So – has any information EVER been shared between NZ and the Cook Islands regarding tax evasion and avoidance by NZ citizens using Cook Island tax ‘structures’ on NZ Prime Minister John Key’s watch?
Winston Peters says tax avoidance in the Cook Islands has happened under the watch of prime minister John Key.
Key has rubbished accusations from the Panama Papers leaker that he has enabled financial fraud in the Cook Islands, which exists in free association with New Zealand.
But the New Zealand First leader, who triggered the Winebox Inquiry in Cook Islands tax avoidance in the 1990s, said the prime minister does have a role to play.
He said New Zealand and the Cook Islands have an ongoing Tax Information Exchange Agreement which was updated in July 2009.
“That updating was to do with exchange of information about two things, tax avoidance and tax evasion, so Mr Key is 100 percent wrong about his responsibility.”
Everything is connected stunned mullet – even you to everyone in your street, town, island etc. It’s good that Penny is trying to do something about the unsatisfactory situation outside Auckland. Do you think that Auckland needs her focus? What suggestions have you to improve the broken systems in your area?
I’ve put my freehold home on the line to protect my lawful rights as a citizen to ‘open. transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland.
I have disputed and refused to pay Auckland Council (previously Auckland City Council) rates, because ‘the books’ are NOT open, and citizens and ratepayers do not know exactly where hundreds of million$ of public rates monies are being spent by Auckland Council and Council (Corporate) Controlled Organisations (CCOs) on private sector consultants and contractors.
This is the information to which I believe I and ALL citizens are entitled under the Public Records Act 2005, s.17 :
The unique contract number.
The name of the consultant / contractor.
A brief description of the scope of the contract.
The contract start and finish date.
The exact dollar value of every contract – including those sub-contracted.
How the contract was awarded – by public tender or direct appointment.
How can you ‘follow the dollar’ – if you don’t know exactly where it’s going?
How can you check for ‘cost-effectiveness’ if you don’t know exactly where the costs fall?
How can you have genuine transparency, or accountability with proper public records available for public scrutiny?
Nobody asked you to do this Penny. And what sort of corruption can a redundant welding tutor find that qualified auditors etc cannot? And what sort of return have the Auckland ratepayers had for your 7 or so years of investigations? How many cases of corruption have you uncovered? Nada, none, zip.
I suppose it gives you something to do.
Challenge the system by all means, but if every one followed our not so Penny Brights lead where would we be, i.e simply avoid paying rates and tax based on your personal belief, right or wrong, wether you pay simply comes down to your own personal bright line test
Visubversa
I don’t think you sound as if you have any qualifications to even put a criticism here. Why don’t you find something positive to do with your rime instead of sneering at someone who attempts to make a protest and show up a fault in the system. You apparently find excuses not to do anything yourself because you haven’t the integrity or strength to stand up for something better.
edited
“He said New Zealand and the Cook Islands have an ongoing Tax Information Exchange Agreement which was updated in July 2009.
“That updating was to do with exchange of information about two things, tax avoidance and tax evasion, so Mr Key is 100 percent wrong about his responsibility.”
A very useful point Penny. And with a bit of luck John Key will have to address this next week in light of his flat denial last week. Wiggle will he?
“Marcos was one of the first to exploit the rats’ nest of secret jurisdictions and hidden ownership then in the early stages of being built beneath the floorboards of public life.
But what is most important about Marcos is that he committed his crimes as a politician. His career starts with a cynicism that now seems familiar – manipulating electorates, using money to buy power and power to make money. But he went one big step further in merging politics and finance, converting the instruments of government into one vast cash machine. A handful of other autocrats were also busy stealing from their people in that era – in Haiti, Nicaragua, Iran – but Marcos stole more and he stole better. Ultimately, he emerges as a laboratory specimen from the early stages of a contemporary epidemic: the global contagion of corruption that has since spread through Africa and South America, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Marcos was a model of the politician as thief.”
Ultimately, he emerges as a laboratory specimen from the early stages of a contemporary epidemic: the global contagion of corruption that has since spread through Africa and South America, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Marcos was a model of the politician as thief.
And is now emerging in NZ, the UK, the US, Europe…
“If you want to talk about what the government or political parties should be doing, or that CC is the responsibility of governments not individuals, please go to Open Mike. This post is for discussion about what NZers can do themselves and how that is part of the politics of Climate Change.” Weka
Weka gives us his opinion on how to combat climate change, and asks, if we disagree with him to raise it here;
In his post, “Climate Change Pt 1: What are we waiting for?” Weka asks that anyone who thinks “that CC is the responsibility of governments not individuals, please go to Open Mike.”
Hopefully in Pt 2: of his post, (if it ever turns up), Weka will set out what he thinks political parties and governments should do.
In the meantime while we are waiting, I thought that we could set the ball rolling.
Preamble:
There is no task that is truely worth being done by human beings, that does not require team work. Whether it is building a house, or building a road, or crossing an ocean. There is hardly any major task that I can think of that doesn’t require teamwork and cooperation. it is our greatest strength as a species. And teamwork always requires leadership. This is an inescapable fact.
And the fight against climate change is the biggest most monumental task humanity has ever faced. it will require the teamwork of millions to solve.
So how should we go about it?
Can we just leave it up to personal responsibility?
Something Weka calls a “Riot for Austerity”
Or should we also be campaigning for a change in public policy?
In my opinion, the individual approach to fighting climate change, is a philosophical approach to climate change, that even the ACT Party could agree with. ACT, the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers say they are the party that is all about individual choice. A campaign based on the power of consumers is I imagine something that they could agree with.
Less government intervention and regulation, leaving more room for personal choice, and individual action, is the ACT mantra.
In fact they are always going on about it. Recently an ACT spokesperson said that the reason some tenants live in damp unhealthy homes is because of personal choices they have made.
Others beg to differ:
“Put simply, it’s not choice. It’s not choice that our kids are suffering with poor health, living in damp homes and less likely to do well at school. It’s also not the child’s choice – or their families – to live in poverty,” says Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills.
“There is choice around how we as a country respond to this. We have to take it seriously, we need a clear national plan for doing better…..”
In my opinion what could be said for poverty, can be said for climate change.
Climate choice is a fine thing for the Association of Consumers and Taxpayer members, whose leader David Seymour, (to prove his climate change credentials), turned up to the ACT Party Conference in a NZD $140,000 Tesler S1.
Weka argues that we exercise our choice as consumers to combat climate change.
