“…because it’s actually a radically socialist idea in many ways when it’s implemented universally.”
Some righties like the idea of a UBI because it gives cover for things like abolishing the minimum wage, hours flexibility (zero hours contracts), and eliminating large parts of government departments that administer welfare.
[I moved this to Open Mike so we could have threading and reply buttons again. Original conversation and background is here – weka]
Yep. That’s how I took MW’s comment. That a UBI could be RW or LW depending on how it was designed. Morgan’s one doesn’t look particularly LW to me, although I do think he has good intentions with regards to fairness. It’s just that the kaupapa isn’t about fairness, it’s about economic rationing. Fairness is an add-on.
In Morgan’s case I think you’ll find that he thinks economic rationing is fair. He’s a classically trained economist after all and thinks that capitalism and rich people are the solution and not the problem that they are.
It appears to be $200 on top of what you already have, so for women on the DPB for instance, it’s massive. I don’t understand all the tax/WFF stuff though, so I’m 100% sure of what it would mean in reality.
It’s not a UBI though. It’s a substantial benefit targeted for young families for the first 3 years of the child’s life. As people have been pointing out, it’s going to cause confusion about what a UBI is, and if TOP manage to gain some power it will set the scene for a RW UBI not a LW one.
Fwiw, I do think that Morgan wants to create a fairer society. I think he just doesn’t understand how to do that, or he thinks some people are expendable, or he thinks people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps if his proposals don’t work for those individuals (but they’re best for society!). Not sure which, and I’m sceptical that someone with the resources he has couldn’t solve the top-up issue.
The policy is suggesting an Unconditional (not Universal) Basic Income for some clearly defined sections of society.
If the policy is any way adopted by a Lab/Green government, why would they legislate for what you allege to be the precursor for a right wing universal basic income?
And on what basis are you claiming it’s a right wing policy in the first place?
Given that the TOP policy platform is highly redistributive, any claim that one component of it right wing is just odd or plain daft.
Where (in the policy) is the evidence of ‘expendability’?
“If the policy is any way adopted by a Lab/Green government, why would they legislate for what you allege to be the precursor for a right wing universal basic income?”
Consider a L/NZF govt, or a National one. Lots of potential there.
(although I am very curious that you now consider Labour left wing 😉 )
“And on what basis are you claiming it’s a right wing policy in the first place?”
See Matthew’s comments over the past few days. It’s a RW positioning that is the problem, for all the reasons already laid out. But sure, I could be wrong, maybe Morgan is a leftie in disguise and when it comes to developing other policy he won’t really remove all topups or want pensioners to take out mortgages on their houses to pay asset taxes etc. Maybe he’s resiled from those positions and ideas. Maybe they’re not RW at all (they’re not LW either though), and he’s off on a new tangent. Good on him, but his ideas are still up for scrutiny.
“Where (in the policy) is the evidence of ‘expendability’?”
As you know from the other convo, I am looking at TOP’s UBI proposals in the context of The Big Kahuna, because Morgan himself is currently using it as the reference point for the bigger picture plan. It doesn’t make sense to me personally, because there appear to be major discrepancies between The Big Kahuna and the TOP UBI policy, but that’s just another reason to be raising an eyebrow at him being in parliament (which actually I don’t give a fuck about, but I do if it costs the left the election).
To be fair to Morgan, I think he is after everyone getting used to the idea of a UBI, and wealth taxes, before it can be fully implemented.
There are both cost and electoral credibility reasons against going immediately to a full and livable UBI.
However a return to a UBI for children, the old universal family benefit, and elderly, is a good start. I have a problem with how he wants to do his, “hardship” topup for pensioners. To me that rewards tax dodgers and hits PAYE workers hardest, but then so does the present system.
I have issues with Morgans financial wizard view of the world, but he is not alone in viewing things in terms of his own specialty.
I have no problem with a stand alone policy, or introducing a UBI in stages. Nor do I have a problem with having a Thriving Families Policy, e.g. getting a big chunk of extra cash into low income young families is great (although I do have some problems with the detail, like cutting Super to give extra money to young families that aren’t in particular need).
In the above conversation (and the ones over the past few days) I’ve been critiquing the bigger picture issues, namely how TOP would implement a UBI over time, and the risk of them costing the left the election.
I’m also thinking through Matthew’s point about how you introduce a UBI and the political positioning of that i.e. the starting point will determine what kind of system we end up with. The more I think about this the more critical it seems.
Miles likes the UBI, but not the policy on sustainable economic growth:
Another issue worth mentioning is Morgan’s response to my question around the sustainability of a growth-based economy.
Morgan seems to think that a growth-based economy is sustainable if it was coupled with the right ecological investments.
This view is at odds with the opinion of Professor Tim Jackson who, only last month, stood on the same stage to deliver a lecture on prosperity without growth.
Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey, Jackson refers to Morgan’s idea about the sustainability of a growth-based economy, as “wishful” and “magical” thinking.
Jackson explains “prosperity isn’t just about earning more and having more, it consists in our ability to participate meaningfully in the life of society.”
…
There at the club, an attendee asked Morgan to describe, in 5 words only, what he had that would make us vote for his party on the election day.
Morgan said he would say it in 3 words: “A Business Case.”
I wish he had used his 5 words and said: A Social Case For Change.
I don’t consider Labour to be left wing… they embrace liberal economics…and I didn’t say they were. I asked why you thought a Labour/Green government would implement policy that would usher in a right wing environment.
To be clear about Universal Basic Income in relation to right wing economic theorists…in their scenario, the UBI replaces all state welfare provisions…health care, schooling…everything – which then becomes ‘obtained’ by individuals making rational choices in a free market. And I don’t see any evidence of that kind of direction from this unconditional basic income proposal.
And you’re still peddling nonsense around removal of all topups or wanting pensioners to take out mortgages on their houses to pay asset taxes etc. even though it’s been pointed out and links provided, that these arm waving claims you’re making are false and contradict the published policies.
Scrutiny is good. Peddling falsehoods and fear in spite of available evidence isn’t.
“And you’re still peddling nonsense around removal of all topups or wanting pensioners to take out mortgages on their houses to pay asset taxes etc. even though it’s been pointed out and links provided, that these arm waving claims you’re making are false and contradict the published policies.
Scrutiny is good. Peddling falsehoods and fear in spite of available evidence isn’t”
Oh, I agree. So here’s my link, just so we know that I am not telling lies but responding to Morgan at source (this is for other people’s benefit as I know you’ve already seen this),
On topups, Morgan’s original UBI proposal,
However, you would no longer be able to get Work and Income to pay your phone bill or power bill, for example. “Top up” payments like Hardship Grants would no longer be available. So with the freedom to live your life as you choose, comes the responsibility to handle any financial obligations yourself (but with the help of budget advisers, family and community groups)
and, from Morgan on his FB page on release of the TOP UBI policy earlier in the week,
“In the first sentence of the landing page the book “The Big Kahuna” is mentioned. Have a read for a long term view of where we see things ending up. It’s fully costed, and the most recent iteration has been audited by NZIER, but like I said this stuff is expensive and we need to start somewhere”.
Now it’s true I am going off the website not the book, and it’s true that there are odd discrepancies between The Big Kahuna and the mini or first phase UBI TOP policy from this week, and as I have said, I am happy to be corrected and would love it if Morgan not longer believes in The Big Kahuna. But it appears that he does and is in fact using it as the background document for TOP’s policies.
If you have explained those things in the other convo, I’ve missed it, although I got that you personally are going off the TOP alone and don’t want to contextualise it within The Big Kahuna.
You can call my opinion a falsehood, I’ll just keep posting the references. Someone that wants to respond to the actual opinion and back up that I posted, have at it.
A parent or guiding or back-ground document written in the past and that informs a policy to one degree or another is not a policy. And when we’re talking of political parties and elections, it’s their actual policies and the details of those policies that matter.
What you are doing is akin to stacking Labour Party policies from the 1920s against Das Kapital or some such (a background doc that served to inspire early iterations of Labour Parties) and then running arguments against policy based on a deliberate elevation of Das Kapital.
Different links back to policy were provided by both Red and myself and you responded to those comments. So no, you didn’t “miss” those explanations in the other thread. You just choose to deliberately ignore them.
You want to critique a book from 5 years ago and the ideas it contains? That’s all fine and good. You want to critique a political party’s policy? That’s also fine and good too. You want to mix and match from those sources and in a way that suits your personal agenda? That sits somewhere between being disingenuous and being dishonest.
If there are differences between a stated policy and a background idea formulated in the past, then common sense dictates that the policy and the thought around the policy generally supersedes the thoughts or reasoning that went into formulating the older document.
Does that render the older document obsolete? No. But it has a much lesser status than the details set out in current policy documents.
No Bill, what Weka’s doing is akin to holding Bill to his statements about refugees until he withdraws them.
Gareth is a political figure now, whether he likes what that entails, or not. That means his public opinions in the past are relevant to discussion of his policies, and he may sometimes have to clarify that something is no longer in his long-term plan if he’s changed his mind, or that it’s up for re-consideration.
What’s not fair is holding him to it 100%, but that’s not what Weka’s doing. She’s assuming that he will have a similar approach to the one he personally authored in the future until proven otherwise.
Morgan doesn’t conceive of himself as right-wing, and to be fair, overall I think his sympathies are with the left and with liberals. But his take on a UBI is a slightly more moderate version of the kind of UBI proposals that libertarians love: it reduces income taxes while not providing much more in the way of actual welfare. (of course, they pay for it with capital taxes, but for high-income liberatarians as opposed to exceedingly wealthy ones, that’s actually a good bargain)
TOP’s current welfare policy is centre-right as well. It cuts super in favour of beefing up WFFs and adding in a child benefit, while making no actual significant moves on welfare reform, and no attempts to adjust starvation-level benefits.
$200 to all families with young children (whether in work or out of work) plus $72 for those on a low income (whether in work or not) plus free early childhood education is a bit more than “beefing up wff” Matthew.
And since everything TOPs proposes to ‘put on the table’ will be considered by more major parties in accord with their priorities and (at least with regards the Greens) commitments to social justice, the opportunity is there to have policies formulated that encapsulate the best of all worlds.
And as I said previously, if we’re looking at Lab/Green with TOP on the side, Labour can’t shut the Greens down on talk of welfare reform. The conversation will be had.
If Morgan had bene-bashed, then I’d agree the lens should be applied to policy. But he didn’t, and ideas are forever evolving or becoming better refined.
And again – everything he has will be subject to Lab/Green modification…reformulated with Lab and or Green priorities in mind.
So putting a fiscally neutral wealth tax on the table could produce some really good stuff. There is no need for a government that decides to run with it to keep it neutral or incorporate a flat tax.
$272 extra per week is huge for low income families. I’m not clear how much of that they get though. Is that in the hand, or is there a trade off with one of the tax/income policies like WFF? i.e. is it on top of what someone is getting today, or does some of it replace one of the other benefits?
I don’t understand the need to cut Super either. I don’t have too much of a problem with removing parts of the universal entitlement, if it was done through a LW lens. But TOP appear to be cutting the low end as well. WINZ say the current single rate is $20,000/yr, TOP want that to be $17,500.
And I still have concerns about means/asset testing all elderly people and taxing their home if they own it. Yes, TOP want to offer a mortgage via IRD so that that tax is only paid on sale, but I’d like to see some analysis of how that would actually work for elderly people. It also sets a precedent for taxing everyone’s homes. Again, I think there are better solutions if these policies were being developed in LW contexts (or social democratic ones). For the sake of not having another argument, let’s not call Morgan RW, but he does see this as a business issue not a social justice one. That’s the problem with the framing.
You think his position would support the Greens pulling Labour left on welfare. I think that assuming we don’t end up with a L/NZF/TOP govt, that TOP would pull the Greens towards the centre 🙁
Low-income families with children (under 17) – an additional $72 pw ($3,744 pa) instead of in-work tax credit, no hours test required. Of course they remain eligible for the other current welfare payments (unemployment, disability, sole parent, illness etc).
