Frank Newman: Submission to the Tax Working Group

Tax Working Group Secretariat

PO Box 3724

Wellington 6140

submissions@taxworkinggroup.govt.nz.

30 April 2018

From Frank Newman (frank@newman.co.nz)

In summary, my submission is that:

Muriel Newman: NZCPR Submission to the Tax Working Group

Submissions on the Tax Working Group's Review of our tax system are due by midnight today. We urge anyone interested in the future of our economy to send in a submission to submissions@taxworkinggroup.govt.nz. 

For your interest, here is the submission sent in by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research.

GWPF Newsletter: BBC Axes ‘Human Planet’ After Admitting Scenes Were Faked

The Scientific Importance of Free Speech

In this newsletter:  

1) BBC Axes ‘Human Planet’ After Admitting Scenes Were Faked
The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 2018
 
2) Adam Perkins: The Scientific Importance of Free Speech
Quillette, April 2018

GWPF Newsletter: EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Moves To End Reliance On ‘Secret Science’

Is OPEC Underestimating U.S. Shale (Again)?

In this newsletter:

1) EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Moves To End Reliance On ‘Secret Science’
Kevin Mooney, The Daily Signal, 24 April 2018
 
2) Climate Change Not The Key Driver Of Human Conflict And Displacement In East Africa
University College London, 24 April 2018

Madhav Khandekar: A Canadian Climate Scientist on this Wintry April

I am a former climate research scientist at Environment Canada. I was an Expert Reviewer for the United Nations Climate Body’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and its 2007 Climate Change Report.

It has been a long winter.

The wintry weather continues its grip over most of Canada, from Vancouver to St. John’s, as snow, freezing rain, ice pellets and ferocious winds are hammering everyone (as of April 18).

Matt Ridley: AI in the UK - Ready, willing and able?

As a member of the House of Lords select committee on artificial intelligence, whose report is released today, I was struck by two things during the course of our inquiry: how well placed Britain could be to take advantage of the new technologies that go under the name of AI, should we choose to play our cards right; and how pervasive and invisible this technology will prove to be.

The first point was driven home during an evidence session with a more than usually brilliant German professor, Wolfgang Wahlster, chief executive of the German Research Centre for AI. He said: “We have a very special approach that is based on Germany’s industrial strengths . . . This is quite different from the US approach, which is based more on internet services. We are more in the physical domain; you know that Germany is well known for its engineering and manufacturing.” He added: “Historically, the UK was the leading country in Europe in AI. It started in Edinburgh.”

Frank Newman: Ring-fencing

Inland Revenue has released an "issues paper" on ring-fencing losses. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says the policy is an effort to "level the playing field" between speculators and investors. Feedback is being encouraged. Submissions must be in by 11 May 2018.

The policy paper says, "The proposed loss ring-fencing rules will mean that speculators and investors with residential properties will no longer be able to offset tax losses from those properties against their other income (for example, salary or wages, or business income), to reduce their tax liability.  The losses can be used in future years, when the properties are making profits, or if the person is taxed on the sale of land."

Richard Epstein: The False Allure Of Libertarian Paternalism

One of the great academic debates of our time revolves around how people make choices. On the one side, neoclassical theory assumes that individuals generally act in sensible ways in order to advance their individual self-interest. They are motivated to control aggression and monopoly, and to let private parties in competitive markets strike what bargains they like. 

In recent years, this neoclassical approach has come under attack from the field of behavioral economics. Its proponents argue that the neoclassical model of behavior, premised on the fact that human beings are rational decision-makers, does not sufficiently account for the many false heuristics and biases that lead people astray as they make decisions.

