Open mike 09/10/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 9th, 2020 - 159 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step up to the mike …

159 comments on “Open mike 09/10/2020 ”

  1. gsays 1

    Where are the shareholders of Briscoes, Sommerset, The Warehouse, Hallenstiens, insisting that their ill gotten gains be returned to the taxpayers of Aotearoa?

    This was on the tranny a few days ago and had my blood boiling.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018767274/wage-subsidy-research-looks-at-who-took-advantage

    From what I recall (does that stop me/TS being sued?), Briscoes paid out a dividend to its shareholders, one indivdual received 75% of those dividends.

    Sommerset paid a dividend even though they did not make a profit, so had reserves from which wages could be paid.

    I get the onus on directors to maximise profit. This naked greed and immorality hopefully will impact on future trading when the good folk of NZ decide to boycott these parasites.

    • Ad 1.1

      Fair enough with the greedybastardy n'all, but the government put fuckall safeguards to ensure they could lever the money back. Which would not have been hard.

      • gsays 1.1.1

        That is setting a low bar there Judith Ad.

        • Ad 1.1.1.1

          Robertson clearly decided that the benefit of essentially helicopter cash at a time of crisis was worth the risk of some corporate kleptocracy.

          In this scale and speed of crisis, some bits get a little rough around the edges. Hindsight is so pure.

          • arkie 1.1.1.1.1

            Absolutely, hindsight should inform future action however. This issue could have been avoided if the 'helicopter cash' went to individuals instead of employers.

          • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.2

            And I'd agree with Robertson at the outset but a better system needed to be planned and implemented shortly after rather than extending that bait for the corporate kleptocracy.

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 1.2

      "Foodstuffs says New World stores that have applied for the Government's wage subsidy will withdraw their applications.

      The Government database of employers who have applied for the wage subsidy – which has now topped $6.6 billion in payouts for more than a million workers – shows a New World Metro with 71 employees was paid $482,124 and Waikanae New World was paid $140,592 for 20 employees."

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120876197/new-world-stores-will-withdraw-claims-for-wage-subsidies

      But ONLY after some intense "feedback". Greedy pricks….

      And yet supermarket Staff…even with the Covid stress, customer abuse etc; are still fighting for a Living Wage. Food Essential Service. And Workers Essential too….

    • Foreign waka 1.3

      You will find that these are distinct individuals, often chairs on several boards spreading the greed mantra of yesteryear, behaving not unlike the virus itself.

      • gsays 1.3.1

        Maybe it is my age, I see a marked difference in business leaders and politician's from last century and the current crop coming through.

    • Patricia Bremner 1.4

      Agree. I will not shop at Briscoes any more… have emailed.

      • gsays 1.4.1

        On behalf of other tax payers, Thank you Patricia.

        I am not one to frequent red sheds or Briscoes.

    • mikesh 1.5

      Warehouse declared a dividend prior to lockdown but cancelled it when lockdown came into effect. They posted a loss for the year and are now declining to pay a final dividend. They say, also, that the staff layoffs that occurred later were planned well before the pandemic started.

    • SPC 1.6

      The government initially had a cap on the size of the business eligible for the wage subsidy – but National wanted no such cap and so here we are.

      • solkta 1.6.1

        So how did National force the gummint to do that?

        • SPC 1.6.1.1

          When National sided with businesses excluded by the cap, they made the matter political.

          • solkta 1.6.1.1.1

            Right, and the gummint always does what Nact and big business want eh.

            • Draco T Bastard 1.6.1.1.1.1

              Probably.

              Doing what business wants is, after all, the whole meaning of neo-liberalism.

            • SPC 1.6.1.1.1.2

              National is now claiming the government was wasteful for doing what they said they would do, not have a cap, They are who they are.

      • Enough is Enough 1.6.2

        National has no power at all. Are you suggesting Grant calls Goldie for approval?

        • SPC 1.6.2.1

          They clearly had sufficient influence at the time (their poll ratings were higher then) that government changed their mind on having a cap.

          1. It meant no political opposition to spending more on a wage subsidy

          2. It meant more workers got their jobs protected

    • Draco T Bastard 1.7

      Since late March just over 750,000 businesses have claimed $14 billion worth of wage subsidies, of which about $440 million has been paid back in refunds by roughly 15,000 companies.

      My bold.

      I'm actually impressed by these companies honesty.

      Now, the question is how many should have paid back.

      Of course, it would have been better just to give everyone a decent unemployment benefit so as to maintain spending and put in place protections so that people wouldn't lose their homes during lockdown.

      • Dennis Frank 1.7.1

        At the risk of seeming provocative, someone oughta suggest that Labour establishes a commissar of subsidy reclamation, to head up a team of ex-gang heavies for doing the collection. After the election, of course… devil

        • woodart 1.7.1.1

          yes, could co-opt some of the nats raptor strike force. break down a few doors, kick a few heads,,,, pictures at eleven….would make the revenge lovers happy, for about a minute!

      • Incognito 1.7.2

        Of course, it would have been better just to give everyone a decent unemployment benefit so as to maintain spending and put in place protections so that people wouldn’t lose their homes during lockdown.

        No, it would not have been better because you’re comparing apples with oranges.

        As I saw it, the Wage Subsidy was an emergency measure to helicopter cash out as quickly as possible with few restraints and with a clear purpose in mind, at the time, albeit untargeted and general by ‘design’. That purpose was not primarily to maintain spending (in order to keep the economy going) and/or to avoid people losing their homes.

