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."