Imagine a capital gains tax was in place now as proposed. The Labour Party calculations by Berl Economics on page six estimated an annual price appreciation rate of 3.5%. Using this as a basis, this would give an annual increase in the first twelve months of $8,750 on which tax would later be payable of $1,312.
THIS AMOUNT OF TAX IN THE FIRST YEAR IS THE EQUIVALENT TO $25 PER WEEK.
I would conclude that over time rents would need to adjust by an equivalent amount to maintain the current position, if a similar number of landlords would be expected to facilitate supply of accommodation.
The other major factor which effects Rent levels is interest rates… and they are forecast to rise from later this year. Planning a new tax on landlords to apply 2013 might not be ideal for those who might want to rent housing.
Take away the emotive language and focus on facts. The Average property Investor is not a high income earner and may have one to three properties. Trying to save for retirement so as to ring fence themselves from Government!
Scott Mason, tax principal at WHK in Dunedin, said a move to CGT would be an “absolute, fundamental change to Kiwis’ mind-sets” – developed over more than 100 years.
He said introducing CGT would be a “winner” for valuers, lawyers and accountants, while the “losers” would be “every Kiwi striving to do better for themselves by saving and investing in assets, as opposed to spending in the here and now”.
Dunedin has a unique mix of investment properties with a high proportion of student rentals. If rents get a double whammy from rising interest rates and CGT how much will it impact on Dunedin as an attractive proposition for education?
Students won’t buy properties in Dunedin if landlords decide it’s not worth investing here under CGT.
What does the presumed new Labour MP for Dunedin North think?
Just watched excellent presentation on youtube. David Cunliffe explains how Labour is going to build a fairer future for New Zealand. Superb – and timely.
Good plug for Labour. No consideration for Dunedin North.
Come on David, are you standing for a party or an electorate?
Is National paying you to recycle these discredited FUD arguments all over the internet? This is what I gleaned:
– The wealthy Property Investors Assn wants to keep their tax free speculation profits
– Some people think they have the right to evade their tax obligations
– The suckers buying houses to live in ought to be shafted by a bubble economy and be grateful
– The bank will be stoked to have another Kiwi paying mortgage interest to its Aussie shareholders
– Landlords will be “forced” to put up rent (stop the press! landlord tries to increas rent!)
– It’s all so frightening I MUST USE CAPITAL LETTERS TO EMPHASISE that I might be taxed for money I gained WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING PRODUCTIVE
Breaking News – the President of the Otago Property Investors Assn doesn’t like a CGT!
A CGT closes a great big gaping hole in our tax regime that has enabled people to convert taxable income to non-taxable capital gain and therefore avoid paying tax. This is unfair and is a burden on all other taxpayers.
My previous boss had an annual income of $250,000 p.a. and boasted he never paid more than $10,000 p.a. in tax as he offset his income against his highly geared rental property portfolio.
a move to CGT would be an “absolute, fundamental change to Kiwis’ mind-sets” – developed over more than 100 years.
Sure will – no more using property speculation to avoid income tax.
Need to do a bit more secret squirreling if a couple of quotes from vested interests is the best you can come up with.
A CGT closes a great big gaping hole in our tax regime
But will a CGT with a myriad of little holes do it?
I’ve looked for local comment because a change in emphasis on investment taxation could have a big impact on Dunedin. I’ll happily post different views on it, CGT deserves a good debate.
I don’t like Key dismissing it completely. That’s bad politics.
I’d prefer to see a CGT designed with expert input and wide electorate now, not tweaking or window dressing the final product, and not designed around potential voter groups in a party backroom.
A fundamental change to our tax system like this deserves far more than being an election year bribe and scare football. Doesn’t it?
But will a CGT with a myriad of little holes do it?
So you’ve agreed that there is a great big gaping hole in the tax regime that needs to be fixed. Not doing anything about it is a bit like not building a dam because you’re worried there might be a few leaks.
I’ll happily post different views on it, CGT deserves a good debate
Go on then do it.
A fundamental change to our tax system like this deserves far more than being an election year bribe and scare football.
It’s called policy actually and all being well it’s what elections should be won or lost on. Or would you prefer us to elect MPs on their looks or ability to “smile and wave”.
No dam is better than a dam with holes that you have no idea in advance how open they will get.
Policies are important for elections but it’s also important to have faith in those behind the policies, that they will consult and listen and respond, and not just emerge from a party back room with what they think is a vote winner and try to shut off valid criticism and debate.
A debate on something as big and important as a a major tax restructuring should last for more than a couple of weeks, shouldn’t it?
Trying to frame it now as “choose this or something else” is trying to shut down debate when it should only be starting,
“…it’s also important to have faith in those behind the policies, that they will consult and listen and respond…”
Riiiight. Like National do. Or like you do, here. Goodo.
