Dear New Zealanders, your victory is pyrrhic’ Dear home-owning older voter, You have successfully blocked the taxation of capital gains on leveraged residential land values for nearly 15 years and now both major political parties are so afraid of you doing it again they won’t even talk about … [Read more...]
What is the role of Ethics, private and public – in a decent society
This book made me think hard about the way our current government operates. The list of projects on the fast-track list smells very fishy. Dead fishy. Next Tuesday Club notes I will look carefully at local projects and how they happened and their costly ramifications for us as local ratepayers. I … [Read more...]
The invisible hand of the “market”
Here’s a photo of the commercial barge which became stranded on Carters Beach last week. I wonder how much the State spent extracting it. In the Press it was reported: Former harbourmaster David Barnes said the barge was underpowered and had insufficient propulsion. He said the Westport bar … [Read more...]
I’ve paid my ZOOM bill and I’m wondering why there was no GST…
Because of my technical incompetence I have failed to produce a copy of my recent bill for my Zoom account to show you all. However, here’s a copy of the account payment: Zoom.Us 888-799-9666 Www.Zoom.Us Ca $272.05US. I wrote across the invoice I kept for my records “No GST – bastards”. I … [Read more...]
Why did the coalition Government got rid of the Productivity Commission?
It’s because the Commission Chair Dr Ganesh Nana wrote things like this: Our business models continue to focus on volume, rather than value and again that’s a misunderstanding of productivity – increased revenue is not productivity. Revenue can be generated by, just as we have done, … [Read more...]
At last there are seriously good articles on how neo-liberalism is failing us badly
I recall in the 1980’s, when I chaired a Labour Party electorate committee, moving out of the chair to argue with our local MP on how wrong neo-liberalism was, as its impacts I felt were dreadful. I was working with communities all over the South Island which were being decimated by this newly found … [Read more...]
The migration, tax cuts and housing shortages are inflationary
It was the wet blanket on National’s hopes for a summery economic honeymoon. Last week Bernard Hickey (my favourite commentator) wrote: The Reserve Bank last week upgraded its interest rate and house price forecasts to account for: The Reserve Bank’s forecasts and comments in … [Read more...]
It is really important thaat we critically analyse who is advising our leaders
Recently Martyn Bradbury wrote: The Neoliberal NZ experiment: You are never allowed to question the de-unionised work force that amputated wages, you can never question selling off our assets, you can never criticise the growth mentality, you are never allowed to attack the free market … [Read more...]
Living Wage Election Forum
An incoming government can make sure public sector workers are paid a living wage. At our Election Forum, we’re asking political parties to keep paying a Living Wage to core public sector workers, and to extend a Living Wage to workers in publicly funded education and health. This includes school … [Read more...]
The Loft Social service defunded
In the Press on Saturday it was reported that The Loft, a valuable social agency in the East has had its funding declined by MSD. We will follow this one up as this is an agency which is relied on by a large number of people from a vulnerable portion of our city. In the weekend there was an … [Read more...]
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