        Wage subsidy schemes

        Financial support for businesses and workers who are financially impacted by COVID-19 to maintain an employment connection and ensure an income for affected employees.

        https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/other-types-of-leave/coronavirus-workplace/wage-subsidy/

        • Draco T Bastard 1.7.2.1

          What Robertson did was good – for a short time but it can't be maintained over the entire time of the pandemic thus something else needs to be done. That would either have to be a fairly high unemployment benefit to maintain spending or a jobs guarantee within the public sector that paid the Living Wage.

    • Incognito 1.8

      IIRC, one of the few criteria for receiving the Wage Subsidy and passing it on to employees was a marked demonstrable loss of income compared to some previous period. Nobody knew what was happening at the time. The fact that some (?) businesses have apparently enjoyed a post-lockdown rebound and strong surge in business and therefore in profits does not make it morally wrong to have claimed the subsidy in the first place. I think this makes the accusation misguided and misleading. The Professor’s field is not ethics, is it?

      I also note that the Professor’s ‘research’ was highly selective in that it only looked at “the top 50 companies on the NZX”, which is a minute fraction of all businesses in NZ – 10 out of 750,000 is only 0.00133%.

      • Graeme 1.8.1

        The initial Wage Subsidy also included the expectation of a 30% reduction in revenue.

        Your business must have experienced a minimum 30% decline in actual or predicted revenue over the period of a month, or 30 days, when compared with the same month, or 30 days, last year, and that decline is related to COVID-19.

        There's also a requirement that you have to do everything you can to mitigate the impact

        Your business must have taken active steps to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19.

        This could include:

        • drawing from your cash reserves (as appropriate)
        • activating your business continuity plan
        • making an insurance claim
        • proactively engaging with your bank

        This last bit could prove interesting in an audit and I'm of the understanding that audits are occurring. This could be a shot across the bows to induce voluntary repayment

        In a lot of cases profit could less affected than revenue over the period because expenses went down due to the business being closed, so reduced power and telecom, depending on the lease no or reduced rent and lots of other incidentals would have dropped of for a while.

      • gsays 1.8.2

        I am not saying they shouldn't have applied for the subsidy. What I am saying is they should have refunded the subsidy before paying a dividend to shareholders.

        The shareholders must take the good with the bad.

        As to the professor not being an expert in ethics, you don't have to be qualified to see that a lot of this behaviour is unethical.

        The top 50 companies on the NZX is a good place to start. Potentially larger numbers to focus on/seek repayment from. Alas these 'leaders' of commerce are setting an example for other aspirational business folk to follow.

        • Incognito 1.8.2.1

          I was commenting on this from your link @ 1:

          University of Auckland accounting professor Jilnaught Wong says his investigation shows 10 of the top 50 companies on the NZX claimed the wage subsidy and morally some companies should not have. [my italics]

  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2

    Militant Protestors advocate breaking NZ Laws !

    https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-life-other/farmers%E2%80%99-freshwater-protest-message-gets-serious-traction

    Were there any Pretty Communist signs?

  3. Peter 3

    There's the rub. The government did one really dumb thing – they took an approach of trusting people.

    Had they not, the scalpers would have been in the raucous mob complaining about not being trusted and being treated like children.

    So, the choices: To treat people as mature, having a sense of civic responsibility, untrustworthy, as children or scum? Whatever, some took the scum road.

    • Graeme 3.1

      It will be interesting to see a wash up of the high trust, publicly open information model used for the wage subsidy compared to the zero trust, confidential model used in most other welfare government assistance situations.

      Was there any difference in false claim and payment rates? Did the greater spend on administration compensate for any reduction in fraud in the zero trust model. Did the speed of the high trust model give less negative outcomes that would have been the result of delays due to approval of applications in the zero trust model?

      I've got a feeling that the high trust model may turn out to be a lot more efficient was of distributing government assistance.

      • Uncle Scrim 3.1.1

        Yes good post Graeme, and Peter too. Rather than criticising the wage subsidy on the basis that some took advantage, we might wonder if it is in fact an efficient and more equitable model for other forms of welfare.

        I thought of this when during one of the debates Ardern said she didn't need a tax cut and Collins replied, well then you can give it back – ie she was comfortable with giving the better off choices, but not beneficiaries or the low paid. Might the same argument be applied to welfare or the minimum wage – make these generous and if it turns out those benefitting didn’t need assistance after all, they can give it back …

  4. Dennis Frank 4

    Harman considers the imminent Labour landslide: "never have the minor parties mattered less than they do this election." https://www.politik.co.nz/2020/10/09/fighting-for-political-relevancy/ | Politik

    Jacinda Ardern’s popularity may have dropped in last night OneNews Colmar Brunton poll, but her Labour Party is now powering its way to an overwhelming victory in the election.

    Meanwhile there is international speculation that Ardern may tonight win the Nobel Peace Prize. Time magazine has her in their top three picks to win. if she won, that would give Labour’s campaign another boost.

    The minor parties battled it out on TVOne last night with divisions opening up about our relationship with China. On the campaign trail, both Advance NZ and ACT have been calling for a re-calibration of New Zealand’s foreign and trade policies away from China. “What we’ve also done is put too many eggs in the China basket,” said AdvanceNZ co-leader, Jami Lee Ross. “We need to expand our trade agreements to our more traditional trading partners. “And I think we should also need to come down hard on China and not be afraid of them.”

    Maori Party co-leader, John Tamihere, took another view. “They’re an outstanding and huge economy, and we need to trade with them.”

    NZ First Leader, Winston Peters is also Foreign Minister and has been subtly shifting New Zealand’s foreign policy emphasis away from China and closer to the United States and Australia. Peters agreed with Ross the Chinese money was coming into New Zealand politics. “I don’t see it in the media, and I don’t see it in the serious fraud office,” he said. “I think this is catastrophically bad.” “We’ve got too much dependence on one market. “And they(the National Government) walked into it without their wise eyes wide open. “They were always going to be outsmarted by the Chinese. “Don’t blame the Chinese; blame our past leadership.”

