I’m interested in other people’s thoughts on the fair way to tax capital. Ianmac yesterday linked to The Opportunity Party’s release on their proposed capital tax (which doesn’t have much detail). On the assumption that it’s similar to the Comprehensive Capital Income Tax that Gareth Morgan has proposed before, I’d be worried about the following unintended consequences. http://www.top.org.nz/top1?utm_campaign=top1_members&utm_medium=email&utm_source=garethmorgan
1) Social effects on the housing asset rich/cash poor. Suggested mitigations are unconvincing to me. While this is likely to be the focus of most debate, right now I’m more interested in other aspects listed below.
2) May cause collapse of businesses that would otherwise survive, from the ongoing extra cashflow required to service the capital tax.
3) Discourages foreign investment. Why would any business want to set up where they start getting taxed long before they earn a penny of profit?
4) Favours low-capital businesses, and discourages businesses from investing more capital per worker. This is already a problem causing low productivity in New Zealand, do we want to make it worse?
5) Because land is such a high-capital item, it would push farmers towards a high-intensity high-input farming model. Which is a high-pollution low-resilience model, exactly the opposite of what we want.
6) No models to learn from elsewhere. Canada had some (at much lower rates), but those seem to have been abolished.
7) Encourages the use of debt to reduce the amount of liable capital for taxation.
Personally I favour a capital gains tax on all assets (including the family home, but with a rollover provision for family homes), payable whenever there’s any kind of change of ownership of the asset. There’s plenty of examples from other jurisdictions to learn from. It’s not much of a hassle to comply (I paid Capital Gains Tax on my primary home in the US), and while it’s slow to start collecting revenue eventually it reaches the point of fairly catching income from capital.
Yes I’m keen for a UBI and then look at how to tax it as a secondary issue. So it seems crazy to me that UBI is not the main focus.
I think there needs to be a radical change to taxation to make sure that everyone has to pay their share. There are so many loop holes at present it makes it easy for those with more money and access to tax experts to avoid taxes. We need new ideas because the old ones only tax the middle and seem to avoid the super rich and global citizens.
We are having situations when banks are causing GFC being bailed out by tax payers and then being allowed to go on as usual and still make the rules on what’s fair to tax.
At the same time there seems to be a very punitive punishment approach to government taxation – at the end of the day it should be like a non profit co operative insurance scheme – you put money in – and then there is a basic level nobody is allowed to fall below (UBI) and then you need enough from everybody to make sure that the bills on health, education and so forth are met.
The whole premise of governments seem to be skewed with neoliberalism – that’s why we can afford Saudi sheep bribes for millions but put more and more hoops in for the most vulnerable to stop them getting a basic benefit. Wellington council can afford to pay Singapore airlines 8 million, Auckland wants to steal the harbour and put it into COO hands, but at the same time they are obsessed with cutting basic services like libraries, rubbish and keeping the berms mowed – because we can’t afford it.
Tax on the gain at sale, arbitrary taxes on capital can penalise many for holding over a long term gain with zero intent to gain from any sale or sell at all.
The funds exist from the sale and it clips the ticket as the punter has realised the profit. Effectively a transaction based tax, much easier to enforce as holdings can be hidden very easily.
Oz has had this type of CGT since the 80’s and you don’t see their right rushing to repeal it being a lot more mature in their economic management than ours.
Some other jurisdictions have loopholes that allow avoiding capital gains taxes by such means as gifting assets to a trust, gifting assets to a charity and claiming a tax credit for the full value of the asset. Which is why I said “payable whenever there’s any kind of change of ownership”.
I like it – it only charges tax for assets that aren’t already generating sufficient taxable income to meet the threshold, so people are encouraged to use capital better. Assuming GST or income tax are reduced to offset it, most people, including most homeowners, would be better off in terms of disposable income.
Agreed, though some provision would have to be made for businesses which, though they would normally run profitably, happen to make a loss, whether through bad luck or poor management. The trouble is, many will find ways of taking advantage of such provision to avoid the tax.
” it only charges tax for assets that aren’t already generating sufficient taxable income to meet the threshold”
Do you really think it’s good to further reinforce the idea that the only value anything has is for the income that can be generated from it?
I’m also aware of several farms and small businesses where the owners are running them in a low key way just generating enough income to keep happy and not really trying to maximise returns. They’re also unusually good at looking after their staff and surroundings. Under a capital tax regime, they would become totally non-viable as is and would either need to close or start operating in a much more ruthless manner.
Do we really want to force that choice? Particularly if the alternative CGT achieves the same result in the end of getting the beneficiaries of asset price growth to share some of the gains with the society that makes those gains possible?
I’ve only read his policy document Andre so I don’t know the finer points but it looks like typical Morgan to me where he gets a bee in his bonnet and takes it too far.
With houses he appears to be targeting freehold owner-occupiers rather than investors/landlords or even those with a mortgage. His basic premise is that living in a freehold house is a form of income and should be taxed because the capital invested in the house would be taxed in any other investment scenario.
Now for those who have a mortgage it would be rather complicated to work out what their capital actually is before you could tax it. The property itself isn’t the capital, they’ve borrowed to buy it. Their capital would either be the equity or the deposit plus principal paid off. Working out the equity would be a nightmare with oodles of loopholes that investors would exploit to minimise their tax…. like they do already.
I can’t see it solving anything and it would make the system messier. A capital gains tax levied annually on investment properties is all that’s required IMO.
“A capital gains tax levied annually on investment properties is all that’s required IMO.”
A higher rates calculation on investment properties could be used to provide a social housing fund at local government level, and would be fairly easy to implement. If the owner is not occupying the property, the rates kick in at a different level. Rates are already taxing property owners, what this would do is increase that tax in recognition of the capital gains that landlords benefit from, that single home buyers and renters do not.
The reason I would exclude the owner occupied property is that investors are able to claim maintenance and other expenses (including interest paid) on their properties that owner occupiers must meet out of their income.
Rate are already a tax on property ownership.
Increased rates on investment properties recognise the anomaly above, and provide a social housing fund that increases locally as number of renters increase.
The reason I would exclude the owner occupied property is that investors are able to claim maintenance and other expenses (including interest paid) on their properties that owner occupiers must meet out of their income.
Have you considered that being able to claim expenses for tax purposes is the problem?
If tenants had better security of tenancy, and a comprehensive method of ensuring that all maintenance needs are met in a timely manner – I’d consider agreeing with you. But the likelihood is that if maintenance and repairs were not able to be expensed then a large number of landlords (especially in this housing climate) would avoid paying out for as long as possible.
Not all homeowners are speculative purchasers.
My partner and I bought a home for reasons other than capital gain. Stability of housing for one ( had been moved on from rentals due to increased rents more than once).
But owning also provided the opportunity to do other things that are unable to be done in a lot of rented homes:
– Planting trees and gardens,
– Having several people staying with us over the years while they get on their feet,
– Looking after family pets for friends and family while they go away.
None of this would be possible in a rented home, unless we were very lucky to find a very relaxed and accommodating landlord.
Any more taxing on a household like ours (especially for capital gains that we have no practical or financial benefit from unless we sell and don’t require another home), and our precarious balance of finances would break.
But the likelihood is that if maintenance and repairs were not able to be expensed then a large number of landlords (especially in this housing climate) would avoid paying out for as long as possible.
They’re called slumlords and they already exist and are in NZ.
None of this would be possible in a rented home, unless we were very lucky to find a very relaxed and accommodating landlord.
And what if you had a state rental that was lifetime lease, allowed you to plant trees, gardens and do renovations as well as kept the place well maintained?
Again, all the problems that people have with rentals and the tax regime that allows a few to dodge paying tax is private ownership.
“And what if you had a state rental that was lifetime lease, allowed you to plant trees, gardens and do renovations as well as kept the place well maintained?
If that were possible Draco, I’d be living there.
But until we have a cross party consensus on the importance of affordable, healthy, secure housing, we will continue to have our communities broken up. For the moment, I – and many others do what we can with what we have.
I don’t think that’s necessary Molly. Simply assessing them for tax each year, and collecting it, would do the trick IMO.
As it stands investors are leveraging off their capital gains to borrow more money to buy more properties. If they had to pay tax on those gains they’d instead be borrowing a third of it to pay the tax. That would lower the demand for property and get the housing inflation down…. and boost the tax coffers.
Morgan’s scheme looks unworkable to me, can’t say I’m taken with the theory either but its the practice that looks unwinnable.
1. Seems reasonable to me.
2. Businesses are supposed to collapse if they can’t maintain themselves. That’s the whole point of capitalism. It’s not up to the rest of us to keep them going.
3. Foreign investment needs to be banned as it’s detrimental to society.
4. No it doesn’t. If anything, it encourages high capital investment as the high investment is more likely to return greater amounts. It’s our low wages that are encouraging low capital investment now.
5. We already have that happening now. The solution is proper regulation.
6. So we should never try new ideas?
7. I’m pretty sure that Morgan has an answer to that as well.
Personally I favour a capital gains tax on all assets
I think that Morgan’s CCT is a much better idea. Done well it would make it impossible to be asset rich, cash poor which would be good for the economy and our society.
There’s plenty of examples from other jurisdictions to learn from.
Yeah, there are. One of those lessons is that a standard CGT doesn’t really work.
To be honest Draco, I was expecting you to advocate getting rid of private ownership completely and then the question becomes moot. 🙂
“One of those lessons is that a standard CGT doesn’t really work.”