On the $200 –
all families with very young children (under 3, or under 6 if adopted or fostered) – $200 per family per week. This replaces paid parental leave
That reads to me as removing the highly discriminatory policies that Labour put in place … the “worthy” and “unworthy” poor as defined by whether 20 hours of paid employment is being undertaken or not.
Edit. TOPs want that paid for from Super. And at least they aren’t trying to raise the retirement age (Ten times the hit of $2000 p.a. for everyone for every year retirement is pushed back). And just because TOPs have worked this out in a neutral fashion, there is nothing preventing any future government from funding things differently.
It also sets a precedent for taxing everyone’s homes.
It isn’t setting a precedent. Taxing homes is a stated policy. Home owners will be taxed on the notional wealth generated from home ownership (I’m thinking the return – the amount that attracts a tax – is taken to be around 5% of total value.) And income tax will be reduced in concert with that – the idea being that a reduction in income tax compensates for the outgoings associated with a wealth tax… for most people.
Meanwhile, some ‘as yet to be negotiated’ initial level of wealth will be exempt from the tax. That could be $100 000 or $200 000 or whatever a government agrees to.
Low-income families with children (under 17) – an additional $72 pw ($3,744 pa) instead of in-work tax credit, no hours test required. Of course they remain eligible for the other current welfare payments (unemployment, disability, sole parent, illness etc).
Except:
1) There is no path for TOP into parliament with their current electoral strategy and polling, so thus,
2) We shouldn’t even be talking about TOP’s proposals in the context of “things that might be negotiated in Parliament,” they’re ideas like any citizens’ group could propose. And they’re dangerous ideas because they’re talking about targetting welfare spending with the wrong priorities. Don’t get me wrong, struggling families need their fair bit of help, but a child benefit like TOP proposes isn’t exactly the priority issue in welfare reform. I’d love to have one if we’re not headed straight for a UBI, but it’s much further down the wishlist than TOP puts it, and I wouldn’t gut Super in order to do it. We’re about to have a lot of retiring Boomers and even if they’ve done pretty well out of politics, they still deserve to have Super if we can manage to keep it for everyone.
That said, you are right that I was being dismissive of the difference it would make for families. I was being dismissive because there are much better ways to target low-income families for assistance than a generic child benefit worth $10k p/a that goes to even wealthy families. Would you have given John Key $30,000 to raise Max Key? I wouldn’t have. All low-income families in particular get is the $72 topup, when they should be getting the entire budget for any sort of family assistance program.
if anyone here believes that after a UBI or similar is installed that there are still other benefits available to them, i have several one laned bridges in Northland to sell.
I don’t have anything against a UBI, but if that ‘holy grail’ does not cover even the most basic thing humans need to survive, shelter, then its just a load of good feel, do nothing bullshit ment to rake in votes.
like that beautiful heathcare thats gonna get everyone covered
or
or
brighter futures for everyone and wage parity with OZ.
We have the hard right UBI (Roger Douglas in the 80s)
We have the centrist UBI (Morgan, I’ll give him a concession there and call him centrist rather than RW)
We have a centre left UBI (Labour, who essentially want it because of job losses due to automation, and who are not really in any way looking at improving welfare)
We have left/orthogonally positioned (Greens, who basically want a caring social security net and see the potential for a UBI to be *part of that).
We have a hard left one (not sure who that is, but I assume it exists).
We could put Standardistas into that spectrum too 😉
you take a UBI of 20.000$ a year (hopfully untaxed) and you deduct 18.200$ a year annual rent for housing (median 380$) pw – and you realize that you hopefully don’t only have that UBI at your disposition .
If the UBI does not cover min living costs it can’t work unless you have top ups and then you are again at the stage where you need a WINZ and you go back to having a ‘poor’ person to look after.
Immediately in then next few years quite a few things could be done to help the working and non working poor or financially stressed.
a. remove tax from the first 25.000$ of earning (this would equal 52 weeks of 480$ rent/mortgage)
b. tax rebates on public transport especially for commuters.
c. remove GST from Food/Electricity/Water
d. increase existing benefits to meet rising costs and facilitate access to all services.
e. make the Kiwi Safer available after every 6 years or so, cause sometimes people upgrade or have expenses and such.
I am even ambivalent with teh ‘we are gonna loose all our jobs’ scenario, as already currently we have the scenario where services that used to be paid work are now run by volunteers, such as reception desks in small hospitals.
We could actually hire a few guys and get these berms taken care of, build more public facilities, not close down our libraries, etc etc etc.
Its not as if we did not have the work to do, its just that no – one wants to pay for it.
We can have the discussion about a UBI anytime, but first we should establish just what we are aiming to achieve. And then we can throw Dollar signs at it.
And this is my beef with the TOP, and Mr. Morgan, there is just the throwing about some feel good numbers but very little what the intended outcome is. A bit like his cat policy,
1. lets get rid of cats,
2, how?
3. Dunno, and surely not with my money
He had all these years of pontificating and comes up with something that is neither here nor there.
Having the Basic Income part of the UBI system be untaxed is essentially the same thing as saying “we won’t tax the first $X of income.” Similar to welfare payments, there’s no point taxing a basic income, as it’s double-handling. Set it to the amount you actually want people to get net and save yourself the time. Taxes on benefits were only introduced as a stealth way to cut benefits.
You could absolutely exempt income even further than the basic income amount, but then you’re beginning to run into the situation where you’re not proposing a UBI system that simplifies the tax system with it, but rather a UBI with a full-on progressive tax system that would likely lose some of the efficiencies the program promises. That could be a good thing if the extra revenue compensates for it, or it could be a bad thing if you lose too much efficiency for a barely-more-progressive tax system. A UBI already solves a lot of the “incentive to work” issue by making the transition from basic income to paid income smoother, so it’s probably better to invest the available funds in increasing the basic income rather than providing a further tax-free area.
What we’re trying to achieve implementing a UBI is a universal and unconditional income that gives people financial security if they can live a modest life, even if they’re not currently in paid employment for whatever reason. That’s what the settings should be tuned to in the long term, although in the short-term it may be beneficial to start out a bit below that level and work your way up as the savings kick in. (as long as it is “a bit” rather than “a lot.” TOP (at $10k BI) and Labour (at $12.5k BI) propose far too small a Basic Income)
when that man puts his money where his large mouth is, i.e. fund desexing /trap/neuter programs for feral cats to just begin with we might have a talk.
when that man starts putting his unproductive empty rental properties on the market then we might have a talk.
Until then i am too fucking poor to give Gareth Morgan and any of this ‘economists’ my vote.
so again, unless that wanker and his mates put their money where their mouth and their ideas are they can go climb on a bike and ride across mongolia.
Indeed, those are the dangers, but those things are always dangers when right-wingers take control of government. That’s actually why it’s important to have a left-wing implementation of a UBI first, so that people know the difference and recognise the tinkering for what it is, and as Weka says, Morgan’s model is basically the right-wing version. Having him into the conversation adds nothing to this issue from a left-wing perspective because he’s outright advocating a very regressive version of a UBI.
My dad, who is an ex-Labour Party staffer and ex-Treasury, likes to remind me whenever I talk to him about UBIs that Roger Douglas wanted one, but David Lange shot it down. I can only imagine Douglas’ was worse than Morgan’s.
In contrast, the version I modelled assuming generous (ie. very left-wing) settings assumed basic income levels on-par with the maximum payment from NZ Super, (ie. $20k p/a) a two-tier income tax of 45% for income under $80k p/a and 55% for income over $80k p/a and capital gains, and had some pessimistic “make it hard to work” assumptions like people working less as a result of the UBI, more people qualifying than were taxpayers in 2015, and no efficiencies modelled in from WINZ or IRD becoming leaner departments, or savings on health costs, etc… as it was supposed to prove you could fund a UBI until those long-term benefits from reduced poverty and increased labour mobility started kicking in.
Not factoring in tax exemptions, this system was better for anyone earning under $61k p/a, so it would probably be an improvement on WFFs for kiwi battlers, and a huge liberator for anyone else on low earned incomes.
All you have to do from there is make sure any adjustment to conditional benefits (ie. not jobseeker support) are relatively generous, and implement a change of culture to a help-our-customers model at WINZ, and you have a pretty healthy social support system set up, with a fair tax system to boot.
Most left-wing fans who are keen on the idea insist that if we’re going to do it, we get a left wing government to do it first thing in their first or maybe second terms, so that people can have 2-3 years of a generous UBI before they have to vote on it, increasing the chances they’ll start to benefit from a lot of the medium-term benefits of one and then recognise right-wing tinkering to the policy as very dangerous.
I wondered if you were of that Whitehead family.
Thank you plural for your service.
UBI sounds just terrrrrriffic under a left government.
But if it’s only going to be misused, distorted, and effectively turned into a big data-hoovering net and population-wide disciplinary instrument under a future government, it’s not worth it. I think that’s a very high risk.
The next Labour-led government may or may not be trustworthy with it. Who knows. Little and Ardern have already signaled in multiple ways that the existing benefits regime and reforms aren’t going to change much, and NZSuper not at all.
Before they lose their heads on huge social welfare ideas that have no nationwide benchmark anywhere in the world, I would want to see the next Labour-led government prove they have the chops just on housing, which will take most of a term. It’s the most appropriate place to spend one terms’ worth of political capital.
I can’t imagine that Labour would go near a UBI until a solid second term.
Focussing on housing as a priority makes sense.
Beneficiaries will continue to be stigmatised and left to it. It wouldn’t be that hard to roll back the worst of the Bennett reforms, but I don’t see Labour or the Greens talking about that.
they don’t need to talk about it, they need to do it.
I can see why both parties focus on core issues, Housing – which is hardest for the very poor if we are honest, and the environment – which also affects our poorest in different ways.
I do believe that both Greens/Labour will be able to create some good policies. But i can understand both parties to focus on what is on everyones mind, housing.
And then the election is in winter, and if this winter is similar to last we will be talking a lot about beneficiaries, children, disabled and their needs for good, decent, warm housing and the lack there of.
Life on a benefit is made that much harder because of WINZ, the culture of bashing, and the Bennett reforms. So yep, I support tackling housing as urgent. But ignoring welfare is basically saying you lot over there, we’ll help with this bit but the rest is tough shit because you’re a third class citizen.
There is only one reason Labour and the Greens won’t touch welfare and that’s votes. Which is an indictment of the country we have become.
we have become or maybe always have been a hard country. In saying that, we fix the fundamentals first and for all – unite people behind what they need all and that is how we start – Housing, Health Care, Education, etc. Beneficiaries need all of the above and more then most.
You can’t undo 9 years with five slogans. I actually have faith in both parties when it comes to this.
Hence why i am careful with a UBI, i dont want it to be the one and all easy and cheap solution that some would love to make it.
The problem of is that 65% of Kiwis own their own house so for the majority of Kiwi’s that is not their biggest issue of the election…. you need more than 50% of votes to win…
That was the mistake Labour made last time….
If you want change on housing you need a change of government, so blindly following an issue like housing shortages that doesn’t effect enough people and thinking it does, because politicians and lobby groups want it too, just doesn’t work.
There’s a reason there is a housing crisis and that is due to demand of housing due to immigration. Do the Math. Incoming, outgoing…
Nobody wants to tackle outright the immigration ugly debate, but the left need to get out of ideology and get into reality. Apparently we are one of the richest countries per capita, (due to high home ownership no doubt), so not everyone is feeling the pinch… but I do think that the Natz have got too greedy and corrupt and even the farmers (and even Havlock North folks) are not happy, let alone middle NZ who have zero job security and are going backwards financially (apart from their houses).
If Labour want to use housing they need to broaden it past, just the rental market – especially as many younger renters believe all the neoliberal ideology they have heard all their lives such as it’s beneficiaries fault, all politicians are the same, etc and don’t vote.