    Quite so. However they were simply following Bilderberger instructions from the 1990s globalist agenda. That's requisite for mainstream political leaders. Left or right brand differentiation is irrelevant in geopolitics. I presume the Bilderbergers will pivot away from China now, anyway, since a resilient global economy can only embed via a diverse trading strategy post-pandemic.

    • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1

      Goodness – Ardern in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize! She would no doubt accept it on behalf of all NZers, many of whom will have Ardern in their thoughts, and prayers. wink

      • Dennis Frank 4.1.1

        If she does accept it on that basis, I'd like to see her specify the political common ground that made it possible:

        "The peaceful state of mind in Aotearoa has been achieved by going hard and going early on the pandemic response. Getting that right has enabled kiwis to maintain complacency – our traditional pacific state of mind. Our people have resisted the rightist siren call of division and separatism: we are united in our addiction to neoliberalism!"

        "We will keep trading with China because money is more important than ethnic tribes in concentration camps: that's what Labour stands for! We embrace this bipartisan stance because it has become traditional, and we like conservatives – that's why we made peace with them. Progress can be made if we do the same old stuff forever. Labour remains a party of the establishment!"

        • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1.1.1

          Dennis, our PM will surely give your considered opinion the attention it deserves; I look forward to her extraordinary Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

          Tbh, I haven’t perceived a lot of bipartisan political ‘peace and love‘ of late, but maybe the rancour is just a show for the gullible masses.

          I'm moderately very grateful to the Government for their decision to 'go hard and go early' in response to the serious health threat that the COVID-19 pandemic represents – getting that response right certainly saved lives, even if (as you suggest) that was only a collateral outcome, and it's done wonders for my immediate peace of mind. After all, we're all in this together.

          "We don't know how lucky we are…"

        • Ad 4.1.1.2

          You guys should STFU and concentrate on ensuring your actual political survival before you start linking Prime Minister Ardern to concentration camps.

          • Dennis Frank 4.1.1.2.1

            surprise Empress has fantabulous clothes on? So glamorous that nobody will notice the trading policy link? Close enough to trad Labour thinking that it could work.

            • Ad 4.1.1.2.1.1

              I am sure you and the Greens can show how New Zealand can replace is 30% of exports to China and 40% of imports from China. Sometime about now since it's an election will do.

              And those fantabulous clothes are all from China, and you're wearing them.

              Meantime Labour is leading the country through the worst economic crisis in a century without the assistance of foolish preening from the Values wing of the Greens.

              • Draco T Bastard

                I am sure you and the Greens can show how New Zealand can replace is 30% of exports to China and 40% of imports from China.

                Developing the economy would work.

                • Stuart Munro

                  Developmentalism would put all those non-performing hacks in Treasury out on the street. Doing that to everyone else never seemed to trouble them.

              • KJT

                Keep telling yourself that. As Labour adopts more and more Green policies.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1.1.2.2

            Prefacing orders advice with "STFU" may not have the desired effect – oh look!

    • Draco T Bastard 4.2

      since a resilient global economy can only embed via a diverse trading strategy post-pandemic.

      No.

      A resilient global economy can only come about if trade is not needed.

      • Dennis Frank 4.2.1

        In principle, I agree. The principle being self-sufficiency (Jeanette F always called it self-reliance). In practice, however, trading seems hard-wired into human nature.

        Trading networks are detectable throughout history and seem ubiquitous – perhaps only relatively so, since some indigenous cultures are collectively self-reliant. A comprehensive documentation of the extent by antropologists collaborating with sociologists would be enlightening (I haven't encountered one).

        Barter can even happen naturally within a family. I have distant memories of doing a bit with my younger brothers from time to time. I suspect it is part of being a social animal. Other primates do sharing of food, and trading food for sex has been established as a common pattern of behaviour.

        • Draco T Bastard 4.2.1.1

          The principle being self-sufficiency (Jeanette F always called it self-reliance). In practice, however, trading seems hard-wired into human nature.

          Self-sufficiency means each country producing what it needs to survive indefinitely. Trade between countries then becomes a nice to have which pretty much means luxuries that a country can't produce itself. Trade would still exist but would decrease from where it is now.

          Thing is, as far as I can make out, the only reason why we have trade is so that the producers have a larger market to sell to which then makes them richer. This is, as we're learning, unsustainable.

          • Dennis Frank 4.2.1.1.1

            Your description of a reslient economy is correct. Neoliberalism requires co-dependency (in mass psychology) as the tacit basis of the system. To explain this problem to politicians it would help if economists adept at mass psychology were facilitating the discourse. Silo thinking in academia still prevents such sophisticated culture from emerging…

  5. Uncle Scrim 6

    It will be interesting to see in this election how close the final few weeks' polls are to the actual result. They could be expected to be closer than ever, especially as a good chunk of people answering pollsters’ questions at this stage will have actually already voted.

  6. Dennis Frank 7

    Cunning rightist plot to drop the Greens below threshold & out of parliament:

    LIKE THE EXCLUSIVE BRETHREN in 2005, the Taxpayers’ Union is poised to launch a well-funded, last-minute attack on the Greens.

    According to Richard Harman’s Politik website, the right-wing, anti-tax, lobby group is about to send a personalised letter to every homeowner whose property is valued at more than a million dollars. The letter “explains” how the Green’s proposed 1 percent Wealth Tax on property valued at more than one million dollars will apply to them.