In my opinion, this so called “choice”, can only be properly exercised by the wealthy or the upper middle classes, those with the leisure and the money that gives them the freedom to make such choices. There is very little choice for the time strapped and cash poor. The power of consumer choice is not for a minimum wage worker from South or West Auckland who has to struggle to work in an unregistered clapped out Toyota, because there is no affordable and reliable public transport system.
Nor is there much power of consumer choice for the solo mother or beneficiary who has to keep the bar heater on all winter because their home is badly insulated. Which is why Andrew Little has introduced legislation for minimum heating and insulation regulations for rental properties.
Changes in public policy will have more impact in combatting climate change than personal consumer choices ever will.
Of course we should all do what we can as individuals but this will never be enough, and for many, (possibly the majority), and especially for those of us with limited choices, actually impossible. No matter how much we may want to, or know we should.
A point Naomi Klein makes in her last book is that over the same era of acceleration of climate change’s harm i.e. the last 30 years, many countries willingly shrank the whole realm of the state, thereby weakening the human capacity to actually change the climate.
She may be right, but the state is still the strongest force of human agency ever devised, and probably ever will be. Popular protest can work, but it’s a massive lottery compared to putting your collective might to changing the entire government.
Trusts, NGOs, anarchy-syndicalist communes, or micro-communal vegetable gardens will never amount to the capacity of the state to change stuff on any scale the climate will notice.
New Zealand’s own electricity generation at around 85% renewable owes that performance to a legacy of command-and-control governments that continued for about 80 years (i.e. from Vogel). Unlike China and Singapore, New Zealand is a strong example of how a kind of sustainability can be achieved without sacrificing too much democracy, and at the same time attain very long term good for people and for the climate.
This is a good point about the sheer power of the state, and I agree. However it’s a false dichotomy to put that up against community initiated change. The whole point of my post was that governments aren’t changing fast enough. The value in things like the Riot and community gardens isn’t simply that they reduce emissions (although they certainly lead the way in what should be being done on that front). The real value is that those things change people, and when enough people are changing the governments will change too. Then we have real potential.
The other side of that is that should the NZ govt start on real CC action, if the people aren’t on board things will get messy. Best to have people changing now, so we are ready. The best way for people to change is to start behaving differently, in the manner in which we should be acting in the first place.
Thanks Jenny, good too see the response (and thanks for bringing it to OM).
I’d like to clarify a few things.
Neither the Riot for Austerity nor my own post were suggesting that personal action was the only thing required, or that it was a substitute for governmental and other collective action. The point of the Riot was to demonstrate that no matter what governments did or didn’t do, individuals, families and communities could still take action. We don’t have to wait for others to go first.
I also don’t believe that the Riot is essentially libertarian, and you misrepresent it and myself when you call it individual and leave out the importance of family and community. Your analysis is useful for combatting libertarian arguments, but that’s not what I was making. Mine was more anarchistic perhaps (“we don’t need government’s permission to change” is entirely different than saying that “only individuals are responsible for change”).
My own position is that because we don’t have government action (or even much political party action outside of the Greens), we have to mobilise at the individual, family and community levels. When we do that, governments and political parties will follow. Even the Greens are holding back on what needs ot be done because their very existence is dependent on votes. Once more people are demanding change and changing anyway, politicians will follow. This in no way precludes other kinds of political activism, we need it all.
My post was addressing a point that’s needed, which is that people are feeling powerless. It’s time we got past that feeling and did something.
“Hopefully in Pt 2: of his post, (if it ever turns up), Weka will set out what he thinks political parties and governments should do.”
It’s unlikely that I will be writing about that at this point. I’ve already said enough in comments, and there are huge swathes of commentary within NZ and internationally and here on ts about what governments should do. My energy is better used elsewhere. I would love to see others putting up posts on this though.
It does raise another point. We can talk about what governments should do, and we should have that conversation, but things are so urgent now that I want to also talk about what we can do, not what we should do. I can’t wait. We have to act, now.
Weka argues that we exercise our choice as consumers to combat climate change.
No, she doesn’t. She says we have to stop being consumers full stop. It’s a potent, radical act that undercuts neoliberalism, the global economy and capitalism itself. It also brings a halt to a big chunk of GHG emissions. Merely using consumer choice won’t prevent the worst of CC, although it’s still a step in the right direction. Cutting personal energy use by 90% is not consumer choice, it’s a radical rejection of the consumerist paradigm itself.
The transition to the power down from a consumerist soceity is a massive cultural paradigm shift. That’s what I was referring to.
In my opinion, this so called “choice”, can only be properly exercised by the wealthy or the upper middle classes, those with the leisure and the money that gives them the freedom to make such choices. There is very little choice for the time strapped and cash poor.
Leaving aside the inaccurate framing, one of the commenters in the thread is probably one of the lowest income Standardistas and he is powering down (Bill). I personally don’t think that the major changes need to come first from the working and underclasses, but I also don’t believe they are incapable of change or that they are not required to change. In fact I’d say the working and under classes have skills in powering down and anti-consumerism that the middle classes will come to envy in the coming decades.
We also simply cannot afford to wait for the left wing revolution that will first lift people out of poverty. That has to be done in the same context as everything else, CC is here, now. Why are we waiting to change. Someone who is poor is going to get hit just as hard when they are still relying on the global economy to bring food to their supermarket.
I agree that low income and time poor people have less choice. But many still have some choices.
whether we are talking about dodgy politicians, climate change action, inequitable taxation or unwanted tax haven status or so called free trade agreements there is one thing to remember……
they only have the power we allow them…..so why do we abdicate that power
Can’t we do both, Jenny @5 ?
As well as individual actions like growing more trees, vegetable gardens to be more self-sustainable, etc etc there also seem to be a number of group movements starting to grow – ActionStation is one, and then there’s another newer group setting up – http://act.350.org/event/break-free-world_attend/12291
This group 350 Aotearoa appear to be actively promoting the need for political action on Climate Change. I don’t know much about them – but they have some sort of event in Wellington on May 11, 2016. Have a look at this Facebook site – it’ll tell you more.
The dance between leaders and followers in a democracy is a subtle one.
Leadership initiatives from above are just as important as receptive support from below. One builds and strengthens the other. Without initiatives and leadership, individual action either falls apart, or doesn’t get started in the first place.
Without receptive supporters, leadership goes nowhere.
Though Weka didn’t explicitly advocate that individual activities is the only thing we should do. I can’t help thinking that his approach is letting the government and other policy makers somewhat off the hook. Maybe, Weka will challenge the politicians and policy makers in Pt 2: of his post, Let’s hope so.
