1.the offense of acting to overthrow one’s government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
2. a violation of allegiance to one’s sovereign or to one’s state.
3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.
Throughout human history, traitors have been considered even worse than open enemies.
This human antipathy toward traitors, has been suggested as a reason why many working people, impacted by Labour’s neo-liberal direction during the 1980s, voted for National in big numbers through the ’90s. (And even, why many still do.)
“One Who Delivers”
In Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, the ninth and lowest circle of Hell is reserved for traitors; Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, suffers the worst torments of all: being constantly gnawed at by one of Lucifer’s own three mouths. His treachery is considered so notorious that his name has long been synonymous with traitor, a fate he shares with Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling, Marcus Junius Brutus (who too is depicted in Dante’s Inferno, suffering the same fate as Judas along with Cassius Longinus). Indeed, the etymology of the word traitor originates with Judas’ handing over of Jesus to the chief priests, captains of the temple and elders (Luke 22:52): the word is derived from the Latin traditor which means “one who delivers.”
“We found pedophiles in the data, people, bad people, really bad people. We found mafia figures. Not just from Italy, but from Japan from America from everywhere, and they were convicted people.”
As the sickening revelations of international tax evasion by criminal gangs and corrupt government officials around the world keep pouring out.
New Zealand’s role revealed in this scandal, comes under investigation.
Radio NZ Morning Report, Guyon Espina interviews Gerard Ryle.
Gerard Ryle is the director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The ICIJ is the organisation that headed the investigation of the so called, leaked “Panama Papers” and oversaw their global release.
NZ “a very nice front for criminals” – Panama Papers journalist
Gerard Ryle “….. Looking at this whole issue of tax havens, now for a number of years, it’s a well known among people who know these things, that New Zealand is a really soft touch.
It’s very easy to set up companies; It’s a first world country, so people basically don’t think of bad things happening out of New Zealand; So it’s a very nice front for criminals.”
@2:57 Minutes:
Guyon Espiner “That’s the thing isn’t it? You are able to effectively buy the country’s name?”
“It is not seen as a tax haven, yet has some of the conditions of a a tax haven?”
“And has the benefit of that reputational strength, so in someways as you see it; looking through these kinds of papers, New Zealand is a pretty attractive destination for people who want to hide money?”
@3:18 Minutes:
Gerard Ryle “Exactly, and I think, You know, I mean, there have been many warning signs over the last couple of years. We all heard about the Taylors a few years ago. These were people who were basically setting up offshore accounts in the same way. And in fact the Taylors, when you dig into the Panama Papers, they were a huge user of Mossack Fonseca.”
“What the Taylors basically did was, set up offshore, was setting up shell companies for shipping arms around the world. And also people who were laundering money for drug cartels in South America.”
@3:50 Minutes:
Guyon Espiner “So what do you think of the credibility of the statement from Government Ministers that New Zealand isn’t a tax haven?”
Gerard Ryle “Well I think it is rubbish.”
“The bottom line is, it is a very easy jurisdiction to operate in. And it is very secretive.”
@4:55 Minutes:
Gerard Ryle “There is one product in the offshore world. And there is only one product. And that product is secrecy. And when you have secrecy you have the potential for wrong doing, and they will defend that world all the time by saying that it’s perfectly legitimate, that this is all part of international business.”
“But the bottom line is that the people who are doing legitimate business are standing next to people who are doing bad things, like laundering money, or drugs.”
“We found pedophiles in the data, people, bad people, really bad people. We found mafia figures. Not just from Italy, but from Japan from America from everywhere, and they were convicted people.”
The ICIJ has published some very interesting data relating to tax havens around the world and despite what the PM and other Ministers say, New Zealand is named as a tax haven in one of the graphs produced. Take a look at the link (under the headline “From the Caribbean to the Pacific: tax havens used by Mossack Fonseca”). https://panamapapers.icij.org/graphs/
This situation needs to be rectified to salvage what is left of NZ’s international reputation before it is too late.
“Act-shully, helping to hide the funds made from pedophilia and rape rings, and supplying Assad with weapons to carry out mass murder, is not that bad.” Jonky
@Paul the man is a money grabber and I bet if the chairman of the National Party was there then he would have had his hand out. I thought they were not allowed to have fund raising in the halls of Parliament?
This is another story showing the rot and corruption at the heart of this cadre running the country, yet the main story is still the Panama Papers.
Key would accept any distraction to avoid that being investigated.
Your comment intrigues me. Can you please explain how “a private room of an Auckland Chinese restaurant” is somehow “the halls of Parliament”?
I thought that “the halls of Parliament” were in Thorndon in Wellington.
Just checking how much a defender of the 1% you are.
a. Do you think Key should have done this?
b. Do you think Key’s position on tax havens is defensible?
The Panama Papers show us once and for all we can’t afford the rich.
” the truth is that we have all been robbed, systematically, by the world’s wealthiest people, for decades. They have used those stolen dollars to build yet more wealth for themselves, and all the while we have been arguing with ourselves over what to do with the leftover pennies.”
@Paul had a look at the personnel at IJIC and NZ has one investigative journalist Nicky Hager wonder if the police were looking for information on Panama Papers when they took his computers?
I can almost guarantee it Lucy (2.1). The exposure of the Panama documents throw a whole new perspective on the reason for the police raid and destruction of Nicky’s digital information.
More fallout from the secrecy of the TPP negotiations- in Japan. Good!
Diet erupts in outrage as ex-minister’s TPP manuscript reveals details Abe kept under wraps
BY AYAKO MIE
The opposition Democratic Party boycotted Diet deliberation Friday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership after it obtained a manuscript of memoirs authored by former farm minister Koya Nishikawa. The book, which was to be published next month, reveals details of what went on in negotiations behind closed doors.
DP lawmaker Yuichiro Tamaki, who obtained the manuscript, first brought up the issue in the Diet on Thursday.
Tamaki said the book reveals that U.S. negotiators offered concessions one month before U.S. President Barack Obama visited Japan in April 2014.
The DP is indignant that lawmakers were unaware of this until now. Documents they had access to were largely redacted and contained no mention of the supposed U.S. offer.
Apparently shaken by the stir his book has caused, Nishikawa later told reporters he will not send it into print.
The book, titled “The Truth about TPP,” was slated to hit bookstores in May. Nishikawa chairs the TPP special committee that is currently deliberating ratification of the TPP and related domestic bills.
The TPP process has been illegitimate, unethical and undemocratic because the major stakeholders, the people of each state, were not treated as stakeholders and were kept out of negotiations that involved the trading of their laws, regulations and signing up to a privatised, extrajudicial tribunal system that *claims precedence over each state’s own domestic judicial system.
+1 TMM – looks like Key and Mitchell are rushing our TPPA process as fast as possible to force the biggest corporate welfare transfer to corporations as quickly as possible before more ‘panama papers’ disclosures and links are made.
The TPP process has been illegitimate, unethical and undemocratic because the major stakeholders, the people of each state, were not treated as stakeholders
Seen that happening more and more where the government thinks that ‘stakeholders’ are the businesses that may be affected while ignoring the real stakeholders – the community around the area/nation. I first noticed it under the last Labour led government.
Actually was thinking to myself that “shareholders” seem to hold an elevated status above anyone else at present.
Forget the current flawed system that calls itself democracy – “one vote per citizen in country of birth or citizenship”. The world is being shaped by those shareholders who can ask their corporate lawyers to draft “agreements” that ensure their right to accumulate wealth globally is not interfered with by those self-same citizens.
The world is being shaped by those shareholders who can ask their corporate lawyers to draft “agreements” that ensure their right to accumulate wealth globally is not interfered with by those self-same citizens.
QFT
Capitalism is anathema to democracy. It’s why we have representative democracy (really an elected dictatorship) rather than participatory democracy. The rich are terrified that the people will vote rich people out of existence.
Considering that we can’t afford the rich this is exactly what needs to be done.
What is needed for a closer inspection of our own share trader PM?
Does the Herald’s editorial suggest a turning of the tide?
‘John Key is taking a risk defending the foreign trust regime in the wake of the global trust fund scandal and its New Zealand links.
If the Prime Minister assumes that the issue may be over within the week, then he is calculating that nothing else with New Zealand connections is lurking in the devastating leak of records from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. Mr Key insists New Zealand is not a tax haven but even if it does not fit the criteria, the existence here of nearly 12,000 foreign trusts suggests the financial rules, such as they are, appeal to the industry
Mr Key might feel immune from the mounting international clamour against the activities of the super-wealthy, but the fact remains that the exploitation of loopholes is often at the expense of ordinary taxpayers because it deprives the public accounts of revenue to invest in education, health and social services.
The presence of seemingly untouchable foreign trusts and the recent disclosure of corporate profit shifting contributes to a picture that New Zealand, like many Western nations, accommodates an elite operating beyond the rules which govern the rest of the community. It is likely to become for Mr Key an increasingly indefensible position.’