Look at people losing their houses due to climate change, high charges of rates and insurance, interest rates, state house sell offs, government stealing water and assets, taking over councils and ECAN etc
Unlike renters, if someone loses their house in an earthquake or flood, they can’t just move on to a better residence – they get stuck in limbo – sometimes for years fighting council, EQC and their insurers and have no roof over their heads, while still having to pay rates and mortgages… and rents while they wait.
If a home owner loses their job or gets relocated, their hours cut, they also have the same issues.
Sorry to be blunt, but I for one don’t want Labour and Greens to blow their election chances yet again, on a narrow issue, by focusing on a third of the NZ population that does not capture enough voters to win the next election of which many do not even vote.
Labour’s housing policy is also pretty similar on the face of it to National’s – the main difference is that they are not selling off the state houses. However Labour can not build enough houses any way for the amount of people coming in and local people on low wages can’t afford to buy them (aka 100,000 over 10 years and affordable being $500,000) .
Yeah, it’s those Whiteheads, although it’s mainly my father and the younger of my elder sisters (she now goes by her married name of course) with a public profile, and he’s the only one in public service. (he’s mostly out now, he’s the chief-executive version of retired where he’s doing some oversight work and consulting on Data Futures, which is the expert group that’s trying to get the government to be a bit more sensible about big data. If you look up their stuff, it’s actually very much in line with what people over here would expect big data should be used for, it’s just the government isn’t entirely listening yet) But yeah, he has a lot to be proud of in public service, especially in getting the Labour government to get Treasury working for them rather than distrusting it. (Labour should be treating them a bit like the Parliamentary Library- they’re not always going to give them the info they want, but by and large they can be a resource, especially if engaged with firmly but positively)
That said, I plan to join the two of them eventually, but in fiction writing, so look out for me on Amazon at some point as “M. J. Whitehead.” 🙂
There’s no reason a UBI should be a data hoovering net, we simply attach it to IRD numbers. That requires no additional data and lets you handle tax and basic income at the same time, and anyone can opt out by not getting an IRD number if they don’t like the requirements, or they’re an ACToid who objects to government payments. It will also make it harder for National to hold such a program hostage to big data in the future the way they can arguably justify with NGO funding, as attaching data collection to IRD numbers is a Big Thing.
Little and Ardern have signalled Labour’s policy. Remember, there will be negotiations with the Greens and NZF, and those negotiations will probably include some welfare reform, and research and trials for a UBI if the Green Party gets its entire wishlist in that area. Trialling it in a small town of a few thousand people to see how it would work in New Zealand, and even trialing it with several different settings, would be an excellent way to gather data.
I agree that if Labour and the Greens get into government in 2017, Term 1 needs to prioritise housing affordability reforms over anything else. That won’t mean there’s no time for anything else, of course, and in fact certain measures on welfare reform and tax that Labour have been reluctant to agree to (CGT CGT CGT) could possibly help the situation a lot if the Greens were to insist on them in coalition..
Matthew, as I understand it, Roger’s proposal was for a guaranteed minimum income. Anyone who earned less than the minimum would get topped up to the minimum. ie 100% marginal tax rate up to the guaranteed minimum, so anyone trying to work their way into the workforce by taking on small stretches of low-paid employment got absolutely no benefit from doing so.
A guaranteed minimum income without conditions is a UBI. 🙂 A lot of UBI proposals want it administered by the local equivalent to IRD, which makes a lot of sense, because they can calculate net tax owed or net UBI owed and either make a payment to you, or bill your employer for PAYE if you’re a net taxpayer.
But yeah, a marginal taxrate of 100% below the minimum income arguably makes it a bit of a different creature. Part of the reason most UBI trials have been good for getting people into work is that they only abate through income tax, so there’s a real financial incentive to taking work and getting both your paycheck and some fraction of the UBI, less income taxes.
The UBI model most attractive to me is some government agency pays every recipient their UBI (with need-based extras) separately from any tax considerations. Whether it’s the IRS, or MSD or something else doesn’t really matter, the idea is it’s a separate transaction to any income tax considerations. To reinforce that idea that it’s a right, not something somehow conditional or related to earning.
Then couple it with a flat income tax, for horizontal and vertical equity considerations (though I’m not averse to a punitive surtax on absolutely ridiculous pay rates, say over $200k pa). Currently dealing with the IRS and PAYE is enough of an obstacle that it’s an incentive to avoid the hassle. Whether it’s by just not employing someone, or going black market. Simplifying income taxes back to a flat rate may improve that.
Plus a capital gains tax, to plug that glaring hole in our system.
Functionally anyone signed up for PAYE would be paid net either way, it’d just be a matter of whether they had it deducted from their paycheck or their UBI payment, so no big issue there. The main advantage of paying a UBI-less-income-tax to people who are net beneficiaries is that it decreases the temporary financial burden on the government for people whose paychecks aren’t as frequent as the UBI payment would be, but that’s a minor policy issue IMO and it could easily be done either way. I agree there’s some philosophical benefits to simply paying the UBI out gross to anyone has an IRD number and provides a relevant bank account or other secure payment method.
And yeah, a CGT is basically necessary to run a UBI, because you can’t fund one without it.
I’d love to see a write up of that Matthew. The things that still stand out for me are the benefit/income top-ups, and what to do about housing and/or Accommodation Supplement.
I know you think $20,000 is liveable, but it doesn’t take into account rent/mortgage, nor individual circumstances. The one good thing about WINZ, and even better when Special Benefit was on place, was that individual circumstances were what counted and theoretically if you can argue your case within the rules you get extra assistance. If you take that away, and say every single person can live on $20,000 then you are saying that every single person’s circumstances are the same (they’re not) or that those who can’t manage should suck it up.
I’m assuming that the $20,000 is for people that can top-up via working. So we need another system for those that can’t.
So there will be variation in income need because of disability/illness/parenting etc.
And then in housing. Rents vary hugely across the country and the current WINZ system takes that into account.
I agree there will always need to be a topup system for the items/circumstances you mention, even with a generous UBI (and I doubt we will get anything like $20k from any govt to begin with).
Yeah, I would be really keen to look into that, but I can’t make guarantees I’ll make time for it soon. It’s really good to have a basic costing when people say “this is impractical” to throw in their face so they actually have to find holes.
The major one people would attack my current model for is that it’s a bit mean to the wealthy in terms of a 55% tax rate for all actual capital gains and for all personal income over $80k.
$20k p/a is roughly $8-10k p/a over most annual benefit payment levels. That should cover you for rent of up to $200 per week. It’s absolutely possible to do a more generous UBI than $20k, I had the same reaction when I looked at the $12.5k UBI proposals, I just got a bit wigged out when I looked at adding on even another $2k or $5k per annum on how much tax that would require. (twice as much net cost in non-income taxes for $5k, basically)
My model actually assumes no reduction to any benefits other than Jobseeker Support, which it assumes will be replaced by the UBI. This is part of my trying to be pessimistic with my assumptions- I assume at least some reduction to conditional benefits would be practical, because you’ll get the UBI too, so even with a siginicant reduction it should work out to a drastic raise in the overall transfer for most beneficiaries.
And yeah, I think we’d want to look into offer a conditional benefit for people with high housing costs with some of the money offset from those benefit reductions. (the tricky thing is trying to get numbers on specific benefit types, both in terms of overall transfer costs and number of people on each benefit. MSD doesn’t make it very accessible, so I may need to OIA them for the figures I’d need to run the numbers) The other option would be to calculate those likely savings, and then feed them back into the basic income level, and see if it comes out giving a bit more breathing room to renters. The advantage of that approach is that it encourages people to leave for the regions to live more affordably, if they can.
$20k per annum works out to $392.15 or so per week. That means you need to fit rent, food, power, and any other costs into that amount. $20k is “generous” in that it will actually cover those costs under some reasonable assumptions, but it won’t cover every adult. Two adults living together on $784.30 per week could probably do quite well for themselves, but it would be difficult for a single person to live that way without either very cheap living conditions, (and flatmates) some conditional assistance, and/or some minor income other than the UBI. I would probably get by, but I’m reasonably frugal when I need to be.
To be clear, I can find MSD’s information on how many people fall into various categories of benefit. But I have yet to locate anything like “we payout $X for Jobseeker support in total.” The only thing I can locate dollar amounts for is hardship payments.
I’m sure somebody somewhere has asked this but was Peter Thiel made a New Zealand citizen because he had to be a citizen by law to access certain data or attend certain meetings? And it was easier to make him a citizen rather than change the law? I’m thinking something along the lines of accessing security data – don’t GCSB ads require you to be a citizen?
And I think the secretary of the Treasury has to be a New Zealand Citizen.
Spying is not a military operation. Both Sis and GCSB operate under civil law with warrants and authorizations. That is is what the the legislation is all about.
Obviously a lot of their technology is developed by private companies, which is true of most things with government.
Private firms build schools and provide educational equipment. Pharmaceutical companies supply drugs and medical equipment firms provide surgical equipment. Aircraft manufacturers build transport and combat planes, etc, etc.
So it is not surprising the same happens in the intelligence world. The staff in GCSB inevitably use software and hardware developed by others.
Spying has it’s own chapter in The Art Of War. The GCSB was until recently a part of the NZDF.
The whole point of spying is to make wars shorter and less likely. That’s the only reason they can get away with it. Domestic surveillance by police etc. is not the same as stealing other countries secrets, no matter how much sophistry you employ.
It’s a military operation with a valid humanitarian purpose. Anything else is just stealing.
I’m not sure Sun Tzu has much standing in the annals of international jurisprudence.
Stealing other countries’ secrets is only a bit of it – often the most interesting bit, but also refer to the CIA World Fact Book for examples of opensource data collated in a useful way.
One nation’s personnel committing an illegal act in another nation is not in itself an act of war, or even a military act. Stealing crop data before it’s released is not a military act.
The point of spying is to give your nation an advantage over the nation being spied upon. It has nothing to do with avoiding war. China, for example, has been accused of using its intelligence services for state-sponsored industrial espionage. How would that make wars shorter, or even be a military act?
Not all guns are military weapons.
Not all spies are military spies.
AoW is a military text. It is not a text on the history of all espionage, nor on diplomacy.
Espionage is illegal – pretty much every nation has laws against unregistered agents of other powers working within their borders. It just isn’t always (even mostly) military.
Getting the eastern European order of battle for someone is military intelligence.
Getting the text of Nikita Khrushchev’s speech denouncing Joseph Stalin was not military intelligence, although it was diplomatic intelligence.
But hostile doesn’t equal military. Walking out of the General Assembly when the Iranian or Israeli ambassador is about to make an address is “hostile”. Expelling half the embassy staff from your country is “hostile”.
Briefing and debriefing tourists who travel to a certain region, asking them for details about crops or the health of the populace, has produced valuable intelligence for various agencies, and if the tourists’ tasks had been known to the nations they were visiting it would have resulted in spying charges. Was that “military”, or even “hostile”?
You get lots of hits for “tourist arrested for spying”, but most of those seem to be bargaining chips rather than spies.
But yeah, It’s mentioned in “Every Spy a Prince” (book about Israeli intelligence services) that the Israelis did it, and I Also read somewhere about the yanks and British doing it during the cold war. Usually just “geez, it’d be real helpful if you remember but don’t write down xyz, or any comments from locals, how full the stores are, that sort of thing”. Maybe in some readings about Gehlen I had to do at one stage.
As for your “soldiers” line, nope. Not in the armed forces, not armed, no rank, no pay. Just patriots, misled or otherwise.
It just wasn’t military. It had zero military value. There were bragging rights, sure, but that’s political value. It didn’t affect the military situation anywhere in the world.
‘Tiger Mountain’ observed here yesterday that Peter Thiel was on the CIA plane seen on the Wellington tarmac at the time of the Warners/Hobbit Affair”. That was 2010. Thiel was fast-tracked to citizenship status in 2011.