I look forward to reading it.
P.S. Great to hear about your Break Free activities in Wellington. I have been close to the Break Free campaign here in Auckland. In Auckland 350.org are all young people full of life and fun, who organised a beach party occupation of the ANZ to call for divestment from fossil fuels,
Older, more conservative (looking), supporters like myself were asked to play an undercover role for the beach party, by arriving early and posing as ANZ customers to deflect any criticism, or manhandling of the protesters.
You can view the beach party occupation of the downtown Auckland ANZ lobby here:
The year is 1840 and Colonel Donald T Rash and David Business Roundtable disembark the Tory in a strange new land. They find the natives already have a complex capitalist system in place and everything is free to be exploited.
Shit if Hone can sit next to that toxic old shit and listen to the drivel that plummy twat from chch was spouting and not hit some one he needs to be in Parliament, common mana get your shit together.
Now I wonder what NatzKEY influenced msm serfs will do with the Panama papers data info release next week, prior to publication and reporting? Other than RNZ, there’s a good chance most msm sources will sanitize it to suit the likes of masters FJK and his chief of propaganda minister, Steven “the fixit guy” Joyce, to suit their rotten agendas!
I take it those of us who subscribe to ICIJ should hopefully receive access to the data in its entirety in our inboxes early on Tuesday 10 May.
Frankly, I don’t believe what the PM is saying.
Bring on the 10th May.
‘Prime Minister John Key says the Government is ready to crack down on wealthy tax evaders as the Government braces itself for fresh Panama Papers disclosures.
Speaking in Auckland on Sunday, Key said Inland Revenue officials would join the global stampede to ferret out tax evaders when millions of leaked “Panama Papers” go online on Tuesday.’
This getting more Crim dot com re the big damp squib reveal and day of judgement at the last ejection . what’s do we have here, NZ has forgein trusts, it had been the case for many years under labour and national governments , some ( not all) forgein trusts may be used for tax evasion of forgein tax jurisdictions, can some one tell me what’s new here and what was not know already
You missed the point.now misleading the truth.corrupt Criminals that can’t launder their money anywhere else in the world are using NZ’s good name and destroying that under the leadership of Crony Capitalist 2011 changes to the law and the undermining of rule tighning the IRD was ready to put into place.
Ken Whitney approached the PM a very close long time business associate his personal lawyer a dodgy dealing trust fund lawyer.
Who within 48hrs of approaching the minister IRD dropped all plans to tighten rules around trusts.
Nepotism
Greasing
Grifting
Corruption.
Bluelusion.
Oh please Reddelusion , you are the one in spin mode. All your, at present, fallow fan-boys.
As more paper and more information come to light it is only going to get worse.
Labour did it too. SHeesh, the argument of a two year old – this is a government that has been in power 7 odd years now, time to take responsibility for your own actions. Too soon?
I’m still struggling with the issue here, forgein trusts are not illegal, as are not registered companies, partnerships or multiple forms of entities under English law There has been no tax evasion in nz, if papers show this is the case the law will deal with it, likewise if laws of forgein incorporation, forgein trusts etc need to be tidied up, all good, albeit and international response is required here . I am just not sure what you lot are getting so exercised about, English commercial has continued to evolve ever since the formation of the royal charters and joint stock companies in the 17 and 1800s , The flexibility and innovative capacity of English law is why it tends to be the favoured law of international business and continues to evolve today to support the constant evolution and needs of the commercial sector. You need to get out of your grumpy little leftie box and just chill out on this one
Yes Paul it does and it needs and international response, as does global harmonisation of tax laws etc, trying to put all this on nz, Jk and the national party is where it’s getting ridiculous
That said, just because it’s legal is not a good defence. Being gay was illegal, and we changed that silly law. Women were legally not allowed to vote, and again we came to our scenes. Many many things have been legal which have become illegal and vice versa. It just a weak defence.
There is no smoking gun. I think you just said what everyone is upset about.
I am not claiming business as usual see my post below, there are good reason for trusts that make good business sense re separating management off assets from legal title, as does a mortgage etc, all useful tools and innovation under English law in fostering commerce etc. Deal with the issues of forgein trust if they are abused but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water Similar don’t try and turn a legal entity that has been with us since the 80s suddenly into, it’s all jk and Nationals fault , basically grow up and engage your brain and deal with the issue at at hand , likewise get over the fact that nz is not going to solve the global tax evasion issue. this can only be solved via a global response and even here is difficult as each nation has its own domestic laws, self interests etc yet all trade internationally, thus no easy answer
What pissing me off, and others is the in action by JK and Co. Then the political games. Or people creating memes to avoid having to deal with the issue.
The fact is the law change after national came to power, is the door which all this debate started with. I get Dunn was the muppet who was the lead on that.
You say we need to wait on the rest of the world, but we probably not going to do anything then either. Key and co. have not got a good track record.
If it helps there are a number of international institutions that nz is part of working on as such, in the mean time beyond legal harmonisation it just comes down to bi lateral tax treaties between countries, thus always issue between countries where such does not exist
National changed the tax on foreign trusts to “neutral” – 0%, in 2011. (Suggested by John Key himself, if IIRC). Chapman Tripp were delighted, and posted on this change. This made NZ very attractive to a larger number of very ugly trusts.
While John Key equivocateslies, we waste time on pretending that it was always like this, and we continue to lose our integrity and our self-respect by a thousand such cuts.
Zero tax is not the issue ( if no income is generated in nz, ie assets just parked here) , hiding behind the trust veil re who are the beneficiary of the trust is the issue in regard to paying tax elsewhere, tidy this up problem solved No big deal ! or corruption on nz part, so stop tearing your undies on this issue by some how extrapolating that some how foreign trust has connotations on nz reputation Any corruption is offshore by abusing nz trust laws
The War on terror was supposed to shut down terrorist funding.
Mossack Fonsecca are enabling terrorism and corruption to flourish.
NATO countries and their Allies put sanctions on Putins Russia.
MF enables Putin to undermine Sanction’s.
Nigerian Scammers once they have taken your money it can’t be retrieved.
Moassack Fonsecca hide these Nigerian scammers money.
The Mexican grifter who banked US$100 million in our tax haven when no other tax haven would touch it.
NZ govt allows Mossack Fonseca to set up here and in the protectetate of NZ Niue.
So our Allies who have trying to shut down Isis ,Putin.
The EU The US and Australia all trying to shut down tax dodgers.