    When questioned by the veteran broadcaster and journalist about the source of the sizeable funds required, the Union would say only that the money had been raised in response to a special appeal for financial support.

    Harman also makes clear that the Taxpayers’ Union has registered itself with, and obtained all the required approvals from, the Electoral Commission. The latter has duly authorised the Union to spend up to $338,000 on its “political campaign” against the Greens’ tax policy.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/10/09/must-read-nationals-little-helpers-have-a-cunning-plan/

    • Andre 7.1

      So cunning they're leaving it until at least 25% of votes are cast before they drop it.

    • SPC 7.2

      Thus exposing themselves as a front for the interests of the most wealthy New Zealanders.

    • Uncle Scrim 7.3

      Given the polls and the fact that Labour have ruled such a tax out, won't that just encourage those homeowners to vote Labour? Pushing Labour towards 50% is the only way to ensure this tax won't happen.

      I doubt any Green voters owning homes worth $1M will be swayed by a letter from the Taxpayers' Union, so don’t see how this campaign would help push the Greens under 5%. In that case, voting Nats-Act only makes a Lab-Green coalition more likely.

      • Enough is Enough 7.3.1

        I am predicting the National Party vote to collapse this week for that very reason. There are now only two scenarios come election night. Labour majority government, or Labour Green coalition government.

        Which one do you think traditional National voters would prefer?

    • dv 7.4

      AND the threshold of 1$m is really 2$m for a couple.

    • This is the problem, spelt out in the article linked by Dennis above, and is the reason that Labour voters need to strategically vote Green.

      "For most strategic thinkers on the right, the only viable path to victory for National is over the dead body of the Green Party. If the Greens can be driven below the 5 percent MMP threshold, and the so-called “Trash Vote” pumped up to something approaching 10 percent, then a combined tally of National and Act votes of around 45 percent should be enough to reclaim the Treasury Benches. Assuming Act stands firm on 8 percent, National need only lift its Party Vote to around 37 percent for it to be “Game On!

    • Patricia Bremner 7.6

      Is that funding from the money they received from the Government's $60 000 to keep them afloat? They have $300 000 to waste on this? Paid by???? Nats????

    • Anker 7.7

      Yes for some reason I received said letter. Have no idea how they got my address. Hubby wrote a hilarious letter back saying thanks for pointing out the Greens policy. We are not Green voters, but are now considering voting for them

      tempted to also write asking them how do they expect the country to afford the wage subsidy Tax union received without finding new avenues of income for the govt……arseholes

    • Hooch 7.8

      Presumably if they’ve had such large donations they’ll be paying back the wage subsidy?

  7. mikesh 8

    I would think that anyone owning a million dollar plus home would probably not be a green supporter, and in any case would be well aware of how the wealth tax would affect them.

    • mikesh….the tax is based on NET assets above $1m, so if you had a home worth $1.2m and a mortgage of $200k, even though you have an asset worth $1.2m you pay no Wealth Tax at all.

      The Wealth Tax proceeds are proposed to alleviate poverty in NZ.

      But will the proven liars in the Taxpayer Union explain any of this?

      Nasty campaigns like this can have the opposite effect to that hoped for when the media gets hold of it and may push votes to the Greens.

    • Adrian 8.2

      I dunno, drive around Rocks Road from Nelson to Tahunanui where the houses are more expensive than Paratai Drive ( well, almost ) and count the number of Green hoardings.

      At least we are still a little bit egalitarian.

    • Andre 8.3

      I would think that anyone owning a million dollar plus home would probably not be a green supporter

      Speculating from a position of complete ignorance? They do exist, and if my circles are any indication (which they likely aren't), they likely make up a significant portion of Green support. Or used to, anyways.

      When considering the impact of a policy like the wealth tax, it won't just influence those that are directly hit. It will also influence those that see themselves moving into the bracket in the near future, those that aspire to move into the bracket, and those with family and friends in the bracket.

      • I Feel Love 8.3.1

        and considering a 1m dollar home is a pretty normal dwelling in NZ …

      • Alan 8.3.2

        It will also be a major consideration for elderly couples who are not liable currently but will become liable when one of them passes away.

        Go the caring greens, heaping financial anxiety on top of grief.

        • Andre 8.3.2.1

          The usual mindless repetition of the Green line that they can defer the tax coming in 3 … 2 … 1 …

          Which completely ignores the many explanations already given of how a mounting debt affects the psychological well being of those people at a life-stage where debt-free financial independence is of high importance.

          • SPC 8.3.2.1.1

            A deferred tax makes it an estate tax. There should be an estate tax.

            My IQ and thoughtfulness is higher than yours and any reply to my post proves you have every right to your inferiority complex.

            • Andre 8.3.2.1.1.1

              My IQ and thoughtfulness is higher than yours

              Take a drug test and show us the results before starting to debate!

              A deferred wealth tax payable on death is not an estate tax. It's an ill-conceived tax that in some situations bears a passing resemblance to an estate tax. If an estate tax is wanted, then propose an honest upfront estate tax instead of trying to backdoor one by pretending something else is one.

              Personally, I'm of the view that an estate tax and a gift tax and a capital gains are all needed to reintroduce some much needed fairness and equity into our tax system and broader society. But to me the Greens' proposed wealth tax is so badly designed, and it will produce harmful distortions in investment and life choices generally, that I don't want anyone so clueless that they get behind it to be anywhere near the levers of power.

              I'm also unimpressed by the argument that it doesn't really matter because Labour will never agree to it. If you're going to make noise about something that's never going to happen, at least make it something that would be sensible and work well if it were implemented. Greens do that on other issues, so it's not like they're incapable of it.

              • SPC

                A deferred wealth tax payable on death is not an estate tax.

