…why do (enough) people labour to provide the excess for the few?
@Pat.
ACC, as originally conceived was a big advance for injured workers.
Previously if injured you either had to be a member of a powerful Union, or rely on the expensive vagaries of the courts, to get compensation. Which is still the US system.
The fact that it is also cheaper for employers than the US system, is why we still have it.
I was working in management, in a company which dabbled in it, when National bought in privatisation options for ACC cover. A short lived and costly failure.
ACC has no (official) time limitation…..as Sabine notes, we have a contributory scheme now (poorly funded as it is) …its called taxation.
Now if the government wishes to make that scheme self funding then the solution lies more in a sovereign wealth fund not an insurance scheme which without details I expect will be administered (and milked of fees) by some private or semi private organisation.
Curious that this should be floated as a shit storm of unemployment is about to hit our economy for years to come.
If you have experience with ACC – or know people trying to access it – the original idea is totally gone. You are treated with all the disdain given to WINZ 'clients' and the sole goal is to decline any claim and reduce any payments. It has devolved into grudging charity – not a right you have earned because you gave up your right to sue the person who injured you.
@Sabine.
We are talking about the politically possible here.
People are much more inclined to support payments that are going only to a set fund. Such as ACC, where they can see the connection to themselves.
And yes. The tax system is too narrow. Taxes being paid almost exclusively by PAYE earners and buyers of goods and services.
He is talking about raising taxes on the few of us that still have jobs. Now if he wants to talk about raising the taxes on his class and that of his owners i might be game, but to raise taxes on those that already don't have any money is tone deaf and devoid of any clarity of the situation in regards to the actual people who may i add pay his wages.
And hey the tax system is to narrow, so lets increase taxes on those that can't swindle themself out of paying taxes, or are too poor to hide it in a tax haven, or are too poor to just buy property and flip them for a Tax free Gain.
Surely there are other Taxes he can find he if he gave it a good luck.
100% Sabine!
We need to tax the people with wealth – who are universally recognised to pay less proportionally than everyone else.
Yes…theres no point in taxing those who have no ability to pay…and it also reduces inequality….go figure
Personally if Grant is thinking this then he is absolutely nuts – it's a RW dream. The people who currently work pay say 20% tax, !5% gst ,12% in student loans so 47% in total are now going to pay for their own unemployment? And they will – companies will make sure that this doesn't impact on them and next thing it will be privatised..
Just about anything else would be better.
Measures spreading the available work and money over more people rather than only some being pushed down to zero would be a good start and a hedge against automation. Rather than redundancy – giving people fewer hours, cutting executive payrolls to the agreed minimum and then topping up with welfare and dragging the gig economy in would all be a good start. Booting off our economy the predatory overseas ownership of some sectors and units with a sinking lid policy
Reducing welfare costs by streamlining the power and telco sectors and making them community owned, rearranging over time the rent subsidies to be ownership subsides and putting people into house that they own or co own with the state.
KJT, are you using the mobile or desktop version of TS on your phone/pad?
nevermind, looks like neither are working for replies
@Weka. Desktop/cellphone and a selection of 4 different browsers. Played with security and pop up settings also. Haven't managed to get replies to work on any of them. They work for my post in the dashboard though.
Even comments only work after refreshing the browser each time.
Obviously requires a Geek level above mine?
Does it work on a computer?
Yes, Ancient Geek level I believe. Hoping he will be around soon. It's affecting lots of commenters.
@Pat 8.1.
Originally, like super, and many other tax provided social wages, ACC was a fully funded PAYGO scheme.
Which works fine as we are paying through current taxes/fees for current consumption, and the amount needed is predictable and constant.
Neither need to accumulate money to work. That is just taking more fees than are required to make private finance, money.
The idea of both being like private insurance, where you accumulate investment funds, from fees, to pay out later, is both theft from the fee payers/claimants and a means of making private provision/sale look more competitive and attractive.
Not how Woodhouse originally intended.
Works fine until you have a huge demographic bubble come through at the same time as increasing lifespans. I don't think it is fine for young people to be carrying the burden of Super for the boomers. This problem was obvious for the future when Muldoon set the system up. Not such an issue now with our birthrate consistently at or just below replacement and lifespans becoming stable, but certainly something that should have been more effectively addressed while the situation was unfolding.
Boomer superannuation would not be such a big deal if Bill English had kept the top tax rate up and also the contributions to the Cullen fund. The top tax rate was effectively being levied on basically the boomers in good high earning jobs at the height of their earnings ( and a few others)as a group and being put into the Cullen group fund to level out the super impact of the same boomers. With the youngest boomers now around sixty we could revisit it but it’s fairly late in the day.
Key absolutely squandered an awful lot of financial future proofing.