Are going to be very unimpressed by your argument.
Bluelooney.
NZ has forgein trusts, it had been the case for many years under labour and national governments , some ( not all) forgein trusts may be used for tax evasion of forgein tax jurisdictions, can some one tell me what’s new here and what was not know already
Are you unable to read the newspaper for yourself or something? Here’s what’s new: the way NZ’s foreign trust rules were set up allows them to be used for tax avoidance and money laundering. People who aren’t Tories generally feel that we shouldn’t enable tax avoidance and money laundering. IRD warned the government about the problem with our foreign trust setup, and attempted to get it reviewed, something which appears to have been prevented by John Key intervening at the behest of his lawyer, one of the people profiting from said foreign trusts. Now, with the release of the Panama papers, the whole thing is blown wide open and NZ stands revealed as an enabler of tax avoidance and money laundering. This is not a bad thing nor a big deal how, exactly?
Anyone discussed this today?
“”As it stands, we cannot support the ratification of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement,” the Labour Party said….
..Labour leader Andrew Little said the trade minister was right to point out Labour’s long history of supporting free trade agreements.
“It goes back to the first Labour Government, and our support for free trade hasn’t changed. But what we won’t support is the erosion of New Zealanders’ democratic rights and to have a sovereign government. That’s what the National Government is selling out.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11635635
The government can prevent Jewish attacks on Arabs by taking “legitimate” revenge for Palestinian terrorism, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
“Presumably, if the State of Israel had not been influenced by twisted Christian morals and had not erased the word ‘revenge’ from its lexicon, and would have done it [revenge] in legitimate ways and deterred the enemy, we would not have encountered these difficult cases of private people taking the law and the revenge into their own hands,” he said.
Or antiemetic or anaemic, something – there will be criticism of criticism. The human mind must go for scapegoats – now its Christians. Have we stopped them having revenge?
What do they call what has been rained on Palestine? It’s not tit for tat, eye for eye, its rat-tat-tat for tat. It has gone beyond defensive maneouvres against a vast hostile Arab enemy.
“There is no doubt that volumes of oil – and, particularly, lower-carbon gas – will be needed well into the 2030s. The global transport system is still heavily dependent on black gold and full electrification is a long way off.
But change is happening quickly too. The sale of electric cars in Norway last year grew by 71%. Almost one in five cars there is a plug-in despite the nation being a major crude producer.
So the end of the oil era is not for the birds – or even the birdwatchers, the environmentalists, or the anti-oil obsessives. It is now becoming part of fund-manager and mainstream dialogue. Change is coming.”
Faith based pseudo science and the Prime Minister.
Pseudo science is something you believe in for no reason, based on zero evidence, but call it science.
“The world is going to heat up if it’s left unchecked,” he said. “People who get up and say ‘it’s Armageddon, it’s the end of the universe, it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in the world, we will all die as a result of it,’ are missing one fundamental point and that is science will deal with the issues as long as we keep investing. If we did absolutely nothing and just allowed temperatures to continue to rise, then we would have a huge issue but the truth is that won’t happen.” JOHN KEY
Does John Key know something about dealing with this global crisis that the scientific community doesn’t?
Or, is he just indulging in wishful thinking?
Climate change is the government’s worst performing portfolio.
And John Key’s wishful thinking can’t cover up that fact.
There is no magic bullet. We need to cut our emissions and we need to cut them fast.
And New Zealand is better placed than most to set the pace.
No New Coal Mines.
No deep sea oil drilling.
No Fracking.
No new motorways,
Switch the $11 billion earmarked for Roads of National Significance to public transport
Close down Solid Energy
Close down Huntly
Close down Tiwai
100% Renewable electricity now
Cut the top speed limit from 100KPH to 80KPH (Don’t tell me it can’t be done, this was a fuel saving measure adopted by NZ during the energy crisis of the ’70s)
The emergency is upon us
We need to do these things right now.
Anything less from our leaders is cowardice and treachery and an abrogation of leadership in the face of the crisis.
Waiting on some magical scientific solution will damn us all.
In no way do I compare John Key to the Nazis, but they also believed without any basis in fact, that science was going to deliver them from disaster.
The Wunderwaffe
As the war situation worsened for Germany from 1942, claims about the development of revolutionary new weapons which could turn the tide became an increasingly prominent part of the propaganda directed at Germans by their government.
As the climate situation worsened, claims about the development of revolutionary new scientific breakthroughs which could turn the tide became an increasingly prominent part of the propaganda directed at New Zealanders by their government.
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Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
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Imperial war, refugees, radical writers locked in madhouses & exiled to baches: the NZ Herald acknowledges some of Auckland’s secret past: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/05/the-city-of-words.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11635380
“Paying tax in NZ – it’s mandatory for poor wage slaves – avoidable by rich prick$.
Yip.”
ShonKEY.
“Paying tax in NZ – it’s mandatory for poor wage slaves – avoidable by rich prick$”
So you are a tax bludging rich prick
Don’t you have better things to do?
So – has any information EVER been shared between NZ and the Cook Islands regarding tax evasion and avoidance by NZ citizens using Cook Island tax ‘structures’ on NZ Prime Minister John Key’s watch?
If yes – what was the outcome?
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/peters-key-shirking-responsibilty-for-financial-fraud-in-cook-islands/
Winston Peters says tax avoidance in the Cook Islands has happened under the watch of prime minister John Key.
Key has rubbished accusations from the Panama Papers leaker that he has enabled financial fraud in the Cook Islands, which exists in free association with New Zealand.
But the New Zealand First leader, who triggered the Winebox Inquiry in Cook Islands tax avoidance in the 1990s, said the prime minister does have a role to play.
He said New Zealand and the Cook Islands have an ongoing Tax Information Exchange Agreement which was updated in July 2009.
“That updating was to do with exchange of information about two things, tax avoidance and tax evasion, so Mr Key is 100 percent wrong about his responsibility.”
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
What’s any of that got to do with the Auckland council elections ?
The fact, in my opinion, that New Zealand is a corrupt, polluted tax haven, is a problem locally, nationally and internationally.
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Which has exactly what to do with the Auckland Council elections?
And what, exactly, do you think a “tax haven” is? Wikipedia will help.
Everything is connected stunned mullet – even you to everyone in your street, town, island etc. It’s good that Penny is trying to do something about the unsatisfactory situation outside Auckland. Do you think that Auckland needs her focus? What suggestions have you to improve the broken systems in your area?
you are not in a position to call out anyone on not paying what they owe Penny
Why on earth is that?
