Labour needs to be firm on tax
Marty did some really excellent work last week on the Tax Working Group’s proposed tax reforms last week, which Zetetic summed up as ‘tax cuts […]
Economy
Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Subsidising Pandora’s box-office
Gerry Brownlee is defending the $45 million tax break the Government gave the makers of Avatar to do most of their special effects […]
250,000 jobless and counting
Tax is the price the elite pay to maintain their privilege
John Roughan asks: “Nearly half of all personal tax revenue is contributed by just 10 per cent of us. Is this socially healthy?” […]
Questions of trust
Over at Red Alert Stuart Nash asks whether the details of property developers being investigated by the IRD will be released in the […]
Massive jump in dole numbers – minister washes her hands
You may remember that late last year John Key, Bill English and Paula Bennett could hardly find the words to praise themselves for […]
Pascal’s Bookie says…
Pascal’s Bookie said in comments 3 pretty graphs, Median Income Average income of the bottom decile Average income of the Top decile one […]
The sharpest edge of the recession
“2500 people waited up to seven hours to apply for one of 150 jobs at a new South Auckland supermarket”* OK, maybe 16 […]
Who wins and who loses from tax reforms
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 […]
33% nonsense
David Farrar has one of his dodgy maths posts, where he argues that getting rid of the 33% rate is necessary because typical New […]
Tax cuts for tax cheats
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 […]
A little knowledge
David Farrar on Kiwiblog says When Labour reduced the top tax rate from 66c to 33c in the 1980s, the amount of tax […]
The lucky country: Aussie tax system more progressive than NZ’s
It fascinates me that in all this talk about ‘catching up with Australia’ via tax cuts, nobody bothers to look at the Aussie […]
Nobody else is doing it so why should we?
A commenter asked an interesting question yesterday: of the countries that are wealthier than us, how many have aligned their top income, corporate, […]
Tax reform: tax cuts for rich, paid for by poor
The Tax Working Group has given its recommendations for tax reform to the Government. It predictably recommends: Dropping the tax income tax rates to […]
Another benefit beat-up
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 […]
‘3 strikes’, typical ‘Do Nothing’ Key policy
The ‘3 strikes’ policy is the kind of policy you put in place when you want to look tough on crime but you […]
The moral case for a decent minimum wage
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 increase, what will it be?
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 […]
Kiwis back fairer minimum wage
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 […]
Say what?
Statements made in Parliament last year, in chronological order: Hon BILL ENGLISH: They have been telling us that we should copy the Australian […]
Farrar tries to cover for do nothing govt, and fails
Phil Goff has picked up on the point I made yesterday: while unemployment is falling in Australia due to the $42 billion stimulus […]
Key on holiday
After all of the kerfuffle about Key’s long holidays I figure there’s not much for me to say about it but it’s worth […]
Too far, Fran
Despite almost never agreeing with Fran O’Sullivan, I have respect for her. She comes from the ACT-right and her pieces reflect that but […]
Dumb and dumber on the dole
So, Tariana Turia has (eventually) come out against Paula Bennett’s pointless policy of making people on the unemployment benefit reapply after a year. Of course, […]
Bulldozing Paradise
Today I thought I’d link to some of the amazing scenery Gerry Brownlee wants to bulldoze for his road through the middle of […]
NZ closes the gap with Aussie
Well, I didn’t think it could done but it has been. National has been promising to close the gap with Australia, and damned […]
Govt: All workers to get same holidays as PM
Workers to get same holidays as PM Monday, 11/01/2010, 11:30pm Press release: New Zealand Government The Government will raise the minimum annual leave […]
Foreign banks buggering NZ
I’m no big city banker. But I was under the impression that profit is the income that is left over once you’ve paid your […]
Tax Working Group is inherently flawed.
Marty wrote on taxation expert Craig Elliffes opinion series in the Herald a few days ago. The third in the series wound up […]
The house that slavery built
There’s no denying that the Burj Khalifa is impressive. Not all that much short of a kilometre high, it’s easily the highest building […]
Right’s threadbare excuses for tax gifts for the rich
The Right is trying to build momentum for more tax cuts for the rich. The argument comes on three fronts: ‘if we don’t […]
Between Nats lines, not much to be found
Bill English has usurped his do-nothing leader with an op-ed in the Herald framing National’s agenda for the year to come. This piece was […]
Re-run: Benefits, wages and anger
The recent furore about benefit levels has brought a lot of comments along the lines of “I don’t get it why should they?” […]
A fair pay-rise not unreasonable
An interesting piece on the SST yesterday: English has warned public servants such as teachers and nurses not to expect pay increases that […]
Finally, videophones are here and are almost useful.
One of the nice things that has shown up over the last few years is the slow rise of Internet videophone technology. I’ve […]