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You may remember that late last year John Key, Bill English and Paula Bennett could hardly find the words to praise themselves for the falling numbers on the dole. That was until I pointed out that it was a seasonal dip that always occurs between…
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NZPA is reporting that there were only four work stoppages in the last September quarter, making eighteen for the 2009 year to September. They then repeat the Stats NZ line that this figure is down on 2008. So good news eh? Fewer strikes means a…
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Pascal's Bookie said in comments 3 pretty graphs, Median Income Average income of the bottom decile Average income of the Top decile one of which has NZ in the top half of the oecd. Lookie here Source
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In the Otago Daily Times on Wednesday, Gerry Brownlee confirmed he was personally pushing for a new road to be bulldozed through the middle of Fiordland National Park. "I'm personally supportive of it but it's not something that the Government is actually considering at the…
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"2500 people waited up to seven hours to apply for one of 150 jobs at a new South Auckland supermarket"* OK, maybe 16 applicants per job isn't beyond the norm when you're advertising one at a time but when you're advertising 150? Think about it,…
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You're probably up to your ears in this tax reform issue by now, but just one more. It's a good 'un, promise. I've made a pretty graphic of who would lose and who would gain, and how, from the tax working groups' proposals: The huge tax breaks…
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David Farrar has one of his dodgy maths posts, where he argues that getting rid of the 33% rate is necessary because typical New Zealanders are paying it: "You see [not] only should people not be paying a 38% rate, most FT workers shouldn't even be…
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The Right's main justification for the highway robbery of cutting the top tax rate to 30% then funding it by increasing rents and charging the 78% of people who earn under $48,000 2.5% more GST is: 'Half of the richest 100 avoid paying the top rate anyway.…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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I was pulling out the stats for 2009 so I could update Tumeke blog rankings about who authors on this site so Tim could update the names under our site name. Rather than just send it to him, I thought I'd post it here and…
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David Farrar on Kiwiblog says When Labour reduced the top tax rate from 66c to 33c in the 1980s, the amount of tax paid actually increased. Wasn't that because they introduced GST as a new tax?
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From today's (free online) Guardian: America's most popular newspaper website today announced that the era of free online journalism is drawing to a close. The New York Times, the so-called grey lady of US media, has become the biggest publisher yet to set out plans…
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No Right Turn has a post about the weirdness of the police forces in Britain at present. Elements of our own police force have been acting just as weirdly about 'terrorism' over the past years bringing a new era of police stupidity and police doing…
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It fascinates me that in all this talk about 'catching up with Australia' via tax cuts, nobody bothers to look at the Aussie tax system to see what they're doing. Keith Ng has a cool interactive graph on the portion of all income earnt by different…
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A commenter asked an interesting question yesterday: of the countries that are wealthier than us, how many have aligned their top income, corporate, and trust tax rates? And which countries are they? Well, I did some looking and here are the countries with higher GDP…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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The Tax Working Group has given its recommendations for tax reform to the Government. It predictably recommends: Dropping the tax income tax rates to 30% in line with the corporate tax rate. Dropping the corporate tax rate (and presumably the top income tax rate) further in…
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Good to see that Mike Moore has been appointed our new Ambassador to Washington. Mike's energy and connections in Washington and the world will be an asset. It'll also be a lot more satisfying for him than life as an author and columnist. Mike's a …
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The Key Government's anti-beneficiary campaign continues. The latest is a beat-up on long-term beneficiaries. Apparently, 9 people have been on the dole for longer than 20 years, 14 for 15-20 years, and 181 for 10-15 years. 'Bludgers!' we're meant to cry 'Bludgers!' But let's actually…
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The people of Franklin and Papakura, who overwhelming oppose becoming part of the National/ACT government's Supercity experiment, have been denied their request to keep their own councils. Instead, Papakura will be forced into the Supercity while Franklin will be carved up between the Supercity, Waikato Council,…
auckland supercity community democracy democracy under attack democratic participation local body elections local government
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The '3 strikes' policy is the kind of policy you put in place when you want to look tough on crime but you have no idea how to actually reduce it, in the same way a cycleway is the jobs plan you have when you don't…
crime law and "order" poverty prisons privatisation unemployment
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Not sure I agree with it all but the rise and fall of the TV journalist is an interesting micro-documentary:
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There was quite an interesting discussion on the minimum wage yesterday after a poll showed 61% of Kiwis back a $15 an hour minimum wage, and I thought it would be good to lay out my thoughts. First, increasing the minimum wage changes the division…
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The media coverage of Prince William's visit really has gone a step too far. Aside from dominating TV, radio, and the newspapers, every time I check out stuff.co.nz I'm presented with an excited "LATEST: Prince William gets into car". I know it's easy journalism. But…
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Cameron 'Whaleoil' Slater has launched 'SHAME'. It's supposedly a lobby group to get suppression laws changed. Really, it looks like a money making scheme for the workshy Slater. SHAME seems to have no members apart from Slater. He says "We are fortunate to be supported…
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John Key has ruled out a $2.50 an hour pay increase for New Zealand's lowest paid workers but won't give any indication of what increase he does think is right. He claims that an increase to $15 an hour would cost jobs. I would love…
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Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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At the end of the month the new kindergarten year begins. Reading this article in the SSTimes from yesterday reminded me of just how hard the question of childcare is for many parents: The Kiwi tradition of sending pre-schoolers to kindy is losing favour, as…
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Traditionally, the minimum wage was set at around 60-67% of the average wage. During the Muldoon era and the 1990s, National let the minimum wage stagnate, with inflation eating away at its value. It declined to as low as 34% of the average wage under Muldoon…