“…and not just emerge from a party back room with what they think is a vote winner…”
It’s becoming apparent that your real problem with a CGT is that you think it’s a vote-winner too.
“Trying to frame it now as “choose this or something else” is trying to shut down debate when it should only be starting”
Actually this has been debated for decades. You’ve only just started to take notice now that you have to for political reasons, and if you’re too late to be involved that’s nobody’s fault but yours.
Actually this has been debated for decades. You’ve only just started to take notice now that you have to for political reasons
I thought that was referring to the Labour Party, because according to Goff they only started to take notice this year when they decided they need to compete with asset sales policies.
The catalyst for Labour’s support of a capital gains tax was the government’s proposal to sell shares in state-owned assets.
Labour leader Phil Goff said at the launch of his party’s tax policy this afternoon that the proposal was a declaration of intent that effectively called on Labour to find the political courage to map out a better, more viable alternative.
when they decided they need to compete with asset sales policies.
Trying to rely on a one liner to explain why Labour came up with a CGT communicates an ignorance of how policy priorities are chosen and the detailed process needed to forge policy which is strong and workable.
The CGT does a lot more than compete with National’s asset sales agenda, it demonstrates a willingness on Labour’s behalf to rebalance the entire economy and broaden the tax base, a process which Labour has explicitly said will take years.
English and Key on the other hand have a one hit asset sell off. Not much competition really.
And don’t you just cringe when Key and Co, keep on with the “kiwi mums and dads” line. I am a Kiwi Dad I and I don’t have any money saved, So Blinglish is deluding himself if he thinks that we can afford to go out and buy shares willy nilly just so he and his mates can have Tax cuts.
If you bothered to see what he said, you’d know that he praised Labour for bringing CGT up, he criticised them for proposing a holey version, and he criticised National for turning their backs on it.
I’m not going to say “I love Labour’s proposal, there’s nothing at all wrong with it”. That’s not balance, that’s stupidity, which you seem to have woken up with today.
It seems to me that any would-be landlord who can’t make a normal profit should stay out of the market. The trouble is that 15% is not high enough to keep out punters who can’t make it work. I think I would set the rate to 90% with an abatement of 5 percentage points per year to 15% after 15 years. Hopefully this would keep out speculators, and renovators who want to pass off the fruits of their renovations as capital gains.
The real problem in the rental market is not the lack of a CGT but high property values, and perhaps high interest rates, which makes it difficult for landlords to make a normal profit.
[It seems to me that any would-be landlord who can’t make a normal profit should stay out of the market. The trouble is that 15% is not high enough to keep out punters who can’t make it work. I think I would set the rate to 90% with an abatement of 5 percentage points per year to 15% after 15 years. Hopefully this would keep out speculators, and renovators who want to pass off the fruits of their renovations as capital gains.]
It has actually been pointed out to me on another thread that a high rate is not actually needed for CGT to act as a deterrent, and it is clear to me that the pointer outer is correct. So I’m forced to retract all the stuff about a 90% tax rate. lol.
Secret Squirrel, or should I say Pete George..you forget that landlords have been hiking up rents and pricing a lot of people out of rental accommodation (not to mention becoming more choosy about who they rent to) for the past decade or so.
And I shall wager that with the changes to state housing being brought in, and thousands of vulnerable families being kicked off the HNZ waiting lists into the private sector, landlords will be taking that oppurtunity to put up rents even further (of course, the slum-lords union is mysteriously silent about that little issue) than they already are and than they could with a capital gains tax.
Of course, I think that the CGT should be spent on 1) expanding state housing back to pre-1991 levels, 2) higher accomodation supplements, and 3) low interest home loans for people.
In the mail this week: a letter from Anne Tolley stating that
* National plans to cut playcentre funding by 60%
* The govt prefers to fund places with qualified staff
* Submissions close at the end of August
WTF is happening with this nasty attack on community run organisations? Are mothers now required to do a (very expensive) ECE course just to have somewhere to take their kids to play with other children? Does Tolley realise that not everyone can afford fancy preschool daycare or kindergartens?
Can’t find this anywhere on parliament.nz to make a submission.
ropata I guess that Ann Tolley belongs to that school where children are valued for the clever things they can do to impress friends and rellies. That is why it is important to concentrate on the Education in Early Childhood Education. Kids should be forced forward, trained like show ponies, that’s more important than socialisation, confidence, physical skills and the use of ideas, imagination with craftwork all to be enjoyed rather than completed and measured to some standard.