I’ve submitted a guest post on this and related topics coming from the perspective of time-lines which would be an ideal place to discuss in more depth. Trouble is, it was a rushed job so probably needs a bit of tinkering… maybe too much tinkering. 🙁
I know you (and your family) have to pass a thorough security vetting to become Secretary. I’m not certain if you actually need to be a citizen, as I know Gabriel was only in New Zealand for about a year before he was appointed, but he might have already been a citizen before he came back to NZ or something. I can ask his predecessor if you’re really interested. 😉
I expect it would be enough to have the right to work in New Zealand, to pass security vetting, and have no conflict of interest overseas.
Oh, he just got back to me. Gabriel was already keen to apply for NZ Citizenship anyway, and the implication is that he had been approved by the time he was actually Secretary.
There is apparently no explicit requirement that the SecTres be a kiwi, but the level of necessary security clearance may functionally make it mandatory. I think personally that it’s a good idea not to legislate hard requirements that public servants have to be citizens and that this is the right approach- if ever someone who’s qualified wants to do the job and isn’t yet a citizen, they can try to clear the security hurdle without applying for citizenship first.
Anyone following the leak of a phone call by US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan pre the last elections, saying he wouldn’t support Trump? It was published by Breitbart, media organ of Donald Trump.
The theory is that there is power struggle going on between Trump and his team and Paul Ryan and the Republican establishment.
Allegedly the leak was instigated by Trump to attack Ryan whom Trump thinks is purposely failing in his attempts to get the healthcare package through in an attempt to destablise Trump’s Presidency to the point where it is ineffective.
His PVV gained a bunch of seats though, at the expense of their right wing party National equivalent (VVD).
Also, interestingly the vote for their equivalent of Labour (PvdA) totally collapsed in favour of what looks like a centre-right party (CDA, also picked up votes from VVD), the social democrats (D66) and the socialists. I guess that’s what happens to your core voters when a Labour party goes into coalition with National…
No it’s what happens when the centrists who were tempted to VVD do the smart thing and vote tactically. Lots of good vox pops from voters coming out of the polls over on the European media at the moment.
Interesting developments with proposed new CYFS law. Tolley going back to the drawing board after taking flak from Maori groups over the principle to place child safety above placing the child with immediate or extended family.
There’s a lot to unpack with this one. Child welfare authorities (administered by central govt / iwi / NGOs) are always trying to identify family members who can take the children. A lot are rejected for a range of safety-related reasons. Those that do pass muster often find themselves subject to lip-service support from those authorities. Not much fun when the kids are experiencing all kinds of trauma-related behaviour or are born with conditions that have contributed to the abuse (fetal alcohol syndrome etc) and whanau / foster parents have little knowledge about how to manage these ongoing issues.
Raybon Kan – best read in the herald! … on Nick Smith and water rights…
“We don’t have to be greenies. Let’s be greedies. Where’s the state-owned water bottling company? Why aren’t we the country where the police drive Lamborghinis?
Why aren’t we the country where nobody pays a cent of tax, because we be rich, baby!
We’d be better off if Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies was in charge. He at least knows gold when he sees it. (Black gold. Texas tea.)
Water is the new gold. Water is the new oil. And it’s our dumb luck to have billions upon billions of litres of it. Let’s not spit in the face of luck. Luck works. Luck made Donald Trump rich, at birth. We’ve been rich this whole time. This is Antiques Roadshow, and we just found something valuable in the cellar.
Have you seen the world recently? Billionaires are buying NZ citizenship, to avoid the apocalypse. High-decile, modern parts of the world, don’t drink their tap water. Let’s take the advice of One Direction, and know that we’re beautiful.
Smith said: what next, air? Well, there are laws governing airspace. Councils tell you how high you can build. Airlines take big detours around certain countries.
Our country, our rules. The Government just redefined ‘swimmable’ as fresh water where the turds aren’t the size of legal snapper.
So let’s just declare that they – we – own underground water. You want it? Round these parts, we charge by the barrel. You think the Saudis have a problem with owning the oil under their ground? Do they say: Nobody owns oil! Know what they don’t have? Water.”
Does this sound like affordable housing or selling cheap to private developers and cronies to increase Auckland’s unaffordability???
Multi-million dollar Hobsonville project announced
“Willis Bond is buying 1.8 hectares of state-owned land for the scheme, due to settle in stages in the next three years, he said. But he refused to say how much his business was paying for the Government-owned land.”
So you are happy for the Men and Women of NZDF, Civilians, personal from other government department’s and foreign nationals to fly around in 50 year old plus aircraft or the Navy to breached UN environment laws from 2018 with its single hull tanker and OPV’s heading down south because its ice strengthen hulls won’t be spec from 2018?
Or you and are happy for the NZDF to deployed in Peacekeeping role ill equip and under strength like it did during INTERFET (East Timor 1999) or in HDAR role?
Like all Government Departments since 91 NZDF has asset stripped big time through equipment and manning and each time it’s had to step up its been found wanting in all areas over the last 30yrs and some more chickens are starting to come home like the C130’s, P3’s and now OPV’s which were brought under Labour.
I’ve told all 3 services are barely achieving its government mandated outputs because a lack of manpower, equipment and trying to preserve hours or days on equipment so it can squeeze a few years out it.
However, we all have wish-lists and can all bring out the violin. Unfortunately, we can only spend what we can afford. Therefore, things have to be prioritised, including our defence spend.
The RNZAF airlift problems could’ve have been in part solve under the last labour government when the last National government put in a option for 8 C-130 J models on the back of the Australia order. But no they didn’t but lets squeeze another 10-15yrs out of them with a upgrade which almost fell over if it wasn’t for SAFE Air and it went budget as well. Then the issue of the OPV’s and again the labour didn’t listen to the RNZN advice about future requirements to operate in the southern ocean and now stuck with 2 ships that won’t be spec after 2018.
National and Labour both like to avoid making hard decisions when it comes to NZDF and its not just new equipment, its also pay and conditions. Like all pollies they are too worried about the next election to give a stuff about NZDF.
All equipment Defence equipment etc, have a 30 year life span +/- 10yrs depending on how hard its been used and going over this increases the risk of failure.
Like you I have never voted national in my life and never will ( I remember the 90’s), on the same token I’ll never vote green as well.
hi xkf,
that is a lot of sausage sizzles.
i do support free education for all,
i do support mental health budget increasing,
i do not support the many billions of dollars allocated to gcsb.
if you want more $ look there at your spy colleagues, not at education or health budgets.
Frankly, I think Little fell into the trap of making it a false competition.
Hell, even the GCSB has some functions that need to be done, such as keeping on top of threats to government communications infrastructure, even if one thinks that gentlemen don’t read the mail of other gentlemen.
But maritime surveillance and the disaster response capabilities fulfilled by the NZDF have been demonstrated as being essential several times in the last few years.
Education and health cuts are no longer an issue. They’ve already been cut to unsustainable levels. We need massive injections into all sectors of government, from NZDF and cops through to CYF/Health/Education.
Sometimes compared to Canada’s youthful prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Klaver, who has a Moroccan father and a mother of Indonesian descent, said on polling day that the left’s answer to the far right’s rise in Europe was to stand up for its ideals.
“What I would say to all my leftwing friends in Europe: don’t try to fake the populace,” he said. “Stand for your principles. Be straight. Be pro-refugee. Be pro-European. We’re gaining momentum in the polls. And I think that’s the message we have to send to Europe. You can stop populism.”
“Questions are being asked after a lucrative water consent attached to a former wool scouring plant in Christchurch went on the market.
Newshub reported tonight the Kaputone wool scouring plant in Belfast is about to be sold off and, with it, a water consent allowing the extraction of more than 4.3 million litres of water a day – the equivalent of 50 one-litre bottles a second.
The only cost is $100 – if inspected – and the consent does not expire until 2032.
[…]
Meanwhile, Newshub reported those behind the sale of Kaputone – owner Cavalier Carpets and its shareholder Direct Capital – would not reveal who the prospective buyers are.
Several workers told the broadcaster they believed Chinese interests are involved.
The site is under five hectares and not considered sensitive land so it is unlikely the sale will need to go through the Overseas Investment Office.”
That is why the cost of living in NZ is getting so high under this neoliberal regime. They put a private expensive ‘service’ charge on top of a free public service, again and again.
So the result is, that private company makes a killing and often pays little to zero tax, the sick person or their family (and all their visitors) have to pay for getting sick and ultimately it makes hospital care not free any more.
I paid $125 at A& E for a ‘free’ blood test form to check we did not have measles before flying. Next time I might think twice about checking.
Hi asleep, I too have had a bee in my bonnet over hospital parking fees.
It is wrong in so many ways, and can only be justified in a narrow financial view.
Effectively it is a decrease in income for those hospital staff who use private vehicles to get to work.
It inconveniences local residents and places an unfair burden on families and friends of ill people.
But it gets our local dhb an extra $450,000 annually.
Greedy and cruel.
it seems to me a lot comes down to not understanding our electoral system, or how their votes do make an impact, including when they vote for small or medium sized parties.
I don’t think the not wanting to stand in line is the main reason. If people cared about their vote having an impact, the small lines that can occur at NZ booths would not be a deterrent.
In fact, online voting might encourage voting without putting much thought into it.
More political education in schools might help. Plus more young people being involved in mainstream politics. Clear out some of the old guard candidates, and bring in more younger ones.
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Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
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“…because it’s actually a radically socialist idea in many ways when it’s implemented universally.”
Some righties like the idea of a UBI because it gives cover for things like abolishing the minimum wage, hours flexibility (zero hours contracts), and eliminating large parts of government departments that administer welfare.
[I moved this to Open Mike so we could have threading and reply buttons again. Original conversation and background is here – weka]
Yep. That’s how I took MW’s comment. That a UBI could be RW or LW depending on how it was designed. Morgan’s one doesn’t look particularly LW to me, although I do think he has good intentions with regards to fairness. It’s just that the kaupapa isn’t about fairness, it’s about economic rationing. Fairness is an add-on.
In Morgan’s case I think you’ll find that he thinks economic rationing is fair. He’s a classically trained economist after all and thinks that capitalism and rich people are the solution and not the problem that they are.
Thanks, that’s what it looks like. The disturbing bit is that he is placing the rationing unfairly on the low end.
but then, that is no his concern now ? He ain’t on that end of the scale, and could not be further from it?
I do find it lovely tho, how generous he is, i mean 200 bucks who hoo, that will not even rent you a dog kennel or chicken cage anywhere in NZ.
It appears to be $200 on top of what you already have, so for women on the DPB for instance, it’s massive. I don’t understand all the tax/WFF stuff though, so I’m 100% sure of what it would mean in reality.
It’s not a UBI though. It’s a substantial benefit targeted for young families for the first 3 years of the child’s life. As people have been pointing out, it’s going to cause confusion about what a UBI is, and if TOP manage to gain some power it will set the scene for a RW UBI not a LW one.
Fwiw, I do think that Morgan wants to create a fairer society. I think he just doesn’t understand how to do that, or he thinks some people are expendable, or he thinks people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps if his proposals don’t work for those individuals (but they’re best for society!). Not sure which, and I’m sceptical that someone with the resources he has couldn’t solve the top-up issue.
The policy is suggesting an Unconditional (not Universal) Basic Income for some clearly defined sections of society.
If the policy is any way adopted by a Lab/Green government, why would they legislate for what you allege to be the precursor for a right wing universal basic income?
And on what basis are you claiming it’s a right wing policy in the first place?
Given that the TOP policy platform is highly redistributive, any claim that one component of it right wing is just odd or plain daft.
Where (in the policy) is the evidence of ‘expendability’?
“If the policy is any way adopted by a Lab/Green government, why would they legislate for what you allege to be the precursor for a right wing universal basic income?”
Consider a L/NZF govt, or a National one. Lots of potential there.
(although I am very curious that you now consider Labour left wing 😉 )
“And on what basis are you claiming it’s a right wing policy in the first place?”
See Matthew’s comments over the past few days. It’s a RW positioning that is the problem, for all the reasons already laid out. But sure, I could be wrong, maybe Morgan is a leftie in disguise and when it comes to developing other policy he won’t really remove all topups or want pensioners to take out mortgages on their houses to pay asset taxes etc. Maybe he’s resiled from those positions and ideas. Maybe they’re not RW at all (they’re not LW either though), and he’s off on a new tangent. Good on him, but his ideas are still up for scrutiny.