What do you mean by works? No, a CGT on it’s own doesn’t prevent bubbles. All I really see it doing is helping make sure the owners of capital eventually contribute something towards the society that helps those assets increase in value. Collecting it at time of sale (when the sellers have the cash in hand) doesn’t feel punitive in the way the proposed CCT (or the existing FIF tax) does feel punitive by demanding the payment whether or not you’ve got the cashflow to support it. ( I realise you would be all for setting up systems that made asset-holders feel punished regularly, but trust me very few people agree with you on that).
“So we should never try new ideas?”. When we try to reinvent a wheel, it seems we regularly come unstuck with all kinds of unintended consequences. If there’s models from elsewhere we can learn from, why not copy the best aspects?
Doesn’t prevent bubbles and doesn’t prevent the rich from avoiding their obligations.
All I really see it doing is helping make sure the owners of capital eventually contribute something towards the society that helps those assets increase in value.
Do they truly increase in value?
Collecting it at time of sale (when the sellers have the cash in hand) doesn’t feel punitive in the way the proposed CCT (or the existing FIF tax) does feel punitive by demanding the payment whether or not you’ve got the cashflow to support it.
That’s part and parcel of our chosen market system. If you don’t have the cash then you just don’t have the item.
I realise you would be all for setting up systems that made asset-holders feel punished regularly
Completely wrong. I want to make it so that people can’t afford to have can’t assets in the first place.
If there’s models from elsewhere we can learn from, why not copy the best aspects?
I’d say that Morgan’s CCT is based upon the old CGT. What you’re saying is that we shouldn’t try this small change because it hasn’t been done before. Under such stupidity the wheel would never have been invented.
“I’d say that Morgan’s CCT is based upon the old CGT. What you’re saying is that we shouldn’t try this small change because it hasn’t been done before. Under such stupidity the wheel would never have been invented.”
Morgan’s CCT is very close to the Foreign Investment Fund tax introduced by Cullen, as far as I can tell. I pay it every year, and it’s a real pain and I certainly wouldn’t make any new investment into anything covered by it.
I’ve also paid Capital Gains taxes in the US (and will again in the future unless Trump manages to do away with them). It’s only a minor hassle, and doesn’t feel unfairly punitive the way the FIF tax does. Potential liability for CG taxes certainly wouldn’t stop me investing in something.
“Fake news” is a specific subset of the attempted deceptions around us all the time, but the pushers and beneficiaries of fake news are trying make the idea of fake news meaningless by calling everything fake news.
It all just reinforces the importance of fact-checking, researching the credibility of the source, keeping the bullshit detector on high alert at all times, looking at everything with a cynical view that some agenda is being pushed.
“On Twitter, some were quick to suggest the President Elect followed in the company of Hitler, Stalin and Putin who had also received the iconic title.
… The magazine’s annual award names the person who has had the “greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, The Ebola Fighters, The Pope, President Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Former President George W Bush, and Julian Assange have also won the title before.”
“On Twitter, some were quick to suggest the President Elect followed in the company of Hitler, Stalin, George W. Bush, Putin, and Obama who had also received the iconic title.”
—There you go, Marty, I’ve fixed up that first sentence to remove the reflexive self-censorship and dishonesty.
A near perfect summation – from an Australian, in a British newspaper – of John Key and John Key’s New Zealand.
“…Key was like a Tony Blair of the South Seas: a certain level of personal charisma and a socially inclusive façade allowed both Key and Blair to sell the nasty side of neoliberalism…”
You’d never get NZ political journalists with insight like this. As their reactions of shock indicate, most of them were firmly besotted by John Key’s cham right to the moment he basically told them to all fuck off.
So what was the nasty side of neo-liberalism he was selling?
High growth rate (3.4%)
Low unemployment (less than 5%)
Budget surpluses
NZers returning home
Infrastructure spending
Majority of NZers saying the country is going in right direction
So long as the Left are obsessed by the term “neo-liberalism,” they will loose. It shows a disconnect with the mood of the public.
If you want to win focus on the pragmatic, the things that actually influence voters, not ideological labels.
You really do talk tosh. You need to pay a lot more attention to world events Wayne.
The supporters of the neoliberal establishment have been in trouble all this year.
Heard of Brexit?
Heard of Trump?
Heard of the Italian referendum?
It is clearly the supporters of the neo-liberal establishment who have been shown in 2016 to have a disconnect with the mood of the public.
Here is some reading for you…on the assumption you are actually uninformed as opposed to willfully spinning on behalf of your masters.
Did you read the piece that Sanctuary linked? It not only critiques John Key’s leadership, it also briefly explores the prevailing narrative that fed his popularity, …they kept voting Key in because they believed in the equation that “good with money” equals “morally upstanding” and further suggested that the left will only gain traction when they are able to successfully counter this idea. According to the author, …this money story not only has currency, it is the currency of the reigning monetarist fiscal discourse.
One alternative story is to return “the broader public good’ to the position that “the monetarist fiscal discourse” now occupies. Your list suggests that the public good is being served within the current framework, but that is only true if you draw the line firmly behind the heels of the comfortable middle class, and accept that hardship and insecurity for those outside of the fold is “worth it.” And since you tend to dismiss those who privilege the public good as “hard left” you can hardly complain if they dismiss your lot as “neoliberal.”
NZers returning home – To do with the fact that the global economy is failing perhaps, or maybe they are returning home on student visas.
Infrastructure spending – Is it effective infrastructure spending, or appropriate? Doesn’t seem to be the case.
Majority of NZers saying the country is going in right direction
I don’t understand how often this is used as justification. If, as a teenager I hid the underage drinking and jumping out the window from my parents, and then listened to them praise me, then I wouldn’t use that as approval of my behaviour – just blissful ignorance.
The lack of transparency and information sharing (not withstanding Dirty Politics and journalist shaming) by this government has resulted in the same.
Nothing to be proud of, and definitely not something to to try pass off as informed support.
The nasty side of neo-liberalism is apparent to all who value humans over economic growth, and community and environment over short-term profit and long-term consequences.
Growth driven by excessive immigration, housing price rises, and earthquakes. The real measure, per capita, is negative.
Unemployment is only low, because National counts one hour a week as employment.
Budget fudges. With current account and social deficits increased to cover it.
Infrastructure spending. I wish. Roads of significance to the trucking industry is similar to spending on buggy whip factories.
“Country going in right direction”. I have to congratulate National on the effectiveness of their propaganda. Even the Neo-liberal cheer leaders in treasury think National is heading for disaster.
Lastly. Key has headed for the lifeboats before the ship sinks.
Where are the Headlines? Surely there should be ones like:
National Party Leadership Battle splits Caucus!
Angry MPs Dispute Leadership Plans.
Leadership Battles Rips Caucus Apart.
Will be Years Before National Party Revives Credibility After Bitter Infighting.
Probably because its going to be over rather quickly, which is smart thinking on Nationals part. How can you really have those type of headlines when the result is going to be known on Monday/
Sure the ructions after will prove to be more then interesting but theres simply not enough time for those type of headlines to be used.
Love Granny propaganda (sarc) – even when the Leader resigned it’s all good press for Natz candidates. Not a peep about Collins and all her transgressions and Double dipper English!!
“Bennett said her relationship with English was “fantastic” and described him as “awe-inspiring”. The two work together on finance and social housing, and they are part of the top tier of ministers, called the “Kitchen Cabinet”. But English has also worked closely with Bridges on Auckland’s transport problems.
In a sign of a potentially tense contest, Bridges said he would make a better deputy than Bennett because he marked a complete generational change. Bridges came into Parliament three years later than Bennett, in 2008.”
In spite of this they still have to run spiteful anti Labour articles such as Claire Trevett’s
“100 not out: Labour party battles for its political future”
Yes true, I’m assuming it will be sorted by Monday, like its a fait accompli kind of thing especially since the next budget surplus is supposed to be a whopper
It might not of course, however if I was a betting man I’d bet it’ll be over on Monday…the puckish side of me would like to see it continue on for a while though 🙂
Bill at the helm of a leaking, bloated tanker heading for the reefs. His crew! Oh dear! And First Mate! A cargo of rancid fat and snake oil. Oh dear, oh dear!
Fortunately (unfortunately) there’s just enough momentum for the good ship National to make it to the port of the 2017 election win, thanks to a budget surplus and the assistance of the tugboat of NZFirst and the tugboat of another bye-election Labour can’t afford
After that there may be some slight cause for concern 🙂
It’s as though the All Blacks were facing their most critical test match and were reliant on their one star player upon whom success depended, let’s call him, “John Richie”, when an hour before kick off, John declares that he is not going to play, he’s talking his ball and going home, because his girlfriend want to spend quality time with him.
Yeah imagine what would happen to the All Blacks if Richie, Dan, Kevin, Tony, Ma’a and Conrad left all at the same time taking over 700 caps and all that experience with them 🙂
what you are eluding to might be true , if it wasn’t for the fact that the rugby equivalents of parmjeet ,misa fia and tobbacy todd wouldn’t make the taumarunui eels team let alone the the all blacks up incomers
Well I was linking the tier 1 test record to a record fourth term for National but please tell me you aren’t suggesting Labour is like the Irish rugby team
Well, the Irish team currently has a 50% win record against the All Blacks in its past two encounters (aren’t stats wonderful- a bit like Treasury and Budget figures).
The Irish team has charm, wit and size.
It embraces the whole of Irish society, north and south, inclusively.
Like the Left in general the Irish have got the best songs.
And lastly, they especially despise the English!