I’ve put my freehold home on the line to protect my lawful rights as a citizen to ‘open. transparent and democratically accountable’ local government in Auckland.
I have disputed and refused to pay Auckland Council (previously Auckland City Council) rates, because ‘the books’ are NOT open, and citizens and ratepayers do not know exactly where hundreds of million$ of public rates monies are being spent by Auckland Council and Council (Corporate) Controlled Organisations (CCOs) on private sector consultants and contractors.
This is the information to which I believe I and ALL citizens are entitled under the Public Records Act 2005, s.17 :
The unique contract number.
The name of the consultant / contractor.
A brief description of the scope of the contract.
The contract start and finish date.
The exact dollar value of every contract – including those sub-contracted.
How the contract was awarded – by public tender or direct appointment.
How can you ‘follow the dollar’ – if you don’t know exactly where it’s going?
How can you check for ‘cost-effectiveness’ if you don’t know exactly where the costs fall?
How can you have genuine transparency, or accountability with proper public records available for public scrutiny?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
(‘Activists’ – get things done).
Nobody asked you to do this Penny. And what sort of corruption can a redundant welding tutor find that qualified auditors etc cannot? And what sort of return have the Auckland ratepayers had for your 7 or so years of investigations? How many cases of corruption have you uncovered? Nada, none, zip.
I suppose it gives you something to do.
Nobody has to ask
Just pay your taxes and rates no questions asked, there’s a good citizen
There is no corruption or fraud at local or central government level….back to sleep
No – just real scrutiny by people who know what they are doing. People with qualifications.
Challenge the system by all means, but if every one followed our not so Penny Brights lead where would we be, i.e simply avoid paying rates and tax based on your personal belief, right or wrong, wether you pay simply comes down to your own personal bright line test
“No – just real scrutiny by people who know what they are doing. People with qualifications”
Dont be too harsh Penny once held a welding ticket.
Mind you i have seen her use an angle grinder and she hasn’t got a clue
how to do that safely.
Visubversa
I don’t think you sound as if you have any qualifications to even put a criticism here. Why don’t you find something positive to do with your rime instead of sneering at someone who attempts to make a protest and show up a fault in the system. You apparently find excuses not to do anything yourself because you haven’t the integrity or strength to stand up for something better.
edited
“He said New Zealand and the Cook Islands have an ongoing Tax Information Exchange Agreement which was updated in July 2009.
“That updating was to do with exchange of information about two things, tax avoidance and tax evasion, so Mr Key is 100 percent wrong about his responsibility.”
A very useful point Penny. And with a bit of luck John Key will have to address this next week in light of his flat denial last week. Wiggle will he?
Very interesting article, the Marocs even first went into exile in Hawaii, sounds like a favourite place for corrupt politicians ….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/10bn-dollar-question-marcos-millions-nick-davies
“Marcos was one of the first to exploit the rats’ nest of secret jurisdictions and hidden ownership then in the early stages of being built beneath the floorboards of public life.
But what is most important about Marcos is that he committed his crimes as a politician. His career starts with a cynicism that now seems familiar – manipulating electorates, using money to buy power and power to make money. But he went one big step further in merging politics and finance, converting the instruments of government into one vast cash machine. A handful of other autocrats were also busy stealing from their people in that era – in Haiti, Nicaragua, Iran – but Marcos stole more and he stole better. Ultimately, he emerges as a laboratory specimen from the early stages of a contemporary epidemic: the global contagion of corruption that has since spread through Africa and South America, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Marcos was a model of the politician as thief.”
And is now emerging in NZ, the UK, the US, Europe…
Climate Change Pt 1: What are we waiting for?
The rebuttal Part 1
Weka gives us his opinion on how to combat climate change, and asks, if we disagree with him to raise it here;
In his post, “Climate Change Pt 1: What are we waiting for?” Weka asks that anyone who thinks “that CC is the responsibility of governments not individuals, please go to Open Mike.”
Hopefully in Pt 2: of his post, (if it ever turns up), Weka will set out what he thinks political parties and governments should do.
In the meantime while we are waiting, I thought that we could set the ball rolling.
Preamble:
There is no task that is truely worth being done by human beings, that does not require team work. Whether it is building a house, or building a road, or crossing an ocean. There is hardly any major task that I can think of that doesn’t require teamwork and cooperation. it is our greatest strength as a species. And teamwork always requires leadership. This is an inescapable fact.
And the fight against climate change is the biggest most monumental task humanity has ever faced. it will require the teamwork of millions to solve.
So how should we go about it?
Can we just leave it up to personal responsibility?
Something Weka calls a “Riot for Austerity”
Or should we also be campaigning for a change in public policy?
In my opinion, the individual approach to fighting climate change, is a philosophical approach to climate change, that even the ACT Party could agree with. ACT, the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers say they are the party that is all about individual choice. A campaign based on the power of consumers is I imagine something that they could agree with.
Less government intervention and regulation, leaving more room for personal choice, and individual action, is the ACT mantra.
In fact they are always going on about it. Recently an ACT spokesperson said that the reason some tenants live in damp unhealthy homes is because of personal choices they have made.
Others beg to differ:
In my opinion what could be said for poverty, can be said for climate change.
Climate choice is a fine thing for the Association of Consumers and Taxpayer members, whose leader David Seymour, (to prove his climate change credentials), turned up to the ACT Party Conference in a NZD $140,000 Tesler S1.
Weka argues that we exercise our choice as consumers to combat climate change.
In my opinion, this so called “choice”, can only be properly exercised by the wealthy or the upper middle classes, those with the leisure and the money that gives them the freedom to make such choices. There is very little choice for the time strapped and cash poor. The power of consumer choice is not for a minimum wage worker from South or West Auckland who has to struggle to work in an unregistered clapped out Toyota, because there is no affordable and reliable public transport system.
Nor is there much power of consumer choice for the solo mother or beneficiary who has to keep the bar heater on all winter because their home is badly insulated. Which is why Andrew Little has introduced legislation for minimum heating and insulation regulations for rental properties.
Changes in public policy will have more impact in combatting climate change than personal consumer choices ever will.
Of course we should all do what we can as individuals but this will never be enough, and for many, (possibly the majority), and especially for those of us with limited choices, actually impossible. No matter how much we may want to, or know we should.
A point Naomi Klein makes in her last book is that over the same era of acceleration of climate change’s harm i.e. the last 30 years, many countries willingly shrank the whole realm of the state, thereby weakening the human capacity to actually change the climate.