                Not in name, but it achieves much the same – but for only those with real wealth.

                90% of New Zealanders would not be impacted – whereas they would with an estate tax.

                A gift and estate tax system would not work in an era where parents are the bank of childrens equity in homes. Your alternative is worse and will never get electoral support. This is the best and only way.

            • Sacha 8.3.2.1.1.2

              perfect physical specimen

          • SPC 8.3.2.1.2

            Not sure how anyone paying a wealth tax on equity/wealth over $1m single or $2m couple would feel insecure about a mounting unpaid wealth tax bill they chose to defer against the estate.

            In most periods the asset wealth would be rising much more quickly than this "debt".

            • Andre 8.3.2.1.2.1

              For a lot of people that have made their lives and put down roots in a particular place, debt-free financial independence has an outsize importance. Any kind of deferred payment is equivalent to going back into debt, and takes away that sense of independence and replaces it with a feeling of being beholden to and under the control of someone else.

              I've seen it happen with an elderly neighbour forced into deferring her property taxes in the US, I've heard reports of people completely losing their peace of mind after taking out a reverse mortgage.

              In all cases, it would be easy to say it is irrational, because their offspring were all successful and were already significantly well off quite a ways beyond the small top up they would get from the eventual inheritance. As it happened, the deferred taxes case was finally resolved by her son paying off the deferred taxes, at the cost of a significant rift in the relationship because she felt her independence was being disrespected by her son. So it's easy to say it's irrational, and may be difficult to understand if you've never seen it happen, but it's also very lacking in empathy.

              • SPC
                1. Deferred tax debt does not necessitate a need to reverse mortgage a property.
                1. Where property values are rising, not necessarily so in the USA, some/many homeowners are considering leveraging lower debt to buy a rental – get more debt. Debt is not feared.

                Older people worth over a $M not required to pay a penny in wealth tax until they die (if this is introduced) ARE not become my first concern as to well being.

                Those without home ownership over 65, those without housing for their age mobility, those without home support, or access to pallitative care, Pharamac drugs, medical procedures to maintain well-being

                You're sounding like Chris T over at The Daily Blog not supporting CGT on the farmers and other aspirational success stories of his generation. Or Collins full of compassion for farmers and landlords … .

                As to drug use and revenues derived from – a billion in tax revenue would be nice.

              • Brigid

                So the wealth tax is unfair because a person it applies to chooses to behave irrationally, and that those who don't believe it unfair are lacking in empathy? Seems to me that you expect all governments to base their policies on whether or not this person will be disturbed by such policies.

                That's just batshit crazy

                • Andre

                  Your comment reads like you think one small aspect of the many problems with the proposed wealth tax is the entire argument against it. I'm sure there's a specific name for that particular fallacy, but I can't be arsed looking it up.

          • solkta 8.3.2.1.3

            Fuck, how do you think parents going without food so that their kids can eat or have shoes affects psychological wellbeing? Cry me a river.

        • bwaghorn 8.3.2.2

          Yip it's a shit tax. A cgt is so much better ,its a pity Ardern let them corner her . But key proved you can lie about tax and get away with it.

          • Bearded Git 8.3.2.2.1

            CGT is very complicated and brings in far less revenue than the wealth tax proposed by the Greens, which applies to only the top 6% of the population. A CGT could apply to many more depending how it was framed.

            The Greens WT could be amended so that it applied to (say) the top 4% rather than the top 6%.

            • bwaghorn 8.3.2.2.1.1

              Na you just make a cgt on all properties and shares and have the tax set a 5% or there abouts . Simple cheap to operate totally unavoidable.

              • SPC

                The lowest rate of CGT in the world. The one you have when there is no effort to be serious about taxing capital gains as income.

                Those paying tax under the brightline test would love it at 5%.

                • bwaghorn

                  Make it 10% then but the instant you have loop holes those you want to tax most will dodge it.

                  Shit if I had brought a house in auckland 8 years ago instead of taumarunui when i started living on the farms i worked on i would have made $500 k atleast tax free while i paid 20% +on the measly wage I've made in that time .

            • Draco T Bastard 8.3.2.2.1.2

              A tax isn't always about how much it brings in. After all, as a currency issuer, the government doesn't actually need an income.

              • AB

                Yep – I've said before that the primary purpose of a wealth tax shouldn't be to raise revenue, but to limit the political power of the very wealthy – the vicious cycle where wealth produces power which produces more wealth.

                It therefore needs to start at a higher threshold than the Greens propose and be at a much higher rate – effectively applying only to accumulations of wealth that cannot possibly be proportional to effort, innovation or contribution. It shouldn't apply to wealth that is a reasonable aspiration for fairly unexceptional people.

                When we say that only 6% of people would be affected by the Greens' proposal, we mean 6% of those alive at the moment. More than 6% will be affected by the tax at some point in their lives. A better measure would be to look at everyone who has died in the last 5-10 years and see how many of them would have paid the tax (inflation-adjusted) at some point.

                That said – I still voted for the Greens this time to help them get over 5% and I think they will probably refine this policy. To me it has the look of a slightly sour grapes over-reaction to the scuppering of CGT.

                • KJT

                  More like a feasible option, when Labour, for some unfathomable reason, took CGT totally off the table. And. It wasn't lack of public support. A large proportion of possible Labour/Green voters approved of CGT.

                  So, the only option going forward is either higher income and or consumption taxes, or something similar to the Greens wealth tax, or TOP's.

                  It is perfectly obvious that the Government share of the economy needs to be increased, or we will become, Seymour's third world libertarian "paradise".

                  The reason for the one million individual threshold, is that it excludes almost all "Family homes" even in Auckland. While including the million dollar beach mansions , laughably called, "family baches".