So, Puckish Rogue, in the best sense of fun, some great parallels between the NZ Labour Party and the Irish Rugby team of very recent history! 😉
Disclaimer: though my moniker is Mac1 there is no blarney or bias in this summation, at all at all at all.
I was speaking to a CYFS worker just yesterday, and those in her office are spending much of their time coming up to the holidays looking for motels to place children. When I asked who was there to provide caregiving, she shrugged her shoulders and said “Who?”.
Molly it’s all about physical assets, such as motels and the buying and selling of them. The actual social part of it, does not appear in the neoliberal manuals so just sort of falls off the radar. People are not considered assets under neoliberalism they are just vehicles of loss .
Similar to the conference centres (to create jobs but the job bit is the fudge, in fact rather than create jobs for locals you just import workers in because they are cheaper, then you have a housing crisis to solve to house all the new people etc), the homeless crisis, (rezone land and then let the market do ‘it’s thing’, the immediate housing is irrelevant), etc etc.
More grievous ignorance of sports history in the media. Morning Report, RNZ National, Thursday 8 December 2016, 8:25 a.m.
This morning featured a report from Indira Stewart of the Pacific Radio Network, stating that Joseph Parker and David Tua are the “only two New Zealanders to have ever fought for the World Heavyweight title.”
That is nonsense, of course. On Thursday 26 July 1928 Gisborne’s own Tom Heeney fought Gene Tunney for the title at Yankee Stadium. The fight was stopped in the 11th round.
Neither Susie Ferguson nor Guyon Espiner seemed to notice, and simply carried on with the next item.
For those who, unlike Indira Stewart, care to know something about boxing history, here’s a tape of the fight…
Assuming you don’t have access to the same resources RNZ have its an easy error to make, unless you come from Timaru of course in which case there’s no excuse 🙂
Ok then we’ll just turn a blind eye to the frauds then because somebody is making a short term buck and it will expose the governments underfunding of education, so they are doing nothing and leaving the short term housing issues and longer term problem of all our fraudster residents to another government … from Granny
“Yet it seems no one can really tackle the student visa rort because we now depend on it.
The country makes $4.28 billion a year from international students, our fourth biggest industry behind dairy, tourism and meat. Put aside legitimate questions over how much of that money stays in New Zealand and circulates in the wider economy, as opposed to the immigrants themselves. If we turned off the tap tomorrow – the Government’s nightmare scenario after the sudden collapse of the Chinese market in 2003 – many office buildings would be half empty and central Queen St would become a ghost town. Even reputable education providers would go broke and most polytechnics and universities could not make ends meet with domestic students alone. Economic activity would also take a hit, as international students are doing the difficult, low-paid jobs that most New Zealanders avoid – at least until the students get their residence visa.
In short, fundamental changes are unlikely to come from the top because too many powerful interests are benefiting from the current system, despite its obvious flaws. The only hope is for more honest people within the student visa scam to stand up and be counted.”
If we turned off the tap tomorrow … many office buildings would be half empty and central Queen St would become a ghost town. Even reputable education providers would go broke and most polytechnics and universities could not make ends meet with domestic students alone.
Gosh, that would be a disaster! Good job there’s no proposal on the table to ban international education outright then, eh? Cleaning up the industry would make it worth less, but would still leave universities, polytechs and schools teaching a lot of international students.
The actual reason the government won’t do anything about the scam is in this bit:
…international students are doing the difficult, low-paid jobs that most New Zealanders avoid – at least until the students get their residence visa.
That is, the success of this scam to bypass our immigration standards and ensure a supply of cheap, easily-exploited labour for National’s constituents, with downstream effects on local pay and conditions, is the government’s main reason for not cleaning up the international education “industry.”
“many office buildings would be half empty and central Queen St would become a ghost town.”
What happened to the cherished Number 8 approach to solving problems with innovation? Empty office buildings in Queen Street + homeless in Auckland should = conversion to family apartments and a community revitalisation of Auckland central.
As for the other, fund education to sustainable levels.
Gareth Morgan tells Paul Henry the truth.
And Paul Henry hates being shown up for being the selfish git he is.
Morgan to Henry…
“You’re telling me that you don’t give a toss about New Zealand being fair. ‘Pull up the ladder, Jack, and the rest of you can get stuffed’. What sort of New Zealand values do you have, man?”
“You’re just a tax loophole cowboy, that’s all you are,”
“I’m about making New Zealand fair. You’re self-centred and you don’t give a toss about being fair in New Zealand.”
“Don’t tell an economist what a reverse mortgage is mate.”
“In media soundbytes are important, that’s why your sort of media is dying mate.”
And Henry’s retort, with his expensive house, European car and entitled lifestyle threatened.
Morgan is a communist.
Watch it. It’s great to see the tosser Henry being dealt to.
Morgan needs to become less defensive when he’s discussing his party’s policies.
I certainly support his Comprehensive Capital Tax. If you have an asset that returns some benefit then it should be taxed at the commensurate income of that benefit.
I agree Morgan did not help his case, loosing his cool, playing the man not the ball, never a good look unless your of a Paul persuasion and just want to see Henery abused
I do not totally agree with Morgan, but at least he has us discussing these things, and his heart is in the right place.
I don’t see what a CCT can do, that conventional inheritance, income and CGT combined, along with getting rid of private trusts immunity from claims, cannot.
Only someone as truely ignorant as Henry, can have such confidence.
I don’t blame Morgan for getting annoyed with the bumptious twit.
I don’t see what a CCT can do, that conventional inheritance, income and CGT combined, along with getting rid of private trusts immunity from claims, cannot.
1. Gets rid of land banking. The land will have to produce an income year to year else it’s just going to cost too much. A CGT may get the tax once the land is sold but it doesn’t prevent it.
2. Encourages people living in large, expensive houses to shift into smaller houses with smaller land thus freeing up more land for housing thus encouraging density increases.
I don’t blame Morgan for getting annoyed with the bumptious twit.
Neither do I but he shouldn’t have shown it. His sitting back, hands tightly crossed before him shows that he’s on the defensive and is exactly the reaction that Henry was going for.
He needs to be able to sit there, calm, arms open, answer the questions and, yes, call Henry a bumbling, selfish idiot.
If he can’t handle Henry how is going to handle the rest of the pressure that’ll come, its all well and good to say what you think should happen and get nice media fluff pieces but hes thrown his hat in the ring and now what he says is going to be picked over with a fine tooth comb and he’d better be ready with some answers
No he doesn’t. and he’s most definitely not a communist. He’s very much a capitalist – he’s just one that sees many of the limitations that the way capitalism operates and how it doesn’t pay it’s full costs and puts those costs on the poor instead.
I’d have thought he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to include the family home in this, I can’t imagine any political party thinking that’s an idea the voters will go for, not even the Greens
Yes I’ve seen first hand how paranoid and touchy the entitled property class is about their inflating asset values.
They expect to sit on their million dollar+ houses and bank capital gains of 80K per year for ever. If anyone suggests this model is neither sustainable nor fair then they are shouted out of the room.
This unreasonable, greedy behaiour is sowing the seds of class war. I suppose this is the ugly side of Pakeha culture. They stole Aotearoa in the first place and now (like some kind of landed gentry), they expect the serfs to slave away paying high levels of tax and rent. Wealthy boomers have come to expect a well paid retirement with no means testing or CGT.
Well the average house price is $600 000.00 but please go ahead and suggest to the voters that taxing the family home, the house the retired have worked for entire lives to own (while paying taxes) is a really good idea
Why should some people (who have also worked their whole lives) have to keep paying high rents for ever, while others who managed to climb into property ownership get free accommodation and tax breaks and full super without any form of means test?
Not sustainable, not fair, and kinda gross in the middle of a housing crisis
what about Maori land Ropata… how many Maori (or Pakeha for that matter) have the income to pay yearly taxes on their capital?
All that will happen is what is already happening, Kiwis can’t afford to live in their own country with all the taxes and the low wages and foreigners will buy us up cheap.
That’s where Morgan’s ideas falls down.
I’m more into the Sanders and Corbyn approaches on Robin hood taxes on banks and transaction style taxes.
I am not a policy analyst nor am I a spokesperson for Morgans TOP vehicle. I just think he talks a lot of sense and in principle I agree with his fair minded ideas.
Morgan’s tax is aimed at the top few% of wealthy property holders who are banking tax free capital gains. He reckons his LVT will be either neutral or advantageous for most people because he will also drop income taxes.
Anyway I think this party is just a way for him to get the ideas of his Foundation into mainstream media. In the current volatile economic climate his is a vital counter narrative to the standard capitalist dogma we swim in.
Remember this is in the context of an unprecedented housing crisis, Morgan’s ideas are not cooked up in a vacuum.
I think he got frustrated that Henry kept coming up with stupid examples, but there was no need for Morgan to stoop to Henry’s level of childish insults.
Wow! a strange thing happened, somehow, somewhere, someone came to the conclusion that for true comparison of two different systems, they need to be measured with the same criteria.
But our favorite hologram disagrees, seems if there’s money involved, and a contract to enforce well…………. it’s just a bit confusing for the average Joe/Jane and at that point we should bow out and leave it to him and the other “experts”.
I was going to put up a link to the interview on Natard this morning with Paula Bennett and how she will make a truly awesome Dep Leader of the Natzional Party but the website appears to be having access problems….but never mind, I’ll do a Morrissey and give y’all a transcript.
Ms. Bennett….what qualities do you believe you have for the Deputy Leaders role?
hahahahahahahahahahahah….pause for gurgling breathhahahahahahahahahahah
This is a fascinating article about how a gunman attacked a pizza parlour in Washington after conspiracy theorists claimed Hilary Clinton was running a child sex operation out of it. It argues that mis-information is being used as a political tool.