NZCPR Weekly: Defending Democracy

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look into who is driving the campaign by Local Government New Zealand to abolish Maori Ward petition rights, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Michael Coote analyses LGNZ’s attack on our democratic rights and exposes the influence of the Iwi Chairs Forum, and our poll asks whether you think a binding referendum of all voters should be required for any attempt to abolish Maori ward petition rights.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter - Green Mega-Flop: Germany’s Solar Industry Crashes And Burns

Germany Economics Minister: Green Energy Subsidies To End Soon

In this newsletter:

1) Green Mega-Flop: Germany’s Solar Industry Crashes And Burns
P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, 21 April 2018
 
2) Germany Economics Minister: Green Energy Subsidies To End Soon
Handelsblatt, 18 April 2018

GWPF Newsletter - New Study: Republicans More Persuasive Than Scientists On Climate Change

Second Shale Revolution Is On The Horizon

In this newsletter:

1) New Study: Republicans More Persuasive Than Scientists On Climate Change
EurekAlert, 18 April 2018 
 
2) U.S. Republican & Independent Climate Scepticism Spreading — Despite Recent Natural Disasters
Business Insider, 28 March 2018 

GWPF Newsletter: How Bad Is The Government’s Science?

Put-Up-Or-Shut-Up Time For The Solar-Climate Theory

In this newsletter:

1) How Bad Is The Government’s Science?
Peter Wood and David Randall, The Wall Street Journal, 17 April 2018 

2) The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science: Causes, Consequences, and the Road to Reform
National Association Of Scholars, 17 April 2018

Mike Butler: Islam, blood, and slavery

Author M.A. Khan grew up a conservative Muslim society in India and moved to the West for post-graduate study, when his closest friends were Hindus and Sikhs, all with a liberal outlook.

When the 9/11 attacks occurred in the United States, he felt the attacks were justified, albeit misguided, even though he had abandoned Islamic religious rituals.

After 9/11, Khan started reading the religious texts of Islam, the Quran, Sunnah, and prophetic biographies, texts that he had not read in 35 years.

Lee Harding: High-Performance Government

“It’s Time for High-Performance Government,” Howard Risher says in his 2017 book. Amen to that.

But how? Risher says, it’s not about efficiency, it’s about making workers engaged. And on that score, government is 30 years behind the curve.

The 1990’s began with a recession in both Canada and the United States. This forced companies to re-think the way business was done.

Melanie Phillips: The weekend bombing of the Syrian chemical facilities

So what did the weekend bombing of three chemical weapons facilities inside Syria achieve?

Well, if what we are being told is true, it knocked out three Syrian chemical weapons facilities. That’s good. This may have set back, maybe seriously, Syria’s capacity to use chemical weapons.That’s good, maybe very good.

So is that good enough? No way.

Matt Ridley: The coagulated economy

While the world economy continues to grow at more than 3 per cent a year, mature economies, from Europe to Japan, are coagulating, unable to push economic growth above sluggish. The reason is that we have more and more vested interests against innovation in the private as well as the public sector.

Continuing prosperity depends on enough people putting money and effort into what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction. The normal state of human affairs is what The jurist Sir Henry Maine called a “status” society, in which income is assigned to individuals by authority.

Viv Forbes: Tomorrow’s Grim, Global, Green Dictatorship

Greens hate individual freedom and private property. They dream of a centralised unelected global government, financed by taxes on developed nations and controlled by all the tentacles of the UN.

No longer is real pollution of our environment the main Green concern. The key slogan of the Green religion is “sustainable development”, with them defining what is sustainable.

Gerry Eckhoff: Water symposiums and the RMA

One of the most disturbing headlines in the Otago Daily Times recently was – “Shocking how bad our waterways have become”. So stated Environment Minister David Parker. It is a pity he did not add – “under the RMA”. 

Minister Parker oversees the Ministry responsible for the administration of our environmental legislation - the Resource Management Act (RMA). He made those comments in an address to an “in house” symposium at Otago University where 50 selected attendees listened and spoke to the Catchments Otago Water Symposium. The public were excluded.

NZCPR Weekly: A Lurch to the Left

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine the impact of Winston Peters’ decision to form a coalition government with Labour and the Greens – and assess whether their policy agenda is causing the economic downturn he predicted, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Bryce Edwards explains that the election of Marama Davidson as the Green Party co-leader signals a radical shift to the left, and our poll asks whether you think New Zealand First should have used their veto power to block the ban on oil and gas exploration.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Frank Newman: Well-beings and oil wells

It's been a big week in politics. Last week saw the first reading in Parliament of the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to reverse changes made to the Local Government Act in 2012 by the then National government.