“Where (in the policy) is the evidence of ‘expendability’?”
As you know from the other convo, I am looking at TOP’s UBI proposals in the context of The Big Kahuna, because Morgan himself is currently using it as the reference point for the bigger picture plan. It doesn’t make sense to me personally, because there appear to be major discrepancies between The Big Kahuna and the TOP UBI policy, but that’s just another reason to be raising an eyebrow at him being in parliament (which actually I don’t give a fuck about, but I do if it costs the left the election).
To be fair to Morgan, I think he is after everyone getting used to the idea of a UBI, and wealth taxes, before it can be fully implemented.
There are both cost and electoral credibility reasons against going immediately to a full and livable UBI.
However a return to a UBI for children, the old universal family benefit, and elderly, is a good start. I have a problem with how he wants to do his, “hardship” topup for pensioners. To me that rewards tax dodgers and hits PAYE workers hardest, but then so does the present system.
I have issues with Morgans financial wizard view of the world, but he is not alone in viewing things in terms of his own specialty.
I have no problem with a stand alone policy, or introducing a UBI in stages. Nor do I have a problem with having a Thriving Families Policy, e.g. getting a big chunk of extra cash into low income young families is great (although I do have some problems with the detail, like cutting Super to give extra money to young families that aren’t in particular need).
In the above conversation (and the ones over the past few days) I’ve been critiquing the bigger picture issues, namely how TOP would implement a UBI over time, and the risk of them costing the left the election.
I’m also thinking through Matthew’s point about how you introduce a UBI and the political positioning of that i.e. the starting point will determine what kind of system we end up with. The more I think about this the more critical it seems.
Carolyn posted this,
Interesting post on the Daily Blog by Donna Miles, on a Gareth Morgan public meeting and TOP.
Miles likes the UBI, but not the policy on sustainable economic growth:
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-16032017/#comment-1310618
I don’t consider Labour to be left wing… they embrace liberal economics…and I didn’t say they were. I asked why you thought a Labour/Green government would implement policy that would usher in a right wing environment.
To be clear about Universal Basic Income in relation to right wing economic theorists…in their scenario, the UBI replaces all state welfare provisions…health care, schooling…everything – which then becomes ‘obtained’ by individuals making rational choices in a free market. And I don’t see any evidence of that kind of direction from this unconditional basic income proposal.
And you’re still peddling nonsense around removal of all topups or wanting pensioners to take out mortgages on their houses to pay asset taxes etc. even though it’s been pointed out and links provided, that these arm waving claims you’re making are false and contradict the published policies.
Scrutiny is good. Peddling falsehoods and fear in spite of available evidence isn’t.
“And you’re still peddling nonsense around removal of all topups or wanting pensioners to take out mortgages on their houses to pay asset taxes etc. even though it’s been pointed out and links provided, that these arm waving claims you’re making are false and contradict the published policies.
Scrutiny is good. Peddling falsehoods and fear in spite of available evidence isn’t”
Oh, I agree. So here’s my link, just so we know that I am not telling lies but responding to Morgan at source (this is for other people’s benefit as I know you’ve already seen this),
On topups, Morgan’s original UBI proposal,
However, you would no longer be able to get Work and Income to pay your phone bill or power bill, for example. “Top up” payments like Hardship Grants would no longer be available. So with the freedom to live your life as you choose, comes the responsibility to handle any financial obligations yourself (but with the help of budget advisers, family and community groups)
https://garethsworld.com/kahuna/are-you-a-client-of-work-and-income/
and, from Morgan on his FB page on release of the TOP UBI policy earlier in the week,
“In the first sentence of the landing page the book “The Big Kahuna” is mentioned. Have a read for a long term view of where we see things ending up. It’s fully costed, and the most recent iteration has been audited by NZIER, but like I said this stuff is expensive and we need to start somewhere”.
https://www.facebook.com/garethmorgannz/posts/1433644913344009?comment_id=1433652383343262&reply_comment_id=1433675593340941&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D
Now it’s true I am going off the website not the book, and it’s true that there are odd discrepancies between The Big Kahuna and the mini or first phase UBI TOP policy from this week, and as I have said, I am happy to be corrected and would love it if Morgan not longer believes in The Big Kahuna. But it appears that he does and is in fact using it as the background document for TOP’s policies.
If you have explained those things in the other convo, I’ve missed it, although I got that you personally are going off the TOP alone and don’t want to contextualise it within The Big Kahuna.
You can call my opinion a falsehood, I’ll just keep posting the references. Someone that wants to respond to the actual opinion and back up that I posted, have at it.
A parent or guiding or back-ground document written in the past and that informs a policy to one degree or another is not a policy. And when we’re talking of political parties and elections, it’s their actual policies and the details of those policies that matter.
What you are doing is akin to stacking Labour Party policies from the 1920s against Das Kapital or some such (a background doc that served to inspire early iterations of Labour Parties) and then running arguments against policy based on a deliberate elevation of Das Kapital.
Different links back to policy were provided by both Red and myself and you responded to those comments. So no, you didn’t “miss” those explanations in the other thread. You just choose to deliberately ignore them.
You want to critique a book from 5 years ago and the ideas it contains? That’s all fine and good. You want to critique a political party’s policy? That’s also fine and good too. You want to mix and match from those sources and in a way that suits your personal agenda? That sits somewhere between being disingenuous and being dishonest.
If there are differences between a stated policy and a background idea formulated in the past, then common sense dictates that the policy and the thought around the policy generally supersedes the thoughts or reasoning that went into formulating the older document.
Does that render the older document obsolete? No. But it has a much lesser status than the details set out in current policy documents.
No Bill, what Weka’s doing is akin to holding Bill to his statements about refugees until he withdraws them.
Gareth is a political figure now, whether he likes what that entails, or not. That means his public opinions in the past are relevant to discussion of his policies, and he may sometimes have to clarify that something is no longer in his long-term plan if he’s changed his mind, or that it’s up for re-consideration.
What’s not fair is holding him to it 100%, but that’s not what Weka’s doing. She’s assuming that he will have a similar approach to the one he personally authored in the future until proven otherwise.
Morgan doesn’t conceive of himself as right-wing, and to be fair, overall I think his sympathies are with the left and with liberals. But his take on a UBI is a slightly more moderate version of the kind of UBI proposals that libertarians love: it reduces income taxes while not providing much more in the way of actual welfare. (of course, they pay for it with capital taxes, but for high-income liberatarians as opposed to exceedingly wealthy ones, that’s actually a good bargain)
TOP’s current welfare policy is centre-right as well. It cuts super in favour of beefing up WFFs and adding in a child benefit, while making no actual significant moves on welfare reform, and no attempts to adjust starvation-level benefits.
$200 to all families with young children (whether in work or out of work) plus $72 for those on a low income (whether in work or not) plus free early childhood education is a bit more than “beefing up wff” Matthew.
And since everything TOPs proposes to ‘put on the table’ will be considered by more major parties in accord with their priorities and (at least with regards the Greens) commitments to social justice, the opportunity is there to have policies formulated that encapsulate the best of all worlds.
And as I said previously, if we’re looking at Lab/Green with TOP on the side, Labour can’t shut the Greens down on talk of welfare reform. The conversation will be had.
If Morgan had bene-bashed, then I’d agree the lens should be applied to policy. But he didn’t, and ideas are forever evolving or becoming better refined.
And again – everything he has will be subject to Lab/Green modification…reformulated with Lab and or Green priorities in mind.
So putting a fiscally neutral wealth tax on the table could produce some really good stuff. There is no need for a government that decides to run with it to keep it neutral or incorporate a flat tax.
$272 extra per week is huge for low income families. I’m not clear how much of that they get though. Is that in the hand, or is there a trade off with one of the tax/income policies like WFF? i.e. is it on top of what someone is getting today, or does some of it replace one of the other benefits?
I don’t understand the need to cut Super either. I don’t have too much of a problem with removing parts of the universal entitlement, if it was done through a LW lens. But TOP appear to be cutting the low end as well. WINZ say the current single rate is $20,000/yr, TOP want that to be $17,500.
And I still have concerns about means/asset testing all elderly people and taxing their home if they own it. Yes, TOP want to offer a mortgage via IRD so that that tax is only paid on sale, but I’d like to see some analysis of how that would actually work for elderly people. It also sets a precedent for taxing everyone’s homes. Again, I think there are better solutions if these policies were being developed in LW contexts (or social democratic ones). For the sake of not having another argument, let’s not call Morgan RW, but he does see this as a business issue not a social justice one. That’s the problem with the framing.
You think his position would support the Greens pulling Labour left on welfare. I think that assuming we don’t end up with a L/NZF/TOP govt, that TOP would pull the Greens towards the centre 🙁
From the policy summary page.
On the $72 –
Low-income families with children (under 17) – an additional $72 pw ($3,744 pa) instead of in-work tax credit, no hours test required. Of course they remain eligible for the other current welfare payments (unemployment, disability, sole parent, illness etc).
On the $200 –
all families with very young children (under 3, or under 6 if adopted or fostered) – $200 per family per week. This replaces paid parental leave
That reads to me as removing the highly discriminatory policies that Labour put in place … the “worthy” and “unworthy” poor as defined by whether 20 hours of paid employment is being undertaken or not.
Edit. TOPs want that paid for from Super. And at least they aren’t trying to raise the retirement age (Ten times the hit of $2000 p.a. for everyone for every year retirement is pushed back). And just because TOPs have worked this out in a neutral fashion, there is nothing preventing any future government from funding things differently.
It also sets a precedent for taxing everyone’s homes.
It isn’t setting a precedent. Taxing homes is a stated policy. Home owners will be taxed on the notional wealth generated from home ownership (I’m thinking the return – the amount that attracts a tax – is taken to be around 5% of total value.) And income tax will be reduced in concert with that – the idea being that a reduction in income tax compensates for the outgoings associated with a wealth tax… for most people.
Meanwhile, some ‘as yet to be negotiated’ initial level of wealth will be exempt from the tax. That could be $100 000 or $200 000 or whatever a government agrees to.
On the $72 –
Low-income families with children (under 17) – an additional $72 pw ($3,744 pa) instead of in-work tax credit, no hours test required. Of course they remain eligible for the other current welfare payments (unemployment, disability, sole parent, illness etc).
That doesn’t answer the question though.
Except:
1) There is no path for TOP into parliament with their current electoral strategy and polling, so thus,
2) We shouldn’t even be talking about TOP’s proposals in the context of “things that might be negotiated in Parliament,” they’re ideas like any citizens’ group could propose. And they’re dangerous ideas because they’re talking about targetting welfare spending with the wrong priorities. Don’t get me wrong, struggling families need their fair bit of help, but a child benefit like TOP proposes isn’t exactly the priority issue in welfare reform. I’d love to have one if we’re not headed straight for a UBI, but it’s much further down the wishlist than TOP puts it, and I wouldn’t gut Super in order to do it. We’re about to have a lot of retiring Boomers and even if they’ve done pretty well out of politics, they still deserve to have Super if we can manage to keep it for everyone.
That said, you are right that I was being dismissive of the difference it would make for families. I was being dismissive because there are much better ways to target low-income families for assistance than a generic child benefit worth $10k p/a that goes to even wealthy families. Would you have given John Key $30,000 to raise Max Key? I wouldn’t have. All low-income families in particular get is the $72 topup, when they should be getting the entire budget for any sort of family assistance program.
if anyone here believes that after a UBI or similar is installed that there are still other benefits available to them, i have several one laned bridges in Northland to sell.
I don’t have anything against a UBI, but if that ‘holy grail’ does not cover even the most basic thing humans need to survive, shelter, then its just a load of good feel, do nothing bullshit ment to rake in votes.
like that beautiful heathcare thats gonna get everyone covered
or
or
brighter futures for everyone and wage parity with OZ.
I think there is a spectrum.