In some Asian countries, I think I have heard recently about South Korea, the children suffer so much if they can’t achieve to their parents expectations that they commit suicide. I think that has been recorded here amongst some PI people. Parents who have not had much schooling themselves, and don’t understand what is involved can pressure their children beyond endurance. I don’t know if this happens particularly with girls, but often they have onerous household and child minding duties as well as trying to do homework and have high test results. I was reading about a NZ pupil on exchange in France, their school went from 8am to as late as 6pm.
Even the Stuff National poll http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/
is coming up with
Partial Asset Sales 46.9%,
Capital gains tax and higher top income tax 53.%
Given the expected bias from an internet poll that has to indicate at least a 10% margin in favour of Labours programme of looking after the many rather than the few.
A while ago, I decided to get some dance lessons. Don’t get me wrong; I can dance already, being a veritable master at the Twist and Funky Chicken. However it’s tap dancing that has always interested me… so I finally paid for some lessons, which are going superbly! There’s still a few months to practice before the big night, and a few spaces left in the tap dance class, so feel free to get your dancing shoes on as well.
Unfortunately polls suggest most people don’t see him that way.
In most of his interviews (and yes, again launching Labour’s CGT) he looks uncomfortable with his message. He looks like he’s saying what he thinks he has to say, and not what he feels and believes.
He’s been in politics long enough to be familiar with dealing with media interviews, so can’t be inexperience.
Goff looks like the party that is dragging him in directions he’s not comfortable with. He doesn’t look like he believes in what he’s saying.
Pretty large assumptions to make there SS. It’s apparent that Phil Goff is running Labour properly, hence the unbalanced opinion shown on the Nation program today. The right wing program even said the CGT would apply to Christchurch houses, when they will initially be exempt. It’s one thing to tell only one side of the story, but to blatantly lie about a political parties policies is not acceptable.
It is Labour’s policies that people will vote for. There is already overwhelming support for the well constructed CGT from a wide range of the community. Such a tax will make many speculators vote National, and many more poor people vote Labour. There are more poor people than wealthy, National has made sure of that.
The other side of the coin is that people will now vote against National, because they have failed to deliver any of their promises. You can harp on about Goff’s mannerisms all you like SS, they beat John Key’s lies and failure hands down.
It’s apparent that Phil Goff is running Labour properly, hence the unbalanced opinion shown on the Nation program today.
Interesting comment jackal.
I noted on Thursday evening’s TV1 and TV3 news programmes (immediately after Labour’s announcement) that TV3’s coverage was much fairer and more balanced than TV1. In fact TV1’s coverage was blatantly partisan against Labour and the CGT tax. It suggests to me that the problem is not the respective TV stations as such, but rather the personnel who run the individual news and current affairs programmes.
Yeah but don’t forget that SS or Pete or what ever nom de plume he’s using at the moment, has had to stoop to name calling, because every other argument he tries to start is met with solid FACTS. See SS or Pete, FACTS not guesswork, or as in the case of Blinglish and KY Prayer. As in don’t have one!
This morning Kim on radionz was interviewing author –
Gerald Seymour: thrills and terror
British writer Gerald Seymour worked for many years as an international news reporter. His first thriller, ‘Harry’s Game’, was published in 1975; he has since written a further 25 bestsellers. His new book is ‘A Deniable Death’. (44′11″)
Interesting chap. He talked about the Balkans and the plight of the Muslims in the area affected by the Serbs’ rush of blood to the head and feet, and how hard it would be to improve the survivors’ life to normality, perhaps never in their lifetime. He wrote Harry’s Game about Northern Ireland and how violence is breaking out there again. (It was probably depression from seeing the infighting of Greek partisans once the Germans were dealt with that led to John Mulgan taking his life.) Old enmities, old traditions allowed to fester need cleaning out with a new mindset, a different approach to contested traditions.
Then Joky Hen says he isn’t interested in making any changes to the loyalty oath in our parliament because it is long-standing. Making small changes that allow for better relationships and meet ideas of fairness are necessary by wise, intelligent leaders of society. Which Joky Hen isn’t.
Intermittent signal July 2011/4 (last11/7)
People in NZ doing things with ideas for a good future here.