Pity it forgot to mention that Key himself is a member of the super wealthy club. That’s club he refers to when he sends soldiers to Iraq. The 1% club.
Some questions for Gower, Espiner, Ferguson to ask
Where is his $50 million stored?
Did he have any involvement with tax havens while at Merrill Lynch?
Why were laws changed in 2011?
@ Paul (4) – re your link to the NZH editorial ‘Key on Shaky ground.’
Let’s hope the ground is shaky enough to collapse and swallow the deceptive, treasonous piece of work! He has to go. At least “swine porker” Cameron has fessed up to his investments in foreign trusts, but only when the issue was made public and his family interests were exposed.
FJK has got his dirty money hidden away somewhere in foreign trusts. But the insult is that during his tenure, he has turned NZ into a money laundering racket, a tax haven where he has made it available for his despotic international corporate cronies to dump their grubby money here, to avoid paying tax! For the country to be mentioned 60,000 plus times in the Panama documents is evidence of this.
Welcome to NZ, the grubbiest little whorehouse of the pacific, courtesy of Pimp-in- Chief, John Philip Key!
8:12 Insight : The Panama Papers
This week on Insight, the BBC reports from The British Virgins Islands on how a law firm there has been used by rogue states and oppressive regimes, including North Korea and Syria, to set up shell companies.
9:06 Mediawatch
Hundreds of journalists in dozens of countries worked on The Panama Papers but our media were out of the loop. It was a pity – but was it also a problem?
“A top expert on tax havens explains why the Panama Papers barely scratch the surface”
transcript of interview with expert economist Gabriel Zucman,an assistant professor of economics at the University of California Berkeley.
A small excerpt:
“Offshore accounts also make it harder for everyone else to get rich, because they’re paying higher taxes to make up for the tax dollars the wealthy don’t pay when they shelter their assets overseas.”
How hard can it be for one of the 300 journalists to do a search of the Panama papers for “John Philip Key”, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand ? Come on journos
with his background it is more likely his funds will be in one of the many US based dodges…..remember that MF is but one of an estimated 800 firms engaged in facilitating this practice
Commentators on RT are calling the Panama papers leak a “hack”, probably by the US intelligence services, aimed at discrediting the Russian and Chinese leadership.
However, someone didn’t do their homework thoroughly, and David Cameron has now also been caught in the blast.
(I’d pose the question of whether or not this has been designed to help get rid of Cameron, but that would sound like a “conspiracy theory”)
Every extended network will have a preferred ‘bag man’.There are other, larger companies in the same business. I guess Mossack Fonseca wasn’t everyone’s preferred firm.
On one side of the coin, it’s tough shit on those elites who used them that they’ve been exposed. On the other side of the coin, those media outlets that promote the (our) establishment and denigrate ‘official enemies’ must have been kind of whooping. Not every day is a “Fish in a Barrel” day.
And, just as we have news outlets that always side with ‘our’ establishment, so foreign establishments have their outlets that defend and promote them. So, youknow, if Mossack Fonseca had been full of US shits instead of Russian and Chinese shits, then ‘our’ media would have been running around yelping about some Chinese hack or other.
They’re all fuckers CV. And none of them deserve any of our good will or forbearance. And no-one is off the hook, given that Mossack Fonseca is not the biggest fish in that particular shoal of firms. The trick, if it can be pulled off, is to lift the lid on the others and not get drawn by any suggestion that the so-called ‘Panama Papers’ constitute the entire picture.
‘Our’ propaganda only need extend itself as far as suggesting just that. ‘Panama Papers’ sounds far more comprehensive than Mossack Fonseca papers, yes?
@ Gruntie (6) – I’m pretty sure one of FJK’s trusts is the JPB trust, which could be in his wife’s name and another is a blind trust. Not sure about any others he might and probably has. But maybe JPB might be a good start for searching.
I’d say the JP is for John Philip and the B is his wife’s first name.
Dr. Jill Stein,if you have not heard of her, her is a shortish interview, which will remedy that for you. P.S if the democrats shaft Bernie, me thinks that this is the women will get those votes.
Lobbying needs to be banned as it puts all the power into the hands of the rich/corporates – the people who can afford to buy lobbyists. It’s how a democracy becomes an oligarchy.
What if the problem with poverty is it’s profitable?
ven in the Great Depression, evictions used to be rare. Now, each year, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of renters are put out on the street. Even a paid-up tenant can be easily evicted. Arleen loses one apartment when her son Jori throws a snowball at a passing car and the enraged driver kicks in the front door, and another when the police come after Jori when he kicks a teacher and runs home. Any kind of trouble that brings the police can lead to eviction, which means women can lose their homes if they call 911 when their man beats them up. Think about that the next time someone asks why women don’t call the cops on violent partners.
No country needs offshore investment because they can always afford to utilise their own resources. Don’t have the knowledge? Then they can use the resources that the can use to develop that knowledge if it’s not already freely available (a lot of the basic knowledge already is).
Foreign investment is simply another tool of the rich to become richer at everyone else’s expense.
The model is predicated on the investors providing expertise which is absent locally. But counting capital as a ‘scarce resource’ is nonsense in an age of quantitative easing. Following this model is part of what went wrong with NZ governance.
The model is predicated on the investors providing expertise which is absent locally.
Which almost never happens. What happens in real life is that the new offshore owner will grab the IP and close the business. If it’s left open then it continues to run as it did with little to no input of expertise from the foreign owner.
In other words, if we want expertise here then we need to develop it here.
But counting capital as a ‘scarce resource’ is nonsense in an age of quantitative easing.
It was always a nonsense to treat money as a scarce resource.
Yeah, actually, it does. That’s why the government keeps saying that we can’t afford anything despite having a) resources available and b) people to utilise those resources. Why they keep saying that we need foreign investment to do stuff that we’re quite capable of doing ourselves.
It is actually why some people keep demanding that we go back to the gold standard as well.
Profits leaving , investment entering , isn’t that money doing what it was invented for ie; circulating to provide the greese for society to operate.?
It only fails because the rules allow people to accumulate to much.
“It only fails because the rules allow people to accumulate to much.”
No. It also fails our economy when it heads offshore.
Offshore returns generally exceed the amount initially invested, leaving us with a fiscal shortfall.
Accumulating to much is largely a tax and low wages issue. Whereas, the concern here is the far greater after tax returns heading offshore.
Unless you are suggesting returns heading offshore can’t (through the tax system or capital controls) exceed the initial amount invested? Ceasing the current and detrimental fiscal shortfall offshore investment creates
“Unless you are suggesting returns heading offshore can’t (through the tax system or capital controls) exceed the initial amount invested?”
How you stop nz getting plundered for profit is beyond my education.
But the horse has bolted on stopping nz become part of the global financial system, so those involved would be better to spend their energies on fixing the system instead of pulling it to bits and starting again.
How you stop nz getting plundered for profit is beyond my education.
Easy – ban offshore ownership.
But the horse has bolted on stopping nz become part of the global financial system, so those involved would be better to spend their energies on fixing the system instead of pulling it to bits and starting again.
You can’t fix the present system. It really is that broken. All we can do is replace it and if that requires leaving the present global financial system then so be it. We actually can do that.
Whether (I hope that’s the right whether Alwyn) you like it or not a huge amount of nzs population derives their income from export, so how you can build an economic Berlin wall without driving us into poverty is beyond me.
Who said anything about stopping exports or imports?
We could still do that without being part of the present global financial system. In fact, doing so would start the end of the present system.
And then there’s the simple fact that even if those both stopped the people presently dependent upon them could find something else to do. Once we recognise that we don’t need foreign money then we actually have far greater possibilities open to us.
And why are you trying to talk to Alwyn? He got banned.
Can you point to any country that the government is the sole provider of money where they still function as a part of global trade?
I ask this because I and many like me enjoy producing a product like meat ,fruit or logs who’s lifestyle would die if we where to come up against sanctions..
“You can’t fix the present system. It really is that broken. All we can do is replace it and if that requires leaving the present global financial system then so be it. We actually can do that.”
Inclined to agree the present system cannot be fixed but if we are being honest any attempt to operate outside it comes with great risk, just ask Venezuela.
Its possible, maybe desirable but I don’t know if the majority of kiwis are yet ready to take that route…..perhaps in the not too distant future
I ask this because I and many like me enjoy producing a product like meat ,fruit or logs who’s lifestyle would die if we where to come up against sanctions.
1. Things change – get over yourself. Find something else you enjoy
2. Chances are there wouldn’t be world wide sanctions. Sure, the US, UK and probably the EU would but that still leaves around 5 billion others to trade with
Its possible, maybe desirable but I don’t know if the majority of kiwis are yet ready to take that route…..perhaps in the not too distant future
I don’t think it’s possible ATM as not enough people know just how much of a total scam our present financial system is but it will be in the future.