                  Not the best option, but doeable..

                  I don’t favour a tax on unrealised gains. Should be on sale, inheritance or other windfalls, but that seems currently off the table. Maybe after a few years of unrealised gains taxes, there will be more support for CGT and inheritance taxes.

                  • Draco T Bastard

                    It is perfectly obvious that the Government share of the economy needs to be increased, or we will become, Seymour's third world libertarian "paradise".

                    Under ACTS preferred policies we'd probably drop down to Fourth World status.

      • SPC 8.3.3

        Aspirational – by sitting on a property title they can gain more in wealth in a year than most workers or business owners earn in a year or two or three …

      • Drowsy M. Kram 8.3.4

        Collectively NZers are wealthy – but how to redistribute a small percentage of that wealth more evenly? A wealth tax might contribute to maintaining and even improving public services, and helping citizens in times of need, e.g. during a pandemic.

        I like the look of the Swiss wealth tax which generates a relatively large amount of revenue. It's not centrally administered, so regional variation offers choice.

        https://www.nber.org/papers/w22376.pdf
        https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=REV

        Personally don't understand all the fuss – it's not like a wealth tax is theft.

        • Alan 8.3.4.1

          it is blunt tool at best

          • Drowsy M. Kram 8.3.4.1.1

            A hammer sometimes gets the job done.

            "Wealth taxes appear to be losing, rather than gaining, political support: Table 1 shows that of the 14 OECD nations that raised recurrent taxes on wealth in 1995, only 5 still did so in 2014."
            https://www.nber.org/papers/w22376.pdf

            Why might that be, I wonder? Could be informative to graph individual opinion (including politicians) of a wealth tax (favourable/unfavourable) against individual wealth.

            • Andre 8.3.4.1.1.1

              A hammer sometimes actually gets a screw into a bit of wood. But mostly the result is a munted screw and a munted bit of wood.

              A tool properly designed for the job at hand is a much better strategy.

              • solkta

                Yes, it might be better to just screw rich people.

                • Andre

                  That does indeed appear to be the sole intent and purpose of the proposed wealth tax.

                  • Drowsy M. Kram

                    The primary purpose of the proposed wealth tax is to generate revenue – can't rule out the possibility that a big "screw you" to the 'top' 6% was also a motivating factor.

                  • solkta

                    whatever

              • Drowsy M. Kram

                Andre, re taxing wealth, could you and the orange shit gibbon be on the same page for once? Btw, nice Trump – Oompa-Loompa comparison.

                Would be reassuring to know that those objecting to a wealth tax on the basis of design flaws might be comfortable paying a similar (presumed) increase in tax via a 'properly' redesigned tax regime. Proper redesign takes time, of course.

                My favourite is "Like trying to solve a Rubik's cube with a baseball bat."

                • Andre

                  I've already said it a large number of times, including on this very thread.

                  Capital gains taxes are a much better answer to taxing the income from capital.

                  Estate taxes and gift taxes are a much better tool for tackling inequality.

                  In terms of my comfort level, I've paid about 4 times as much in capital gains taxes (to the US) as I have in what is effectively a wealth tax (to NZ) on my US retirement savings. But the capital gains taxes have never bothered me, because they are levied at a time when what used to be a significant part of my life had been turned into a mere financial instrument with the cash at hand to pay the tax. But the wealth tax fucks me right off every time, because it has nothing to do with any underlying cashflow, government contribution to success, it just feels like a mafia shakedown.

                  Paperwork associated with capital gains taxes are cited as a reason against them. But a wealth tax has pretty much the same paperwork burden every. single. fucking. year, as opposed to just the occasional instances for capital gains taxes.

                  As for an illustration of the difference in how wealth taxes and CGT operate, and get contributions back from those that benefit from government actions creating wealth, I gave examples here in my tale of three rich pricks: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24-09-2020/#comment-1753161

                  • Drowsy M. Kram

                    Got it – less ‘theft‘, more a “mafia shakedown.” And I get that they're rich, but why are they "pricks"? Ah, the rich – so hard on themselves, when life is 'so rich'.

                    Moriarty:
                    Could I borrow a match? You see my gas has gone out and my batter pudding was just about to start browning.

                    Seagoon:
                    Certainly, here… No, no, no… Keep the whole box, I have another match at home.

                    Moriarty:
                    So rich! Well, thank you m'sieur, you have saved my batter pudding from getting cold. As you'll agree there's nothing quite so bad as being struck down with a cold batter pudding.

                  • SPC

                    Capital gains taxes are a much better answer to taxing the income from capital.

                    No one is claiming that wealth taxes are an effort to tax capital gains.

                    In the lack of a CGT (see real world Ardern not while PM), there is only wealth taxes or gift and estate taxes.

                    Gift taxes will not gain support when the bank of parent loans out home equity to children. And most New Zealanders do not want the family home of the 90% not so weathy New Zealanders to be hit with an estate tax. No one seees Labour going from no CGT on the family home to an estate tax on family homes.

                    So its either this form of wealth tax or nothing but waiting for the 2030's for someone to lead the Labour government to election victory with a CGT policy. By then the average home will be worth over $1M on current trends.

          • KJT 8.3.4.1.2

            Tax works best if it is simple, easy to understand and broad based.

            You can see with current CGT how accountants can drive a bus through anything else.

            Eh? How about we get rid of income tax on workers." It is a blunt tool at best".
            Even Adam Smith thought labour should not be taxed. Unfair that those who work hard all year get taxed up to 33% while those who sit on their arse watching asset prices go up, mostly because of improvements in tax funded infrastructure, and immigration levels that require even more tax funded infrastructure and services, can escape tax.