In 1938 President Roosevelt warned that “the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism.” The Democrats saw concentrated corporate power as a form of dictatorship. They broke up giant banks and businesses and chained the chainstores. What Roosevelt, Brandeis and Patman knew has been forgotten by those in power, including powerful journalists. But not by the victims of this system.
One of the answers to Trump, Putin, Orbán, Erdoğan, Salvini, Duterte, Le Pen, Farage and the politics they represent is to rescue democracy from transnational corporations. It is to defend the crucial political unit that is under assault by banks, monopolies and chainstores: community. It is to recognise that there is no greater hazard to peace between nations than a corporate model that crushes democratic choice.
Since the 1980s we’ve let the corporations rule and it’s become obvious that it’s detrimental to us as a community.
So true, the NZ government was seduced and subverted in 1984 and now it’s become a schizoid institution that purports to represent the people of New Zealand, but is instead complicit in their exploitation.
It’s not exactly secret, all this has been well documented (see cafca.org.nz), but since it has been a slow and ongoing process the sale of NZ piece by piece to foreign interests doesn’t make the news cycle.
Just read the whole thing — how depressing. Maybe democracy was just a temporary aberration and the natural state of the human race is feudalism and internecine tribal conflict.
When the USA was founded corporations were deliberately outlawed because the founders had seen what they did to Europe. Sadly that didn’t last long
Democracy does seem to be more of an aberration with dictatorships and oligarchies ruling most of the time. Of course, the oligarchies and dictatorships always collapse due to the hubris and greed of the rich. And when they do we go back to being a democracy which then builds up society which the rich then take over and destroy.
It seems to be an iterative process as we learn more our democracy gets better but, unfortunately, we haven’t learned to prevent people from getting rich yet.
Thanks for that, xanthe. Don’t expect anything on this to appear on our television news this evening. (Time constraints due to extended banter between the autocue readers and the sports guy and the weather guy.)
The report showed Vanguard Military School on Auckland’s North Shore and Te Kura Hourua O Whangarei Terenga Paraoa reported they had met their 2014 NCEA leaver targets – but when the figures were analysed, they did not.
Vanguard reported a 100 per cent pass rate for NCEA Level 2. However, when revised in line with NCEA standards it dropped to just 60 per cent. It met Level 1 standards.
At Te Kura Hourua, neither Level 1 or Level 2 NCEA standards were met once revised: Level 1 dropped from 82 per cent to 77.8 per cent, and Level 2 dropped from 80 per cent to 55.6 per cent.
Labour Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins, who obtained the documents, said they showed charter schools have been “massively overstating” their pass rates when compared with the rest of the country’s schools.
A trust with close ties to the Government – including former All Black and National Party supporter Michael Jones – was given a $500,000 charter school contract. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Trust given $500,000 charter school contract without going to tender
Minister of Education Hon Hekia Parata. Photo / Dean Purcell
Charter schools getting performance bonus despite not meeting targets
I hate the concept of charter schools, but then I met Alwyn Poole. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Peter Lyons: Charter schools deeply flawed, but not this one
“In one case a school reported a 93.3 per cent pass rate when the facts show only 6.7 per cent of leavers achieved NCEA Level 2,” he said.
“Brought into line” means there’s been a corrupt system working and now it’s been outed.
Hekia Pariah and the Epsom Idiot have been spinning crap about it today to try to make people with ordinary intelligence believe it is something it wasn’t. I didn’t need to go to a charter school to recognise bullshit when I see it.
Ok so Little was safe until the next election because, lets all be honest now, Little was going to lose to Key but that was keeping him safe because anyone else would have to lost to Key as well
Now Keys gone and English is in charge, English who has lost before, English who isn’t exactly Mr Charisma, English who is beatable…Little might win and that’ll mean six years and then National will be back in so that’s a long time to wait if you’re an MP
But Little hasn’t improved Labours numbers, in fact it’d be fair to say Labours numbers, being positive, stagnating and if National don’t drop below 40% and NZFirst stay above 10% then that’s another term for National
So in light of the new developments is there someone in Labour that will answer the call to arms?
On a completely unrelated matter, what are the chances Robertson is going to be firing up the ol’ BBQ over Summer? 🙂
If there’s one thing to be learned from the Trump, Key, Cameron phenomena it is that policy is totally irrelevant and in fact it switches people off. What people vote for is a smiley wavey confident snake oil sales person. Even Obama and Trudeau benefited from this mindless herd behaviour. (Scott Adams made some excellent observations of Trump’s persuasion techniques and NLP type shit)
Maybe Labour needs to put up All Blacks and TV personalities instead of serious candidates.
I kind of agree with this but you’d be hard pressed to find a Labour supporting All Black although Chris Laidlaw is probably still hanging around if you want to use him
Labour is appearing more solid by the day, all the dead wood is being pruned game on pucky , the planet key lotus eaters will awake from their stupor in time for the right man to be the next PM.
i think they are addicted to the property price inflation koolaid and will keep drinking it until NZ sinks into the sea. or some other unthinkable disaster happens like “interest rates”
CV will be delighted to learn Trump’s rumored pick for FDA director reckons big pharma should release new drugs, whether they work or not.
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O’Neill also could push the agency in new directions. In a 2014 speech, he said he supported reforming FDA approval rules so that drugs could hit the market after they’ve been proven safe, but without any proof that they worked, something he called “progressive approval.”
“We should reform FDA so there is approving drugs after their sponsors have demonstrated safety — and let people start using them, at their own risk, but not much risk of safety,” O’Neill said in a speech at an August 2014 conference called Rejuvenation Biotechnology. “Let’s prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized.”
Hosking’s done his “Best PM Ever” shit now he’s checking out the Blinglish (invented word) ‘rectalia’. He’s a bit shameless with his rat-up-drainpipe styles is Hosk’.
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
A few weeks ago an invitation dropped into my email inbox to attend a joint Treasury/Motu seminar on recent, rather major, changes that had apparently been made to the discount rates used by The Treasury to evaluate proposals from government agencies. It was all news to me, but when ...
All your life is Time magazineI read it tooWhat does it mean?PressureI'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationaleBut here you are with your faithAnd your Peter Pan adviceYou have no scars on your faceAnd you cannot handle pressureSongwriter: Billy Joel.Christopher Luxon is under pressure from all sides. The reviews are ...
After seeing yet-more-months of political debate and policy decisions to ‘go for growth’ by pulling the same old cheap migration and cheap tourism levers without nearly-enough infrastructure, or any attempt to address the same old lack of globally conventional tax incentives for investment, I thought it would be worth issuing ...
The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 ...
With the Reserve Bank expected today to return the Official Cash Rate to where it was in mid-2022 comes a measure of how much of a psychological impact the rate has. Federated Farmers has published its latest six-monthly farm confidence survey, which shows that profit expectations have fallen and risen ...
Kiwis Disallowed From Waiting Lists Based on Arbitrary MeasuresWellington hospital are now rejecting patients from specialist waiting lists due to BMI (body mass index).This article from Rachel Thomas for The Post says it all (emphasis mine):A group of Porirua GPs are sounding alarm bells after patients with body mass indexes ...
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
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With Shearer gone, who will be the contenders for the Mt Albert by-election early next year?
Will be good to see Little have a safe seat. Will he move to Auckland?
I’m interested in other people’s thoughts on the fair way to tax capital. Ianmac yesterday linked to The Opportunity Party’s release on their proposed capital tax (which doesn’t have much detail). On the assumption that it’s similar to the Comprehensive Capital Income Tax that Gareth Morgan has proposed before, I’d be worried about the following unintended consequences. http://www.top.org.nz/top1?utm_campaign=top1_members&utm_medium=email&utm_source=garethmorgan
1) Social effects on the housing asset rich/cash poor. Suggested mitigations are unconvincing to me. While this is likely to be the focus of most debate, right now I’m more interested in other aspects listed below.
2) May cause collapse of businesses that would otherwise survive, from the ongoing extra cashflow required to service the capital tax.
3) Discourages foreign investment. Why would any business want to set up where they start getting taxed long before they earn a penny of profit?
4) Favours low-capital businesses, and discourages businesses from investing more capital per worker. This is already a problem causing low productivity in New Zealand, do we want to make it worse?
5) Because land is such a high-capital item, it would push farmers towards a high-intensity high-input farming model. Which is a high-pollution low-resilience model, exactly the opposite of what we want.
6) No models to learn from elsewhere. Canada had some (at much lower rates), but those seem to have been abolished.
7) Encourages the use of debt to reduce the amount of liable capital for taxation.
Personally I favour a capital gains tax on all assets (including the family home, but with a rollover provision for family homes), payable whenever there’s any kind of change of ownership of the asset. There’s plenty of examples from other jurisdictions to learn from. It’s not much of a hassle to comply (I paid Capital Gains Tax on my primary home in the US), and while it’s slow to start collecting revenue eventually it reaches the point of fairly catching income from capital.
tops plan sounds complicated and unsalable , he’s already lost my interest, i was hoping for a simplification of the tax system ,
It also seems he’s not going to try to push UBI this cycle. Which is what I would have been really interested in.
“As for a Universal Basic Income he hinted at earlier in the day, Morgan said it wouldn’t be on the cards this time.
“[That would be in] phase two, if we’re still about,” he said.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/87330737/gareth-morgans-divisive-policy-to-tackle-inequality
he just gave henry his pedigree in a mess of an interview , which was amusing but not helpful in selling his story.