Radio NZ today – Country Life Making a Lifestyle Block Make Money
The Madsens own a beautiful home in a cluster of lifestyle blocks in North Auckland. They have a few pigs and a sheep on their one hectare of land. So far, so ordinary. But the couple have built a unique way of life by turning the idea of the unproductive lifestyle block on its head. They run a herd of 150 cattle, over a number of blocks. (duration: 11′23″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
and A New Home for Koanga Institute and Gardens
For the past 25 years Kay Baxter and her husband Bob Corker have been saving New Zealand’s heritage fruit trees and vegetables at Koanga Gardens in Kaiwaka. But five years ago they decided they needed a new place to live so have found a new home near Wairoa where they’re developing a Community Land Trust which they hope will support up to 30 families. (duration: 22′03″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
and Wool Based Disposable Nappies
Potroz-Smith Technologies is developing a super absorbent wool-based material called NatraZorb, to be used in disposable nappies, amongst other things. Derelee Potroz-Smith says the idea started on her family’s Taranaki farm with romney sheep. (duration: 6′11″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
Wasn’t Citizen A amusing last night. Cameron Slater squirming when put on the rack concerning his infamous gut shot comments re Arie Smith-Voorkamp was priceless. But then the ignoramus AKA Whaleoil made a most interesting revelation, which seems strange in context to his normal campaign of disinformation…
Personally I think that there will be a deal to raise the debt ceiling, and that a crisis will be averted. However it will involve slashing what is left of the USA’s social safety net and public sector. And quite a few more people will consigned into hardship, or worse. But really, what’s a few more in the scheme of things.
40 years ago, only Nixon could go to China. Now in 2011, only Obama could cut Social Security (and Medicare)
Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin.
One possible outcome is that they increase the Federal Debt Limit but with no changes to entitlements or tax increases i.e. they just kick the can a bit further down the road. What do you reckon the chances are?
Unemployment is skyrocketing among Maori youth, yet tribal leaders would rather employ fishing boat crews from overseas instead of purchasing their own boats and training up their young people to crew them.
Im guessing they would rather use the profits to dish out scholarships to family members and buy BMW’s.
If Hone wants any modicum of respect, then he should be highlighting this issue, instead of throwing his toys when he doesn’t get is own way when he is sworn in.
So the thin blue line (aka ‘the filth’) have performed another summary execution when they gunned down an admittedly troublesome person at the Headlands Hotel according to media reports….
“I am able to confirm that the man was challenged, a dog deployed, there was a struggle and Police discharged a firearm.”
The man died at the scene.
The police shot was the only shot fired, he said.
The man’s gun had not yet been found.
A knife was found near his body, Mr Handcock said.”
What are tasers and pepper for? Oh thats right, they are to ensure compliance not end this sort of situation in a non lethal way. The fact is whenever the pigs draw a firearm prepare to die as they are trained to aim at the torso only, ie shoot to kill. Fer crissakes they had 30 plus special coppers hanging around and it just looks like a grotesque training exercise given the forces involved.
The stand-off began last night, when Ratahi stormed into the hotel’s restaurant and pulled out a rifle.
“He was yelling at us to get out and I just yelled at the girls to move, move, move and we all ran for the front door,” said witness Kathy Muggeridge.
“As soon as the guy saw police approaching he pulled out a gun and that was when he pointed it … and told us to go.”
Witnesses said they saw the gunman beating up a waitress and dragging her across the floor.
Inspector Pat Handcock told media the man was shot once and died at the scene. He was armed with what was thought to be a handgun.
Ratahi has previously been charged with assaulting a woman using a knife and injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Early this morning, the man could be heard yelling at police.
”You come over here, sonny boy – I’ll shoot you first,” he said.
Yeah thats right when someones got a firearm its reasonable to use a taser and pepper spray on them
I know this might be a foriegn concept but maybe in future:
Don’t kidnap people
Don’t beat up women (actually don’t beat up anybody)
Don’t threaten people with a firearm
Don’t threaten the police with a firearm
Give yourself up when challenged by the police
It is really difficult to follow the logic of John Key & the Nats in relation to a CGT. Is the guy actually thinking lucidly or groping around for some solid arguments against the tax.
I heard him on the radio today stating how ‘NZ needs more tax payers, not a new tax’. Has it escaped his attention that a CGT is about broadening the tax base and bringing into the tax system parts of the economy which are not taxed at present. Ipso facto, more tax payers.
On the news tonight Bill English states that people not paying tax on income earned is ok whereas the likes of Selwyn pellett and Gareth Morgan are both saying they should be paying tax on hitherto untaxed profits.
The Nats have really struggling to be coherent at the moment.
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. 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 economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – 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 ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
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 ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
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. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
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 ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
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 ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Dunedin reactions to proposed CGT:
CGT + interest rate rise = rent rise (++)
Dunedin has a unique mix of investment properties with a high proportion of student rentals. If rents get a double whammy from rising interest rates and CGT how much will it impact on Dunedin as an attractive proposition for education?
Students won’t buy properties in Dunedin if landlords decide it’s not worth investing here under CGT.
What does the presumed new Labour MP for Dunedin North think?
Good plug for Labour. No consideration for Dunedin North.
Come on David, are you standing for a party or an electorate?
