Garrick Tremain: Political waste

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on cleaning up Government entities! 

Bryce Edwards: Why NZ’s regressive tax system is unlikely to change

Yesterday the IRD released its landmark report on the ultra-rich in New Zealand and the tax they pay. It starkly illustrates the extent to which the wealth of the ultra-rich has skyrocketed in recent years. The richest 311 families have a combined wealth of $85 billion, and own a quarter of the country’s assets.

Their income in the last year of the study, 2020-21, was $14.6 billion. But the rate of tax they paid on this income was, according to IRD, only half of what the average taxpayer pays. According to business journalist Bernard Hickey, if those ultra-rich families paid the same rate of tax as middle-income New Zealanders, the government would’ve raised an extra $3.4 billion in tax in that one year.

Bob Jones: New Zealand's IMF ranking

The latest IMF Current Account Ratings forecasts that our current account deficit will be proportionally the largest of the world’s 40 most advanced economies.

Specifically, the IMF said it would be worse than notorious cot cases such as Greece and ranks us the 3rd worst performer in its recent years decline among advanced economies.

This is a direct consequence of the appalling financial mismanagement over the last 3 years.

Oliver Hartwich: Australia reaping the spoils of New Zealand’s decline

Sadly, the current government seems to be taking the opposite approach. Instead of fostering a competitive environment, it is openly considering new taxes on the most successful individuals in society.

It is sometimes a personal experience that brings abstract policy discussions to life. And so let me share with you a chat I had last Friday with an Uber driver in Auckland.

He was a Pakistan-born New Zealander who has called Auckland home for 21 years. On our way from the CBD to the airport, he shared his story of how he and his family are planning a move to Australia. The cost-of-living crisis, high crime rates, and better opportunities across the Tasman Sea influenced his decision, he explained. All his friends were thinking about the same move.

Cam Slater: They Might Pay Half the Rate, but They Pay 68% of All Tax

The IRD and the Government have released a report that shows the wealthy in New Zealand pay an effective tax rate of half that which ordinary wage and salary earners pay. Missing from the media and the report is the fact that this is all entirely legal and that none of those the report is about are being prosecuted.

That means the report is a political exercise designed to soften us all up for increased taxation.

Michael Johnston: Save our schools - solutions for New Zealand's education crisis

This manifesto draws on the body of research compiled at The New Zealand Initiative over the past decade to bring together a coherent plan to improve our education system, and to restore it to a place of international pre-eminence.

New Zealand’s once world-leading school education system is in a state of deep malaise. Objective international measures show an ongoing decline in key achievement areas, including literacy, numeracy and science. Too many students are leaving school ill-prepared for tertiary study, work and life.

Lushington D. Brady: The Kids Aren’t All Right

What are we going to do about it?

Ah, me: the Boomers. Here I go, readers will think: taking the stick to my favourite whipping-boys. Not quite. Read on, geriatric Boomers, and don’t get your Depends in a knot, just yet.

Way back in the depths of the pandemic, I commented on social media that the response proved that Boomers are the most selfish generation. Because, I argued, the whole of pandemic policy was designed solely to try and save the elderly for just a few more weeks, at not just staggering economic expense, but at the cost to the well-being and future prospects of the very young. The Moloch Option, I called it.

But some Boomer relatives and friends disagreed. “We’re not all like that,” said one. They hated the lockdowns, too.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's clear there's a tax coming

There’s a tax coming, there’s definitely a tax coming. 

And out of morbid fascination, I can’t wait to see how Labour goes about trying this one on. 

David Parker today released his research into how much tax Kiwis paid and he's got the headlines he wanted. They’re all screaming that 350 of the richest Kiwis pay half the rate of tax that the rest of us do. Only 8.9 percent, compared to our 20 percent.

Now this is where it gets tricky for David Parker, because he’s counting capital gains that aren’t  realised.

Lushington D. Brady: Thanks for Showing Us What a ‘Voice’ Will Be Like

Nepotism, abuse and troughing all the way

When Lidia Thorpe went on a raging, racist rampage of abuse outside a Melbourne strip joint, some commented that it was a preview of what the “Voice” in action would look like. They were more right than they knew.

Point of Order: IRD Minister’s tax report shows (no surprises) the benefits of getting much of your wealth from capital gains

We have waited patiently to post this ministerial press statement and some of the reaction, because the announcement was under embargo until 12.30pm and it was not then posted promptly on the Beehive website.

At first blush, the statement gives good cause for wealthier New Zealanders to brace to have more of their money taken from them by a government with an increasing debt to settle and an inclination to show “fairness” in its tax policies.