Like the Pineapple Lumps ad portrays, Kiwis are generally a little slow when it comes to such matters. However, time is also the enemy in this regard.
Trade agreements (such as the TPP) further weaken Government’s ability to respond to this form of fiscal extraction.
It doesn’t help Kiwis become better informed, hence more willing to act when even the Labour Party continue to tout the globalist line (NZ requires offshore investment).
It’s also disappointing to see there has been more discussion on the flag (on this site) than this far more important issue.
Yes, the horse has bolted on stopping NZ becoming part of the global financial system.
However, the time to act is now.
The more we move forward, the greater the damage becomes and the less we can do about it.
Trade agreements (such as the TPP) further weakens Government’s ability to respond to this form of fiscal extraction.
At the moment, we still have the right to decline offshore investment, yet we encourage it And we still have the ability to instate taxes and perhaps capital controls.
While trading with other willing nations is fine, allowing them to own NZ’s resources, the means of production and servicing, robs us of the fiscal benefits.
It’s more about re-distribution of tax collection.
Assume we collect the same amount of tax as we do now.
Many existing firms would pay less as many of these firms would pay more.
It’s simpler so compliance costs would be less and it would discourage much of the vertical integration that allows layers of businesses to charge each other down the chain to minimise profit.
I’d also support if NZ has a good economic year that by law 50% of any surplus gets returned to businesses.
Profit however is just a private tax, garnered by the expenses you can set against it.
Many of the expenses are dubious but legitimate as it currently stands. IRD has some success in sorting out non-legitimate ones eg banks charging themselves a fee for using their own name but it’s still open to lots of abuse to show profit as minimal. Gross income takes expenses out of the picture.
It’s not just the profit going offshore – many of the companies as we know pay minimal tax.
It the value of the expenses claimed as well.
Part of the solution to some of this is the renationlisation of infrastructure companies and the letting of government contracts to be limited where possible and practicable to NZ companies.
It seems that in many cases when the overseas companies win these contracts they just take a big cut and sub-contract NZers anyway.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t increase the tax take but it is important also in my view that every business pays some tax. Every business that has the benefit of operating in NZ should contribute.
No, it’s not just profit going offshore. As Draco rightly pointed out, the end result is we largely become serfs for the international elite.
While I hear what you are saying (and of course you are correct, a number aren’t paying their fair share of tax) new tax settings would have to capture all profits that exceed the initial and ongoing investment to cease the fiscal shortfall offshore investment creates.
Such stringent tax settings (as such stringent capital controls discussed above) would largely discourage further investment going forward, while also resulting in a number of current international investments in NZ pulling out.
Therefore, taxing to any lesser extent merely allows us to clip the ticket, but doesn’t deal with the larger concerns (serfdom and profits heading offshore).
A form of capital controls that prevents this form of capital flight would vastly stimulate our local economy.
If you could get such capital controls in place then it may work but then it still leaves us open to becoming serfs for the international rich which is another consideration that needs to be taken into account.
“If you could get such capital controls in place then it may work but then it still leaves us open to becoming serfs for the international rich…”
Such stringent capital controls would largely discourage further investment going forward, while also resulting in a number of current international investments in NZ pulling out.
Who would you vote for if an election was announced tomorrow?
Greens (29%, 1,551 Votes)
Labour (26%, 1,398 Votes)
National (17%, 944 Votes)
NZ First (16%, 868 Votes)
MANA (8%, 415 Votes)
ACT (2%, 130 Votes)
Maori Party (1%, 73 Votes)
United Future (0%, 18 Votes)
Interestingly there is a fair bit of material about suggesting that fructose above a certain threshold is just as bad, of not possibly worse, than sucrose.
The sugar industry, like the tobacco industry will fight back and fight dirty. (Probably with the support of the current Government.) As my elderly mother always said all things in moderation. She lived to 97.
Although it is processed, sucrose, the main form of table sugar, is also natural in that it is derived from a plant source. Sucrose is a disaccharide, being composed essentially of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule but the fructose molecule is the major cause for concern as it is metabolised differently to glucose, mainly by the liver (when you eat sucrose it is broken down into the separate sugar units). Fructose can also be found naturally in fruit but you’d have to eat silly amounts of fruit for it to be an issue.
“While the media hyped a false narrative about Bernie Sanders’ competence and policies, three of Sanders’ policy proposals were implemented this week.
What’s sad is that as the biggest leak in world historycame to light, exposing 140 different politicians from 50 countries engaged in egregious tax dodging, corporate-owned media outlets chose instead to take their lead for the week’s news from a greasy tabloid’serror-laden editorial board meeting with Bernie Sanders. The main narrative that came out of that interview was that the Vermont senator didn’t know how his own policies worked, with the Washington Post gleefully climbing on board.
However, the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim accurately pointed out that the interview transcript revealed both Sanders’ expertise and the New York Daily News editorial board’s sheer ignorance of both financial policy and civics. The New York Times and many other publications also balked at the sudden media attack on Sanders’ accurate answers.
While this all played out, Sanders watched as two governors, a federal agency head, and a president implemented some of his “unrealistic” policy proposals.
1. New York and California pass a $15/hour minimum wage
Bernie Sanders has called for a “living wage” of $15/hour to be the new national minimum wage, introducing legislation in July 2015 and joining the Fight for $15 during their events. Before taxes, this would amount to $31,200 a year for a full-time worker. It’s not exactly enough to live like a king, but enough for a person to be able to pay their bills and not live in abject poverty.
Even though detractors have been saying that doubling the minimum wage isn’t possible, and to aim lower, governors of two of the most populous states (New York and California) have joined other major cities in signing $15/hour minimum wage bills into law.
While Hillary Clinton tried to take credit for the New York law by being present at the signing ceremony, she’s only championed raising the minimum wage to $12/hour. And Sanders’ calls for $15/hour appear to be on their way to reality in other states as well, as 25 cities in Oregon are now on their way to having a $15/hour minimum wage, with Boston and Massachusetts considering the possibility. ….”
____________________
From day one Key has been cynically marketed so as to foster a subliminal appreciation that he’s a horsing around decent guy who really cares about New Zealand. Subliminal is great because it neutralises thinking. I believe that appreciation is under serious challenge. Increasingly and from issue to issue Key shows he cares only about personal power, money, the very rich. There is advancing cognisance of that and it’s making its way into the subliminal appreciation. At which point what is Key ? A nasty, greedy, philosophically bankrupt, socially illterate, fraud of man who’s been conning us for years. The game is over Traitor Boy.
And an interview on RNZ this morning re Iceland with Smári McCarthy chief technologist for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in Sarajevo. He confirmed that the PM has resigned from PM and a very recent poll had 80% saying he should resign from Parliament. Lynn Freeman missed an opportunity for a good interview.
The Pirate Party has surged up to 40+%.
Not up for replay yet.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796405
Smári McCarthy: Iceland, the Pirate Party and the Panama Papers
8:12 AM. Guest host Philippa Tolley interviews Smári McCarthy, chief technologist for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and founder of the Iceland Pirate Party.
Work and Income. If he can’t work as part of his parole conditions, nor leave his accommodation freely, than he has the right to a benefit to cover his living expenses.
Essentially he is a welfare bludger, and publicly stating that he is not trying to get a job, hopefully will get him sanctioned by Work and Income.
Not holding my breath tho.
The climate change fuelled extreme weather systems plaguing Fiji, the Philippines and other front line climate change states, may be visited on the rest of the world a lot sooner than was previously expected.
“John Key is taking a risk defending the foreign trust regime in the wake of the global trust fund scandal and its New Zealand links.
If the Prime Minister assumes that the issue may be over within the week, then he is calculating that nothing else with New Zealand connections is lurking in the devastating leak of records from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. Mr Key insists New Zealand is not a tax haven but even if it does not fit the criteria, the existence here of nearly 12,000 foreign trusts suggests the financial rules, such as they are, appeal to the industry.
The trusts pay no New Zealand tax on foreign earnings. Their beneficiaries are not registered and their accounts are not filed with any public body. The Government argued this week that arrangements with other countries to share tax information was a powerful deterrent against individuals who sought to conceal their affairs.
Tax experts however have challenged these assurances. Craig Elliffe, a tax law specialist at the University of Auckland, described the disclosure rules as ” almost dangerously weak”.
By themselves, foreign trusts are not illegal. The use of tax havens is second nature to owners of substantial assets.