Is National paying you to recycle these discredited FUD arguments all over the internet? This is what I gleaned:
– The wealthy Property Investors Assn wants to keep their tax free speculation profits
– Some people think they have the right to evade their tax obligations
– The suckers buying houses to live in ought to be shafted by a bubble economy and be grateful
– The bank will be stoked to have another Kiwi paying mortgage interest to its Aussie shareholders
– Landlords will be “forced” to put up rent (stop the press! landlord tries to increas rent!)
– It’s all so frightening I MUST USE CAPITAL LETTERS TO EMPHASISE that I might be taxed for money I gained WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING PRODUCTIVE
Breaking News – the President of the Otago Property Investors Assn doesn’t like a CGT!
A CGT closes a great big gaping hole in our tax regime that has enabled people to convert taxable income to non-taxable capital gain and therefore avoid paying tax. This is unfair and is a burden on all other taxpayers.
My previous boss had an annual income of $250,000 p.a. and boasted he never paid more than $10,000 p.a. in tax as he offset his income against his highly geared rental property portfolio.
Sure will – no more using property speculation to avoid income tax.
Need to do a bit more secret squirreling if a couple of quotes from vested interests is the best you can come up with.
A CGT closes a great big gaping hole in our tax regime
But will a CGT with a myriad of little holes do it?
I’ve looked for local comment because a change in emphasis on investment taxation could have a big impact on Dunedin. I’ll happily post different views on it, CGT deserves a good debate.
I don’t like Key dismissing it completely. That’s bad politics.
I’d prefer to see a CGT designed with expert input and wide electorate now, not tweaking or window dressing the final product, and not designed around potential voter groups in a party backroom.
A fundamental change to our tax system like this deserves far more than being an election year bribe and scare football. Doesn’t it?
So you’ve agreed that there is a great big gaping hole in the tax regime that needs to be fixed. Not doing anything about it is a bit like not building a dam because you’re worried there might be a few leaks.
Go on then do it.
It’s called policy actually and all being well it’s what elections should be won or lost on. Or would you prefer us to elect MPs on their looks or ability to “smile and wave”.
No dam is better than a dam with holes that you have no idea in advance how open they will get.
Policies are important for elections but it’s also important to have faith in those behind the policies, that they will consult and listen and respond, and not just emerge from a party back room with what they think is a vote winner and try to shut off valid criticism and debate.
A debate on something as big and important as a a major tax restructuring should last for more than a couple of weeks, shouldn’t it?
Trying to frame it now as “choose this or something else” is trying to shut down debate when it should only be starting,
“…it’s also important to have faith in those behind the policies, that they will consult and listen and respond…”
Riiiight. Like National do. Or like you do, here. Goodo.
“…and not just emerge from a party back room with what they think is a vote winner…”
It’s becoming apparent that your real problem with a CGT is that you think it’s a vote-winner too.
“Trying to frame it now as “choose this or something else” is trying to shut down debate when it should only be starting”
Actually this has been debated for decades. You’ve only just started to take notice now that you have to for political reasons, and if you’re too late to be involved that’s nobody’s fault but yours.
Said the little red hen.
Actually this has been debated for decades. You’ve only just started to take notice now that you have to for political reasons
I thought that was referring to the Labour Party, because according to Goff they only started to take notice this year when they decided they need to compete with asset sales policies.
Yeah, compete with asset sales.
You’re such a card.
Goff is the card. This is what he was reported as saying:
Your house of cards is a bit flimsy.
Trying to rely on a one liner to explain why Labour came up with a CGT communicates an ignorance of how policy priorities are chosen and the detailed process needed to forge policy which is strong and workable.
The CGT does a lot more than compete with National’s asset sales agenda, it demonstrates a willingness on Labour’s behalf to rebalance the entire economy and broaden the tax base, a process which Labour has explicitly said will take years.
English and Key on the other hand have a one hit asset sell off. Not much competition really.
And don’t you just cringe when Key and Co, keep on with the “kiwi mums and dads” line. I am a Kiwi Dad I and I don’t have any money saved, So Blinglish is deluding himself if he thinks that we can afford to go out and buy shares willy nilly just so he and his mates can have Tax cuts.
“I’ll happily post different views on it, CGT deserves a good debate”
Then why are all the views you post agin it?
As soon as you actually post some views favouring a CGT, you’ll be taken at your word that you’re all about the debate.
Based on the evidence to hand, however, no such conclusion can rationally be drawn.
Once again, your actions do not square with your words.
If you weren’t fixated on try to score wee points you would have noticed. Here’s a recent one:
http://thestandard.org.nz/reaction-to-labour-tax-package/#comment-352742
It’s your actions that don’t square with your words.
Right, the comment about how Morgan thinks Labour’s proposal is a poor one.
