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A reader, John, writes: "I'm a member of Club Physical and I was disgusted to see that in their latest E-newsletter (below) sent out to all their members via email address, they are promoting an article from a fringe website that claims eating soy "makes kids…
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I don't think the SAS should be in Afghanistan. That said, there are good reasons why the activities of the SAS on deployment are meant to be kept secret. Both the media and John Key have behaved incredibly irresponsibly. Do the publishing of pictures and…
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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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Last week: "Prime Minister John Key said the Government's major theme in 2010 would be improving New Zealand's economy" Today: "He said his almost exclusive focus this year was to improve educational standards in the country" Next week: An unrelenting focus on whatever you want…
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This is how Health Minister Tony Ryall announced the Government would be appealing the court decision to try to get out of paying people for caring for disabled children: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -…
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Eddie has already covered the story of Hide giving the middle finger to the people of Franklin regarding the Supercity. Franklin is Tory heartland. However the current local National MP for Hunua, the underwhelming Dr Paul Hutchinson, has consistently been taken to pieces over his…
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Hattip: NickS linking to PhD comics
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John Roughan asks: "Nearly half of all personal tax revenue is contributed by just 10 per cent of us. Is this socially healthy?" To which I reply: "That 10% get 34% of the country's income and own 52% of the country's wealth, compared to the…
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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 enjoyed this piece by Jane Young over on Pundit so much I wanted to share: The brain in the White House appears to have been outsmarted by the brawn of a nude centrefold, as Obama's filibuster-proof Senate number has been whipped away by a man…
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Over at Red Alert Stuart Nash asks whether the details of property developers being investigated by the IRD will be released in the same way Basher Bennett released the benefit details of two solo mums. Bloody good point. I'd also like to know if the…
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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…