The trove of documents in the Panama Papers, however, has set off inquiries into the source of some assets. The European tax commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, called much of the activity “immoral, unethical and simply unacceptable”.
mmm..,
i have been listening (again) to “the smartest guys in the room” the story of the enron rise and deline by bethany mclean.
andrew fastow, chief financial officer of enron, set up a couple of companies to take toxic assets off enrons books for a short time.
when setting up the capital for his companies, fastow got 10s of millions from the big boys- credit suisse, goldman etc also a group of traders at merril lynch stumped up cash. in the late ’90s.
it’s a great yarn and insight into the ways of these sorts of people.
And so it begins. While our Govt is rushing to get the ratification through for the TPP that they signed, the US are beginning to alter it to suit their large corporate donors.
USTR Plans To Use TPP Implementation To Address Longstanding IP Problems
Buried in the 2016 National Trade Estimate (NTE) report is a pledge from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to use the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to address what the administration views as longstanding shortcomings in intellectual property (IP) protection in all 11 TPP countries.
“Amid Panama Papers leak, it has emerged the U.K. prime minister intervened to prevent the EU from requiring offshore trusts in tax havens to reveal owners.
British Prime Minister David Cameron personally intervened against cracking down on offshore trusts in tax havens by the European Union in 2013, in what seems to be his efforts to protect his father’s trust, which was revealed by the recent Panama Papers leak.
…. ”
______________________
Women and men interested in women’s role in forming NZ – good radio interview this morning between Phillipa Tolley and Barbara Brookes who has researched and written a book about it. Very good interview to listen to. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796408
Guest host Philippa Tolley interviews Barbara Brookes, Professor of History at the University of Otago, about her new book A History of New Zealand Women.
I will be on Kevin Barrett’s Truth jihad show live today! I have been booked from 1-2 PM but will be on standby from 12 pm in case he can’t make a connection with his first guest!
I will be talking about John Key, his banking, tax haven creating career, the Panama Papers, Earthquakes, Lord Ashcroft’s secret visits to name a few subjects!
Suad Amiry: conservation architecture and Palestine
9:40 AM. Guest host Philippa Tolley interviews Palestinian conservation architect and writer Suad Amiry, founder of the Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, and author of Sharon and My Mother in Law, and Golda Slept Here. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796410
also
I caught some of that, she was very good. Her description of how Palestinians lost their homes, gardens, things with personal connection (not just their country) and what that means, especially for the people living only a few kilometres from what they have lost with someone else now living there, was both poignant and a far better explanation of why the Palestinian/Israeli situation is so intractable than any amount of geopolitical theory.
Especially poignant when someone went to see their old home and were not allowed to look at it, or even to talk to the new occupant. And I think that they were seeking an old photo which had to be left behind, and which just might have been recoverable.
Mr Eaqub on the nz s trust business, there seems to be parallels with said trust business and dotcoms mega business, in that while both are probably not directly involved in illegal actions , they are certainly providing a vehicle for dodgy behaviour.
“David Cameron’s terrible week ends with calls for resignation over Panama Papers
PM should have come clean earlier about shares in father’s offshore investment fund to avoid further damage, ..
David Cameron was in Washington rubbing shoulders with world leaders, sun-tanned and relaxed after a holiday in Lanzarote, when an email revealing what the Guardian knew about his father’s tax affairs dropped on Conservative HQ.
From that moment, the prime minister would have known there was a serious risk of people finding out about the £30,000 of shares he previously owned in Ian Cameron’s offshore investment fund.
It would look terrible to a public already outraged about tax avoidance that a wealthy young Cameron had chosen to buy shares in Blairmore, the fund based in Panama and the Bahamas that never paid a penny of tax in Britain.
This was the point at which Cameron should have made a clean breast of the facts, Labour and some of his own Conservative MPs now say.
..
Leadership challenge
It would have saved the prime minister the worst week of his professional life, which has ended with calls for him to resign, a flurry of bets on a leadership challenge this year and undermined public trust in his premiership.
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“DAVE’S DARKEST DAY: Tax scandal, EU leaflet row…now public like Cameron LESS than CORBYN
DAVID Cameron has endured his darkest day in Downing Street as his approval ratings slumped LOWER than Jeremy Corbyn’s for the first time. ….”
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Thanks Penny (29) for the info, particularly that of a protest at Downing St. This is something our msm should be reporting on. However, I’d say msm is under strict orders to comply with the NatzKEY hierarchy or else!
I hope Cameron’s present situation gives FJK cause to sweat and sweat hard! Hopefully he will be having some very unpleasant sleepless nights!
“Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will travel to the Vatican later this month, a visit that would provide images of the candidate at a major international venue as his foreign policy qualifications are under attack by rival Hillary Clinton.
Sanders’ visit to attend an April 15 conference on economic and environmental issues hosted by a pontifical academy will put him at the seat of the Roman Catholic Church just four days before the New York primary.
The visit also potentially injects into the Democratic nominating contest the agenda of Pope Francis, one of the most popular world leaders whose leadership of the Catholic church is especially admired by the political progressives who play an outsized role in Democratic primaries.
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Twitter going off with #resigncameron ! https://twitter.com/hashtag/ResignCameron?src=hash bugger the mainstream news! Theres a tropical dress code for the protest & someone has found an old tweet from Osbourne spouting that tax evaders are criminals. Reckon this could be it for Cameron? Dirty dirty rightwing hollowman gets his oats.
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 ...
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 ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
“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. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
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 ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
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Wonder who the 6 donors were.
Wonder if one was Donghua Liu.
Wonder if it was to help Oravida buy up Ashburton’s water.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11619417
@ Paul (1) – Enough evidence that FJK is a Traitor! Why the desperation to get HIS flag across the line?
And isn’t it interesting that the NZH article from David Fisher is not open for comment or debate?
Key meets in secret with Chinese donors to raise money for flag change??? If you’re not angry yet you’re not paying attention!
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/09/key-meets-in-secret-with-chinese-donors-to-raise-money-for-flag-change-if-youre-not-angry-yet-youre-not-paying-attention/#comment-332238
Key meets in secret with Chinese donors to raise money for flag change??? If you’re not angry yet you’re not paying attention!
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/09/key-meets-in-secret-with-chinese-donors-to-raise-money-for-flag-change-if-youre-not-angry-yet-youre-not-paying-attention/#comment-332238
Treason is not too strong a word for this behaviour.
treason
[tree-zuh n]
1.the offense of acting to overthrow one’s government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
2. a violation of allegiance to one’s sovereign or to one’s state.
3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/treason
Hi Paul,
“…the offense of acting to overthrow one’s government or to harm or kill its sovereign.”
The definition of acting to overthrow one’s government or to harm or kill its sovereign, is termed in law “High Treason”.
There is no case to argue that John Key is guilty of “High Treason”.
There is a argument that he is guilty of the lesser charge, as defined:
Throughout human history, traitors have been considered even worse than open enemies.
This human antipathy toward traitors, has been suggested as a reason why many working people, impacted by Labour’s neo-liberal direction during the 1980s, voted for National in big numbers through the ’90s. (And even, why many still do.)
“One Who Delivers”
Prime Minister John Key sullies New Zealand’s reputation. And then lies and tries to cover it up.
Treacherous?
You decide.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796260
As the sickening revelations of international tax evasion by criminal gangs and corrupt government officials around the world keep pouring out.
New Zealand’s role revealed in this scandal, comes under investigation.
Radio NZ Morning Report, Guyon Espina interviews Gerard Ryle.
Gerard Ryle is the director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The ICIJ is the organisation that headed the investigation of the so called, leaked “Panama Papers” and oversaw their global release.
NZ “a very nice front for criminals” – Panama Papers journalist
8:25 am on 8 April 2016
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201796260/nz-a-very-nice-front-for-criminals-panama-papers-journalist
@2:36 Minutes:
@2:57 Minutes:
@3:18 Minutes:
@3:50 Minutes:
@4:55 Minutes:
The ICIJ has published some very interesting data relating to tax havens around the world and despite what the PM and other Ministers say, New Zealand is named as a tax haven in one of the graphs produced. Take a look at the link (under the headline “From the Caribbean to the Pacific: tax havens used by Mossack Fonseca”). https://panamapapers.icij.org/graphs/
This situation needs to be rectified to salvage what is left of NZ’s international reputation before it is too late.
“Act-shully, helping to hide the funds made from pedophilia and rape rings, and supplying Assad with weapons to carry out mass murder, is not that bad.” Jonky
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11616609
@Paul the man is a money grabber and I bet if the chairman of the National Party was there then he would have had his hand out. I thought they were not allowed to have fund raising in the halls of Parliament?
This is another story showing the rot and corruption at the heart of this cadre running the country, yet the main story is still the Panama Papers.
Key would accept any distraction to avoid that being investigated.
I wonder Lucy if Dr Mapp could explain this 👿
Your comment intrigues me. Can you please explain how “a private room of an Auckland Chinese restaurant” is somehow “the halls of Parliament”?
I thought that “the halls of Parliament” were in Thorndon in Wellington.