We have the hard right UBI (Roger Douglas in the 80s)
We have the centrist UBI (Morgan, I’ll give him a concession there and call him centrist rather than RW)
We have a centre left UBI (Labour, who essentially want it because of job losses due to automation, and who are not really in any way looking at improving welfare)
We have left/orthogonally positioned (Greens, who basically want a caring social security net and see the potential for a UBI to be *part of that).
We have a hard left one (not sure who that is, but I assume it exists).
We could put Standardistas into that spectrum too 😉
let me put it this way Weka
you take a UBI of 20.000$ a year (hopfully untaxed) and you deduct 18.200$ a year annual rent for housing (median 380$) pw – and you realize that you hopefully don’t only have that UBI at your disposition .
If the UBI does not cover min living costs it can’t work unless you have top ups and then you are again at the stage where you need a WINZ and you go back to having a ‘poor’ person to look after.
Immediately in then next few years quite a few things could be done to help the working and non working poor or financially stressed.
a. remove tax from the first 25.000$ of earning (this would equal 52 weeks of 480$ rent/mortgage)
b. tax rebates on public transport especially for commuters.
c. remove GST from Food/Electricity/Water
d. increase existing benefits to meet rising costs and facilitate access to all services.
e. make the Kiwi Safer available after every 6 years or so, cause sometimes people upgrade or have expenses and such.
I am even ambivalent with teh ‘we are gonna loose all our jobs’ scenario, as already currently we have the scenario where services that used to be paid work are now run by volunteers, such as reception desks in small hospitals.
We could actually hire a few guys and get these berms taken care of, build more public facilities, not close down our libraries, etc etc etc.
Its not as if we did not have the work to do, its just that no – one wants to pay for it.
We can have the discussion about a UBI anytime, but first we should establish just what we are aiming to achieve. And then we can throw Dollar signs at it.
And this is my beef with the TOP, and Mr. Morgan, there is just the throwing about some feel good numbers but very little what the intended outcome is. A bit like his cat policy,
1. lets get rid of cats,
2, how?
3. Dunno, and surely not with my money
He had all these years of pontificating and comes up with something that is neither here nor there.
Having the Basic Income part of the UBI system be untaxed is essentially the same thing as saying “we won’t tax the first $X of income.” Similar to welfare payments, there’s no point taxing a basic income, as it’s double-handling. Set it to the amount you actually want people to get net and save yourself the time. Taxes on benefits were only introduced as a stealth way to cut benefits.
You could absolutely exempt income even further than the basic income amount, but then you’re beginning to run into the situation where you’re not proposing a UBI system that simplifies the tax system with it, but rather a UBI with a full-on progressive tax system that would likely lose some of the efficiencies the program promises. That could be a good thing if the extra revenue compensates for it, or it could be a bad thing if you lose too much efficiency for a barely-more-progressive tax system. A UBI already solves a lot of the “incentive to work” issue by making the transition from basic income to paid income smoother, so it’s probably better to invest the available funds in increasing the basic income rather than providing a further tax-free area.
What we’re trying to achieve implementing a UBI is a universal and unconditional income that gives people financial security if they can live a modest life, even if they’re not currently in paid employment for whatever reason. That’s what the settings should be tuned to in the long term, although in the short-term it may be beneficial to start out a bit below that level and work your way up as the savings kick in. (as long as it is “a bit” rather than “a lot.” TOP (at $10k BI) and Labour (at $12.5k BI) propose far too small a Basic Income)
@ Matthew Whitehead.
i am too poor for that richs mans folly.
when that man puts his money where his large mouth is, i.e. fund desexing /trap/neuter programs for feral cats to just begin with we might have a talk.
when that man starts putting his unproductive empty rental properties on the market then we might have a talk.
Until then i am too fucking poor to give Gareth Morgan and any of this ‘economists’ my vote.
so again, unless that wanker and his mates put their money where their mouth and their ideas are they can go climb on a bike and ride across mongolia.
Indeed, those are the dangers, but those things are always dangers when right-wingers take control of government. That’s actually why it’s important to have a left-wing implementation of a UBI first, so that people know the difference and recognise the tinkering for what it is, and as Weka says, Morgan’s model is basically the right-wing version. Having him into the conversation adds nothing to this issue from a left-wing perspective because he’s outright advocating a very regressive version of a UBI.
My dad, who is an ex-Labour Party staffer and ex-Treasury, likes to remind me whenever I talk to him about UBIs that Roger Douglas wanted one, but David Lange shot it down. I can only imagine Douglas’ was worse than Morgan’s.
In contrast, the version I modelled assuming generous (ie. very left-wing) settings assumed basic income levels on-par with the maximum payment from NZ Super, (ie. $20k p/a) a two-tier income tax of 45% for income under $80k p/a and 55% for income over $80k p/a and capital gains, and had some pessimistic “make it hard to work” assumptions like people working less as a result of the UBI, more people qualifying than were taxpayers in 2015, and no efficiencies modelled in from WINZ or IRD becoming leaner departments, or savings on health costs, etc… as it was supposed to prove you could fund a UBI until those long-term benefits from reduced poverty and increased labour mobility started kicking in.
Not factoring in tax exemptions, this system was better for anyone earning under $61k p/a, so it would probably be an improvement on WFFs for kiwi battlers, and a huge liberator for anyone else on low earned incomes.
All you have to do from there is make sure any adjustment to conditional benefits (ie. not jobseeker support) are relatively generous, and implement a change of culture to a help-our-customers model at WINZ, and you have a pretty healthy social support system set up, with a fair tax system to boot.
Most left-wing fans who are keen on the idea insist that if we’re going to do it, we get a left wing government to do it first thing in their first or maybe second terms, so that people can have 2-3 years of a generous UBI before they have to vote on it, increasing the chances they’ll start to benefit from a lot of the medium-term benefits of one and then recognise right-wing tinkering to the policy as very dangerous.
I wondered if you were of that Whitehead family.
Thank you plural for your service.
UBI sounds just terrrrrriffic under a left government.
But if it’s only going to be misused, distorted, and effectively turned into a big data-hoovering net and population-wide disciplinary instrument under a future government, it’s not worth it. I think that’s a very high risk.
The next Labour-led government may or may not be trustworthy with it. Who knows. Little and Ardern have already signaled in multiple ways that the existing benefits regime and reforms aren’t going to change much, and NZSuper not at all.
Before they lose their heads on huge social welfare ideas that have no nationwide benchmark anywhere in the world, I would want to see the next Labour-led government prove they have the chops just on housing, which will take most of a term. It’s the most appropriate place to spend one terms’ worth of political capital.
I can’t imagine that Labour would go near a UBI until a solid second term.
Focussing on housing as a priority makes sense.
Beneficiaries will continue to be stigmatised and left to it. It wouldn’t be that hard to roll back the worst of the Bennett reforms, but I don’t see Labour or the Greens talking about that.
they don’t need to talk about it, they need to do it.
I can see why both parties focus on core issues, Housing – which is hardest for the very poor if we are honest, and the environment – which also affects our poorest in different ways.
I do believe that both Greens/Labour will be able to create some good policies. But i can understand both parties to focus on what is on everyones mind, housing.
And then the election is in winter, and if this winter is similar to last we will be talking a lot about beneficiaries, children, disabled and their needs for good, decent, warm housing and the lack there of.
Life on a benefit is made that much harder because of WINZ, the culture of bashing, and the Bennett reforms. So yep, I support tackling housing as urgent. But ignoring welfare is basically saying you lot over there, we’ll help with this bit but the rest is tough shit because you’re a third class citizen.
There is only one reason Labour and the Greens won’t touch welfare and that’s votes. Which is an indictment of the country we have become.
we have become or maybe always have been a hard country. In saying that, we fix the fundamentals first and for all – unite people behind what they need all and that is how we start – Housing, Health Care, Education, etc. Beneficiaries need all of the above and more then most.
You can’t undo 9 years with five slogans. I actually have faith in both parties when it comes to this.
Hence why i am careful with a UBI, i dont want it to be the one and all easy and cheap solution that some would love to make it.
too true weka. i have some very sad stories i could tell you but can’t for obvious reasons. esp being a woman. 🙁
~ Tui
Yep. And that we can’t tell so many stories is a big sign too.
The problem of is that 65% of Kiwis own their own house so for the majority of Kiwi’s that is not their biggest issue of the election…. you need more than 50% of votes to win…
That was the mistake Labour made last time….
If you want change on housing you need a change of government, so blindly following an issue like housing shortages that doesn’t effect enough people and thinking it does, because politicians and lobby groups want it too, just doesn’t work.
There’s a reason there is a housing crisis and that is due to demand of housing due to immigration. Do the Math. Incoming, outgoing…
Nobody wants to tackle outright the immigration ugly debate, but the left need to get out of ideology and get into reality. Apparently we are one of the richest countries per capita, (due to high home ownership no doubt), so not everyone is feeling the pinch… but I do think that the Natz have got too greedy and corrupt and even the farmers (and even Havlock North folks) are not happy, let alone middle NZ who have zero job security and are going backwards financially (apart from their houses).
If Labour want to use housing they need to broaden it past, just the rental market – especially as many younger renters believe all the neoliberal ideology they have heard all their lives such as it’s beneficiaries fault, all politicians are the same, etc and don’t vote.
Look at people losing their houses due to climate change, high charges of rates and insurance, interest rates, state house sell offs, government stealing water and assets, taking over councils and ECAN etc
Unlike renters, if someone loses their house in an earthquake or flood, they can’t just move on to a better residence – they get stuck in limbo – sometimes for years fighting council, EQC and their insurers and have no roof over their heads, while still having to pay rates and mortgages… and rents while they wait.
If a home owner loses their job or gets relocated, their hours cut, they also have the same issues.
Sorry to be blunt, but I for one don’t want Labour and Greens to blow their election chances yet again, on a narrow issue, by focusing on a third of the NZ population that does not capture enough voters to win the next election of which many do not even vote.
Labour’s housing policy is also pretty similar on the face of it to National’s – the main difference is that they are not selling off the state houses. However Labour can not build enough houses any way for the amount of people coming in and local people on low wages can’t afford to buy them (aka 100,000 over 10 years and affordable being $500,000) .
Yeah, it’s those Whiteheads, although it’s mainly my father and the younger of my elder sisters (she now goes by her married name of course) with a public profile, and he’s the only one in public service. (he’s mostly out now, he’s the chief-executive version of retired where he’s doing some oversight work and consulting on Data Futures, which is the expert group that’s trying to get the government to be a bit more sensible about big data. If you look up their stuff, it’s actually very much in line with what people over here would expect big data should be used for, it’s just the government isn’t entirely listening yet) But yeah, he has a lot to be proud of in public service, especially in getting the Labour government to get Treasury working for them rather than distrusting it. (Labour should be treating them a bit like the Parliamentary Library- they’re not always going to give them the info they want, but by and large they can be a resource, especially if engaged with firmly but positively)
That said, I plan to join the two of them eventually, but in fiction writing, so look out for me on Amazon at some point as “M. J. Whitehead.” 🙂
There’s no reason a UBI should be a data hoovering net, we simply attach it to IRD numbers. That requires no additional data and lets you handle tax and basic income at the same time, and anyone can opt out by not getting an IRD number if they don’t like the requirements, or they’re an ACToid who objects to government payments. It will also make it harder for National to hold such a program hostage to big data in the future the way they can arguably justify with NGO funding, as attaching data collection to IRD numbers is a Big Thing.
Little and Ardern have signalled Labour’s policy. Remember, there will be negotiations with the Greens and NZF, and those negotiations will probably include some welfare reform, and research and trials for a UBI if the Green Party gets its entire wishlist in that area. Trialling it in a small town of a few thousand people to see how it would work in New Zealand, and even trialing it with several different settings, would be an excellent way to gather data.
I agree that if Labour and the Greens get into government in 2017, Term 1 needs to prioritise housing affordability reforms over anything else. That won’t mean there’s no time for anything else, of course, and in fact certain measures on welfare reform and tax that Labour have been reluctant to agree to (CGT CGT CGT) could possibly help the situation a lot if the Greens were to insist on them in coalition..
