The real reason that politicians will take no action on tax haven corruption

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, May 16th, 2016 - 22 comments
Categories: accountability, politicans, tax - Tags: , , ,

Size of the circle represents the named profession’s proportion of occurrence in the Panama Papers –

panamapapersoccupations

Shocking, right?

Actually, this data is probably unreliable – “Some people may see that politicians are the largest group, but that might simply be an artifact of the notability criterion of Wikidata”.

It’s hard to believe that politicians are really so predominant. But when you find out that so few countries are backing Cameron’s attempts to tackle corruption at London summit, and that our government has to “think about it” (has to think whether it’s worth tackling international corruption FFS!) – you really do have to wonder.

22 comments on “The real reason that politicians will take no action on tax haven corruption ”

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  1. Psycho Milt 1
    16 May 2016 at 8:27 am

    Our government’s interest in tackling corruption is indicated by the fact they sent Judith Collins to represent us – like sending Glenn Quagmire to represent us at a conference about reducing STDs.

    • Bill 1.1
      16 May 2016 at 8:40 am

      Maybe they reasoned that Judith Collins was the least corrupt of the bunch. I mean, yes, she’s been caught out more than the others, but still…. 👿

      • One Anonymous Bloke 1.1.1
        16 May 2016 at 8:45 am

        Also, it’s a great way for her to network with other like-minded individuals from around the world.

    • Puckish Rogue 1.2
      16 May 2016 at 8:45 am

      Giggity

    • Chooky 1.3
      16 May 2016 at 9:22 am

      +100…the Nactional politicians are corrupt
      ….wake up jonkey Nactional Party supporters and voters!

      ….do you want a Nactional Party driven Banana Republic?

      • Mosa 1.3.1
        16 May 2016 at 10:46 am

        Given the polls the answer is obviously YES!

        • aerobubble 1.3.1.1
          16 May 2016 at 3:06 pm

          please, greenpeace are found in many databases, police databases would have numerous mention of criminal act by greenpeace. its woeful how labour let key off the hook. if greenpeace are found to have ben scammed, their name used to misdirect investigators into dodhying trusts, then surely thats proof the trust are dodgy, and then greenpeace is a charity so has no need to dodge taxes, well except in nz where key tried to tax them.

          so no. its just are spuine opposition who cant hit the law and order issue at the heart of this issue. key is out there defending to the top of his lungs labous trust legislation even go hoarse that the speaker was forced to eject him.

          its farce people.

    • You_Fool 1.4
      16 May 2016 at 3:01 pm

      She does have the most experience with corruption…

  2. One Anonymous Bloke 2
    16 May 2016 at 8:43 am

    From the linked article:

    Some people may see that politicians are the largest group, but that might simply be an artifact of the notability criterion of Wikidata: Only people who are somewhat notable or are linked to something notable are likely to be included in Wikidata, e.g., the common businessman/woman may not (yet?) be represented in Wikidata.

    The other larger groups fall into similar categories: film directors and producers, actors, athletes, and so-on.

    I’m picking the groups represented will in fact be a lot more uniform in size, apart from the little green one that says “crim”. That one will be a lot larger and probably intersects all the others.

    • adam 2.1
      16 May 2016 at 9:09 am

      I agree, I think corruption and doing business in the nastiest way possible to make a buck, is now the norm.

      That said, I think it will take a people an incredibly long time to connect all the dots.

      My comment will no doubt bring in all the Ayn Rand purists who have been such a boon to this corruption. Every time they put one of these ideological Muppets in charge of anything, they can not see corruption, they can’t accept that business has become rotten to the core. They see business as good.

      God help us all, from these hard core ideologues

      • One Anonymous Bloke 2.1.1
        16 May 2016 at 9:30 am

        I didn’t put a figure on the degree of intersection. I doubt it’s that big, and this is a very small sample in the first place.

      • peterh 2.1.2
        16 May 2016 at 12:09 pm

        Go to spinbin.co.nz if you want to see all the dots connected

    • Anne 2.2
      16 May 2016 at 10:12 am

      OAB @ 2
      Film directors and producers. That rings a bell. Warner Bros. anyone? Y’know, coming to NZ and threatening to take their custom elsewhere unless little NZ doesn’t give them a bigger slice of the cake.

