Thursday, August 30, 2012

David Shearer on poverty today....

This week your Labour team and I have put all our efforts into tackling the Government’s shocking record on inequality and poverty.

New Zealand now has the widest gap ever between rich and poor. And it’s not just the poorest who are doing it tough – middle income households are being squeezed as well. One in five of our children are suffering hardship and 40% of children living in poverty come from homes where the parents are actually working. These families are working hard and yet still struggling to make ends meet. It is a National disgrace, and John Key’s doing nothing about it.

John Key’s reaction has been dismissive and disgraceful. He calmly says ‘things are just bouncing around’ for struggling families and rejects out of hand the suggestion of universal child support as ‘dopey’. Given he refuses to accept there’s even a problem, it’s perhaps not surprising he’s consistently refused Labour’s offer to work together to address poverty in NZ.

Labour will invest in our children because they deserve the best start in life. We’re working on a plan to deal with child poverty and to help hard-working Kiwis earn a decent income so they can support their families. As part of that plan Labour wants to lift the minimum wage to $15 an hour and we have a member’s bill in MP David Clark’s name before Parliament at the moment to achieve that.

We’ve had a number of MP’s individual bills come up for debate, including Louisa Wall’s marriage equality legislation, which passed its first reading by 80 votes to 40. It gives all Kiwi couples the right to marry, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The debate around this issue has been robust but respectful and we welcome the fact that all New Zealanders will now get a chance to have their say at select committee.

Your MPs will be out working in our regions and local communities next week, with Parliament taking a break from sitting. It’s a chance for us to make another big push to get the signatures we need for the asset sales petition. We’ve collected 240,000 signatures so far, and with your support we will force a referendum and make John Key listen to the people.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Its time for capital tax - says Gareth Morgan...

How long will the NZ people have to suffer? The time for capital tax is now!

The time for capital tax is now!

One article that stood out over the weekend was this article on the fact that half of NZ’s super rich are dodging tax. Susan Guthrie (who wrote The Big Kahuna with me) and I were chatting about this and her response below summarises our thoughts on the piece.
Figures handed over to journalists by the IRD last week showed that between 2009 and 2011 fewer than half of a sample of New Zealand’s ‘super rich’ were paying the top individual tax rate of 33 percent. With wealth of over $50 million you’d expect these people to be earning a whole lot more than the $70,001 per annum needed to breach the top tax threshold. If you haven’t got your calculator handy, $70,001 is a paltry 0.1% return on $50 million of assets – are our super rich really that lousy at making money?
What could be behind the figures? Let’s start with the ‘we’re innocent’ explanation. The super rich may declare more income to the IRD than $70,001 but it may be declared via the super rich’s family trust. Family trusts pay 33% tax on their income and any tax paid here won’t be included in the IRD’s personal tax data set. That’s one explanation of the data Revenue Minister Peter Dunne pointed to.
However, only recently has declaring income via a family trust been an innocent tax arrangement. Prior to 2011, the top individual tax rate was 38% while income declared in a trust was taxed at 33%. So until 2011 the super rich were ‘minimising’ tax by receiving income through their trusts.
What else could be behind the apparent paltry tax-collect from the super rich? There are plenty of legal loopholes to avoid paying tax altogether. For example, if the super rich receive their income as capital gains made from selling shares purchased for the ‘long term’, the gains will be entirely tax free for most investors. Similarly, selling property for more than you bought it generates tax free income for all but legally recognised property developers. Complex international arrangements are yet another mainstay of ‘tax planning’.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that last week the IRD also announced it’s ‘compliance focus’ for the coming year. Limited to working in a system with gaping legal loopholes the IRD’s compliance focus is inevitably pathetic – chasing the misguided few who try to break the law. People who make false claims for Child Support or Working for Families and businesses which don’t declare every dollar are examples. None of this is going to address what really counts – namely the fact that our tax system is a huge contributing factor to growing inequality in New Zealand.
And if the tax system’s role in making New Zealand more unequal isn’t of any interest to you, maybe you’re interested in the fact that $423 million a year is spent by IRD just telling people about the complex rules and chasing up the losers who try to break the rules. A further $249 million a year is spent on administering the loophole-riddled system and designing new ways to tweak it. That’s $672 million a year on a leaky sieve.
As long as we persist with a tax system which focuses on income and ignores wealth itself our tax system will cause growing inequality in New Zealand and will itself be a huge drain on New Zealander’s resources.

