Wayne Brown interviewed Carmel Sepuloni, and asked her why the Government doesn’t pay rates on land and buildings it owns. Her answer was “I didn’t know that this was the case”.
Amazing that such a basic piece of knowledge was unknown to Labour’s proposed Deputy Prime Minister. I think I have known that for 30 or so years. It is very common knowledge.
The answer incidentally is that the Crown set up local government by statute, so the Crown doesn’t pay taxes to a subsidiary body. It would also create perverse incentives if the Department of Conservation had to pay a massive rates bill on all the national parks it conserves. Then you would have real pressure to reduce, not grow, the conservation estate.
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
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
2 comments:
Isn't there another privileged group that either does not have to pay rates or gets a hospital pass when they do not even if they ought to? I could be completely wrong of course so I asked AI. It said: "Yes, rates are legally collected on Māori freehold land under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002. However, thanks to the 2021 amendments, wholly unused or unproductive land is now non-rateable, and councils are required to write off unrecoverable historic rate debts. Local councils are also empowered to offer remissions or postponements for land that is undergoing economic development, used for papakāinga (communal housing), or affected by wāhi tapu (sacred sites)." Oh well, guess that is all okay then! Oh for pity's sake!
Yes. At a wild guess I suppose that all Maori land would fall into at least one of the non rateable categories! How convenient. Didn't see that clause in the Treaty? Wouldn't the "same rights and privileges as British citizens" include paying taxes on land in the 21st Century? How naive of me to think like that
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