If, and it currently is a big if, you believe that MMT is a viable theory, then there is no need for taxation or a sovereign wealth fund…personally im undecided but I err to the MMT argument which would mean that the need to generate a return is unnecessary….but either way there is no requirement for that return to be held by the private sector….it could (and imo ) be public
When "even Fox News" starts trending, you know exactly what's happened, right?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-military-even-fox-news_n_5f52a628c5b6946f3eb1b5ab
Then take a squiz at this chart and ponder whether military veterans are really a group the tinyfingers twittertwat really wants to go out of his way to personally directly insult.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/250366/percentage-of-us-population-who-are-veterans/
That dinosaur Chris Trotter never misses a chance to give the Greens a kicking. Does he want Collins as PM?
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-sorry-excuse-for-green-party.html
No mention of the fact that Labour is also against money going to private schools and was involved in the decision and could have blocked it if it had any principles.
No mention of the Green's Wealth Tax. Surely a leftie like Trotter should support this and so give a balanced view of the Greens? errr no it seems.
No mention of Shaw's excellent work on Climate Change-the major issue for this election and for future generations.
No its all about an all-government decision relating to a paltry $11.7m (actually it turns out $2.9m) being sheeted home to Shaw 100%.
Trotter hates the Greens.
Don't worry, BG, ole Chris is just doing his thing. When you write an essay, you need an angle to provide perspective, you need framing so others can get it, and you need to dress it up with rhetoric to give it a bit of punch.
Dunno how much those newspapers who publish his columns pay him, but it would at least supply a steady stream of pocket money, eh?
So there's a thrust of professionalism involved in his writing that we ought to take into account. I wouldn't dismiss his point in this one: James sets himself up for it by presenting as the archetypal suit-wearer. As a bridge between centrists & leftists, he's been fully functional until now. Marketing 1.01 says you gotta talk to customers in the language they understand, right?
So to sell the green message to mainstreamers he must present as someone who exemplifies a professional politician who is competent at working the system while retaining authenticity. The corporate image from his prior career is handy for that.
a genuine Green Party
When Chris wrote those words, he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. An authentic Green Party would represent the entire Green movement. Not just the third of it that self-identifies as leftist.
His political experience was in the New Labour Party 30 years ago when I became a Greens activist. So you're right – he was an Andertonian dinosaur clinging onto the form of the Labour Party the Rogernomes had trashed.
He has admitted in print that his political stance derives from his father. Unreasonable, therefore, to expect him to be able to think for himself – the past defeats the future, being genuinely progressive is rendered impossible. As for being sufficiently radical to provide a positive alternative, forget it! If he was capable of charting new conceptual terrain for us to explore, he'd have done so long ago…
Cheers Dennis…all very true. The problem is that Trotter writes very well, has wide circulation and my guess is that enough people believe what he spouts to do damage to the Green vote.
So I will continue to worry .
Chris Trotter may not have a vision for the future (and he is hardly alone in that) but he does have a knowledge of the past…curious thing is the past (especially recent) keeps showing itself to influence the current…whod have thought?
Yeah he's often good with drawing conclusions from the past & pointing to current relevance. That's usually helpful to readers, particularly when reminding us of factors which may have slipped our minds.
Our necessity being post-covid recovery, however, alerts us to a likelihood of the past being irrelevant. Brave new world. The Greek gets that…
The past is never irrelevant
Thanks lprent – hope the updating goes smoothly and you can have a glass of something with Lyn and stick your nose outside into fresh air and be in the greenery.
@Bearded Git 14
Nobody reads Trotter anyway. He’s just an old windbag. So why get worked up about it?
Hope you are right Scott.
ScottGN Nobody you know reads Trotter. Quite a limiting factor I think.
He's a bit variable, but now and then he hits the mark pretty well.
@Solkta and RBCV at 12.
http://kjt-kt.blogspot.com/2012/06/on-new-zealands-retirement-income.html
"Super has always been paid for by current production. However you finingle it financially, whether through current taxation or savings, it still comes from the production of the current generation.
If we want to keep super affordable we should tax the current generation to invest in a sustainable future. Invest in energy, housing, education and other infrastructure so that we can keep all our people. Not in financial ponzi schemes which will fall over in the next GFC."
Covid-19 ratings for countries most prepared etc. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425315/new-zealand-ranked-second-safest-covid-19-country-by-forbes
NZ second to Germany, South Korea third even though they have had such a big outbreak. The point is that this can happen anywhere and they take measures to control it unlike some.
Next down – (I looked up Forbes info to find Australia. Why wouldn't Radionz include Australia in their report? Oz is after us again to continue tourism with Queensland and NSW I think!)
Switzerland, which was first, has dropped back to fourth. Japan is fifth, and Australia and China are sixth and seventh.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/03/the-100-safest-countries-for-covid-19-updated/#2b346257909e
@Bearded Git 16.1
I don’t think anyone seriously believes that Trotter has the capacity to shift even one vote. Read him for the entertainment if you want (I used to).