  3. ianmac 3
    16 May 2016 at 8:55 am

    The politicians in the Panama papers would only be the very very rich. None of our politicians are very very rich are they?
    Oh!

  4. Penny Bright 4
    16 May 2016 at 9:20 am

    What in my view would help to prevent corrupt corporate control in New Zealand would be real transparency regarding the awarding of contracts at local and central government to private sector consultants and contractors.

    Why is the Public Records Act 2005 not being implemented and enforced in a proper way across local and central government?

    Why is the following information NOT readily available for public scrutiny regarding spending on private consultants and contractors awarded contracts?

    The unique contract number.

    The name of the consultant / contractor.

    A brief description of the scope of the contract.

    The contract start and finish dates.

    The exact dollar value of the contract (including those sub-contracted).

    How the contract was awarded – by public tender or direct appointment.

    This is PUBLIC money.

    Who supports the public NOT being told exactly where this public money is being spent?

    The next question is HOW were those contracts awarded to private sector consultants and contractors?

    (What have been the role of politicians in the awarding of these contracts?)

    How ‘cost-effective’ has been the privatisation (contracting out) of public services and regulatory functions compared with former ‘in house’ service provision by directly employed ‘public servants’ under the ‘public service’ model?

    Anyone else asking these questions?

    Penny Bright
    2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.

    • Chooky 4.1
      16 May 2016 at 9:23 am

      +100 Penny

    • WILD KATIPO 4.2
      16 May 2016 at 10:03 am

      Goodness gracious , – why fix a perfectly good working system of corruption when it aint broke?

      Why limit those Knights and Knight ess’es and old boy’s and gal’s creative lateral solution’s to finding and extracting blood from the proverbial stone?

      Why jeopardize those smiling politicians and their officials from being humble facilitators of what those oh – so – innovative friends of their’s wish to do… that would simply be a waste of good human potential and an impediment to being the best one can be…

      And we cant let the unwashed masses think they can rise above their stations – heavens ! – that would never do!

      Then again….

      Maybe it is time to stomp all over these corrupt back room dealing suckers heads and demand open transparent govt/ private sector dealings .

      Problem is … the word accountability isn’t in the neo liberals dictionary.

  5. save nz 5
    16 May 2016 at 9:52 am

    Truly shocking. No wonder worldwide inequality is increasing at an alarming and unsustainable rate and there is so many problems with refugees and migration with globalism.

    The Kleptocrats are stealing and bankrupting their countries from the inside out (making it legal and a web of complicated transactions to hide what they are up too).

    Now we even have our very own banker (KEY) and ex tax adviser (Collins) to make NZ into a banana republic while the compliant media cheer National on, and no doubt the commerce commission rubber stamps more monopoly in the sector!

  6. Macro 6
    16 May 2016 at 3:49 pm

    But according to Matthew Hooten on Radio NZ National. (So appropriately named these days). There is nothing in the Panama Papers what-so-ever! Frankly it is all a big beat up and TVNZ and RNZ should apologise for their over the top beat up and really poor John couldn’t appear on RNZ last Monday coz he didn’t know what accusations they might make. Just because M & F advertise on their website that NZ is a great place to do business if u want to avoid /evade paying taxes in your country, and that NZ has a great reputation as clean an honest so dollars flowing out of there will look nice and clean and sweetly smelling whereas they may have been all grubby before. Well now that doesn’t make NZ a tax haven for goodness sake!
    So you see folks there really is no reason at all for John to have to change the legislation and make it more difficult for those who may innocently have a few million or so tucked away (and who hasn’t? – hehehe) and keep those nest eggs safe from the prying eyes of greedy tax collectors!

  7. whateva next? 7
    16 May 2016 at 5:57 pm

    Nearly choked watching Prebble’s justification for the whole “industry”, completely ignoring the costs for the dog whistle “the commies are coming” If Venezuelan’s are struggling, I apologise, but I still wonder if we all have to suffer for a few people, when all over the world people are facing life and death issues due to corruption and fraud??

  8. Smilin 8
    17 May 2016 at 8:29 am

    Too big to fail a possible answer along with TPPA annexing of the nation’s sovereignty