The 2012 change redefined the purpose of local government as,

"(a) to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and

(b) to meet the current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions in a way that is most cost-effective for households and businesses."

Barry Brill: A Third Broadcasting Standards Complaint Against TVNZ This Year

Almost daily, the New Zealand news media serve up “doomed planet” reports that have no foundation whatever in the international scientific literature. Newsrooms seem to live in a groupthink bubble where reality comprises the fevered nightmares of climate change activists. The resulting constant drip of green propaganda has serious long-term effects on attitudes of the decision-makers in our community.

Worldwide, the most relentless climate propagandists are Government-owned broadcasters – BBC, ABC, TVNZ, etc. That is why I have earlier lodged two complaints to One News and appealed both to the Broadcasting Standards Authority here and here.

GWPF Newsletter: Solar Activity Crashes

Model Alarmists Resurrect ‘Day After Tomorrow’ Scenario, ‘Unsupported By Any Data’

In this newsletter:

1) Solar Activity Crashes
Robert Zimmerman, Behind The Black, 9 April 2018
 
2) Model Alarmists Resurrect ‘Day After Tomorrow’ Scenario, ‘Unsupported By Any Data’
Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 11 April 2018

Bryan Leyland: “Things you know that ain't so" - the Royal Society

As the American humorist Will Rogers said: “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.” 

Things that you know that ain't so: The Royal Society of New Zealand is committed to science and open debate.

When the UK Royal Society was founded in 1660 its motto was “Nullius in verba”: take nobody's word for it. This committed it to open debate based on the weight of evidence, not opinions and, most certainly not “consensus” (a.k.a. “appeal to authority”). It also resolved never to have an opinion on any scientific matter.

When the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) was formed in 1867 I am sure it had similar objectives. Since then it has gone into a downhill slide. 

Brian Arrandale: Ethnic Rights and the UN Declaration

The prime reason for Local Government New Zealand is so insistent in its desire to give Maori special non voting privileges for appointment onto Local Bodies, is that it can refer to the fact that since this country signed the U.N. Declaration on Indigenous Rights it is an ethnic right.

Also Parliament itself continues on this pathway of appeasement and promotion of an elite Maori Tribal dictatorship outside our common law. We have already seen efforts to promote this apartheid divide in the re-writing of the Treaty and in future demands.

Dave Witherow: Immigration Deserves Debate

Our immigration policies are a sad joke, with a new record of 130,000 arrivals in the year to March. During the same period there were about 48,000 departures, giving a net gain of some 80,000 people. And since many of the leavers will undoubtedly return in due course, we are in effect accommodating a new Dunedin-sized city every year. (The March arrivals alone, at 6,100, amount to a medium-sized town).

There has never been any useful debate about this - about the desirability of such an unprecedented influx, or whether, even on the narrowest of economic terms, it delivers any benefit. The Green Party, notwithstanding the environmental insanity of unrestricted immigration, now raises no objections, and within our mainstream media, where an addled devotion to diversity trumps all else, serious discussion is unwelcome. Anyone attempting to ask awkward questions is immediately branded a racist.

GWPF Newsletter: British Antarctic Snowfall Study Deepens The Mystery Of Global Warming

In this newsletter:

1) British Antarctic Snowfall Study Deepens The Mystery Of Global Warming
Outer Place, 9 April 2018
 
2) Solar Activity Over Last 9000 Years Sheds New Light On Natural Variability
Chi Ju Wu et al. (2018) Astronomy & Astrophysics 5 April 2018

GWPF Newsletter: 48,000 Brits Dead After Worst Winter In 42 Years

Cost Of Green Subsidies Rises To £11.3 Billion

In this newsletter:

1) 48,000 Brits Dead After Worst Winter In 42 Years
Hayley Coyle, Daily Star, 7 April 2018
 
2) Harry Wilkinson: Energy Prices Must Fall To Cut Deaths In The Cold
The Conservative Woman, 9 March 2018 

NZCPR Weekly: Local Democracy Undermined

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we expose how Local Government New Zealand is attempting to undermine local democracy by calling for the abolition of Maori ward petition rights, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Cr Mike Lally explains why the right to demand a referendum on the introduction of Maori wards is so important for local communities, and our poll asks whether you agree with LGNZ that the public's right to call for a binding referendum on Council proposals to establish Maori wards should be abolished.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Karl du Fresne: How my heart bleeds for Mark Zuckerberg

I note that $80 billion was wiped off the value of Facebook’s shares following a scandal over privacy breaches.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind, as the crusty sergeant-major in It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum used to say in mock pity whenever misfortune befell one of the motley crew of misfits under his command.