Just checking how much a defender of the 1% you are.
a. Do you think Key should have done this?
b. Do you think Key’s position on tax havens is defensible?
Do you think your dopey mate North should apologise to Colonial Viper?
http://thestandard.org.nz/obama-calls-for-international-tax-reform-what-will-key-do-now/#comment-1157673
What on earth do your questions have to do with the location of Parliament, by the way?
No answer = a defender.
OK
Do you want to try answering his question or is it too hard for you?
Andrew Little says “It looks like a National Party project.”
It WAS a National Party project from start to finish – even down to the colours chosen for the replacement flag.
Well, that little bit of subterfuge isn’t going to make those wealthy Chinese involved very popular with the rest of us.
And couldn’t that be a handy diversion from looking into the links between Key and Panama?
The Panama Papers show us once and for all we can’t afford the rich.
” the truth is that we have all been robbed, systematically, by the world’s wealthiest people, for decades. They have used those stolen dollars to build yet more wealth for themselves, and all the while we have been arguing with ourselves over what to do with the leftover pennies.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/07/panama-papers-taxes-universal-basic-income-public-services
@Paul had a look at the personnel at IJIC and NZ has one investigative journalist Nicky Hager wonder if the police were looking for information on Panama Papers when they took his computers?
Quite possibly.
I can almost guarantee it Lucy (2.1). The exposure of the Panama documents throw a whole new perspective on the reason for the police raid and destruction of Nicky’s digital information.
More fallout from the secrecy of the TPP negotiations- in Japan. Good!
Diet erupts in outrage as ex-minister’s TPP manuscript reveals details Abe kept under wraps
BY AYAKO MIE
The TPP process has been illegitimate, unethical and undemocratic because the major stakeholders, the people of each state, were not treated as stakeholders and were kept out of negotiations that involved the trading of their laws, regulations and signing up to a privatised, extrajudicial tribunal system that *claims precedence over each state’s own domestic judicial system.
*For the first time in treaty-based ISDS proceedings, an arbitral tribunal affirmed its jurisdiction over a counterclaim lodged by a respondent State against the investor.
http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/webdiaepcb2013d3_en.pdf
Surely this invalid process should make the agreement invalid.
+1 TMM – looks like Key and Mitchell are rushing our TPPA process as fast as possible to force the biggest corporate welfare transfer to corporations as quickly as possible before more ‘panama papers’ disclosures and links are made.
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/resources/taxes-on-trial-how-trade-deals-threaten-tax-justice-global-justice-now.pdf
Seen that happening more and more where the government thinks that ‘stakeholders’ are the businesses that may be affected while ignoring the real stakeholders – the community around the area/nation. I first noticed it under the last Labour led government.
Actually was thinking to myself that “shareholders” seem to hold an elevated status above anyone else at present.
Forget the current flawed system that calls itself democracy – “one vote per citizen in country of birth or citizenship”. The world is being shaped by those shareholders who can ask their corporate lawyers to draft “agreements” that ensure their right to accumulate wealth globally is not interfered with by those self-same citizens.
QFT
Capitalism is anathema to democracy. It’s why we have representative democracy (really an elected dictatorship) rather than participatory democracy. The rich are terrified that the people will vote rich people out of existence.
Considering that we can’t afford the rich this is exactly what needs to be done.
David Cameron on the brink.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/08/david-cameron-panama-papers-offshore-fund-resignation-calls
What is needed for a closer inspection of our own share trader PM?
Does the Herald’s editorial suggest a turning of the tide?
‘John Key is taking a risk defending the foreign trust regime in the wake of the global trust fund scandal and its New Zealand links.
If the Prime Minister assumes that the issue may be over within the week, then he is calculating that nothing else with New Zealand connections is lurking in the devastating leak of records from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. Mr Key insists New Zealand is not a tax haven but even if it does not fit the criteria, the existence here of nearly 12,000 foreign trusts suggests the financial rules, such as they are, appeal to the industry
Mr Key might feel immune from the mounting international clamour against the activities of the super-wealthy, but the fact remains that the exploitation of loopholes is often at the expense of ordinary taxpayers because it deprives the public accounts of revenue to invest in education, health and social services.
The presence of seemingly untouchable foreign trusts and the recent disclosure of corporate profit shifting contributes to a picture that New Zealand, like many Western nations, accommodates an elite operating beyond the rules which govern the rest of the community. It is likely to become for Mr Key an increasingly indefensible position.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11619308
Pity it forgot to mention that Key himself is a member of the super wealthy club. That’s club he refers to when he sends soldiers to Iraq. The 1% club.
Some questions for Gower, Espiner, Ferguson to ask
Where is his $50 million stored?
Did he have any involvement with tax havens while at Merrill Lynch?
Why were laws changed in 2011?
@ Paul (4) – re your link to the NZH editorial ‘Key on Shaky ground.’
Let’s hope the ground is shaky enough to collapse and swallow the deceptive, treasonous piece of work! He has to go. At least “swine porker” Cameron has fessed up to his investments in foreign trusts, but only when the issue was made public and his family interests were exposed.
FJK has got his dirty money hidden away somewhere in foreign trusts. But the insult is that during his tenure, he has turned NZ into a money laundering racket, a tax haven where he has made it available for his despotic international corporate cronies to dump their grubby money here, to avoid paying tax! For the country to be mentioned 60,000 plus times in the Panama documents is evidence of this.
Welcome to NZ, the grubbiest little whorehouse of the pacific, courtesy of Pimp-in- Chief, John Philip Key!
Might be worth watching tomorrow on RNZ
8:12 Insight : The Panama Papers
This week on Insight, the BBC reports from The British Virgins Islands on how a law firm there has been used by rogue states and oppressive regimes, including North Korea and Syria, to set up shell companies.
9:06 Mediawatch
Hundreds of journalists in dozens of countries worked on The Panama Papers but our media were out of the loop. It was a pity – but was it also a problem?
“A top expert on tax havens explains why the Panama Papers barely scratch the surface”
transcript of interview with expert economist Gabriel Zucman,an assistant professor of economics at the University of California Berkeley.
A small excerpt:
“Offshore accounts also make it harder for everyone else to get rich, because they’re paying higher taxes to make up for the tax dollars the wealthy don’t pay when they shelter their assets overseas.”
And remember Mossack Fonseca’s is the forth largest law firm supplying services for tax havens – there are 3 others that are larger…..
And you would probably have to search for Keys family in those, he is unlikely to have it under his own name….
How hard can it be for one of the 300 journalists to do a search of the Panama papers for “John Philip Key”, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand ? Come on journos
They are paid courtiers, not journalists.
with his background it is more likely his funds will be in one of the many US based dodges…..remember that MF is but one of an estimated 800 firms engaged in facilitating this practice
European media writing pro-US stories under CIA pressure – German journo
Commentators on RT are calling the Panama papers leak a “hack”, probably by the US intelligence services, aimed at discrediting the Russian and Chinese leadership.
However, someone didn’t do their homework thoroughly, and David Cameron has now also been caught in the blast.
(I’d pose the question of whether or not this has been designed to help get rid of Cameron, but that would sound like a “conspiracy theory”)
Every extended network will have a preferred ‘bag man’.There are other, larger companies in the same business. I guess Mossack Fonseca wasn’t everyone’s preferred firm.
On one side of the coin, it’s tough shit on those elites who used them that they’ve been exposed. On the other side of the coin, those media outlets that promote the (our) establishment and denigrate ‘official enemies’ must have been kind of whooping. Not every day is a “Fish in a Barrel” day.
And, just as we have news outlets that always side with ‘our’ establishment, so foreign establishments have their outlets that defend and promote them. So, youknow, if Mossack Fonseca had been full of US shits instead of Russian and Chinese shits, then ‘our’ media would have been running around yelping about some Chinese hack or other.
They’re all fuckers CV. And none of them deserve any of our good will or forbearance. And no-one is off the hook, given that Mossack Fonseca is not the biggest fish in that particular shoal of firms. The trick, if it can be pulled off, is to lift the lid on the others and not get drawn by any suggestion that the so-called ‘Panama Papers’ constitute the entire picture.
‘Our’ propaganda only need extend itself as far as suggesting just that. ‘Panama Papers’ sounds far more comprehensive than Mossack Fonseca papers, yes?
@ Gruntie (6) – I’m pretty sure one of FJK’s trusts is the JPB trust, which could be in his wife’s name and another is a blind trust. Not sure about any others he might and probably has. But maybe JPB might be a good start for searching.
I’d say the JP is for John Philip and the B is his wife’s first name.
Dr. Jill Stein,if you have not heard of her, her is a shortish interview, which will remedy that for you. P.S if the democrats shaft Bernie, me thinks that this is the women will get those votes.
thanks adam,
great interview and a couple of things are applicable here.
i reckon cutting off access to lobbyists would be a great idea.