http://garethsworld.com/blog/tax-and-welfare/the-time-for-capital-tax-is-now/

The Queer Avengers have just started - so they say!

The Queer Avengers are underlining that marriage equality is not the end of the line for LGBT struggles. Louisa Wall’s marriage equality bill passed its first reading on the 29th of August, after more than 1,000 marched to Parliament in support of the Bill.
The Queer Avengers note that the cross-partisan support for this bill is positive, but there are harder struggles ahead. "Marriage is a modest reform, it’s not a fundamental change, politicians are generally okay with it," notes Queer Avenger Sara Fraser. "We’re only just getting started."
The Queer Avengers say much has changed, and still needs to change. "We have a lot more freedom now to express ourselves, without fear of getting beaten up," concedes Fraser. "But there’s so much more to do."
Fraser particularly highlights the oppression faced by youth. "Kids are still getting kicked out home for coming out, still self-harming and committing suicide. Addressing queer and trans homelessness is much more challenging for the system, it requires a lot more investment than just extending marriage rights."
"Equality will not just trickle down to the most marginal. We need to fight for it, and more voices need to be heard."
Fraser also highlights that there is a broader spectrum of relationships and identities which marriage and adoption law does not address, including indigenous kinship structures and polyamory. "Consent is the bottom line, not state sanction," says Fraser. "What’s upset me most has been the reaction from our own communities. That we must behave, don’t rock the boat, don’t make too much noise and don’t mention other types of relationship."
"This isn’t just about marriage," concludes Fraser. "It’s about rights, it’s about equality and consent. We’re calling for a struggle beyond marriage."
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/queer-avengers-were-only-just-getting-started/5/133177

http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/marriage-equality-takes-step-forward-wall/5/133178

Sunday, August 26, 2012

A government announcement is to be made about the future of NZ's four residential special schools...

Red Alert

Residential special schools

Posted by Chris Hipkins on August 26th, 2012

I understand the Minister of Education is going to be making an announcement this week on the future of the country’s four residential special schools. Over the past few months the Ministry has been consulting on a new ‘wrap around’ service that their official consultation document suggests will cost about a third of the cost of accommodating a pupil at one of the residential schools (but of course, this isn’t about cost saving…)
From the outside, it very much looks like the whole consultation has been skewed towards a pre-determined outcome, the closure of the schools. Having visited all four schools, spoken with some of the kids, the principals, teachers, parents, boards of trustees and many others with an interest in this process, I can firmly say that I think closure is the wrong option.
I believe in an inclusive education system. I don’t think kids with special needs should be shunted out or ‘institutionalised’. But that’s not what residential special schools do. In effect, they’re the most intensive ‘wrap around’ service out there. Kids don’t stay there forever, usually no more than 18 months to two years. In that time they often make huge progress, and a lot of effort is put into ensuring that their reintegration back into their original school and home life is as smooth as possible.
At one of the schools I spoke to a kid who’d come from a pretty unfortunate background. Drugs, crime, and dysfunction were all a constant feature of his life. Taken away from all of that, he was allowed to be a kid again. He was catching up on a lot of the education he’d missed out on, and plans had been put in place to ensure that the environment he returned to wasn’t the one he’d come from. Quite frankly it was inspiring.
Far from closing them, if anything, we need to look at increasing the number of special residential schools, and make them ‘centres of excellence’ that can provide advice, expertise and assistance to other schools so that we end up with fewer kids needing the highest level interventions in the first place.
Before Hekia Parata signs off on any final decision, I would urge her to take the time to visit these schools and see first hand what she is doing. It would be wrong for her to simply sign-off on the recommendations of her officials without taking the time to develop her own understanding of the issues.