Yep you’re fair and balanced as a Fox.
If you bothered to see what he said, you’d know that he praised Labour for bringing CGT up, he criticised them for proposing a holey version, and he criticised National for turning their backs on it.
I’m not going to say “I love Labour’s proposal, there’s nothing at all wrong with it”. That’s not balance, that’s stupidity, which you seem to have woken up with today.
For the purposes of this particular discussion, which is about your motivations, I’m more interested in what you said, Pete.
Oh that’s right, you don’t say anything.
It seems to me that any would-be landlord who can’t make a normal profit should stay out of the market. The trouble is that 15% is not high enough to keep out punters who can’t make it work. I think I would set the rate to 90% with an abatement of 5 percentage points per year to 15% after 15 years. Hopefully this would keep out speculators, and renovators who want to pass off the fruits of their renovations as capital gains.
The real problem in the rental market is not the lack of a CGT but high property values, and perhaps high interest rates, which makes it difficult for landlords to make a normal profit.
[It seems to me that any would-be landlord who can’t make a normal profit should stay out of the market. The trouble is that 15% is not high enough to keep out punters who can’t make it work. I think I would set the rate to 90% with an abatement of 5 percentage points per year to 15% after 15 years. Hopefully this would keep out speculators, and renovators who want to pass off the fruits of their renovations as capital gains.]
It has actually been pointed out to me on another thread that a high rate is not actually needed for CGT to act as a deterrent, and it is clear to me that the pointer outer is correct. So I’m forced to retract all the stuff about a 90% tax rate. lol.
Secret Squirrel, or should I say Pete George..you forget that landlords have been hiking up rents and pricing a lot of people out of rental accommodation (not to mention becoming more choosy about who they rent to) for the past decade or so.
And I shall wager that with the changes to state housing being brought in, and thousands of vulnerable families being kicked off the HNZ waiting lists into the private sector, landlords will be taking that oppurtunity to put up rents even further (of course, the slum-lords union is mysteriously silent about that little issue) than they already are and than they could with a capital gains tax.
Of course, I think that the CGT should be spent on 1) expanding state housing back to pre-1991 levels, 2) higher accomodation supplements, and 3) low interest home loans for people.
In the mail this week: a letter from Anne Tolley stating that
* National plans to cut playcentre funding by 60%
* The govt prefers to fund places with qualified staff
* Submissions close at the end of August
WTF is happening with this nasty attack on community run organisations? Are mothers now required to do a (very expensive) ECE course just to have somewhere to take their kids to play with other children? Does Tolley realise that not everyone can afford fancy preschool daycare or kindergartens?
Can’t find this anywhere on parliament.nz to make a submission.
Oh yeah they are also pulling Dental Nurses out of primary schools?!
ropata I guess that Ann Tolley belongs to that school where children are valued for the clever things they can do to impress friends and rellies. That is why it is important to concentrate on the Education in Early Childhood Education. Kids should be forced forward, trained like show ponies, that’s more important than socialisation, confidence, physical skills and the use of ideas, imagination with craftwork all to be enjoyed rather than completed and measured to some standard.
In some Asian countries, I think I have heard recently about South Korea, the children suffer so much if they can’t achieve to their parents expectations that they commit suicide. I think that has been recorded here amongst some PI people. Parents who have not had much schooling themselves, and don’t understand what is involved can pressure their children beyond endurance. I don’t know if this happens particularly with girls, but often they have onerous household and child minding duties as well as trying to do homework and have high test results. I was reading about a NZ pupil on exchange in France, their school went from 8am to as late as 6pm.
Slightly off topic, but I think all ECE should be playcentres and kindergartens.
Not really keen on the tendency for profit run baby farms.
Even the Stuff National poll
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/
is coming up with
Partial Asset Sales 46.9%,
Capital gains tax and higher top income tax 53.%
Given the expected bias from an internet poll that has to indicate at least a 10% margin in favour of Labours programme of looking after the many rather than the few.
Trade me poll
CGT no family home 63%
Sell shares in SOE 22%
Reduce Spending 11%
15% CGT across Board 4%
Time for Some Dance Lessons
A while ago, I decided to get some dance lessons. Don’t get me wrong; I can dance already, being a veritable master at the Twist and Funky Chicken. However it’s tap dancing that has always interested me… so I finally paid for some lessons, which are going superbly! There’s still a few months to practice before the big night, and a few spaces left in the tap dance class, so feel free to get your dancing shoes on as well.
Good on you. I’m not interested in tap dancing, but I think it’s good to get out and try new things, get involved and have a go.
Overcome the TV zombies.
You might want to read the entire article before you comment further SS.
Now that’s a big ask Jackal!
