Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Extracts from Rod Oram’s piece in the SST as posted on Facebook. “What’s missing from [the budget], and the six before, is any glimpse of the world we live in, let alone the political leadership we need to survive and thrive in it.”
Anyone remember departure tax?
Twenty five dollars a week can’t be bad, can it? For families on the breadline, it’s surely better than nothing and every little […]
An increase to the base rate of benefits is welcome, but it comes with nasty fishhooks. As the Nats are forced to address leftie / progressive issues – a capital gains tax, Auckland housing, poverty – we the people need to keep the pressure on.
Grosser has confirmed that the TPPA (if it ever happens) will contain “ISDS” provisions that could limit the scope of our sovereignty by allowing foreign corporations to sue NZ.
A panicked response to the Auckland property crisis. A welcome (albeit inadequate) adjustment to benefit rates. Public pressure is forcing action on the Left’s political agenda. Still no surplus, and no one believes the projected one next year. A reactive budget – there is no vision.
Only a quarter of the world’s workers have permanent jobs. A worldwide trend away from secure jobs risked “perpetuating a vicious circle of weak global demand and slow job creation” that has dogged many countries since the 2008 crisis, the ILO reports. Decoupling of wages from productivity has led to a loss of aggregate demand the report estimates at $3.7trillion.
Bill English tells us that the promise that they won the election on – that they’re the only Masters of Finance who could balance the government books (because that’s all that’s important…) – now isn’t at all important to the public.
And Bill tells us: they’ll get their surplus when I give it to them, and they’ll be grateful for it.
We the people only learned of Treasury projections on the costs of inaction on climate change (up to $52 billion) because someone screwed up a redacted document. We were never meant to know. And National’s Minister for Climate Change Issues statement on the matter is that Treasury should have done a better job of hiding this vital information from the public.
The Herald has praised David Cunliffe with changing public opinion about the introduction of a capital gains tax. And rubbished John Key’s suggestion that the announced limited tax on increasing housing values is not a capital gains tax.
National’s policy opens the door to more effective capital gains tax, thus irritating investors and their base, while probably not achieving anything in practice. The worst of both worlds. Bonus question – does this policy effectively underwrite losses when the property bubble bursts? Plus another bonus John Key lie!
The levels of poverty and inequality in NZ are a disgrace. Apparently the budget is to “arrest the decline”, but we have heard such promises again and again from Key.
Deborah Russell is a senior lecturer in taxation at Massey University and was Labour’s candidate in Rangitīkei in the 2014 general election. In this post she sets out her preliminary views on National’s new tax.
According to John Key the proposed tax on capital gains if a property is sold within two years of purchase is not a capital gains tax, there is no housing bubble in Auckland, and the proposed new tax does not represent a complete about face by the Government.
Just two years ago, leading lights in the neo-liberal cult were denying the existence of poverty in New Zealand. In the semi-public havens of the rich, it was the messengers who were being abused for rattling the neo-liberal cognitive dissonance with pesky facts and sympathetic portrayals of actual poor people.
National appears to be doing an about face on a Capital Gains Tax for housing.
Back in March 1988 David Lange had a clear idea about what lay ahead for New Zealanders as the long-term consequences of Roger Douglas’ psychopathic worshipping of the metaphysical Invisible Hand gradually materialised.
Unbelievable.
One of the biggest political deceptions in our lifetime? Or just an honest mistake by our noble Finance Minister?
As widely reported today, the TPPA has taken a probably fatal hit in the US Senate. Good riddance.
Half the workplace deaths in NZ last year were in agriculture. Already this year the toll has been massive.
“National’s talk now is about how achieving surplus was an “artificial target” and that getting a surplus is “like landing a 747 on the head of a pin.” A lot of effort has gone into glossing over the broken promise. But I see it for what it is – one of the biggest political deceptions in a lifetime.”
For the sake of reference – Nye Bevan was a Labour mp and the architect of the British NHS. Michael Sheen’s speech was a defense of that institution, but the underpinning message is, well…
There’s a major and rather obvious contributory factor to UK Labour’s failure in the UK general election that doesn’t seem to have drawn any comment. Until now…
113 more jobs to go at Solid Energy’s Stockton Mine. Bill English killed Solid Energy, these job losses are his.
If National were serious about their “social housing” spin they would place restrictions on the use and resale of these houses. Without such protections its just another privatisation of public assets.
The Auditor General found that no one in National Ltd™, the Māori Party, Te Puni Korkiri, or any other of its apologists can detail exactly what Whānau Ora is supposed to be doing, provide evidence of its outcomes, or explain why up to 33% of the money is being paid in “administration”. In other words, Whānau Ora is a shambles. And dodgy.
Over the past few years the amount WINZ has lent to beneficiaries for emergency dental work has been slashed. Update: Seems to have been an error- OIA chaos in the Ministry of Social Development
On Radio NZ this morning John Key gave an interview that was cringe-worthy, defensive and accidently hilarious. The man is a joke … and not even an original one.
“When we began covering zero hours, BK, Pizza Hut, KFC, Starbucks, Carls Jr, Hell & McDonald’s all had them. Now none do. Great!”
Don’t be mean to John!
New Zealand’s policy on climate change has been one of inaction. A key plank in this is our emissions profile. Roughly 50% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. We couldn’t do anything about them. Instead farmers increase emissions and turn our lakes and streams into toxic sewers. But AgResearch scientists now have a solution for the emissions.
If Saudi Arabia’s justice system and human rights record is as bad as Amnesty says it is, then this is not a country that we should be seeking closer economic ties with. Why the double standard?
I’m planning to enjoy a day off today – the first “mondayised” public holiday – thanks to the work of David Clark, Grant Robertston, and others in Labour and the parties that supported the Bill. National and ACT voted against this holiday.