            • Draco T Bastard 8.3.4.1.2.1

              Tax works best if it is simple, easy to understand and broad based.

              That was, of course, how they justified GST despite how regressive it was. The income from GST was then used to cut the taxes from 66% despite the fact that such high tax rates weren't really about government income but to, effectively, put in place a maximum income and thus create a more egalitarian economy/society.

              And, yes, that would require that the present tax loopholes that allow massive income to remain untaxed to be fixed. A capital tax is part of that.

  8. Andre 9

    Covid is making the resemblance ever stronger, with an ever more delightful colour contrast between the creepy withered bleached-white microscale raccoon paws and the dayglo orange modelling clay trowelled on up top.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-corden-striking-contrast-in-trumps-new-video_n_5f7f150cc5b6e48b1684c0c4

  9. bwaghorn 10

    https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/beef/view/ghg-study-a-game-changer-for-sheep-beef-farms

    If your going to tax it you need a truly accurate stock taking system that includes all carbon storage.

    • Graeme 10.1

      I thought that was some very positive work. Looking like quite a proportion of agriculture could already be carbon neutral, and maybe negative, with a slight (maybe) change in the definition of forest. Would have been nice if they'd gone into the nitty gritty of what has to change in the definition to show whether the idea's practical and economic from a farming sense.

      Still be really good if we can get most sheep, beef, and probably deer, operations carbon neutral with not much more than changing some words. Would have some profound impacts on land and landscape management if that scrubby gully or face was making a positive contribution to the balance sheet, rather than being viewed as non-productive.

      Also give those farmers something pretty cool to talk about in selling their produce.

      Some of the more modern intensive dairy operations might find it a bit hard by comparison.

      • bwaghorn 10.1.1

        All the creeks and wetlands being fenced will be increasing the carbon storage, remnant bush areas would to especially If they get fenced off . Then get the deer population back under control( because it is exploding out here in the hills ) would massively increase storage in bush guts and gullies.

    • Stuart Munro 10.2

      Good link. It may be sufficient to separate sheep and beef from big dairy to begin with.

      It'd be nice to see a bit of oxygenation going on where nitrate levels are problematic – it takes 4.5 oxygen molecules to convert one molecule of animal pee ammonia to plant accessible and much less toxic nitrate – doesn't take much at that rate to degrade streams.

    • Robert Guyton 10.3

      "The report also underlines previous independent work by the University of Canterbury that sheep and beef farmers are making an unparalleled contribution to NZ’s indigenous biodiversity."

      What????

      Agriculture, with it's simplistic grass pastures and ravenous livestock has supplanted the bulk of New Zealand's indigenous biodiversity and now wants praise for returning snippets of it? Really???

      • bwaghorn 10.3.1

        Reward good behavior there Bobbie boy and more will do it.

        • Robert Guyton 10.3.1.1

          Are they children?

          Where's the self-awareness and sense of responsibility to repair the damage?

          • greywarshark 10.3.1.1.1

            Good question Robert G. However it was rhetorical wasn't it! If we had all neural pathways functioning well at least 75% of the time we wouldn't have our present theatre of farce and hypocrisy, self-centredness and materialism par excellence.

  10. greywarshark 11

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018767157/ben-macintyre-discusses-his-new-book-agent-sonya

    sounds interesting.

    I'm thinking that ayn rand was a sort of soviet device – an ied?

    • KJT 11.1

      Interesting idea, that Ayn Rand was a Soviet plant to destroy the USA.

      Certainly succeeding.

      Though, in NZ, just as we were congratulating ourselves on being more sensible than the USA. Polling shows 8% are prepared to vote for a Randian twit.

      • Draco T Bastard 11.1.1

        That would be better than the ~25% of USians that voted for Trump or the ~50% that didn't vote at all.

  11. Dennis Frank 12

    Points to ponder in this analysis – and the contrary commentary:

    This week the New Zealand Initiative published their latest missive addressing the supposed “rot at the core of schooling in New Zealand”. Briar Lipson’s report titled New Zealand’s Education Delusion: How bad ideas ruined a once world-leading school system claims to explore “the origins and consequences of New Zealand’s unchecked adherence to child-centred orthodoxy, contrasts the scientific consensus about how children learn with the different and, in many ways, contradictory advice given to educators and policymakers, it exposes how parts of the research community confuse evidence with values, and uncovers how curriculum and assessment policy rest on a flawed philosophy”.

    In plain English, the author claims that New Zealand education is in the grips of a veritable death spiral as the result of a child-centred approach to teaching and learning, an overly flexible curriculum and an education system that, she believes, ignores the science about how children learn best. https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/08-10-2020/a-rot-at-the-core-of-schooling-the-new-report-that-gets-education-in-nz-wrong/

    I see the two sides as a dialectic, finding myself in sympathy with both. Fostering narcissism was never likely to work as social policy – yet kids do need self-esteem to develop & flourish. How to do it is the key.

    According to the New Zealand Initiative website, Lipson is a research fellow specialising in education. Before joining the group, she was a maths teacher and assistant principal in London, where she also co-founded the Floreat family of primary schools.

    Lipson has worked for international education consultancy CfBT, the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange, and holds a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Edinburgh.

    During her time at London-based conservative think tank Policy Exchange, Lipson worked with Conservative Party MP and former UK Education Secretary Michael Gove. Lipson is clearly a right-leaning “researcher” who works for equally right-leaning conservative think tanks. Ironic that her report calls out “groupthink” when she clearly represents exactly that.

    Quite so. Yet defenders of the education establishment fail to own their bias too! Centrists therefore must balance both. I hope govt will design an integral plan, so policy progress will emerge via synthesis.