Yes I’m keen for a UBI and then look at how to tax it as a secondary issue. So it seems crazy to me that UBI is not the main focus.
I think there needs to be a radical change to taxation to make sure that everyone has to pay their share. There are so many loop holes at present it makes it easy for those with more money and access to tax experts to avoid taxes. We need new ideas because the old ones only tax the middle and seem to avoid the super rich and global citizens.
We are having situations when banks are causing GFC being bailed out by tax payers and then being allowed to go on as usual and still make the rules on what’s fair to tax.
At the same time there seems to be a very punitive punishment approach to government taxation – at the end of the day it should be like a non profit co operative insurance scheme – you put money in – and then there is a basic level nobody is allowed to fall below (UBI) and then you need enough from everybody to make sure that the bills on health, education and so forth are met.
The whole premise of governments seem to be skewed with neoliberalism – that’s why we can afford Saudi sheep bribes for millions but put more and more hoops in for the most vulnerable to stop them getting a basic benefit. Wellington council can afford to pay Singapore airlines 8 million, Auckland wants to steal the harbour and put it into COO hands, but at the same time they are obsessed with cutting basic services like libraries, rubbish and keeping the berms mowed – because we can’t afford it.
Tax on the gain at sale, arbitrary taxes on capital can penalise many for holding over a long term gain with zero intent to gain from any sale or sell at all.
The funds exist from the sale and it clips the ticket as the punter has realised the profit. Effectively a transaction based tax, much easier to enforce as holdings can be hidden very easily.
Oz has had this type of CGT since the 80’s and you don’t see their right rushing to repeal it being a lot more mature in their economic management than ours.
“Tax on the gain at sale”
Some other jurisdictions have loopholes that allow avoiding capital gains taxes by such means as gifting assets to a trust, gifting assets to a charity and claiming a tax credit for the full value of the asset. Which is why I said “payable whenever there’s any kind of change of ownership”.
I like it – it only charges tax for assets that aren’t already generating sufficient taxable income to meet the threshold, so people are encouraged to use capital better. Assuming GST or income tax are reduced to offset it, most people, including most homeowners, would be better off in terms of disposable income.
Agreed, though some provision would have to be made for businesses which, though they would normally run profitably, happen to make a loss, whether through bad luck or poor management. The trouble is, many will find ways of taking advantage of such provision to avoid the tax.
” it only charges tax for assets that aren’t already generating sufficient taxable income to meet the threshold”
Do you really think it’s good to further reinforce the idea that the only value anything has is for the income that can be generated from it?
I’m also aware of several farms and small businesses where the owners are running them in a low key way just generating enough income to keep happy and not really trying to maximise returns. They’re also unusually good at looking after their staff and surroundings. Under a capital tax regime, they would become totally non-viable as is and would either need to close or start operating in a much more ruthless manner.
Do we really want to force that choice? Particularly if the alternative CGT achieves the same result in the end of getting the beneficiaries of asset price growth to share some of the gains with the society that makes those gains possible?
I’ve only read his policy document Andre so I don’t know the finer points but it looks like typical Morgan to me where he gets a bee in his bonnet and takes it too far.
With houses he appears to be targeting freehold owner-occupiers rather than investors/landlords or even those with a mortgage. His basic premise is that living in a freehold house is a form of income and should be taxed because the capital invested in the house would be taxed in any other investment scenario.
Now for those who have a mortgage it would be rather complicated to work out what their capital actually is before you could tax it. The property itself isn’t the capital, they’ve borrowed to buy it. Their capital would either be the equity or the deposit plus principal paid off. Working out the equity would be a nightmare with oodles of loopholes that investors would exploit to minimise their tax…. like they do already.
I can’t see it solving anything and it would make the system messier. A capital gains tax levied annually on investment properties is all that’s required IMO.
“A capital gains tax levied annually on investment properties is all that’s required IMO.”
A higher rates calculation on investment properties could be used to provide a social housing fund at local government level, and would be fairly easy to implement. If the owner is not occupying the property, the rates kick in at a different level. Rates are already taxing property owners, what this would do is increase that tax in recognition of the capital gains that landlords benefit from, that single home buyers and renters do not.
The reason I would exclude the owner occupied property is that investors are able to claim maintenance and other expenses (including interest paid) on their properties that owner occupiers must meet out of their income.
Rate are already a tax on property ownership.
Increased rates on investment properties recognise the anomaly above, and provide a social housing fund that increases locally as number of renters increase.
Have you considered that being able to claim expenses for tax purposes is the problem?
So?
If tenants had better security of tenancy, and a comprehensive method of ensuring that all maintenance needs are met in a timely manner – I’d consider agreeing with you. But the likelihood is that if maintenance and repairs were not able to be expensed then a large number of landlords (especially in this housing climate) would avoid paying out for as long as possible.
Not all homeowners are speculative purchasers.
My partner and I bought a home for reasons other than capital gain. Stability of housing for one ( had been moved on from rentals due to increased rents more than once).
But owning also provided the opportunity to do other things that are unable to be done in a lot of rented homes:
– Planting trees and gardens,
– Having several people staying with us over the years while they get on their feet,
– Looking after family pets for friends and family while they go away.
None of this would be possible in a rented home, unless we were very lucky to find a very relaxed and accommodating landlord.
Any more taxing on a household like ours (especially for capital gains that we have no practical or financial benefit from unless we sell and don’t require another home), and our precarious balance of finances would break.
I don’t think that would be an unusual scenario.
They’re called slumlords and they already exist and are in NZ.
And what if you had a state rental that was lifetime lease, allowed you to plant trees, gardens and do renovations as well as kept the place well maintained?
Again, all the problems that people have with rentals and the tax regime that allows a few to dodge paying tax is private ownership.
“And what if you had a state rental that was lifetime lease, allowed you to plant trees, gardens and do renovations as well as kept the place well maintained?
If that were possible Draco, I’d be living there.
But until we have a cross party consensus on the importance of affordable, healthy, secure housing, we will continue to have our communities broken up. For the moment, I – and many others do what we can with what we have.
It is possible if we all demand it.
But it will take a lot of work to bring it about.
I don’t think that’s necessary Molly. Simply assessing them for tax each year, and collecting it, would do the trick IMO.
As it stands investors are leveraging off their capital gains to borrow more money to buy more properties. If they had to pay tax on those gains they’d instead be borrowing a third of it to pay the tax. That would lower the demand for property and get the housing inflation down…. and boost the tax coffers.
Morgan’s scheme looks unworkable to me, can’t say I’m taken with the theory either but its the practice that looks unwinnable.
1. Seems reasonable to me.
2. Businesses are supposed to collapse if they can’t maintain themselves. That’s the whole point of capitalism. It’s not up to the rest of us to keep them going.
3. Foreign investment needs to be banned as it’s detrimental to society.
4. No it doesn’t. If anything, it encourages high capital investment as the high investment is more likely to return greater amounts. It’s our low wages that are encouraging low capital investment now.
5. We already have that happening now. The solution is proper regulation.
6. So we should never try new ideas?
7. I’m pretty sure that Morgan has an answer to that as well.
I think that Morgan’s CCT is a much better idea. Done well it would make it impossible to be asset rich, cash poor which would be good for the economy and our society.
Yeah, there are. One of those lessons is that a standard CGT doesn’t really work.
To be honest Draco, I was expecting you to advocate getting rid of private ownership completely and then the question becomes moot. 🙂
“One of those lessons is that a standard CGT doesn’t really work.”
What do you mean by works? No, a CGT on it’s own doesn’t prevent bubbles. All I really see it doing is helping make sure the owners of capital eventually contribute something towards the society that helps those assets increase in value. Collecting it at time of sale (when the sellers have the cash in hand) doesn’t feel punitive in the way the proposed CCT (or the existing FIF tax) does feel punitive by demanding the payment whether or not you’ve got the cashflow to support it. ( I realise you would be all for setting up systems that made asset-holders feel punished regularly, but trust me very few people agree with you on that).
“So we should never try new ideas?”. When we try to reinvent a wheel, it seems we regularly come unstuck with all kinds of unintended consequences. If there’s models from elsewhere we can learn from, why not copy the best aspects?
Doesn’t prevent bubbles and doesn’t prevent the rich from avoiding their obligations.
Do they truly increase in value?
That’s part and parcel of our chosen market system. If you don’t have the cash then you just don’t have the item.
Completely wrong. I want to make it so that people can’t afford to have can’t assets in the first place.
I’d say that Morgan’s CCT is based upon the old CGT. What you’re saying is that we shouldn’t try this small change because it hasn’t been done before. Under such stupidity the wheel would never have been invented.
“I’d say that Morgan’s CCT is based upon the old CGT. What you’re saying is that we shouldn’t try this small change because it hasn’t been done before. Under such stupidity the wheel would never have been invented.”
Morgan’s CCT is very close to the Foreign Investment Fund tax introduced by Cullen, as far as I can tell. I pay it every year, and it’s a real pain and I certainly wouldn’t make any new investment into anything covered by it.
I’ve also paid Capital Gains taxes in the US (and will again in the future unless Trump manages to do away with them). It’s only a minor hassle, and doesn’t feel unfairly punitive the way the FIF tax does. Potential liability for CG taxes certainly wouldn’t stop me investing in something.
