Devon Mace: Gareth Morgan’s ‘Upper House’ betrays all notions of democracy

Sir John A. McDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister, has been oft-quoted for suggesting that the Canadian Senate was a place for a “sober second thought”.

It was, and is, an upper house modelled on the English House of Lords – the members are not elected, but are instead appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Prime Minster. In that regard, it follows the original idea of a senate – ‘the assembly of elders’. And in such a case, a senate works. The Government has the right to appoint whoever they want to the upper house, meaning it’s not a site for politicking and policy-blocking, and instead provides McDonald’s quote with weight. It does, however, bypass the notion of true democracy, and Stephen Harper has long suggested an overhaul of the Canadian senate.

Mike Butler: Gareth Morgan wrong on treaty

Self-appointed guru Gareth Morgan bought into human-induced global warming in an earlier book and his current work on the Treaty of Waitangi shows him as a devotee of the make-it-up-as-you-go-along biculturalism that is the defining characteristic of New Zealand’s race gravy train.

Promoting Are we there yet? The future of the Treaty of Waitangi, Morgan has got the New Zealand Herald to agree to run a four-part series to promote his book, with the first installment published today.

His conclusion that the treaty process is a success because the “treaty is now taken to mean whatever Maori leaders and the Crown, as the public’s representatives, agree it means” ignores the elephant in the room by way of a racial faultline that came into existence with the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975.

Mike Butler: Separatist drivel from Delahunty

Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty tried to stick up for Maori seats on local authorities in the New Zealand Herald today after withering criticism from commentator Gareth Morgan but the more she started digging away at her topic the bigger became the hole she was burying herself in.

Delahunty wrote: “Anyone can stand for a local election but the low numbers of Maori speak for themselves and Maori who speak for haputanga rather than as individuals are extremely rare on councils unless Maori wards are created”.

Mike Butler: Taxing the family home

The term “big kahuna” could refer to the Hawaiian surfing god, or could mean “important person” but for economist Gareth Morgan it is part of the title of his new book “The Big Kahuna – Tax and Welfare”. The basic idea is a variation on one that surfaced in New Zealand in 1987 when then Finance Minister Roger Douglas introduced a policy of a 23 percent flat rate of income tax and a new form of income assistance called guaranteed minimum family income.

Morgan’s proposal differs in that his unconditional basic income is available to every individual working or not working -- $8500 a year for those aged 18-20 years and $11,000 for those 21 years and over. This would be funded by a flat tax of 30 percent, as well as a comprehensive capital tax which includes owner-occupied housing.