Written By: - Date published: 3:52 pm, June 24th, 2026 - 21 comments
National’s recent Kiwisaver announcement, expected to cost $110 million a year, only pays back some of the savings from its erlier Kiwisaver cuts expected to save $610 million a year, and appears to be signs ofincreasing panic.
Written By: - Date published: 6:11 am, June 22nd, 2026 - 48 comments
“Enough is enough. No more tinkering around the edges. It’s time for the super-rich to pay their damn taxes”
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, June 14th, 2026 - 36 comments
If the farming sector is the ‘backbone of the economy’ then why is it that we are struggling to stand upright economically at the moment? Is it because agriculture is a economic drain on the rest of NZ. It provides 85% of our export revenue. But contributes just 5% of GDP, 5% of the workforce, and 1-3% of tax revenue – which effectively measures the profit to NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, January 9th, 2026 - 10 comments
The real affordability crisis lies in the systematic extraction of income from households.
Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, December 9th, 2025 - 3 comments
Privatisation and Plunder is essential reading for those who want to work for a society where prosperity for all is the aim.
Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, December 8th, 2025 - 13 comments
That’s the headline of the pamphlet in the letterbox. But from their own measures is that true?
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 26th, 2025 - 12 comments
Is it only the uber wealthy and politicians that don’t want a wealth tax? Guyon Espiner talks with ex trader, now people’s economist Gary Stevenson.
Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, November 11th, 2025 - 36 comments
Labour’s capital gains tax isn’t the end of the debate — it’s the beginning of a reckoning. The left’s real problem isn’t its policy. It’s the cult of reasonableness that’s made conviction sound impolite.
Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, October 30th, 2025 - 140 comments
The usual voices have publicly attacked Labour’s proposed Capital Gains Tax using arguments that do not stack up.
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, October 28th, 2025 - 46 comments
Today’s leak of Labour’s tax policy is unsurprising. The later Robertson and long-term Parker views are lost. And this position is at odds with much of the thinking in the Labour Party.
Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, October 28th, 2025 - 151 comments
Labour’s Capital Gains Tax has been released in less than an optimal manner. And the policy is more modest than some would have liked.
Written By: - Date published: 10:02 pm, October 14th, 2025 - 88 comments
Brian Easton says we cannot attain a sustainable Scandinavian-type quality of life while keeping the existing tax system in place
Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, August 27th, 2025 - 19 comments
Everyone on the left can agree that we must change the government. Elliot Crossan argues that if Labour wins in 2026 and refuses to transform the system generating extreme inequality, NZ society will continue to fragment. Change the government. This is currently the unanimous goal of trade union leaders, left-wing politicians and progressive NGOs. At rallies, […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, July 20th, 2025 - 39 comments
… before the election starts to get real.
Written By: - Date published: 7:18 am, July 18th, 2025 - 12 comments
Again, we were woken up by a bunch of hoodrats drifting on the intersection by our house. Great clouds of smoke and lots of noise. As you do at three o clock in the morning, my brain started tying this together with recent articles about private helicopters in urban areas, and other forms of antisocial “Fuck You’s” to the rest of us.
Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 8th, 2025 - 20 comments
David Parker’s Deputy Leader ‘s speech in 2014 at the Wellington Labour Party Conference was the best I ever heard from a Labour Leader. Vision matched values in intensity and scope. Parliament now loses one of its very best.
Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, March 19th, 2025 - 73 comments
The world is in turmoil as political and economic uncertainty grow, and as conflict spreads. How the Left prepares for the next decade is a pressing challenge.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 19th, 2025 - 14 comments
Over the last year, the Coalition has unleashed a series of cuts which have been devastating for the disabled community. These cuts are part of a class war — and it’s time to organise and fight back, writes Elliot Crossan.
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, March 10th, 2025 - 57 comments
1News: The party leader told Q+A that Labour would be announcing its tax policy later this year, ahead of the 2026 election. He said too much investment was going into property rather than “productive businesses that create jobs”. “We’ve got to rejig the tax system so that the burden of taxation is more evenly spread,” […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, January 19th, 2025 - 14 comments
In his final speech Joe Biden has warned the world about the dangers posed by Oligarchs supporting the right into democratic power. He is right.
Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, December 5th, 2024 - 30 comments
The resurgence of the tax debate reflects impacts of neo-liberal economic policy and developments in the global economy over the last half century. As Labour considers further its approach to tax policy, this wider context should be considered
Written By: - Date published: 7:06 pm, October 16th, 2024 - 90 comments
ANZ, ASB and Simplicity are the latest to join the 77% of business leaders who now say CGT is essential for NZ. CGT goes wholly to the government so why is Luxon so against it?
Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, September 22nd, 2024 - 20 comments
Nigel Haworth argues that the 2012 reforms of the Labour Party created a perverse effect. Not to engender stronger member voice, but to empower a managerial model akin to a Piketty’s Brahmin caste. It weakened the Party’s ability to act strongly at arms length of Caucus and Parliamentary Leader.
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, September 19th, 2024 - 26 comments
A recently Tax Justice Aotearoa study suggests that the country could impse a capital gains tax or wealth tax and the wealthy would still be better off than they would be in similar countries.
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, August 31st, 2024 - 69 comments
Guest post by Nigel Haworth discussing recent publicity given to the Labour Party’s debate around tax reform.
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, May 22nd, 2024 - 39 comments
Guest post by Nigel Haworth where he discusses Labour membership’s desire for taxation reform and why it is important that Labour decides on its position as soon as possible.
Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 27th, 2024 - 41 comments
I don’t agree with people from New Zealand Initiative often. Mostly I just growl. But Oliver Hartwich who is the Initiative’s Executive Director wrote a article in The Australian “Christopher Luxon’s challenge for NZ economy: fiscal discipline or tax cuts”. Hard to find anyone aware of the current recession who could disagree outside of a small political minority in the National caucus.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 21st, 2024 - 20 comments
Grant Robertson has given his valedictory speech in Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, March 15th, 2024 - 4 comments
The IRD has estimated that National’s proposed Overseas Gambling Levy Policy will bring in $500 million less than it promised during the election campaign.
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, March 13th, 2024 - 45 comments
The right has this belief that they are economic geniuses. Occasionally this belief is shown to be faulty. Like this week when National’s costings for tax cuts to Landlords was $800 million more than previously estimated.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, January 7th, 2024 - 115 comments
A George Monbiot article in the Guardian made me wonder what effect the Atlas Network is having on New Zealand politics through the Taxpayer’s Union. Publicly available information suggests considerable funding is being made available and that the current Government’s priorities are precisely those that the Atlas Network would approve of.
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