“Fake news” is a specific subset of the attempted deceptions around us all the time, but the pushers and beneficiaries of fake news are trying make the idea of fake news meaningless by calling everything fake news.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2016/12/stop_calling_everything_fake_news.html
It all just reinforces the importance of fact-checking, researching the credibility of the source, keeping the bullshit detector on high alert at all times, looking at everything with a cynical view that some agenda is being pushed.
sometimes I wish the news was fake
“On Twitter, some were quick to suggest the President Elect followed in the company of Hitler, Stalin and Putin who had also received the iconic title.
… The magazine’s annual award names the person who has had the “greatest influence, for better or worse, on the events of the year”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, The Ebola Fighters, The Pope, President Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Former President George W Bush, and Julian Assange have also won the title before.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11762705
funny one that ‘TIME Person of the year’.
“On Twitter, some were quick to suggest the President Elect followed in the company of Hitler, Stalin, George W. Bush, Putin, and Obama who had also received the iconic title.”
—There you go, Marty, I’ve fixed up that first sentence to remove the reflexive self-censorship and dishonesty.
http://www.curmudgeon-alley.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ywc-logo-design.png
Just quoted not dishonest thanks
So if its a “quote” its not dishonest. That sums up how the media deliberatly lies and misleads. Its bullshit.
Nice, still being classy too…
You quoted it without mentioning your reservations about its extreme bias. That’s tantamount to endorsing its propaganda.
Says you. Hint – don’t tell me what I think – your brain or thoughts aren’t big enough.
So why did you quote it without mentioning its crude political bias?
thank god you were there to save us, morrissey /sarc
Always happy to help, McFlock. (No sarcasm.)
and one day you might provide that help.
One day.
I thought people could work it all out themselces. Pity you let the side down.
A near perfect summation – from an Australian, in a British newspaper – of John Key and John Key’s New Zealand.
“…Key was like a Tony Blair of the South Seas: a certain level of personal charisma and a socially inclusive façade allowed both Key and Blair to sell the nasty side of neoliberalism…”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/07/john-key-was-known-as-the-smiling-assassin-and-people-still-liked-him?CMP=share_btn_fb
You’d never get NZ political journalists with insight like this. As their reactions of shock indicate, most of them were firmly besotted by John Key’s cham right to the moment he basically told them to all fuck off.
Spot on Sanctuary!
So what was the nasty side of neo-liberalism he was selling?
High growth rate (3.4%)
Low unemployment (less than 5%)
Budget surpluses
NZers returning home
Infrastructure spending
Majority of NZers saying the country is going in right direction
So long as the Left are obsessed by the term “neo-liberalism,” they will loose. It shows a disconnect with the mood of the public.
If you want to win focus on the pragmatic, the things that actually influence voters, not ideological labels.
Have you ever been for a drive through our less affluent suburbs?
You would expect more informed comment from someone who sat on the government benches.
Would you? Nah droppings are always droppings.
You really do talk tosh. You need to pay a lot more attention to world events Wayne.
The supporters of the neoliberal establishment have been in trouble all this year.
Heard of Brexit?
Heard of Trump?
Heard of the Italian referendum?
It is clearly the supporters of the neo-liberal establishment who have been shown in 2016 to have a disconnect with the mood of the public.
Here is some reading for you…on the assumption you are actually uninformed as opposed to willfully spinning on behalf of your masters.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/alfredo-saad-filho/end-of-road-global-crisis-and-disintegration-of-neoliberalism
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/17/american-neoliberalism-cornel-west-2016-election
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/15/trumpism-solution-crisis-neoliberalism-robert-skidelsky
https://boingboing.net/2016/12/06/italys-referendum-a-vote-ag.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/10/end-of-neoliberalism-left-theresa-may-migrants-labour
https://www.opendemocracy.net/john-boland/trumping-brexit-growing-failure-of-neoliberal-consensus
Did you read the piece that Sanctuary linked? It not only critiques John Key’s leadership, it also briefly explores the prevailing narrative that fed his popularity, …they kept voting Key in because they believed in the equation that “good with money” equals “morally upstanding” and further suggested that the left will only gain traction when they are able to successfully counter this idea. According to the author, …this money story not only has currency, it is the currency of the reigning monetarist fiscal discourse.
One alternative story is to return “the broader public good’ to the position that “the monetarist fiscal discourse” now occupies. Your list suggests that the public good is being served within the current framework, but that is only true if you draw the line firmly behind the heels of the comfortable middle class, and accept that hardship and insecurity for those outside of the fold is “worth it.” And since you tend to dismiss those who privilege the public good as “hard left” you can hardly complain if they dismiss your lot as “neoliberal.”
Of course we are turning a blind eye to the fake students, earthquakes and other scams that are making the governments figures look better…
So what was the nasty side of neo-liberalism he was selling?
High growth rate (3.4%) – due to earthquakes, record immigration, badly designed student visa programme and the problem invisible to National Party members of inflated housing costs and the overseas investments that it attracts.
Low unemployment (less than 5%) – In other words, if you don’t get the numbers then change the system so you don’t count.
Budget surpluses – Tom Waits… along with the rest of us
NZers returning home – To do with the fact that the global economy is failing perhaps, or maybe they are returning home on student visas.
Infrastructure spending – Is it effective infrastructure spending, or appropriate? Doesn’t seem to be the case.
Majority of NZers saying the country is going in right direction
I don’t understand how often this is used as justification. If, as a teenager I hid the underage drinking and jumping out the window from my parents, and then listened to them praise me, then I wouldn’t use that as approval of my behaviour – just blissful ignorance.
The lack of transparency and information sharing (not withstanding Dirty Politics and journalist shaming) by this government has resulted in the same.
Nothing to be proud of, and definitely not something to to try pass off as informed support.
The nasty side of neo-liberalism is apparent to all who value humans over economic growth, and community and environment over short-term profit and long-term consequences.
Look again Wayne.
The real story can no longer be swept under the carpet
http://www.noted.co.nz/currently/social-issues/a-year-of-living-shamefully-new-zealands-dirty-secrets/#
Growth driven by excessive immigration, housing price rises, and earthquakes. The real measure, per capita, is negative.
Unemployment is only low, because National counts one hour a week as employment.
Budget fudges. With current account and social deficits increased to cover it.
Infrastructure spending. I wish. Roads of significance to the trucking industry is similar to spending on buggy whip factories.
“Country going in right direction”. I have to congratulate National on the effectiveness of their propaganda. Even the Neo-liberal cheer leaders in treasury think National is heading for disaster.
Lastly. Key has headed for the lifeboats before the ship sinks.
Good work The Green Party – potential candidates stepping forward early – this is good – get them sorted and then onward to victory!!!
Matt would be a good candidate I think
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/87298578/nelson-city-councillor-matt-lawrey-seeks-green-party-candidacy
Where are the Headlines? Surely there should be ones like:
National Party Leadership Battle splits Caucus!
Angry MPs Dispute Leadership Plans.
Leadership Battles Rips Caucus Apart.
Will be Years Before National Party Revives Credibility After Bitter Infighting.
Probably because its going to be over rather quickly, which is smart thinking on Nationals part. How can you really have those type of headlines when the result is going to be known on Monday/
Sure the ructions after will prove to be more then interesting but theres simply not enough time for those type of headlines to be used.
Love Granny propaganda (sarc) – even when the Leader resigned it’s all good press for Natz candidates. Not a peep about Collins and all her transgressions and Double dipper English!!
“Bennett said her relationship with English was “fantastic” and described him as “awe-inspiring”. The two work together on finance and social housing, and they are part of the top tier of ministers, called the “Kitchen Cabinet”. But English has also worked closely with Bridges on Auckland’s transport problems.
In a sign of a potentially tense contest, Bridges said he would make a better deputy than Bennett because he marked a complete generational change. Bridges came into Parliament three years later than Bennett, in 2008.”
In spite of this they still have to run spiteful anti Labour articles such as Claire Trevett’s
“100 not out: Labour party battles for its political future”
It starts on Monday.
fence
post
Yes true, I’m assuming it will be sorted by Monday, like its a fait accompli kind of thing especially since the next budget surplus is supposed to be a whopper
It might not of course, however if I was a betting man I’d bet it’ll be over on Monday…the puckish side of me would like to see it continue on for a while though 🙂
Bill at the helm of a leaking, bloated tanker heading for the reefs. His crew! Oh dear! And First Mate! A cargo of rancid fat and snake oil. Oh dear, oh dear!
Fortunately (unfortunately) there’s just enough momentum for the good ship National to make it to the port of the 2017 election win, thanks to a budget surplus and the assistance of the tugboat of NZFirst and the tugboat of another bye-election Labour can’t afford
After that there may be some slight cause for concern 🙂
It’s as though the All Blacks were facing their most critical test match and were reliant on their one star player upon whom success depended, let’s call him, “John Richie”, when an hour before kick off, John declares that he is not going to play, he’s talking his ball and going home, because his girlfriend want to spend quality time with him.
The crowd goes wild.
Yeah imagine what would happen to the All Blacks if Richie, Dan, Kevin, Tony, Ma’a and Conrad left all at the same time taking over 700 caps and all that experience with them 🙂
what you are eluding to might be true , if it wasn’t for the fact that the rugby equivalents of parmjeet ,misa fia and tobbacy todd wouldn’t make the taumarunui eels team let alone the the all blacks up incomers
They’d lose to Ireland?
Well I was linking the tier 1 test record to a record fourth term for National but please tell me you aren’t suggesting Labour is like the Irish rugby team
Well, the Irish team currently has a 50% win record against the All Blacks in its past two encounters (aren’t stats wonderful- a bit like Treasury and Budget figures).
The Irish team has charm, wit and size.
It embraces the whole of Irish society, north and south, inclusively.
Like the Left in general the Irish have got the best songs.