Matthew, as I understand it, Roger’s proposal was for a guaranteed minimum income. Anyone who earned less than the minimum would get topped up to the minimum. ie 100% marginal tax rate up to the guaranteed minimum, so anyone trying to work their way into the workforce by taking on small stretches of low-paid employment got absolutely no benefit from doing so.
A guaranteed minimum income without conditions is a UBI. 🙂 A lot of UBI proposals want it administered by the local equivalent to IRD, which makes a lot of sense, because they can calculate net tax owed or net UBI owed and either make a payment to you, or bill your employer for PAYE if you’re a net taxpayer.
But yeah, a marginal taxrate of 100% below the minimum income arguably makes it a bit of a different creature. Part of the reason most UBI trials have been good for getting people into work is that they only abate through income tax, so there’s a real financial incentive to taking work and getting both your paycheck and some fraction of the UBI, less income taxes.
The UBI model most attractive to me is some government agency pays every recipient their UBI (with need-based extras) separately from any tax considerations. Whether it’s the IRS, or MSD or something else doesn’t really matter, the idea is it’s a separate transaction to any income tax considerations. To reinforce that idea that it’s a right, not something somehow conditional or related to earning.
Then couple it with a flat income tax, for horizontal and vertical equity considerations (though I’m not averse to a punitive surtax on absolutely ridiculous pay rates, say over $200k pa). Currently dealing with the IRS and PAYE is enough of an obstacle that it’s an incentive to avoid the hassle. Whether it’s by just not employing someone, or going black market. Simplifying income taxes back to a flat rate may improve that.
Plus a capital gains tax, to plug that glaring hole in our system.
Functionally anyone signed up for PAYE would be paid net either way, it’d just be a matter of whether they had it deducted from their paycheck or their UBI payment, so no big issue there. The main advantage of paying a UBI-less-income-tax to people who are net beneficiaries is that it decreases the temporary financial burden on the government for people whose paychecks aren’t as frequent as the UBI payment would be, but that’s a minor policy issue IMO and it could easily be done either way. I agree there’s some philosophical benefits to simply paying the UBI out gross to anyone has an IRD number and provides a relevant bank account or other secure payment method.
And yeah, a CGT is basically necessary to run a UBI, because you can’t fund one without it.
I’d love to see a write up of that Matthew. The things that still stand out for me are the benefit/income top-ups, and what to do about housing and/or Accommodation Supplement.
I know you think $20,000 is liveable, but it doesn’t take into account rent/mortgage, nor individual circumstances. The one good thing about WINZ, and even better when Special Benefit was on place, was that individual circumstances were what counted and theoretically if you can argue your case within the rules you get extra assistance. If you take that away, and say every single person can live on $20,000 then you are saying that every single person’s circumstances are the same (they’re not) or that those who can’t manage should suck it up.
I’m assuming that the $20,000 is for people that can top-up via working. So we need another system for those that can’t.
So there will be variation in income need because of disability/illness/parenting etc.
And then in housing. Rents vary hugely across the country and the current WINZ system takes that into account.
I agree there will always need to be a topup system for the items/circumstances you mention, even with a generous UBI (and I doubt we will get anything like $20k from any govt to begin with).
Yeah, I would be really keen to look into that, but I can’t make guarantees I’ll make time for it soon. It’s really good to have a basic costing when people say “this is impractical” to throw in their face so they actually have to find holes.
The major one people would attack my current model for is that it’s a bit mean to the wealthy in terms of a 55% tax rate for all actual capital gains and for all personal income over $80k.
$20k p/a is roughly $8-10k p/a over most annual benefit payment levels. That should cover you for rent of up to $200 per week. It’s absolutely possible to do a more generous UBI than $20k, I had the same reaction when I looked at the $12.5k UBI proposals, I just got a bit wigged out when I looked at adding on even another $2k or $5k per annum on how much tax that would require. (twice as much net cost in non-income taxes for $5k, basically)
My model actually assumes no reduction to any benefits other than Jobseeker Support, which it assumes will be replaced by the UBI. This is part of my trying to be pessimistic with my assumptions- I assume at least some reduction to conditional benefits would be practical, because you’ll get the UBI too, so even with a siginicant reduction it should work out to a drastic raise in the overall transfer for most beneficiaries.
And yeah, I think we’d want to look into offer a conditional benefit for people with high housing costs with some of the money offset from those benefit reductions. (the tricky thing is trying to get numbers on specific benefit types, both in terms of overall transfer costs and number of people on each benefit. MSD doesn’t make it very accessible, so I may need to OIA them for the figures I’d need to run the numbers) The other option would be to calculate those likely savings, and then feed them back into the basic income level, and see if it comes out giving a bit more breathing room to renters. The advantage of that approach is that it encourages people to leave for the regions to live more affordably, if they can.
$20k per annum works out to $392.15 or so per week. That means you need to fit rent, food, power, and any other costs into that amount. $20k is “generous” in that it will actually cover those costs under some reasonable assumptions, but it won’t cover every adult. Two adults living together on $784.30 per week could probably do quite well for themselves, but it would be difficult for a single person to live that way without either very cheap living conditions, (and flatmates) some conditional assistance, and/or some minor income other than the UBI. I would probably get by, but I’m reasonably frugal when I need to be.
To be clear, I can find MSD’s information on how many people fall into various categories of benefit. But I have yet to locate anything like “we payout $X for Jobseeker support in total.” The only thing I can locate dollar amounts for is hardship payments.
I’m sure somebody somewhere has asked this but was Peter Thiel made a New Zealand citizen because he had to be a citizen by law to access certain data or attend certain meetings? And it was easier to make him a citizen rather than change the law? I’m thinking something along the lines of accessing security data – don’t GCSB ads require you to be a citizen?
And I think the secretary of the Treasury has to be a New Zealand Citizen.
I’ve been asking myself that very same question.
Make no mistake: spying is a military operation. The New Zealand government employs mercenaries.
I wonder whether being a mercenary can trigger any of the provisions outlined here.
Spying is not a military operation. Both Sis and GCSB operate under civil law with warrants and authorizations. That is is what the the legislation is all about.
Obviously a lot of their technology is developed by private companies, which is true of most things with government.
Private firms build schools and provide educational equipment. Pharmaceutical companies supply drugs and medical equipment firms provide surgical equipment. Aircraft manufacturers build transport and combat planes, etc, etc.
So it is not surprising the same happens in the intelligence world. The staff in GCSB inevitably use software and hardware developed by others.
So your post has a fundamentally flawed premise.
Spying has it’s own chapter in The Art Of War. The GCSB was until recently a part of the NZDF.
The whole point of spying is to make wars shorter and less likely. That’s the only reason they can get away with it. Domestic surveillance by police etc. is not the same as stealing other countries secrets, no matter how much sophistry you employ.
It’s a military operation with a valid humanitarian purpose. Anything else is just stealing.
I’m not sure Sun Tzu has much standing in the annals of international jurisprudence.
Stealing other countries’ secrets is only a bit of it – often the most interesting bit, but also refer to the CIA World Fact Book for examples of opensource data collated in a useful way.
One nation’s personnel committing an illegal act in another nation is not in itself an act of war, or even a military act. Stealing crop data before it’s released is not a military act.
The point of spying is to give your nation an advantage over the nation being spied upon. It has nothing to do with avoiding war. China, for example, has been accused of using its intelligence services for state-sponsored industrial espionage. How would that make wars shorter, or even be a military act?
A veneer of legality doesn’t conceal the hostile intent behind such actions.
Sun Tzu may have zero standing in court; The Art Of War is nonetheless required reading at West Point (pdf).
I suspect we may need to agree to disagree.
Not all guns are military weapons.
Not all spies are military spies.
AoW is a military text. It is not a text on the history of all espionage, nor on diplomacy.
Espionage is illegal – pretty much every nation has laws against unregistered agents of other powers working within their borders. It just isn’t always (even mostly) military.
Getting the eastern European order of battle for someone is military intelligence.
Getting the text of Nikita Khrushchev’s speech denouncing Joseph Stalin was not military intelligence, although it was diplomatic intelligence.
Espionage is illegal. When conducted by one nation against another, that counts as hostile in my book.
Acts of hostility can be acts of peace? If you read Sun Tzu, indeed they can. Conflict between nations, eh. Let’s privatise it.
That’ll work /sarc
But hostile doesn’t equal military. Walking out of the General Assembly when the Iranian or Israeli ambassador is about to make an address is “hostile”. Expelling half the embassy staff from your country is “hostile”.
Briefing and debriefing tourists who travel to a certain region, asking them for details about crops or the health of the populace, has produced valuable intelligence for various agencies, and if the tourists’ tasks had been known to the nations they were visiting it would have resulted in spying charges. Was that “military”, or even “hostile”?
Militarily useful. Yep.
More diplomatically useful than militarily. Especially when the countries are still exchanging tourists.
If the sole purview of spies was talking to returning tourists you’d be standing on solid ground.
However, you are standing on broken ground, and that’s why you have to recruit these sophistries.
But the tourists are the spies gathering military intelligence, according to you.
Acts of war committed on a day trip from a cruise liner.
Nope: the tourists in your example just answer questions. The answers only have military potential once they’re collated and entered into a database.
That’s why the spies in your example ask the questions in the first place. cf: Rumsfeld and his unknowns.
And yet they were still briefed in my example (not just debriefed), as well as facing actual legal espionage charges if caught.
Edit: hang on, did you just argue that spying only occurs at the collation phase, not collection?
Ah, so they were asked to break laws “for their country”? Good little soldiers were they?
Edit: Is this a real example? If so please just link. It seems like nitpicking…
You get lots of hits for “tourist arrested for spying”, but most of those seem to be bargaining chips rather than spies.
But yeah, It’s mentioned in “Every Spy a Prince” (book about Israeli intelligence services) that the Israelis did it, and I Also read somewhere about the yanks and British doing it during the cold war. Usually just “geez, it’d be real helpful if you remember but don’t write down xyz, or any comments from locals, how full the stores are, that sort of thing”. Maybe in some readings about Gehlen I had to do at one stage.
As for your “soldiers” line, nope. Not in the armed forces, not armed, no rank, no pay. Just patriots, misled or otherwise.
this looks like someone’s research on the practise:
“Penn DCC Workshop / Alex Hazanov /
Foreign Visitors in the Late Soviet Union, the KGB and the Limits of Surveillance”
You’re saying crimes (eg: espionage) by one nation against another don’t fall into the category of “enemy action”?
Seriously?
Come to my house and steal and we’re going to get into a fight. Think about that on a global level.
Some acts of espionage definitely are “enemy action”, gathering intelligence with a view to military advantage. Others aren’t.
What was the military value of stealing the text of khruschev’s speech?
What was even the “enemy action” in it?
“knowledge of the enemy’s condition”
Not to mention intimidation: I’m in your house and there’s nothing you can do about it.
lol
Laugh all you like: “he who does not laugh does not learn.”
If you think I’m missing something about the theft of Kruschev’s speech please be more explicit.
It has a propaganda value too, no: “Hey look, I was in his house and I found this…”
None of it is friendly action.
I’m not arguing that it was a “friendly” action.
It just wasn’t military. It had zero military value. There were bragging rights, sure, but that’s political value. It didn’t affect the military situation anywhere in the world.
“He was in my house. How many other things did he steal?”
You think that has no effect on military capability? Ok then. Let’s agree to disagree.
“They stole nothing of value, and now I have a rough idea of where they got in and what level of things they have access to”.
‘Tiger Mountain’ observed here yesterday that Peter Thiel was on the CIA plane seen on the Wellington tarmac at the time of the Warners/Hobbit Affair”. That was 2010. Thiel was fast-tracked to citizenship status in 2011.
https://thestandard.org.nz/bye-john/#comment-1310153
I’ve submitted a guest post on this and related topics coming from the perspective of time-lines which would be an ideal place to discuss in more depth. Trouble is, it was a rushed job so probably needs a bit of tinkering… maybe too much tinkering. 🙁
A self-described Libertwit hand in hand with Big Brother. It would be funny if it weren’t such a clear and present danger.