She may be right, but the state is still the strongest force of human agency ever devised, and probably ever will be. Popular protest can work, but it’s a massive lottery compared to putting your collective might to changing the entire government.
Trusts, NGOs, anarchy-syndicalist communes, or micro-communal vegetable gardens will never amount to the capacity of the state to change stuff on any scale the climate will notice.
New Zealand’s own electricity generation at around 85% renewable owes that performance to a legacy of command-and-control governments that continued for about 80 years (i.e. from Vogel). Unlike China and Singapore, New Zealand is a strong example of how a kind of sustainability can be achieved without sacrificing too much democracy, and at the same time attain very long term good for people and for the climate.
This is a good point about the sheer power of the state, and I agree. However it’s a false dichotomy to put that up against community initiated change. The whole point of my post was that governments aren’t changing fast enough. The value in things like the Riot and community gardens isn’t simply that they reduce emissions (although they certainly lead the way in what should be being done on that front). The real value is that those things change people, and when enough people are changing the governments will change too. Then we have real potential.
The other side of that is that should the NZ govt start on real CC action, if the people aren’t on board things will get messy. Best to have people changing now, so we are ready. The best way for people to change is to start behaving differently, in the manner in which we should be acting in the first place.
Thanks Jenny, good too see the response (and thanks for bringing it to OM).
I’d like to clarify a few things.
Neither the Riot for Austerity nor my own post were suggesting that personal action was the only thing required, or that it was a substitute for governmental and other collective action. The point of the Riot was to demonstrate that no matter what governments did or didn’t do, individuals, families and communities could still take action. We don’t have to wait for others to go first.
I also don’t believe that the Riot is essentially libertarian, and you misrepresent it and myself when you call it individual and leave out the importance of family and community. Your analysis is useful for combatting libertarian arguments, but that’s not what I was making. Mine was more anarchistic perhaps (“we don’t need government’s permission to change” is entirely different than saying that “only individuals are responsible for change”).
My own position is that because we don’t have government action (or even much political party action outside of the Greens), we have to mobilise at the individual, family and community levels. When we do that, governments and political parties will follow. Even the Greens are holding back on what needs ot be done because their very existence is dependent on votes. Once more people are demanding change and changing anyway, politicians will follow. This in no way precludes other kinds of political activism, we need it all.
My post was addressing a point that’s needed, which is that people are feeling powerless. It’s time we got past that feeling and did something.
“Hopefully in Pt 2: of his post, (if it ever turns up), Weka will set out what he thinks political parties and governments should do.”
It’s unlikely that I will be writing about that at this point. I’ve already said enough in comments, and there are huge swathes of commentary within NZ and internationally and here on ts about what governments should do. My energy is better used elsewhere. I would love to see others putting up posts on this though.
It does raise another point. We can talk about what governments should do, and we should have that conversation, but things are so urgent now that I want to also talk about what we can do, not what we should do. I can’t wait. We have to act, now.
Weka argues that we exercise our choice as consumers to combat climate change.
No, she doesn’t. She says we have to stop being consumers full stop. It’s a potent, radical act that undercuts neoliberalism, the global economy and capitalism itself. It also brings a halt to a big chunk of GHG emissions. Merely using consumer choice won’t prevent the worst of CC, although it’s still a step in the right direction. Cutting personal energy use by 90% is not consumer choice, it’s a radical rejection of the consumerist paradigm itself.
The transition to the power down from a consumerist soceity is a massive cultural paradigm shift. That’s what I was referring to.
In my opinion, this so called “choice”, can only be properly exercised by the wealthy or the upper middle classes, those with the leisure and the money that gives them the freedom to make such choices. There is very little choice for the time strapped and cash poor.
Leaving aside the inaccurate framing, one of the commenters in the thread is probably one of the lowest income Standardistas and he is powering down (Bill). I personally don’t think that the major changes need to come first from the working and underclasses, but I also don’t believe they are incapable of change or that they are not required to change. In fact I’d say the working and under classes have skills in powering down and anti-consumerism that the middle classes will come to envy in the coming decades.
We also simply cannot afford to wait for the left wing revolution that will first lift people out of poverty. That has to be done in the same context as everything else, CC is here, now. Why are we waiting to change. Someone who is poor is going to get hit just as hard when they are still relying on the global economy to bring food to their supermarket.
I agree that low income and time poor people have less choice. But many still have some choices.
I might give it a go.
Cool!!
Thank you weka.
I will need to put proper time and effort into this; to give the topic some justice.
I lead a pretty busy life so that may take some rearranging and reprioritising.
When my contribution appears
My hope is that you and others will give my contribution a thoroughly rigorous critique.
Cheers Jenny.
whether we are talking about dodgy politicians, climate change action, inequitable taxation or unwanted tax haven status or so called free trade agreements there is one thing to remember……
they only have the power we allow them…..so why do we abdicate that power
https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2016/05/03/13586/
nation of sheep begets a government of wolves
+1
Nice, but tragic results.
Can’t we do both, Jenny @5 ?
As well as individual actions like growing more trees, vegetable gardens to be more self-sustainable, etc etc there also seem to be a number of group movements starting to grow – ActionStation is one, and then there’s another newer group setting up – http://act.350.org/event/break-free-world_attend/12291
This group 350 Aotearoa appear to be actively promoting the need for political action on Climate Change. I don’t know much about them – but they have some sort of event in Wellington on May 11, 2016. Have a look at this Facebook site – it’ll tell you more.
https://www.facebook.com/events/159524387777137/
Some details I’ve copied :
Wednesday, May 11, 7:00 AM
The corner of Panama Street and Lambton Quay
Wellington, 6011, New Zealand
EVENT BRIEFING
10TH May, Wellington Girls College, Pipitea St 6.30pm
+1 Nice one Jenny K.
Absolutely. I agree whole heartedly with this sentiment. Jenny.
Like the Gardening For Victory movement, national leadership and encouragement played a vital role in making this movement a success.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Gardening+for+victory&espv=2&biw=1001&bih=489&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS56Tzu8nMAhXELKYKHe7jCGIQsAQIVQ&dpr=1
The dance between leaders and followers in a democracy is a subtle one.
Leadership initiatives from above are just as important as receptive support from below. One builds and strengthens the other. Without initiatives and leadership, individual action either falls apart, or doesn’t get started in the first place.
Without receptive supporters, leadership goes nowhere.