And lastly, they especially despise the English!
So, Puckish Rogue, in the best sense of fun, some great parallels between the NZ Labour Party and the Irish Rugby team of very recent history! 😉
Disclaimer: though my moniker is Mac1 there is no blarney or bias in this summation, at all at all at all.
No need for headlines, 2 days of discussions and it’s sorted, lessons to be learnt by other parties maybe?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11763085
Who knew that motels were going to be a fundamental part of the “wrap around” service that the Ministry of Social Development were going to provide?
Used to house (and indebt) our ever increasing homeless, they are also a depository for our vulnerable children. ( Unless there is a free gang associate house available that is).
I was speaking to a CYFS worker just yesterday, and those in her office are spending much of their time coming up to the holidays looking for motels to place children. When I asked who was there to provide caregiving, she shrugged her shoulders and said “Who?”.
Molly it’s all about physical assets, such as motels and the buying and selling of them. The actual social part of it, does not appear in the neoliberal manuals so just sort of falls off the radar. People are not considered assets under neoliberalism they are just vehicles of loss .
Similar to the conference centres (to create jobs but the job bit is the fudge, in fact rather than create jobs for locals you just import workers in because they are cheaper, then you have a housing crisis to solve to house all the new people etc), the homeless crisis, (rezone land and then let the market do ‘it’s thing’, the immediate housing is irrelevant), etc etc.
Would agree with you there, saveNZ.
How and why to turn a turtle on its back,
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-standard-is-offering-to-the-national-party-leadership-contenders-guest-post-slots/#comment-1271775
Did anyone else see the awful add in the herald yesterday.
The solid energy add, Mansplaining at it’s worse. So condescending it was sickening.
For a so called open letter – noticed no signature. How cowardly can you get.
Funny anyone with half a brain realised it was out and out propaganda. Well I suppose solid energy will do anything for their political masters.
This government is such a bunch of wankers, hiding behind a so call private company to lie and spin to New Zealand public.
New low.
And published in the Herald where Westcoasters are sure to read it. Ha 🙁
More grievous ignorance of sports history in the media.
Morning Report, RNZ National, Thursday 8 December 2016, 8:25 a.m.
This morning featured a report from Indira Stewart of the Pacific Radio Network, stating that Joseph Parker and David Tua are the “only two New Zealanders to have ever fought for the World Heavyweight title.”
That is nonsense, of course. On Thursday 26 July 1928 Gisborne’s own Tom Heeney fought Gene Tunney for the title at Yankee Stadium. The fight was stopped in the 11th round.
Neither Susie Ferguson nor Guyon Espiner seemed to notice, and simply carried on with the next item.
For those who, unlike Indira Stewart, care to know something about boxing history, here’s a tape of the fight…
Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Fitzsimmons
We can sort of claim him 🙂
Thanks Puckish Rogue. What an inattentive fool I am! In my haste to excoriate RNZ National, I merely show up myself.
Assuming you don’t have access to the same resources RNZ have its an easy error to make, unless you come from Timaru of course in which case there’s no excuse 🙂
Fitzsimmons having a fight reffed b ywyatt earp,and the famed fight on the sandbar in the rio grande organized by judge roy bean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzsimmons-Maher_Prizefight#/media/File:BeanSign_small.JPG
Well that wins the internet for coolest thing I’ve read all year 🙂
I also think jimmy Peau thought for some non descript world title in Queensland a few years back
Yes I remember something along those lines. Whatever happened to Jimmy Peau?
I don’t know anything about him lately but 5 years ago he was pretty down on his luck
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/3481691/Thunder-Jimmy-Peau-on-the-canvas
Theres this from 2014:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10524793/Jailbird-Peau-likely-to-be-deported-Down-Under
Thanks for that Alwyn.
MEET THE CANDIDATES
No. 3: Judith “Crusher” Collins
Possibly the nastiest and most immature political candidate in New Zealand’s history—though not the stupidest.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/87288904/nicky-hager-takes-on-aspirant-pm-judith-collins
“She has the integrity.”—Don Brash.
Ok then we’ll just turn a blind eye to the frauds then because somebody is making a short term buck and it will expose the governments underfunding of education, so they are doing nothing and leaving the short term housing issues and longer term problem of all our fraudster residents to another government … from Granny
“Yet it seems no one can really tackle the student visa rort because we now depend on it.
The country makes $4.28 billion a year from international students, our fourth biggest industry behind dairy, tourism and meat. Put aside legitimate questions over how much of that money stays in New Zealand and circulates in the wider economy, as opposed to the immigrants themselves. If we turned off the tap tomorrow – the Government’s nightmare scenario after the sudden collapse of the Chinese market in 2003 – many office buildings would be half empty and central Queen St would become a ghost town. Even reputable education providers would go broke and most polytechnics and universities could not make ends meet with domestic students alone. Economic activity would also take a hit, as international students are doing the difficult, low-paid jobs that most New Zealanders avoid – at least until the students get their residence visa.
In short, fundamental changes are unlikely to come from the top because too many powerful interests are benefiting from the current system, despite its obvious flaws. The only hope is for more honest people within the student visa scam to stand up and be counted.”
If we turned off the tap tomorrow … many office buildings would be half empty and central Queen St would become a ghost town. Even reputable education providers would go broke and most polytechnics and universities could not make ends meet with domestic students alone.
Gosh, that would be a disaster! Good job there’s no proposal on the table to ban international education outright then, eh? Cleaning up the industry would make it worth less, but would still leave universities, polytechs and schools teaching a lot of international students.
The actual reason the government won’t do anything about the scam is in this bit:
…international students are doing the difficult, low-paid jobs that most New Zealanders avoid – at least until the students get their residence visa.
That is, the success of this scam to bypass our immigration standards and ensure a supply of cheap, easily-exploited labour for National’s constituents, with downstream effects on local pay and conditions, is the government’s main reason for not cleaning up the international education “industry.”
“many office buildings would be half empty and central Queen St would become a ghost town.”
What happened to the cherished Number 8 approach to solving problems with innovation? Empty office buildings in Queen Street + homeless in Auckland should = conversion to family apartments and a community revitalisation of Auckland central.
As for the other, fund education to sustainable levels.
Couldn’t all the empty buildings be given to solve the housing crisis????
All solved. move on.
Gareth Morgan tells Paul Henry the truth.
And Paul Henry hates being shown up for being the selfish git he is.
Morgan to Henry…
“You’re telling me that you don’t give a toss about New Zealand being fair. ‘Pull up the ladder, Jack, and the rest of you can get stuffed’. What sort of New Zealand values do you have, man?”
“You’re just a tax loophole cowboy, that’s all you are,”
“I’m about making New Zealand fair. You’re self-centred and you don’t give a toss about being fair in New Zealand.”
“Don’t tell an economist what a reverse mortgage is mate.”
“In media soundbytes are important, that’s why your sort of media is dying mate.”
And Henry’s retort, with his expensive house, European car and entitled lifestyle threatened.
Morgan is a communist.
Watch it. It’s great to see the tosser Henry being dealt to.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/tax-policy-bust-up-gareth-morgan-trades-insults-with-paul-henry-2016120808
Morgan needs to become less defensive when he’s discussing his party’s policies.
I certainly support his Comprehensive Capital Tax. If you have an asset that returns some benefit then it should be taxed at the commensurate income of that benefit.
I agree Morgan did not help his case, loosing his cool, playing the man not the ball, never a good look unless your of a Paul persuasion and just want to see Henery abused
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
I do not totally agree with Morgan, but at least he has us discussing these things, and his heart is in the right place.
I don’t see what a CCT can do, that conventional inheritance, income and CGT combined, along with getting rid of private trusts immunity from claims, cannot.
Only someone as truely ignorant as Henry, can have such confidence.
I don’t blame Morgan for getting annoyed with the bumptious twit.
1. Gets rid of land banking. The land will have to produce an income year to year else it’s just going to cost too much. A CGT may get the tax once the land is sold but it doesn’t prevent it.
2. Encourages people living in large, expensive houses to shift into smaller houses with smaller land thus freeing up more land for housing thus encouraging density increases.
Neither do I but he shouldn’t have shown it. His sitting back, hands tightly crossed before him shows that he’s on the defensive and is exactly the reaction that Henry was going for.
He needs to be able to sit there, calm, arms open, answer the questions and, yes, call Henry a bumbling, selfish idiot.
3. It could allow marginal land to remain as wilderness.
It does sow why trying to debate with the “Haves” is so difficult. Why would a “Have” like Henry be in the least concerned about the “Havenots”?
If he can’t handle Henry how is going to handle the rest of the pressure that’ll come, its all well and good to say what you think should happen and get nice media fluff pieces but hes thrown his hat in the ring and now what he says is going to be picked over with a fine tooth comb and he’d better be ready with some answers
Morgan wants retired people to get a reverse mortgage on their house so they can pay property taxes, he a communist arsehole.
No he doesn’t. and he’s most definitely not a communist. He’s very much a capitalist – he’s just one that sees many of the limitations that the way capitalism operates and how it doesn’t pay it’s full costs and puts those costs on the poor instead.
I’d have thought he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to include the family home in this, I can’t imagine any political party thinking that’s an idea the voters will go for, not even the Greens
Yes I’ve seen first hand how paranoid and touchy the entitled property class is about their inflating asset values.
They expect to sit on their million dollar+ houses and bank capital gains of 80K per year for ever. If anyone suggests this model is neither sustainable nor fair then they are shouted out of the room.