I know you (and your family) have to pass a thorough security vetting to become Secretary. I’m not certain if you actually need to be a citizen, as I know Gabriel was only in New Zealand for about a year before he was appointed, but he might have already been a citizen before he came back to NZ or something. I can ask his predecessor if you’re really interested. 😉
I expect it would be enough to have the right to work in New Zealand, to pass security vetting, and have no conflict of interest overseas.
I would be very interested in the predecessor’s reply.
Mainly because I heard some thing kinda interesting in that space.
I was emailing my dad something else today so I passed on the question. I’ll try and keep this tab open to get back to you if he has any insight.
Oh, he just got back to me. Gabriel was already keen to apply for NZ Citizenship anyway, and the implication is that he had been approved by the time he was actually Secretary.
There is apparently no explicit requirement that the SecTres be a kiwi, but the level of necessary security clearance may functionally make it mandatory. I think personally that it’s a good idea not to legislate hard requirements that public servants have to be citizens and that this is the right approach- if ever someone who’s qualified wants to do the job and isn’t yet a citizen, they can try to clear the security hurdle without applying for citizenship first.
Anyone following the leak of a phone call by US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan pre the last elections, saying he wouldn’t support Trump? It was published by Breitbart, media organ of Donald Trump.
There is a good discussion of it here by The Young Turks – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftLqOHitn6w
But I think this link by a blogger who supports Trump is possibly closest to the truth – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65wnJwSBRs4
The theory is that there is power struggle going on between Trump and his team and Paul Ryan and the Republican establishment.
Allegedly the leak was instigated by Trump to attack Ryan whom Trump thinks is purposely failing in his attempts to get the healthcare package through in an attempt to destablise Trump’s Presidency to the point where it is ineffective.
Bit more general discussion on the subject here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrTGY7yANmI
Nice to see Wilders not get quite the level of seats in Netherlands elections that polls indicated.
Same old coalition talks melee to ensue.
His PVV gained a bunch of seats though, at the expense of their right wing party National equivalent (VVD).
Also, interestingly the vote for their equivalent of Labour (PvdA) totally collapsed in favour of what looks like a centre-right party (CDA, also picked up votes from VVD), the social democrats (D66) and the socialists. I guess that’s what happens to your core voters when a Labour party goes into coalition with National…
No it’s what happens when the centrists who were tempted to VVD do the smart thing and vote tactically. Lots of good vox pops from voters coming out of the polls over on the European media at the moment.
That might explain VVD losing some seats, but doesn’t really explain Labour losing swags of seats, especially with greens picking up heaps of seats.
Interesting developments with proposed new CYFS law. Tolley going back to the drawing board after taking flak from Maori groups over the principle to place child safety above placing the child with immediate or extended family.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/326684/govt-backs-down-over-whanau-first-care
There’s a lot to unpack with this one. Child welfare authorities (administered by central govt / iwi / NGOs) are always trying to identify family members who can take the children. A lot are rejected for a range of safety-related reasons. Those that do pass muster often find themselves subject to lip-service support from those authorities. Not much fun when the kids are experiencing all kinds of trauma-related behaviour or are born with conditions that have contributed to the abuse (fetal alcohol syndrome etc) and whanau / foster parents have little knowledge about how to manage these ongoing issues.
Raybon Kan – best read in the herald! … on Nick Smith and water rights…
“We don’t have to be greenies. Let’s be greedies. Where’s the state-owned water bottling company? Why aren’t we the country where the police drive Lamborghinis?
Why aren’t we the country where nobody pays a cent of tax, because we be rich, baby!
We’d be better off if Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies was in charge. He at least knows gold when he sees it. (Black gold. Texas tea.)
Water is the new gold. Water is the new oil. And it’s our dumb luck to have billions upon billions of litres of it. Let’s not spit in the face of luck. Luck works. Luck made Donald Trump rich, at birth. We’ve been rich this whole time. This is Antiques Roadshow, and we just found something valuable in the cellar.
Have you seen the world recently? Billionaires are buying NZ citizenship, to avoid the apocalypse. High-decile, modern parts of the world, don’t drink their tap water. Let’s take the advice of One Direction, and know that we’re beautiful.
Smith said: what next, air? Well, there are laws governing airspace. Councils tell you how high you can build. Airlines take big detours around certain countries.
Our country, our rules. The Government just redefined ‘swimmable’ as fresh water where the turds aren’t the size of legal snapper.
So let’s just declare that they – we – own underground water. You want it? Round these parts, we charge by the barrel. You think the Saudis have a problem with owning the oil under their ground? Do they say: Nobody owns oil! Know what they don’t have? Water.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11818830
Does this sound like affordable housing or selling cheap to private developers and cronies to increase Auckland’s unaffordability???
Multi-million dollar Hobsonville project announced
“Willis Bond is buying 1.8 hectares of state-owned land for the scheme, due to settle in stages in the next three years, he said. But he refused to say how much his business was paying for the Government-owned land.”
Be interesting to see how much the government get for 1.8Ha of waterfront land compared to Bayleys for .5 Ha of waterfront land…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11819215
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11819374
GDP comes in 50% below expectations in dec 1/4
Gdp per capita falls by 02.%.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/GDP/GrossDomesticProduct_MRDec16qtr.aspx
Little says if he becomes Prime Minister, spending on housing and education would always take priority over spending on the Defence Force.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201836651/labour-won't-commit-to-$20-billion-defence-force-upgrade
Hear, hear.
Haven’t listened to the audio, but nice one.
So Mr Chairman and others,
So you are happy for the Men and Women of NZDF, Civilians, personal from other government department’s and foreign nationals to fly around in 50 year old plus aircraft or the Navy to breached UN environment laws from 2018 with its single hull tanker and OPV’s heading down south because its ice strengthen hulls won’t be spec from 2018?
Or you and are happy for the NZDF to deployed in Peacekeeping role ill equip and under strength like it did during INTERFET (East Timor 1999) or in HDAR role?
Like all Government Departments since 91 NZDF has asset stripped big time through equipment and manning and each time it’s had to step up its been found wanting in all areas over the last 30yrs and some more chickens are starting to come home like the C130’s, P3’s and now OPV’s which were brought under Labour.
I’ve told all 3 services are barely achieving its government mandated outputs because a lack of manpower, equipment and trying to preserve hours or days on equipment so it can squeeze a few years out it.
No, I’m not happy about that.
However, we all have wish-lists and can all bring out the violin. Unfortunately, we can only spend what we can afford. Therefore, things have to be prioritised, including our defence spend.
The RNZAF airlift problems could’ve have been in part solve under the last labour government when the last National government put in a option for 8 C-130 J models on the back of the Australia order. But no they didn’t but lets squeeze another 10-15yrs out of them with a upgrade which almost fell over if it wasn’t for SAFE Air and it went budget as well. Then the issue of the OPV’s and again the labour didn’t listen to the RNZN advice about future requirements to operate in the southern ocean and now stuck with 2 ships that won’t be spec after 2018.
National and Labour both like to avoid making hard decisions when it comes to NZDF and its not just new equipment, its also pay and conditions. Like all pollies they are too worried about the next election to give a stuff about NZDF.
All equipment Defence equipment etc, have a 30 year life span +/- 10yrs depending on how hard its been used and going over this increases the risk of failure.
Like you I have never voted national in my life and never will ( I remember the 90’s), on the same token I’ll never vote green as well.
hi xkf, if short of funds, run a sausage sizzle.
So do you support poaching in the seas around NZ, South pacific and Southern Ocean?
http://politik.co.nz/en/content/foreignaffairs/1054/NZ-to-attend–Pacific-security-crisis-meeting-with-US-Quadrilateral-Defence-Operational-Working-Group.htm
So you support NZDF not doing HADR missions within NZ or the South Pacific?
Do want the NZDF to undertake Peacekeeping missions like East Timor aka “INTERFET” as a benchmark for future Peacekeeping missions?
So if and when NZ EEZ expands from 3.2millon sq km’s to about 6.4millon sq km’s you support the NZDF staying at its current force levels?
hi xkf,
that is a lot of sausage sizzles.
i do support free education for all,
i do support mental health budget increasing,
i do not support the many billions of dollars allocated to gcsb.
if you want more $ look there at your spy colleagues, not at education or health budgets.
Well I don’t have a toss about the spooks. Sounds like you don’t the like Greens defence policy as well.
Frankly, I think Little fell into the trap of making it a false competition.
Hell, even the GCSB has some functions that need to be done, such as keeping on top of threats to government communications infrastructure, even if one thinks that gentlemen don’t read the mail of other gentlemen.
But maritime surveillance and the disaster response capabilities fulfilled by the NZDF have been demonstrated as being essential several times in the last few years.
Education and health cuts are no longer an issue. They’ve already been cut to unsustainable levels. We need massive injections into all sectors of government, from NZDF and cops through to CYF/Health/Education.
Well said McFlock, all I see is repeat of the 90’s by this National government.
We can stop popularism”
GreenLeft quadruple the number of MP’s
EPA and Monsanto collusion over roundup.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-14/court-docs-prove-monsanto-collusion-epa-kill-cancer-study-admits-cant-say-roundup-do
From no right turn…
“Questions are being asked after a lucrative water consent attached to a former wool scouring plant in Christchurch went on the market.
Newshub reported tonight the Kaputone wool scouring plant in Belfast is about to be sold off and, with it, a water consent allowing the extraction of more than 4.3 million litres of water a day – the equivalent of 50 one-litre bottles a second.
The only cost is $100 – if inspected – and the consent does not expire until 2032.
[…]
Meanwhile, Newshub reported those behind the sale of Kaputone – owner Cavalier Carpets and its shareholder Direct Capital – would not reveal who the prospective buyers are.
Several workers told the broadcaster they believed Chinese interests are involved.
The site is under five hectares and not considered sensitive land so it is unlikely the sale will need to go through the Overseas Investment Office.”
This hospital parking issue has bothered me for awhile.
Dad in this article paid $140/week (!!) to see his son who was born premature.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/90408747/ive-got-to-pay-to-see-my-son–father-launches-petition-against-expensive-hospital-parking-fees
https://www.causes.com/campaigns/106423-change-paid-parking-in-new-zealand-hospitals
+1 AsleepWhileWalking!
That is why the cost of living in NZ is getting so high under this neoliberal regime. They put a private expensive ‘service’ charge on top of a free public service, again and again.
So the result is, that private company makes a killing and often pays little to zero tax, the sick person or their family (and all their visitors) have to pay for getting sick and ultimately it makes hospital care not free any more.
I paid $125 at A& E for a ‘free’ blood test form to check we did not have measles before flying. Next time I might think twice about checking.
Free Public health???
Hi asleep, I too have had a bee in my bonnet over hospital parking fees.
It is wrong in so many ways, and can only be justified in a narrow financial view.
Effectively it is a decrease in income for those hospital staff who use private vehicles to get to work.
It inconveniences local residents and places an unfair burden on families and friends of ill people.
But it gets our local dhb an extra $450,000 annually.
Greedy and cruel.
Trump Travel Ban Blocked Nationwide
Oh Dear! How Sad! Never Mind.
The Judge cites Trump in blocking the new immigration order:
https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/842152320381128704/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A small number of young people say why they haven’t voted.
it seems to me a lot comes down to not understanding our electoral system, or how their votes do make an impact, including when they vote for small or medium sized parties.
I don’t think the not wanting to stand in line is the main reason. If people cared about their vote having an impact, the small lines that can occur at NZ booths would not be a deterrent.
In fact, online voting might encourage voting without putting much thought into it.
More political education in schools might help. Plus more young people being involved in mainstream politics. Clear out some of the old guard candidates, and bring in more younger ones.
Chris Trotter whacks dairy, hard!
Goodness me! Mr Trotter has been pulling his punches…till now:
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/03/new-zealands-non-negotiable-mythology.html