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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Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
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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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?utm_medium=email&v=Kt3hm5UhqC0
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