I agree, but here it can be done quite sneaky.
As
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/09/key-meets-in-secret-with-chinese-donors-to-raise-money-for-flag-change-if-youre-not-angry-yet-youre-not-paying-attention/
points out
Lobbying needs to be banned as it puts all the power into the hands of the rich/corporates – the people who can afford to buy lobbyists. It’s how a democracy becomes an oligarchy.
The last thing politicians want is to be cut off from lobbyists and lobbyists funding.
Dinner with Big Pharma anyone? Dinner with Big Donors anyone?
What if the problem with poverty is it’s profitable?
ven in the Great Depression, evictions used to be rare. Now, each year, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of renters are put out on the street. Even a paid-up tenant can be easily evicted. Arleen loses one apartment when her son Jori throws a snowball at a passing car and the enraged driver kicks in the front door, and another when the police come after Jori when he kicks a teacher and runs home. Any kind of trouble that brings the police can lead to eviction, which means women can lose their homes if they call 911 when their man beats them up. Think about that the next time someone asks why women don’t call the cops on violent partners.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/07/evicted-poverty-and-profit-in-the-american-city-matthew-desmond-review
This (below) requires to be widely highlighted.
What Export From NZ Is Bigger Than Seafood & Milk Powder Combined?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/08/what-export-from-nz-is-bigger-than-seafood-milk-powder-combined/
@ The Chairman – that is a great link. Shocking.
Indeed.
So much for NZ requiring offshore investment.
No country needs offshore investment because they can always afford to utilise their own resources. Don’t have the knowledge? Then they can use the resources that the can use to develop that knowledge if it’s not already freely available (a lot of the basic knowledge already is).
Foreign investment is simply another tool of the rich to become richer at everyone else’s expense.
Yep +1
The model is predicated on the investors providing expertise which is absent locally. But counting capital as a ‘scarce resource’ is nonsense in an age of quantitative easing. Following this model is part of what went wrong with NZ governance.
Which almost never happens. What happens in real life is that the new offshore owner will grab the IP and close the business. If it’s left open then it continues to run as it did with little to no input of expertise from the foreign owner.
In other words, if we want expertise here then we need to develop it here.
It was always a nonsense to treat money as a scarce resource.
Economics doesn’t consider money a resource.
Yeah, actually, it does. That’s why the government keeps saying that we can’t afford anything despite having a) resources available and b) people to utilise those resources. Why they keep saying that we need foreign investment to do stuff that we’re quite capable of doing ourselves.
It is actually why some people keep demanding that we go back to the gold standard as well.
Investment seeks return and it’s these returns heading offshore that are detrimental to our economy.
Yet, the line NZ requires offshore investment is often touted. Unfortunately, even by Labour.
Profits leaving , investment entering , isn’t that money doing what it was invented for ie; circulating to provide the greese for society to operate.?
It only fails because the rules allow people to accumulate to much.
“It only fails because the rules allow people to accumulate to much.”
No. It also fails our economy when it heads offshore.
Offshore returns generally exceed the amount initially invested, leaving us with a fiscal shortfall.
Accumulating to much is largely a tax and low wages issue. Whereas, the concern here is the far greater after tax returns heading offshore.
Unless you are suggesting returns heading offshore can’t (through the tax system or capital controls) exceed the initial amount invested? Ceasing the current and detrimental fiscal shortfall offshore investment creates
“Unless you are suggesting returns heading offshore can’t (through the tax system or capital controls) exceed the initial amount invested?”
How you stop nz getting plundered for profit is beyond my education.
But the horse has bolted on stopping nz become part of the global financial system, so those involved would be better to spend their energies on fixing the system instead of pulling it to bits and starting again.
Easy – ban offshore ownership.
You can’t fix the present system. It really is that broken. All we can do is replace it and if that requires leaving the present global financial system then so be it. We actually can do that.
Whether (I hope that’s the right whether Alwyn) you like it or not a huge amount of nzs population derives their income from export, so how you can build an economic Berlin wall without driving us into poverty is beyond me.
Who said anything about stopping exports or imports?
We could still do that without being part of the present global financial system. In fact, doing so would start the end of the present system.
And then there’s the simple fact that even if those both stopped the people presently dependent upon them could find something else to do. Once we recognise that we don’t need foreign money then we actually have far greater possibilities open to us.
And why are you trying to talk to Alwyn? He got banned.
Can you point to any country that the government is the sole provider of money where they still function as a part of global trade?
I ask this because I and many like me enjoy producing a product like meat ,fruit or logs who’s lifestyle would die if we where to come up against sanctions..
PS Alwyn likes to haunt me for errors,
“You can’t fix the present system. It really is that broken. All we can do is replace it and if that requires leaving the present global financial system then so be it. We actually can do that.”
Inclined to agree the present system cannot be fixed but if we are being honest any attempt to operate outside it comes with great risk, just ask Venezuela.
Its possible, maybe desirable but I don’t know if the majority of kiwis are yet ready to take that route…..perhaps in the not too distant future
1. Things change – get over yourself. Find something else you enjoy
2. Chances are there wouldn’t be world wide sanctions. Sure, the US, UK and probably the EU would but that still leaves around 5 billion others to trade with
I don’t think it’s possible ATM as not enough people know just how much of a total scam our present financial system is but it will be in the future.
“1. Things change – get over yourself. Find something else you enjoy”
With a sales pitch like that you’ve got a big future in politics. 🙂
@ Pat
Like the Pineapple Lumps ad portrays, Kiwis are generally a little slow when it comes to such matters. However, time is also the enemy in this regard.
Trade agreements (such as the TPP) further weaken Government’s ability to respond to this form of fiscal extraction.
It doesn’t help Kiwis become better informed, hence more willing to act when even the Labour Party continue to tout the globalist line (NZ requires offshore investment).
It’s also disappointing to see there has been more discussion on the flag (on this site) than this far more important issue.
@ b waghorn
Yes, the horse has bolted on stopping NZ becoming part of the global financial system.
However, the time to act is now.
The more we move forward, the greater the damage becomes and the less we can do about it.
Trade agreements (such as the TPP) further weakens Government’s ability to respond to this form of fiscal extraction.
At the moment, we still have the right to decline offshore investment, yet we encourage it And we still have the ability to instate taxes and perhaps capital controls.
While trading with other willing nations is fine, allowing them to own NZ’s resources, the means of production and servicing, robs us of the fiscal benefits.
It’s why we should take expenses out of the picture and tax on gross sales (turnover).
Some countries have started doing this in a small way.
http://www.artright.co.za/artbusiness/money-management/tax/turnover-tax/
While taxing in such a way will allow a larger tax slice, it overlooks the massive amount that still escapes our economy and heads offshore.
Therefore, if those companies were NZ owned, not only would we obtain the tax but profits would also remain.
It’s more about re-distribution of tax collection.
Assume we collect the same amount of tax as we do now.
Many existing firms would pay less as many of these firms would pay more.
It’s simpler so compliance costs would be less and it would discourage much of the vertical integration that allows layers of businesses to charge each other down the chain to minimise profit.
I’d also support if NZ has a good economic year that by law 50% of any surplus gets returned to businesses.
As far as profits going offshore is concerned the only option is to ban offshore ownership.
Again, you are overlooking the issue of concern.
Tax is only a small slice of the profits earned.
Therefore, the key issue here is not re-distribution of tax collected, it’s about re-distribution of total returns generated.
As a number of NZ’s most lucrative sectors/companies are offshore owned, the more we increase our GDP, the more that currently heads offshore.
Draco – A form of capital controls that prevents this form of capital flight would vastly stimulate our local economy. Ensuring returns stay onshore.
Profit however is just a private tax, garnered by the expenses you can set against it.
Many of the expenses are dubious but legitimate as it currently stands. IRD has some success in sorting out non-legitimate ones eg banks charging themselves a fee for using their own name but it’s still open to lots of abuse to show profit as minimal. Gross income takes expenses out of the picture.
It’s not just the profit going offshore – many of the companies as we know pay minimal tax.
It the value of the expenses claimed as well.
Part of the solution to some of this is the renationlisation of infrastructure companies and the letting of government contracts to be limited where possible and practicable to NZ companies.
It seems that in many cases when the overseas companies win these contracts they just take a big cut and sub-contract NZers anyway.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t increase the tax take but it is important also in my view that every business pays some tax. Every business that has the benefit of operating in NZ should contribute.
@ Descendant Of Sssmith
No, it’s not just profit going offshore. As Draco rightly pointed out, the end result is we largely become serfs for the international elite.
While I hear what you are saying (and of course you are correct, a number aren’t paying their fair share of tax) new tax settings would have to capture all profits that exceed the initial and ongoing investment to cease the fiscal shortfall offshore investment creates.