I delighted in Facebook’s discomfort, just as I admit having derived some satisfaction from the embarrassment of the British-based charity Oxfam after some of its aid workers were exposed as sexual abusers who took advantage of vulnerable girls and young women in disaster-ravaged countries such as Haiti.

Viv Forbes: The Wanton Worship of Woody Weeds

Greens worship woody weeds. Their proposed tree-clearing bans in Queensland are the latest salvo in a long war favouring trees and damaging grasslands and pastoralists.

For millennia Australia’s open forests and treeless plains have supported our national emblems – the kangaroo and the emu, which in turn sustained aborigines, eagles and dingos. Australian grasslands also nurtured now-endangered species such as bustards, quail, pigeons, finches and grass parrots.

Nothing stands still in nature. Savannas are forever a battleground between grassland, scrub and desert. Greens gaze in rapture at the trees but ignore the valuable grasses beneath their feet – native plants like Mitchell Grass and Kangaroo Grass and cultivated grasses like wheat, barley, oats, sorghum and sugar cane.

GWPF Newsletter: Shale Revolution 3.0

Fracking, Brexit And An Oil And Shale Gas Bonanza

In this newsletter:

1) Shale Revolution 3.0: Bahrain Hits (Black) Gold With Biggest Shale Discovery In World
The Times, 5 April 2018
 
2) Fracking, Brexit And An Oil And Shale Gas Bonanza
Gary K. Busch, Lima Charlie News, 4 April 2018 

Matt Ridley: Energy return on energy invested and the promise of fusion

 

Until 2004 Britain was a net energy exporter. Today, it imports about half its energy. Some of that, in the form of coal and liquefied natural gas, comes directly from Russia, which also supplies a third of Europe’s gas through pipelines. The unprecedented “gas deficit warning” of March 2 was a sharp reminder of our dependence on imports.

Yet Britain is swimming in energy. Enough sunlight falls on the country to power the economy many times over. Wind, wave, water and tidal power cascade over us. There is wood in our forests. There are hot rocks beneath Cornwall and Durham, gas under Lancashire and enough coal under the North Sea to last centuries. We could easily buy sufficient uranium to keep us going indefinitely. And if we were to crack nuclear fusion, all we would need is a little bit of water and some Cornish lithium.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Hassles over headscarves – again

 

I had to groan when the BBC newsreader a couple of weeks back announced that there was a renewed dispute over the hijab, the ‘Muslim headscarf’. As though that were news, having been a bone of contention in Western societies for years now.

The way Muslim women dress seems to be of immense interest to some people to the point of fetishism. Remember the row about the ‘burkini’?  There was a furore in France when women and girls were being accosted by police on some beaches for wearing this bathing outfit. 

NZCPR Weekly: Labour's Leadership Vacuum

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look into the new Government’s growing leadership vacuum, our NZCPR Guest Commentator David Farrar asks some important questions about the Curran-Hirschfeld affair, and our poll asks who you believe wields the most influence in the new coalition: Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson, David Parker, Winston Peters, or Shane Jones.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter: Global Ocean Temps Keep Falling, Now Colder Than Before 2015/16 El Nino

Cuadrilla Completes Drilling Of UK’s First Horizontal Shale Gas Well

In this newsletter:

1) Global Ocean Temps Keep Falling, Now Colder Than Before 2015/16 El Nino
Run Clutz, Science Matters, 28 February 2018 
 
2) Cuadrilla Completes Drilling Of UK’s First Horizontal Shale Gas Well
Rigzone, 3 April 2018