Though Weka didn’t explicitly advocate that individual activities is the only thing we should do. I can’t help thinking that his approach is letting the government and other policy makers somewhat off the hook. Maybe, Weka will challenge the politicians and policy makers in Pt 2: of his post, Let’s hope so.
I look forward to reading it.
P.S. Great to hear about your Break Free activities in Wellington. I have been close to the Break Free campaign here in Auckland. In Auckland 350.org are all young people full of life and fun, who organised a beach party occupation of the ANZ to call for divestment from fossil fuels,
Older, more conservative (looking), supporters like myself were asked to play an undercover role for the beach party, by arriving early and posing as ANZ customers to deflect any criticism, or manhandling of the protesters.
You can view the beach party occupation of the downtown Auckland ANZ lobby here:
The year is 1840 and Colonel Donald T Rash and David Business Roundtable disembark the Tory in a strange new land. They find the natives already have a complex capitalist system in place and everything is free to be exploited.
https://youtu.be/r_AUYsiDyBU
Shit if Hone can sit next to that toxic old shit and listen to the drivel that plummy twat from chch was spouting and not hit some one he needs to be in Parliament, common mana get your shit together.
+1000.
Talking is always better than violence
I hated watching that. Both Don Brash and David what’s his name were rude. Brash continued the rudeness right up till the end.
It like if he acted like that on any other TV show, they would have gone to an add and asked him to leave.
I’m glad Willie told him he’s never welcome back.
This is what happens in Germany when politicians try to screw the people!
http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139
Conservatively a minimum of 250,000 deaths per year in the USA
The annual number of severe patient injuries resulting from medical error could conservatively be 10,000,000
The CDC does not require reporting of medical errors
Now I wonder what NatzKEY influenced msm serfs will do with the Panama papers data info release next week, prior to publication and reporting? Other than RNZ, there’s a good chance most msm sources will sanitize it to suit the likes of masters FJK and his chief of propaganda minister, Steven “the fixit guy” Joyce, to suit their rotten agendas!
I take it those of us who subscribe to ICIJ should hopefully receive access to the data in its entirety in our inboxes early on Tuesday 10 May.
‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’
‘
“Ken where are you? I need help here.
“Ken, Ken ……???”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79745762/crack-ird-team-ready-to-join-global-panama-papers-search
Frankly, I don’t believe what the PM is saying.
Bring on the 10th May.
‘Prime Minister John Key says the Government is ready to crack down on wealthy tax evaders as the Government braces itself for fresh Panama Papers disclosures.
Speaking in Auckland on Sunday, Key said Inland Revenue officials would join the global stampede to ferret out tax evaders when millions of leaked “Panama Papers” go online on Tuesday.’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79745762/crack-ird-team-ready-to-join-global-panama-papers-search
Here is the problem-
The trusts are secret aren’t they.
So how will they know?
This getting more Crim dot com re the big damp squib reveal and day of judgement at the last ejection . what’s do we have here, NZ has forgein trusts, it had been the case for many years under labour and national governments , some ( not all) forgein trusts may be used for tax evasion of forgein tax jurisdictions, can some one tell me what’s new here and what was not know already
You missed the point.now misleading the truth.corrupt Criminals that can’t launder their money anywhere else in the world are using NZ’s good name and destroying that under the leadership of Crony Capitalist 2011 changes to the law and the undermining of rule tighning the IRD was ready to put into place.
Ken Whitney approached the PM a very close long time business associate his personal lawyer a dodgy dealing trust fund lawyer.
Who within 48hrs of approaching the minister IRD dropped all plans to tighten rules around trusts.
Nepotism
Greasing
Grifting
Corruption.
Bluelusion.
All of what you pontificate above is opinion and left spin, not fact
Oh please Reddelusion , you are the one in spin mode. All your, at present, fallow fan-boys.
As more paper and more information come to light it is only going to get worse.
Labour did it too. SHeesh, the argument of a two year old – this is a government that has been in power 7 odd years now, time to take responsibility for your own actions. Too soon?
I’m still struggling with the issue here, forgein trusts are not illegal, as are not registered companies, partnerships or multiple forms of entities under English law There has been no tax evasion in nz, if papers show this is the case the law will deal with it, likewise if laws of forgein incorporation, forgein trusts etc need to be tidied up, all good, albeit and international response is required here . I am just not sure what you lot are getting so exercised about, English commercial has continued to evolve ever since the formation of the royal charters and joint stock companies in the 17 and 1800s , The flexibility and innovative capacity of English law is why it tends to be the favoured law of international business and continues to evolve today to support the constant evolution and needs of the commercial sector. You need to get out of your grumpy little leftie box and just chill out on this one
Trillions of dollars in tax havens.
And it means nothing to you.
Yes Paul it does and it needs and international response, as does global harmonisation of tax laws etc, trying to put all this on nz, Jk and the national party is where it’s getting ridiculous
I was wondering when that meme would come.
No laws were broken, its just business as usual.
That said, just because it’s legal is not a good defence. Being gay was illegal, and we changed that silly law. Women were legally not allowed to vote, and again we came to our scenes. Many many things have been legal which have become illegal and vice versa. It just a weak defence.
There is no smoking gun. I think you just said what everyone is upset about.
The problem is – its business as usual,
and business as usual – is morally bankrupt.
Red delusion is deluded.
Clever play on words Paul, you out did yourself with that one
I am not claiming business as usual see my post below, there are good reason for trusts that make good business sense re separating management off assets from legal title, as does a mortgage etc, all useful tools and innovation under English law in fostering commerce etc. Deal with the issues of forgein trust if they are abused but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water Similar don’t try and turn a legal entity that has been with us since the 80s suddenly into, it’s all jk and Nationals fault , basically grow up and engage your brain and deal with the issue at at hand , likewise get over the fact that nz is not going to solve the global tax evasion issue. this can only be solved via a global response and even here is difficult as each nation has its own domestic laws, self interests etc yet all trade internationally, thus no easy answer
I’m happy for us to engage.
What pissing me off, and others is the in action by JK and Co. Then the political games. Or people creating memes to avoid having to deal with the issue.
The fact is the law change after national came to power, is the door which all this debate started with. I get Dunn was the muppet who was the lead on that.
You say we need to wait on the rest of the world, but we probably not going to do anything then either. Key and co. have not got a good track record.
If it helps there are a number of international institutions that nz is part of working on as such, in the mean time beyond legal harmonisation it just comes down to bi lateral tax treaties between countries, thus always issue between countries where such does not exist
National changed the tax on foreign trusts to “neutral” – 0%, in 2011. (Suggested by John Key himself, if IIRC). Chapman Tripp were delighted, and posted on this change. This made NZ very attractive to a larger number of very ugly trusts.