This unreasonable, greedy behaiour is sowing the seds of class war. I suppose this is the ugly side of Pakeha culture. They stole Aotearoa in the first place and now (like some kind of landed gentry), they expect the serfs to slave away paying high levels of tax and rent. Wealthy boomers have come to expect a well paid retirement with no means testing or CGT.
What a pack of spoiled brats
Well the average house price is $600 000.00 but please go ahead and suggest to the voters that taxing the family home, the house the retired have worked for entire lives to own (while paying taxes) is a really good idea
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/309978/average-nz-house-price-tops-$600k
Why should some people (who have also worked their whole lives) have to keep paying high rents for ever, while others who managed to climb into property ownership get free accommodation and tax breaks and full super without any form of means test?
Not sustainable, not fair, and kinda gross in the middle of a housing crisis
I actually support means testing by the way but the family needs to be exempt
Why not except a family home up to a certain value.
Exempting the family home is a loophole the wealthy will drive a bus through.
+100
what about Maori land Ropata… how many Maori (or Pakeha for that matter) have the income to pay yearly taxes on their capital?
All that will happen is what is already happening, Kiwis can’t afford to live in their own country with all the taxes and the low wages and foreigners will buy us up cheap.
That’s where Morgan’s ideas falls down.
I’m more into the Sanders and Corbyn approaches on Robin hood taxes on banks and transaction style taxes.
Don’t expect an answer, ropata jumped in with the chance to score a “hit” on a rightie and didn’t think through his reasoning
I am not a policy analyst nor am I a spokesperson for Morgans TOP vehicle. I just think he talks a lot of sense and in principle I agree with his fair minded ideas.
Morgan’s tax is aimed at the top few% of wealthy property holders who are banking tax free capital gains. He reckons his LVT will be either neutral or advantageous for most people because he will also drop income taxes.
Anyway I think this party is just a way for him to get the ideas of his Foundation into mainstream media. In the current volatile economic climate his is a vital counter narrative to the standard capitalist dogma we swim in.
Remember this is in the context of an unprecedented housing crisis, Morgan’s ideas are not cooked up in a vacuum.
I understand this is heresy against the national NZ religion of a quarter acre pavlova paradise.
Gareth Morgan has my full support for sticking it to that twit Henry. Watching that video clip made my day. I thought Morgan eviscerated the prick.
I think he got frustrated that Henry kept coming up with stupid examples, but there was no need for Morgan to stoop to Henry’s level of childish insults.
Henry is very gifted at twisting things according to his warped view of the world and dominated the interview in a very rude and hostile manner. For some reason he was much nicer to Ann Pettifor and allowed her a lot of time to express her position.
http://www.debtonation.org/2016/10/ann-pettifor-in-new-zealand-on-the-financialised-economy/
promising signs from gareth, perhaps he can come up with a public broadcasting policy as no one else seems to to sort that issue out.
Wow! a strange thing happened, somehow, somewhere, someone came to the conclusion that for true comparison of two different systems, they need to be measured with the same criteria.
But our favorite hologram disagrees, seems if there’s money involved, and a contract to enforce well…………. it’s just a bit confusing for the average Joe/Jane and at that point we should bow out and leave it to him and the other “experts”.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/319865/charter-school-ncea-reporting-to-be-brought-into-line
I was going to put up a link to the interview on Natard this morning with Paula Bennett and how she will make a truly awesome Dep Leader of the Natzional Party but the website appears to be having access problems….but never mind, I’ll do a Morrissey and give y’all a transcript.
Ms. Bennett….what qualities do you believe you have for the Deputy Leaders role?
hahahahahahahahahahahah….pause for gurgling breathhahahahahahahahahahah
gigglegigglegigglegigglegigglegigglegiggle
and so on, ad nauseum.
Here….http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201826881/bennett-or-bridges-for-national's-new-deputy
This is a fascinating article about how a gunman attacked a pizza parlour in Washington after conspiracy theorists claimed Hilary Clinton was running a child sex operation out of it. It argues that mis-information is being used as a political tool.
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/06/disinformation-not-fake-news-got-trump-elected/
InfoWars video in 5… 4… 3….
/
No country with a McDonald’s can remain a democracy
George Monbiot
Since the 1980s we’ve let the corporations rule and it’s become obvious that it’s detrimental to us as a community.
So true, the NZ government was seduced and subverted in 1984 and now it’s become a schizoid institution that purports to represent the people of New Zealand, but is instead complicit in their exploitation.
It’s not exactly secret, all this has been well documented (see cafca.org.nz), but since it has been a slow and ongoing process the sale of NZ piece by piece to foreign interests doesn’t make the news cycle.
Just read the whole thing — how depressing. Maybe democracy was just a temporary aberration and the natural state of the human race is feudalism and internecine tribal conflict.
When the USA was founded corporations were deliberately outlawed because the founders had seen what they did to Europe. Sadly that didn’t last long
Democracy does seem to be more of an aberration with dictatorships and oligarchies ruling most of the time. Of course, the oligarchies and dictatorships always collapse due to the hubris and greed of the rich. And when they do we go back to being a democracy which then builds up society which the rich then take over and destroy.
It seems to be an iterative process as we learn more our democracy gets better but, unfortunately, we haven’t learned to prevent people from getting rich yet.
“Representative Democracy” was bound to fail.
Putting that degree of power in the hands of a few people, is always going to be subverted.
Democracy, however!
Finally Assange is permitted to answer the slander against him on record.
It has taken six years for this to occur. An outrageous abuse of legal power and process!
https://justice4assange.com/IMG/html/assange-statement-2016.html
Thanks for that, xanthe. Don’t expect anything on this to appear on our television news this evening. (Time constraints due to extended banter between the autocue readers and the sports guy and the weather guy.)
Thanks xanthe. Pretty awful in this day and age. What next?
Some conservative Kiwis are very unhappy that the ugly side of their country’s Pacific history is being exposed: http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2016/12/counting-victims.html
+1 fascinating and tragic tale. Absolutely should not be covered up. Love your work RTM and it deserves to be published widely.
What does brought in to line mean?
Are the Charter schools just lying about there pass rates?
Charter school pass rates plummet when brought in line with state schools
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11762756
“Brought into line” means there’s been a corrupt system working and now it’s been outed.
Hekia Pariah and the Epsom Idiot have been spinning crap about it today to try to make people with ordinary intelligence believe it is something it wasn’t. I didn’t need to go to a charter school to recognise bullshit when I see it.
A leaked memo from the Beehive 😉
Ok so Little was safe until the next election because, lets all be honest now, Little was going to lose to Key but that was keeping him safe because anyone else would have to lost to Key as well
Now Keys gone and English is in charge, English who has lost before, English who isn’t exactly Mr Charisma, English who is beatable…Little might win and that’ll mean six years and then National will be back in so that’s a long time to wait if you’re an MP
But Little hasn’t improved Labours numbers, in fact it’d be fair to say Labours numbers, being positive, stagnating and if National don’t drop below 40% and NZFirst stay above 10% then that’s another term for National
So in light of the new developments is there someone in Labour that will answer the call to arms?
On a completely unrelated matter, what are the chances Robertson is going to be firing up the ol’ BBQ over Summer? 🙂
That’s not what Key himself thought. He said said he didn’t like losing which is why he jumped ship.
Key is a coward and I believe he will be remembered for that.
If there’s one thing to be learned from the Trump, Key, Cameron phenomena it is that policy is totally irrelevant and in fact it switches people off. What people vote for is a smiley wavey confident snake oil sales person. Even Obama and Trudeau benefited from this mindless herd behaviour. (Scott Adams made some excellent observations of Trump’s persuasion techniques and NLP type shit)
Maybe Labour needs to put up All Blacks and TV personalities instead of serious candidates.
I kind of agree with this but you’d be hard pressed to find a Labour supporting All Black although Chris Laidlaw is probably still hanging around if you want to use him
Labour is appearing more solid by the day, all the dead wood is being pruned game on pucky , the planet key lotus eaters will awake from their stupor in time for the right man to be the next PM.
i think they are addicted to the property price inflation koolaid and will keep drinking it until NZ sinks into the sea. or some other unthinkable disaster happens like “interest rates”
Robertson has been sorting out things in the background and doesn’t have to
CV will be delighted to learn Trump’s rumored pick for FDA director reckons big pharma should release new drugs, whether they work or not.
/
O’Neill also could push the agency in new directions. In a 2014 speech, he said he supported reforming FDA approval rules so that drugs could hit the market after they’ve been proven safe, but without any proof that they worked, something he called “progressive approval.”
“We should reform FDA so there is approving drugs after their sponsors have demonstrated safety — and let people start using them, at their own risk, but not much risk of safety,” O’Neill said in a speech at an August 2014 conference called Rejuvenation Biotechnology. “Let’s prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-07/trump-team-is-said-to-consider-thiel-associate-o-neill-for-fda
Who are you going to drool over now till the next election Puckerman? now that your beloved idol has spit the dummy.
I’m more curious whose leg the Hosk is going to hump now. It just won’t be the same if it’s English’s leg he latches onto.
@ Andre brilliant + 100
Hosking’s done his “Best PM Ever” shit now he’s checking out the Blinglish (invented word) ‘rectalia’. He’s a bit shameless with his rat-up-drainpipe styles is Hosk’.
FFS…….dork Max Snr. Couldn’t resist could he? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11763286
I don’t mean the ‘doing’…….the “lonely backbencher” line weren’t half bad akshully (well done CT!)…….no, it’s more the studied ‘telling’.
No class. Aux Old Money must be immensely glad about The Leaving.