    • ianmac 12.1

      The New Zealand Initiative (The New Zealand Initiative is a pro-free-market public-policy think tank and business membership organisation in New Zealand. It was formed in 2012 by merger of the New Zealand Business Roundtable and the New Zealand Institute)

      They deliberately misunderstand what Child Centred Learning is. But rest assured the more any learner has a stake in their own learning and can see a relevance to their own lives, the more reason they have to read and write and add and explain. Powerful incentives. The NZI was party to the National Standards which might explain the fall off of standards.

      What the NZI claims is absolute rubbish.

    • KJT 12.2

      In reality, NZ education is not doing so well due to an overkill on "standards", one size fits all, education as cannon fodder for industry and "bums on seats" tertiary institutions, rote based learning and too much summative assessment.

      Imposed on teaching by right leaning idealogs, who ignore research, and Teachers insights into how we learn.

  12. mac1 13

    Collins today in a public meeting. The only way to stop the Greens is to two tick National. The Greens are now the bogey. They are also being used, she said, by Labour to bring in a Wealth Tax since Labour has eschewed a CGT. It's all to do with Grant Robertson machinating out the back.

    All of you people with more than a million owned in assets will get taxed $7200; and if your assets aren't in cash, then the government would get it when you die……. It's all a hard left conspiracy to take all your hard-earned money, though she does believe in taxation. She said the difference was that National would not tax and waste.

    She still believes in testing people before they get on planes to come here, and that people should pay for their own isolation.

    Political wilderness, here she comes………

    • Graeme 13.1

      What's the turnout and reception like

      • mac1 13.1.1

        180 in the venue. Reception was a stand up applause for her entry, applause at her digs at her opposition, tame questions but all a bit muted. Applause for her announcing that the local MP would make an excellent Cabinet Minister in her next government. One Nat stalwart in conversation with me, knowing my politics as he does, said that the election is a foregone conclusion. The concern for him was whether the Greens would be in government with Labour. He agreed that Labour might just be able to govern alone based on the numbers.

        Her lengthy spell pushing technology went beyond people’s attention levels and she spoke often in generalisations and three times made accusations based on such generalisations and then had to withdraw a bit as she realised that her remarks could be critical of her audience- about Labour only having public servants experience, that Labour had to call on old hands to save their covid strategy and then realised the age of her audience, and third criticised Labour’s tax plans as being grabs at people’s wealth and then having to backtrack to say that National too believed in taxation- just not waste tax payers hard-earned money.

      • weka 13.1.2

        "They are also being used, she said, by Labour to bring in a Wealth Tax since Labour has eschewed a CGT. It's all to do with Grant Robertson machinating out the back."

        Fuck, I hope so.

    • Cinny 13.2

      Dang, United Arab Emirates currently test all passengers before they fly, it's done bugger all to help.

      Last I heard you had to give a clear test something like 72 hrs before boarding a UAE flight, with no isolation requirements in the hours after the test prior to boarding.

      Good on you for checking it out and thanks for sharing. Sounds like jude was preaching to the converted and possibly losing a number of them in the process.

    • Leighton 13.3

      Where did the $7200 come from? Doesnt it matter how much more than $1m you own? For instance, if you own $1,000,001 your annual wealth tax would be one cent. To get taxed $7200 a year you would have to own $1,720,000. Just seems like a random number for Judith to pick out.

      • weka 13.3.1

        yep. She's making shit up. Kind of like how National imply that a tax increase is on all income not just the top tax bracket.

    • The Al1en 14.1

      Maddow read some newly un-redacted excerpts last week and informed us that a judge had ordered a large tranche to be similarly released on or before the 3/11.

  13. greywarshark 15

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018767157/ben-macintyre-discusses-his-new-book-agent-sonya

    sounds interesting.

    I'm thinking that ayn rand was a sort of soviet device – an ied?

  14. greywarshark 16

    I don't know whether everyone has caught up with this. It may have been good advice from a doctrinal POV from Electoral Commission but hey the place would have turned to moosh by then.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/427970/ardern-overrode-electoral-commission-s-advice-on-new-election-date

    And something I dislike is hearing foreign accents, especially 'American' or possibly Canadian when official announcements are made. I heard a spokeswoman for the Electoral Comm on Radionz this morning and got this cold feeling of possible Trump-virus symptoms.

  15. greywarshark 17

    Mental health, managing stress and the dark thoughts from someone with experience and nous.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018767288/combatting-the-dark-thoughts-in-our-brains 😀 😀 😀 😀

    Long deep breaths also help to reset the body and prepare it for deep sleep, he says.

    But changing habits is also necessary to addressing mental adversity.
    “We like to run in neural pathways, so patterns of behaviour and these are very difficult to change. It was once said that it takes 21 days to break a habit. We now know that’s not true. It might be if it’s a small habit but it can take as much as 80 days.”…

    He says writing lists, validating worries and working through these worries practically, amounts to self-induced neuro-plasticity.

    “What we’re doing is using the brain’s natural positive chemicals to start working on things that were worrying us. We can do two things – work on worry or work on what’s worrying us.”
    Busy-brain syndrome, as Burdett calls, it is when the brain works too hard at resolving worry, becoming overwhelmed, leading to lack of memory and concentration in the present.

    This stuff is gold. It all rings true, and making time to take it in and follow the guidelines could be a game changer in NZ. It could be as crucial as that while we are perched at the tipping-point of so many crucial matters.

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    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    14 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
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    7 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
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    1 week ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
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  • Government lowering building costs
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  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
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  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
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  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
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  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
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  • Progress continues apace on water storage
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  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
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