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Thursday, February 22, 2024

David Farrar: Five interesting bills


Five interesting bills pulled out of the ballot. They are:

parole (Mandatory Completion of Rehabilitative Programmes) Amendment Bill by Todd Stephenson (act): -  Requires any identified rehabilitative programmes for a prisoner to be completed in order to be eligible for parole. Sounds sensible.

* Goods and Services Tax (Removing GST From Food) Amendment Bill by Rawiri Waititi (TPM).  - Will remove GST from “food”. Barmy. Love to see all the Labour MPs vote for it tho know it is daft.

* Income Tax (ACC Payments) Amendment Bill by Hamish Campbell (National).  - Requires any income from an ACC claim to be treated as income for the year it was first entitled, even if actual decision occurs in later years. Common sense.

* Companies (Address Information) Amendment Bill by Deborah Russell (Labour).  - Allows company directors to provide a non-resident address for the companies register of they have safety concerns. A much needed law change.

* Local electoral (Abolition of the Ratepayer Roll) Amendment Bill by Greg O'Connor (Labour). - This gets rid of the vote for local body elections for ratepayers who own property but no not reside in the district. On balance I support this, as I don't think people with multiple properties should vote in multiple districts.

Not often there are two Labour bills I agree with!

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If one is paying rates as landowner and is a NZ citizen , I think one should be able to vote. Otherwise it is usual prejudice against landlords or those who have can afford a second home.

Anonymous said...

I disagree. If you pay rates in a jurisdiction, you should have a right to say how they might be spent, ie. a vote.

Robert Arthur said...

As industrious owner of a property I think I should have at least equal right to determine local conditions than some low IQ lay about dole dependant occupant

Anonymous said...

And anon@11.37 there are those that have not only houses, but businesses elsewhere from where they reside and, given businesses pay more than their fair share of rates and, arguably, in many instances consume less services, why should they not have a say where their money is spent?

In sum, it's a poor, ill-advised/ unjustified Bill that deserves to go nowhere.