Collins crushed by the booze lobby...

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Collins crushed by booze lobby

What a craven cave-in. Lobbied by big booze, Collins has given in. Alco-pops will be left to the industry to regulate. Collins says the Government can step in quickly and regulate if they don’t – yeah right. The alcohol industry already has a strategy to make this ineffective.
What was going through Collins’ mind? Maybe this:

I think I’ll do a chatty video – “I met the nice people with Mark Unsworth and and they told me that they could bring in their booze from Aussie anyway and I thought free trade is really important and they’re lawyers and so am I. And David Farrar told me he’d done some research for them last year and I thought he’s really nice and gives me so many good ideas. Oh and if John does decide to go back to Hawaii soon I could use their help with getting some more research done.”

In the real world, the Herald editorial is forthright: “The Government’s cave-in on alco-pops is shameful.” David Farrar is defensive about it. Sue Kedgely is also on the offensive, when Stuff gets it up on the website.
It’s not a good look. John Key wants to give the pokie industry free rein, which means more families suffer. Judith Collins wants to give the booze industry free rein, which means more families suffer, and more hospitals are overrun.
As leaders they both get a fail.

Acknowledgements: The Standard

Friday, August 24, 2012

Asset sales should be dropped - Opposition parties...

Opposition parties say a finding that Maori rights to water need to be sorted ahead of partial asset sales shows the whole scheme should be dropped.

Opposition parties are renewing their call for the government's partial asset sale programme to be dropped after the Waitangi Tribunal found it needed to sort out Maori water rights first.
The government's plan to partially privatise energy companies Meridian, Genesis and Mighty River Power drew opposition from the Maori Council, which took a claim to the tribunal saying Maori had ownership rights over water.
The tribunal's interim report, which is non-binding, says Maori do not "own water" but can claim "residual property rights" which must be properly acknowledged for the government to meet its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.
"We consider that the sale must be delayed while an accommodation is reached with Maori."
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says the government should drop the asset sales rather than ignore the recommendations, which could lead to court battles with iwi, or do a deal with iwi.
The decision adds to problems with ballooning sales costs, risks over the possibility of the Tiwai point aluminium smelter closing, Solid Energy and Air NZ not ready for sale and more than 200,000 people signing a petition calling for a referendum on asset sales, he said.
"This is a crisis that National has brought upon itself by trying to push through asset sales that New Zealanders do not want," Dr Norman said.
NZ First leader Winston Peters says Prime Minister John Key's decision to pursue the asset sales had made an issue out of the ownership of water.
"Could he not see that a tribunal's findings are no way to formulate public policy? In this case that would be the role of the court system," he said.
"This whole mess tells you volumes about John Key's incompetence over the government's ill-conceived flagship policy which was never a solid idea."
A spokeswoman for State-Owned Enterprises minister Tony Ryall says ministers will consider the finding as they prepare to make decisions in early September about the proposed Mighty River Power share offer.

Acknowledgements: NZN

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Injunction on RNZ eased over KiwiRail report...

KiwiRail is trying to block the publication of an internal draft report on the future of New Zealand's rail network.
Late on Wednesday night, the High Court granted KiwiRail an injunction preventing Radio New Zealand News from revealing the contents of the draft Infrastructure and Engineering Business Plan 2013-15.
The High Court on Thursday eased the restriction to allow coverage of debate on the issue in Parliament.
In the House, Labour MP Phil Twyford questioned Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee, who was replying on behalf of the State Owned Enterprises Minister.
"Has the board of KiwiRail advised him that from 2014 onwards the rail asset will decline, disruption risk will grow, that when spending gets back to current levels it will take many years to pull back...

Listen to more on Checkpoint

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/114075/injunction-eased-on-rnz-over-kiwirail-report

PETE'S KIWI WATCH - My place to rant.