I know! 280 words is such a chore. Better to just comment on the lead in, it’s only 80.
Post Labour’s CGT launch assessment:
Phil Goff – Gravitas for Prime Minister
John Key – Gravy train of tax cuts & asset sales for self and mates
Unfortunately polls suggest most people don’t see him that way.
In most of his interviews (and yes, again launching Labour’s CGT) he looks uncomfortable with his message. He looks like he’s saying what he thinks he has to say, and not what he feels and believes.
He’s been in politics long enough to be familiar with dealing with media interviews, so can’t be inexperience.
Goff looks like the party that is dragging him in directions he’s not comfortable with. He doesn’t look like he believes in what he’s saying.
That’s Phil Goff’s biggest problem.
If he could run Labour his way and believe in what he’s doing he would do better, but there doesn’t seem to be much chance of that happening.
Pretty large assumptions to make there SS. It’s apparent that Phil Goff is running Labour properly, hence the unbalanced opinion shown on the Nation program today. The right wing program even said the CGT would apply to Christchurch houses, when they will initially be exempt. It’s one thing to tell only one side of the story, but to blatantly lie about a political parties policies is not acceptable.
It is Labour’s policies that people will vote for. There is already overwhelming support for the well constructed CGT from a wide range of the community. Such a tax will make many speculators vote National, and many more poor people vote Labour. There are more poor people than wealthy, National has made sure of that.
The other side of the coin is that people will now vote against National, because they have failed to deliver any of their promises. You can harp on about Goff’s mannerisms all you like SS, they beat John Key’s lies and failure hands down.
It’s apparent that Phil Goff is running Labour properly, hence the unbalanced opinion shown on the Nation program today.
Interesting comment jackal.
I noted on Thursday evening’s TV1 and TV3 news programmes (immediately after Labour’s announcement) that TV3’s coverage was much fairer and more balanced than TV1. In fact TV1’s coverage was blatantly partisan against Labour and the CGT tax. It suggests to me that the problem is not the respective TV stations as such, but rather the personnel who run the individual news and current affairs programmes.
Yeah but don’t forget that SS or Pete or what ever nom de plume he’s using at the moment, has had to stoop to name calling, because every other argument he tries to start is met with solid FACTS. See SS or Pete, FACTS not guesswork, or as in the case of Blinglish and KY Prayer. As in don’t have one!
This morning Kim on radionz was interviewing author –
Gerald Seymour: thrills and terror
British writer Gerald Seymour worked for many years as an international news reporter. His first thriller, ‘Harry’s Game’, was published in 1975; he has since written a further 25 bestsellers. His new book is ‘A Deniable Death’. (44′11″)
Interesting chap. He talked about the Balkans and the plight of the Muslims in the area affected by the Serbs’ rush of blood to the head and feet, and how hard it would be to improve the survivors’ life to normality, perhaps never in their lifetime. He wrote Harry’s Game about Northern Ireland and how violence is breaking out there again. (It was probably depression from seeing the infighting of Greek partisans once the Germans were dealt with that led to John Mulgan taking his life.) Old enmities, old traditions allowed to fester need cleaning out with a new mindset, a different approach to contested traditions.
Then Joky Hen says he isn’t interested in making any changes to the loyalty oath in our parliament because it is long-standing. Making small changes that allow for better relationships and meet ideas of fairness are necessary by wise, intelligent leaders of society. Which Joky Hen isn’t.
Post Labour’s CGT launch assessment:
Phil Goff – PM Gravitas
John Key – Cheekey Ass
Phil Goff – PM Gravitas
John Key – Smart Ass
Intermittent signal July 2011/4 (last11/7)
People in NZ doing things with ideas for a good future here.
Radio NZ today – Country Life
Making a Lifestyle Block Make Money
The Madsens own a beautiful home in a cluster of lifestyle blocks in North Auckland. They have a few pigs and a sheep on their one hectare of land. So far, so ordinary. But the couple have built a unique way of life by turning the idea of the unproductive lifestyle block on its head. They run a herd of 150 cattle, over a number of blocks. (duration: 11′23″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
and
A New Home for Koanga Institute and Gardens
For the past 25 years Kay Baxter and her husband Bob Corker have been saving New Zealand’s heritage fruit trees and vegetables at Koanga Gardens in Kaiwaka. But five years ago they decided they needed a new place to live so have found a new home near Wairoa where they’re developing a Community Land Trust which they hope will support up to 30 families. (duration: 22′03″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
and
Wool Based Disposable Nappies
Potroz-Smith Technologies is developing a super absorbent wool-based material called NatraZorb, to be used in disposable nappies, amongst other things. Derelee Potroz-Smith says the idea started on her family’s Taranaki farm with romney sheep. (duration: 6′11″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3
Hi sysop. I cannot get an email to you from Contact . I think I have done everything right, studied and copied the convoluted cypher but no Send.