Such stringent tax settings (as such stringent capital controls discussed above) would largely discourage further investment going forward, while also resulting in a number of current international investments in NZ pulling out.
Therefore, taxing to any lesser extent merely allows us to clip the ticket, but doesn’t deal with the larger concerns (serfdom and profits heading offshore).
If you could get such capital controls in place then it may work but then it still leaves us open to becoming serfs for the international rich which is another consideration that needs to be taken into account.
@ Draco
“If you could get such capital controls in place then it may work but then it still leaves us open to becoming serfs for the international rich…”
Such stringent capital controls would largely discourage further investment going forward, while also resulting in a number of current international investments in NZ pulling out.
All info here.
An interesting poll result over at the Daily Blog
Who would you vote for if an election was announced tomorrow?
Greens (29%, 1,551 Votes)
Labour (26%, 1,398 Votes)
National (17%, 944 Votes)
NZ First (16%, 868 Votes)
MANA (8%, 415 Votes)
ACT (2%, 130 Votes)
Maori Party (1%, 73 Votes)
United Future (0%, 18 Votes)
Note: NZ Democrats for Social Credit was not listed
http://www.democrats.org.nz/
Sugar. The Guardian has published pretty compulsive evidence on sugar/obesity/heart.
“Lustig argues forcefully that fructose, a form of sugar ubiquitous in modern diets, is a “poison” culpable for America’s obesity epidemic.”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-robert-lustig-john-yudkin
PS. I think the article wrongly condemns fructose which is a natural sugar. Should read sucrose as the demon?
Interestingly there is a fair bit of material about suggesting that fructose above a certain threshold is just as bad, of not possibly worse, than sucrose.
The sugar industry, like the tobacco industry will fight back and fight dirty. (Probably with the support of the current Government.) As my elderly mother always said all things in moderation. She lived to 97.
Although it is processed, sucrose, the main form of table sugar, is also natural in that it is derived from a plant source. Sucrose is a disaccharide, being composed essentially of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule but the fructose molecule is the major cause for concern as it is metabolised differently to glucose, mainly by the liver (when you eat sucrose it is broken down into the separate sugar units). Fructose can also be found naturally in fruit but you’d have to eat silly amounts of fruit for it to be an issue.
Last time I looked, all sugars were natural.
It’s not sugar per se that’s the problem but excessive dietary sugar.
We should note that arsenic, strychnine and rattlesnake venom are “natural” as well.
Lustig on fructose:
So far this week – three of Bernie Sanders’ ‘unrealistic / pie in the sky’ policies have been implemented?
1) The $15 per hour minimum wage has been passed into law in two of the most populous States in the USA, California and New York:
http://usuncut.com/politics/bernie-wins-policy-victories/
“While the media hyped a false narrative about Bernie Sanders’ competence and policies, three of Sanders’ policy proposals were implemented this week.
What’s sad is that as the biggest leak in world historycame to light, exposing 140 different politicians from 50 countries engaged in egregious tax dodging, corporate-owned media outlets chose instead to take their lead for the week’s news from a greasy tabloid’serror-laden editorial board meeting with Bernie Sanders. The main narrative that came out of that interview was that the Vermont senator didn’t know how his own policies worked, with the Washington Post gleefully climbing on board.
However, the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim accurately pointed out that the interview transcript revealed both Sanders’ expertise and the New York Daily News editorial board’s sheer ignorance of both financial policy and civics. The New York Times and many other publications also balked at the sudden media attack on Sanders’ accurate answers.
While this all played out, Sanders watched as two governors, a federal agency head, and a president implemented some of his “unrealistic” policy proposals.
1. New York and California pass a $15/hour minimum wage
Bernie Sanders has called for a “living wage” of $15/hour to be the new national minimum wage, introducing legislation in July 2015 and joining the Fight for $15 during their events. Before taxes, this would amount to $31,200 a year for a full-time worker. It’s not exactly enough to live like a king, but enough for a person to be able to pay their bills and not live in abject poverty.
Even though detractors have been saying that doubling the minimum wage isn’t possible, and to aim lower, governors of two of the most populous states (New York and California) have joined other major cities in signing $15/hour minimum wage bills into law.
While Hillary Clinton tried to take credit for the New York law by being present at the signing ceremony, she’s only championed raising the minimum wage to $12/hour. And Sanders’ calls for $15/hour appear to be on their way to reality in other states as well, as 25 cities in Oregon are now on their way to having a $15/hour minimum wage, with Boston and Massachusetts considering the possibility. ….”
____________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
+1 Penny
That is good Penny. $15dph US would be about $18NZ. Surprised? Key/English have been in denial for ages.
From day one Key has been cynically marketed so as to foster a subliminal appreciation that he’s a horsing around decent guy who really cares about New Zealand. Subliminal is great because it neutralises thinking. I believe that appreciation is under serious challenge. Increasingly and from issue to issue Key shows he cares only about personal power, money, the very rich. There is advancing cognisance of that and it’s making its way into the subliminal appreciation. At which point what is Key ? A nasty, greedy, philosophically bankrupt, socially illterate, fraud of man who’s been conning us for years. The game is over Traitor Boy.
And an interview on RNZ this morning re Iceland with Smári McCarthy chief technologist for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in Sarajevo. He confirmed that the PM has resigned from PM and a very recent poll had 80% saying he should resign from Parliament. Lynn Freeman missed an opportunity for a good interview.
The Pirate Party has surged up to 40+%.
Not up for replay yet.
See below. The audio through Skype became fractured so Lynn may not have asked everything planned.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796405
Smári McCarthy: Iceland, the Pirate Party and the Panama Papers
8:12 AM. Guest host Philippa Tolley interviews Smári McCarthy, chief technologist for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and founder of the Iceland Pirate Party.
Dismay after multi-million dollar LWR fraudster granted parole
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/78673694/Dismay-after-multi-million-dollar-LWR-fraudster-Ken-Anderson-granted-parole
What interested me
+1 DV – Yep how is he supporting himself?
Work and Income. If he can’t work as part of his parole conditions, nor leave his accommodation freely, than he has the right to a benefit to cover his living expenses.
Essentially he is a welfare bludger, and publicly stating that he is not trying to get a job, hopefully will get him sanctioned by Work and Income.
Not holding my breath tho.
One can only wonder, dv.
The fraud did leave the bank with losses of $70 million.
Yep, probably. The money and assets that should have been taken off of him as they were obviously obtained via fraud.
But if in a trust they are not his!!!
Courts should have the ability to look through trusts and rule on asset distribution appropriately
There should only be three kinds of trusts. Charitable. Heritage or conservation. & for minors or dependents. Rest should be broken up.
Yeah like thats going to happen Stuart!!!
Quick way to pay off $120 billion of odious debt.
“All your ill-gotten gains are belong to us.”
And help to pay UBI
Part of the delusion of trusts and capitalism.
This is how it should be so that criminals don’t get to keep the proceeds of their crime:
If he paid into the trust then they’re his. If he’s a beneficiary of the trust then the assets are his.
Without reliable agricultural farming, human civilisation becomes unviable.
Why Fiji is a glimpse of the future for humanity.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/pacific/301038/concerns-over-food-security-in-fiji
Time to stop the madness, and severely rein in fossil fuels.
No Deep Sea Oil Drilling!
No New Coal MInes!
No New Motorways! (switch the $11 billion RONS funding to public transport)
New Zealand needs to set and example to the world.
Business As Usual, BAU, is not an option!
New Zealand needs to show solidarity with the Pacific front line climate change states, worst affected by climate change.
Anything less, is treason to humanity and future generations, and in particular our Island neighbours, most immediately affected.
+1
The climate change fuelled extreme weather systems plaguing Fiji, the Philippines and other front line climate change states, may be visited on the rest of the world a lot sooner than was previously expected.
https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/08/early-warning-signs-for-james-hansens-superstorms-visible-north-atlantic-cool-pool-as-harbinger-to-all-hell-breaking-loose/
Does NZ Prime Minister John Key use tax havens?
How is that not a fair question ?
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11619308
“John Key is taking a risk defending the foreign trust regime in the wake of the global trust fund scandal and its New Zealand links.
If the Prime Minister assumes that the issue may be over within the week, then he is calculating that nothing else with New Zealand connections is lurking in the devastating leak of records from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. Mr Key insists New Zealand is not a tax haven but even if it does not fit the criteria, the existence here of nearly 12,000 foreign trusts suggests the financial rules, such as they are, appeal to the industry.
The trusts pay no New Zealand tax on foreign earnings. Their beneficiaries are not registered and their accounts are not filed with any public body. The Government argued this week that arrangements with other countries to share tax information was a powerful deterrent against individuals who sought to conceal their affairs.