While John Key
equivocateslies, we waste time on pretending that it was always like this, and we continue to lose our integrity and our self-respect by a thousand such cuts.Zero tax is not the issue ( if no income is generated in nz, ie assets just parked here) , hiding behind the trust veil re who are the beneficiary of the trust is the issue in regard to paying tax elsewhere, tidy this up problem solved No big deal ! or corruption on nz part, so stop tearing your undies on this issue by some how extrapolating that some how foreign trust has connotations on nz reputation Any corruption is offshore by abusing nz trust laws
The War on terror was supposed to shut down terrorist funding.
Mossack Fonsecca are enabling terrorism and corruption to flourish.
NATO countries and their Allies put sanctions on Putins Russia.
MF enables Putin to undermine Sanction’s.
Nigerian Scammers once they have taken your money it can’t be retrieved.
Moassack Fonsecca hide these Nigerian scammers money.
The Mexican grifter who banked US$100 million in our tax haven when no other tax haven would touch it.
NZ govt allows Mossack Fonseca to set up here and in the protectetate of NZ Niue.
So our Allies who have trying to shut down Isis ,Putin.
The EU The US and Australia all trying to shut down tax dodgers.
Are going to be very unimpressed by your argument.
Bluelooney.
I am not trying to Impress you just educate you, likewise the conflation and hyperbole is now getting silliy
“so stop tearing your undies on this issue”
WTF?
NZ has forgein trusts, it had been the case for many years under labour and national governments , some ( not all) forgein trusts may be used for tax evasion of forgein tax jurisdictions, can some one tell me what’s new here and what was not know already
Are you unable to read the newspaper for yourself or something? Here’s what’s new: the way NZ’s foreign trust rules were set up allows them to be used for tax avoidance and money laundering. People who aren’t Tories generally feel that we shouldn’t enable tax avoidance and money laundering. IRD warned the government about the problem with our foreign trust setup, and attempted to get it reviewed, something which appears to have been prevented by John Key intervening at the behest of his lawyer, one of the people profiting from said foreign trusts. Now, with the release of the Panama papers, the whole thing is blown wide open and NZ stands revealed as an enabler of tax avoidance and money laundering. This is not a bad thing nor a big deal how, exactly?
Opinion and speculation in regard to intent of government and action of ministers, not fact but that obviously does not matter here
The wicked David Slack has a report on the Key online interview. David explains just how clever Key is with his answers.
eg:”It’s not just what he says, it’s how he says it. If Auckland had three volcanic cones erupting, he’d talk about it as though it was just another day in heavy traffic and you know, people get volcanoes all the time.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/79681871/David-Slack-The-man-with-all-the-answers?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Anyone discussed this today?
“”As it stands, we cannot support the ratification of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement,” the Labour Party said….
..Labour leader Andrew Little said the trade minister was right to point out Labour’s long history of supporting free trade agreements.
“It goes back to the first Labour Government, and our support for free trade hasn’t changed. But what we won’t support is the erosion of New Zealanders’ democratic rights and to have a sovereign government. That’s what the National Government is selling out.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11635635
Yes ..put it on TPP thread. Here…
http://thestandard.org.nz/will-labour-endorse-the-tppa/#comment-1170124
Ooops. Thanks Paul.
Over the past fifteen years the IDF has killed more than 5,500 Palestinians with impunity and fas**st Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich calls for revenge attacks.
/
The government can prevent Jewish attacks on Arabs by taking “legitimate” revenge for Palestinian terrorism, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
“Presumably, if the State of Israel had not been influenced by twisted Christian morals and had not erased the word ‘revenge’ from its lexicon, and would have done it [revenge] in legitimate ways and deterred the enemy, we would not have encountered these difficult cases of private people taking the law and the revenge into their own hands,” he said.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-should-carry-out-revenge-attacks-on-Palestinians-rightist-MK-says-453340
Be careful. You’re criticising Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
Someone will say you’re antiaemitic.
Or antiemetic or anaemic, something – there will be criticism of criticism. The human mind must go for scapegoats – now its Christians. Have we stopped them having revenge?
What do they call what has been rained on Palestine? It’s not tit for tat, eye for eye, its rat-tat-tat for tat. It has gone beyond defensive maneouvres against a vast hostile Arab enemy.
On TV1 they said that the Panama Papers publication will be on TV 1 morning show Breakfast? tomorrow morning Monday.
This is an interesting site with much joined=up thinking.
http://turbulence.org.uk/turbulence-1/commonism/
And it’s on commonism, not communism. Loss of commons is a continuing theme these days so they have something very apposite to say.
“There is no doubt that volumes of oil – and, particularly, lower-carbon gas – will be needed well into the 2030s. The global transport system is still heavily dependent on black gold and full electrification is a long way off.
But change is happening quickly too. The sale of electric cars in Norway last year grew by 71%. Almost one in five cars there is a plug-in despite the nation being a major crude producer.
So the end of the oil era is not for the birds – or even the birdwatchers, the environmentalists, or the anti-oil obsessives. It is now becoming part of fund-manager and mainstream dialogue. Change is coming.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/08/brexit-not-to-blame-slowing-uk-growth-us-slowdown
Faith based pseudo science and the Prime Minister.
Pseudo science is something you believe in for no reason, based on zero evidence, but call it science.
Does John Key know something about dealing with this global crisis that the scientific community doesn’t?
Or, is he just indulging in wishful thinking?
Climate change is the government’s worst performing portfolio.
And John Key’s wishful thinking can’t cover up that fact.
There is no magic bullet. We need to cut our emissions and we need to cut them fast.
And New Zealand is better placed than most to set the pace.
No New Coal Mines.
No deep sea oil drilling.
No Fracking.
No new motorways,
Switch the $11 billion earmarked for Roads of National Significance to public transport
Close down Solid Energy
Close down Huntly
Close down Tiwai
100% Renewable electricity now
Cut the top speed limit from 100KPH to 80KPH (Don’t tell me it can’t be done, this was a fuel saving measure adopted by NZ during the energy crisis of the ’70s)
The emergency is upon us
We need to do these things right now.
Anything less from our leaders is cowardice and treachery and an abrogation of leadership in the face of the crisis.
Waiting on some magical scientific solution will damn us all.
In no way do I compare John Key to the Nazis, but they also believed without any basis in fact, that science was going to deliver them from disaster.
The Wunderwaffe
The Jonkywaffe