Mike Hosking: Authenticity trumps all in media

We touched on authenticity before the school holidays.

I said that one of the more damning aspects of the Dominion and Fox news scrap was not whether Fox was at fault over claims around the election, but rather the revelation in depositions that Tucker Carlson lied about Donald Trump.

As we know, as of last week, a bit over a billion dollars is heading Dominion's was after the settlement.

A lot of people who hate Fox wanted the thing to go to trial. The reason Fox didn’t is kind of exemplified by the Carlson sacking.

Kate Hawkesby: Getting out of NZ shows how introspective we've become

As school goes back today, for how long who knows given the looming strikes, but as we head back to the office and to school, it’s been interesting to reflect on the past two weeks.

We headed away for the first time in three years – we hadn’t left the country since Covid and closed borders, but we’d heard from everybody who had, how refreshing it is to get out of NZ. How inspiring it is to see how much the rest of the world has moved on. How blinkered and parochial we have become in our own little hermit kingdom.

Our first stop was San Francisco, a lost city full of drugs and homeless people and not much to enthuse a tourist to be honest. It felt edgy and unsafe and made me worried about our next stop – New York – and how much more dangerous and unsafe that may feel.

But how wrong I was. New York is incredible. It feels super safe due to the fact the place is flooded with cops – Police on every corner, and lots of them.

Cam Slater: The Defence Force Is Bleeding Out

The Defence Force is in crisis. It’s actually worse than that: if it were an accident victim being triaged, it’d be classified as unlikely to live, regardless of what care it received. That’s how bad it is, as we will demonstrate to readers with leaked internal documents from the NZ Army.

The NZ Herald discussed how parlous the situation is in a recent podcast:

Lushington D. Brady: We’re All Paying for the Childcare Kids

Who really benefits from early childcare?

Are we reaping the whirlwind of the Childcare Generations? Watching the collective tantrum-throwing, foot-stamping, tears and outrage whenever someone dares have a different opinion to ignorant youngsters, one has to wonder where we went wrong.

Sure, the Boomers were no less sheep-like in their opinions, in their youth, but they could (at least occasionally) tolerate other viewpoints. When John Wayne rode into Harvard on a tank, to lecture the students on conservative viewpoints, there was certainly disagreement, but also a great deal of good-natured tolerance.

John Porter: Lest We Forget

April 25th marks the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War I, at Gallipoli. New Zealand and Australia mark the anniversary each year, remembering not only those who died at Gallipoli, but all who have served their country in times of war.

The crucial consequence of the terrible events of World War I was the rescue of democracy, primarily in Europe, but also around the world.

Point of Order: Anzac Day is about remembrance......

.....but did our Veterans Minister forget about Second World War and the saving of democracy?

Dalius Čekuolis, a career diplomat who served as Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2006 to 2012, championed democracy in a speech to the UN General Assembly on May 6 2010 to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War,

Veterans Minister Meka Whaitiri, on the other hand, didn’t mention “democracy” in a press statement she issued to encourage all New Zealanders to mark Anzac Day this year.

Garrick Tremain: Anzac day

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Hipkins and his lot's hypocrisy! 

Clive Bibby: A real and serious threat to our democracy.

A recent piece by my good friend Karl du Fresne, published on this blog, talked about the need for anonymity for some folk expressing views that may be considered controversial by people who have power over employment opportunities.

As usual it was a well written commentary by someone who is regarded by his enemies as being untouchable given he has earned a reputation for accuracy and well researched investigative journalism but it was also a sobering account of the state “free expression in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, there are few other individuals still writing opinion pieces in this country who command the respect that allows them to say what they like and we, as a nation of highly interested bystanders, are the worse for it.

Sandra Goudie: Complaint to the Chief Ombudsman

To the Chief Ombudsman: Complaint regarding the Attorney General and the Minister for the Environment.

An OIA request asking for a copy of the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi has been rejected by both of the above entities.

The same person has dual roles in regard to being both the Attorney General and the Minister.

The inability to provide the information has huge justice issues for the people of New Zealand being subject to law which embodies phrases requiring that ‘must give effect to the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.’

Tim Beveridge: A couple of thoughts about Anzac Day

A couple of thoughts about Anzac Day – which as we know is the day of remembrance specifically for the soldiers who fought and died in the Gallipoli campaign during World War I.

Over time, of course it has come to represent more than just the Gallipoli campaign, and it has become an increasingly important day for both Australia and New Zealand. I would argue —for New Zealand— possibly it has become the country's most important national day.

It is the day that brings the nation together, with services and parades held in cities and towns throughout the country.