Tax experts however have challenged these assurances. Craig Elliffe, a tax law specialist at the University of Auckland, described the disclosure rules as ” almost dangerously weak”.
By themselves, foreign trusts are not illegal. The use of tax havens is second nature to owners of substantial assets.
The trove of documents in the Panama Papers, however, has set off inquiries into the source of some assets. The European tax commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, called much of the activity “immoral, unethical and simply unacceptable”.
….
__________________________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
He worked for Merriil Lynch.
http://www.pbig.ml.com/pwa/pages/tax-management.aspx
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/80902/gareth-vaughan-questions-whether-pm-john-key-stuck-pre-gfc-time-warp-given-his
mmm..,
i have been listening (again) to “the smartest guys in the room” the story of the enron rise and deline by bethany mclean.
andrew fastow, chief financial officer of enron, set up a couple of companies to take toxic assets off enrons books for a short time.
when setting up the capital for his companies, fastow got 10s of millions from the big boys- credit suisse, goldman etc also a group of traders at merril lynch stumped up cash. in the late ’90s.
it’s a great yarn and insight into the ways of these sorts of people.
And so it begins. While our Govt is rushing to get the ratification through for the TPP that they signed, the US are beginning to alter it to suit their large corporate donors.
http://insidetrade.com/
Time to read the following paper by Jane Kelsey.
“HOW THE US FORCED AUSTRALIA TO REWRITE ASPECTS OF ITS COPYRIGHT LAW
DURING CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE AUSFTA”
http://tppnocertification.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AUSFTA-certification-memo-Feb-2015.pdf
Yep, time for the US to make life far more expensive for the rest of the TPP nations so that their corporates can make more profits.
David Cameron fought EU tax rules to help protect his daddy’s offshore trust?
How long before David Cameron is the next Prime Minister to resign over the Panama Papers scandal?
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cameron-Fought-EU-Tax-Rules-to-Shield-Fathers-Offshore-Trust-20160407-0017.html
“Amid Panama Papers leak, it has emerged the U.K. prime minister intervened to prevent the EU from requiring offshore trusts in tax havens to reveal owners.
British Prime Minister David Cameron personally intervened against cracking down on offshore trusts in tax havens by the European Union in 2013, in what seems to be his efforts to protect his father’s trust, which was revealed by the recent Panama Papers leak.
…. ”
______________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Women and men interested in women’s role in forming NZ – good radio interview this morning between Phillipa Tolley and Barbara Brookes who has researched and written a book about it. Very good interview to listen to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796408
Guest host Philippa Tolley interviews Barbara Brookes, Professor of History at the University of Otago, about her new book A History of New Zealand Women.
also – intriguing story:
The Edwardian woman who fled to New Zealand for love
Grace Oakeshott
Married Englishwoman Grace Oakeshott faked her own death in 1907 so she could escape with her lover to New Zealand.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201795803/how-grace-oakeshott-faked-her-death-in-1907-and-fled-to-new-zealand
or
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201795803
British author Jocelyn Robson has been researching the life of Englishwoman Grace Oakeshott, who faked her own death in 1907 so she could escape her marriage and flee to New Zealand with her lover.
Jocelyn Robson talks with Kathryn Ryan about the remarkable true story
I will be on Kevin Barrett’s Truth jihad show live today! I have been booked from 1-2 PM but will be on standby from 12 pm in case he can’t make a connection with his first guest!
I will be talking about John Key, his banking, tax haven creating career, the Panama Papers, Earthquakes, Lord Ashcroft’s secret visits to name a few subjects!
Here is the link to the program: http://FreedomSlips.com and click Studio B
Suad Amiry: conservation architecture and Palestine
9:40 AM. Guest host Philippa Tolley interviews Palestinian conservation architect and writer Suad Amiry, founder of the Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, and author of Sharon and My Mother in Law, and Golda Slept Here.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201796410
also
Ted talk
I caught some of that, she was very good. Her description of how Palestinians lost their homes, gardens, things with personal connection (not just their country) and what that means, especially for the people living only a few kilometres from what they have lost with someone else now living there, was both poignant and a far better explanation of why the Palestinian/Israeli situation is so intractable than any amount of geopolitical theory.
Especially poignant when someone went to see their old home and were not allowed to look at it, or even to talk to the new occupant. And I think that they were seeking an old photo which had to be left behind, and which just might have been recoverable.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/78729107/shamubeel-eaqub-panama-papers-show-nz-is-complicit-in-criminal-behaviour
Mr Eaqub on the nz s trust business, there seems to be parallels with said trust business and dotcoms mega business, in that while both are probably not directly involved in illegal actions , they are certainly providing a vehicle for dodgy behaviour.
Seems the Labour Party are to blame for the NZ trusts at the centre of the current controversy.
Albeit, along with National’s failure to correct the situation.
Thoughts?
Not a surprise in principle, but interesting and useful to see the geography of the connections between the most powerful corporations:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354-500-revealed-the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world/
Also, positing the end of the nation-state:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329850-600-end-of-nations-is-there-an-alternative-to-countries/
How long before UK Prime Minister David Cameron resigns?
(Wonder how the UK protest today outside Downing St is going?)
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/08/david-cameron-panama-papers-offshore-fund-resignation-calls
“David Cameron’s terrible week ends with calls for resignation over Panama Papers
PM should have come clean earlier about shares in father’s offshore investment fund to avoid further damage, ..
David Cameron was in Washington rubbing shoulders with world leaders, sun-tanned and relaxed after a holiday in Lanzarote, when an email revealing what the Guardian knew about his father’s tax affairs dropped on Conservative HQ.
From that moment, the prime minister would have known there was a serious risk of people finding out about the £30,000 of shares he previously owned in Ian Cameron’s offshore investment fund.
It would look terrible to a public already outraged about tax avoidance that a wealthy young Cameron had chosen to buy shares in Blairmore, the fund based in Panama and the Bahamas that never paid a penny of tax in Britain.
This was the point at which Cameron should have made a clean breast of the facts, Labour and some of his own Conservative MPs now say.
..
Leadership challenge
It would have saved the prime minister the worst week of his professional life, which has ended with calls for him to resign, a flurry of bets on a leadership challenge this year and undermined public trust in his premiership.
……
_______________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Cutting edge – political SATIRE 🙂
https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207230291088949&set=p.10207230291088949&type=3&src=email_notif
“I’m comfortable that NZ is now a corrupt, polluted TAX HAVEN”
ShonKEY
Dosent link Penny
Crikey!
This latest poll result has got to be the ‘kiss of death’ for UK Prime Minister David Cameron?
The ‘unelectable’ Leader of the UK Labour Party – Jeremy Corbyn – now has higher approval ratings than (current) UK Prime Minister David Cameron?!
On top of everything else – surely David Cameron’s position as Prime Minister is now simply untenable?
So – how long before PM David Cameron resigns – or will he be rolled?
(Remember – there is a protest outside Downing St against David Cameron at 11am 9 April 2016 (UK time – they’re 12 hours behind us ).
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/659400/David-Cameron-approval-ratings-Jeremy-Corbyn-offshore-tax-EU-leaflet-petition-row
“DAVE’S DARKEST DAY: Tax scandal, EU leaflet row…now public like Cameron LESS than CORBYN
DAVID Cameron has endured his darkest day in Downing Street as his approval ratings slumped LOWER than Jeremy Corbyn’s for the first time. ….”
__________________________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Thanks Penny (29) for the info, particularly that of a protest at Downing St. This is something our msm should be reporting on. However, I’d say msm is under strict orders to comply with the NatzKEY hierarchy or else!
I hope Cameron’s present situation gives FJK cause to sweat and sweat hard! Hopefully he will be having some very unpleasant sleepless nights!
So Hillary Clinton didn’t get an invite to the Vatican?
(Neither did Donald Trump or Ted Cruz – as it happens).
Bernie Sanders did …..
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-08/sanders-moved-by-invitation-to-visit-the-vatican-next-week
“Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will travel to the Vatican later this month, a visit that would provide images of the candidate at a major international venue as his foreign policy qualifications are under attack by rival Hillary Clinton.
Sanders’ visit to attend an April 15 conference on economic and environmental issues hosted by a pontifical academy will put him at the seat of the Roman Catholic Church just four days before the New York primary.
The visit also potentially injects into the Democratic nominating contest the agenda of Pope Francis, one of the most popular world leaders whose leadership of the Catholic church is especially admired by the political progressives who play an outsized role in Democratic primaries.
……”
_______________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Twitter going off with #resigncameron ! https://twitter.com/hashtag/ResignCameron?src=hash bugger the mainstream news! Theres a tropical dress code for the protest & someone has found an old tweet from Osbourne spouting that tax evaders are criminals. Reckon this could be it for Cameron? Dirty dirty rightwing hollowman gets his oats.
https://t.co/W9t6Lv9e2L links live to protests.