Worse Off Under National
Wasn’t Citizen A amusing last night. Cameron Slater squirming when put on the rack concerning his infamous gut shot comments re Arie Smith-Voorkamp was priceless. But then the ignoramus AKA Whaleoil made a most interesting revelation, which seems strange in context to his normal campaign of disinformation…
Meanwhile, in the USA
Personally I think that there will be a deal to raise the debt ceiling, and that a crisis will be averted. However it will involve slashing what is left of the USA’s social safety net and public sector. And quite a few more people will consigned into hardship, or worse. But really, what’s a few more in the scheme of things.
40 years ago, only Nixon could go to China. Now in 2011, only Obama could cut Social Security (and Medicare)
Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin.
One possible outcome is that they increase the Federal Debt Limit but with no changes to entitlements or tax increases i.e. they just kick the can a bit further down the road. What do you reckon the chances are?
Nope cant see that happening. After all, folding to his opponents is what Obama does best.
Iwi aristocrats want to keep using foriegn vessels
Unemployment is skyrocketing among Maori youth, yet tribal leaders would rather employ fishing boat crews from overseas instead of purchasing their own boats and training up their young people to crew them.
Im guessing they would rather use the profits to dish out scholarships to family members and buy BMW’s.
If Hone wants any modicum of respect, then he should be highlighting this issue, instead of throwing his toys when he doesn’t get is own way when he is sworn in.
Would be interesting to identify which iwi in particular…
So the thin blue line (aka ‘the filth’) have performed another summary execution when they gunned down an admittedly troublesome person at the Headlands Hotel according to media reports….
“I am able to confirm that the man was challenged, a dog deployed, there was a struggle and Police discharged a firearm.”
The man died at the scene.
The police shot was the only shot fired, he said.
The man’s gun had not yet been found.
A knife was found near his body, Mr Handcock said.”
What are tasers and pepper for? Oh thats right, they are to ensure compliance not end this sort of situation in a non lethal way. The fact is whenever the pigs draw a firearm prepare to die as they are trained to aim at the torso only, ie shoot to kill. Fer crissakes they had 30 plus special coppers hanging around and it just looks like a grotesque training exercise given the forces involved.
I hope they got it right.
We are not in Afghanistan.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/5295727/Police-shoot-gunman-Anthony-Ratahi-dead
Really?
The stand-off began last night, when Ratahi stormed into the hotel’s restaurant and pulled out a rifle.
“He was yelling at us to get out and I just yelled at the girls to move, move, move and we all ran for the front door,” said witness Kathy Muggeridge.
“As soon as the guy saw police approaching he pulled out a gun and that was when he pointed it … and told us to go.”
Witnesses said they saw the gunman beating up a waitress and dragging her across the floor.
Inspector Pat Handcock told media the man was shot once and died at the scene. He was armed with what was thought to be a handgun.
Ratahi has previously been charged with assaulting a woman using a knife and injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Early this morning, the man could be heard yelling at police.
”You come over here, sonny boy – I’ll shoot you first,” he said.
Yeah thats right when someones got a firearm its reasonable to use a taser and pepper spray on them
I know this might be a foriegn concept but maybe in future:
Don’t kidnap people
Don’t beat up women (actually don’t beat up anybody)
Don’t threaten people with a firearm
Don’t threaten the police with a firearm
Give yourself up when challenged by the police
It is really difficult to follow the logic of John Key & the Nats in relation to a CGT. Is the guy actually thinking lucidly or groping around for some solid arguments against the tax.
I heard him on the radio today stating how ‘NZ needs more tax payers, not a new tax’. Has it escaped his attention that a CGT is about broadening the tax base and bringing into the tax system parts of the economy which are not taxed at present. Ipso facto, more tax payers.
On the news tonight Bill English states that people not paying tax on income earned is ok whereas the likes of Selwyn pellett and Gareth Morgan are both saying they should be paying tax on hitherto untaxed profits.
The Nats have really struggling to be coherent at the moment.
They are shotgunning lines to the public to see what hits the target.
Basically, they are picking random words out of a dictionary to see if something works.
Should be pretty obvious to all now that they have now plan, no clue, for most New Zealanders.
That sounds right.
At the rate they are going, they can be their own target.
Along the lines of my comments further above and more succinctly:
Phil Goff: Gravitas
John Key (donkey): Ass
How do you tell when legislation is a good idea?
Conservatives oppose it on the flimsiest of grounds
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5294798/Labour-site-victim-of-high-speed-morons
Seriously Labour stop using the internet untill you find someone who knows what they’re doing