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Speaker: It's meant to be hard

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  • Gareth Ward,

    And let's not over-egg slarty's plans here - none of them are really THAT much grander than introducing GST, or even just Kiwisaver.
    The drug decriminalisation maybe, but the rest of them are just major policy changes - not ending the Cold War.

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I agree the boldness is often on the fringe but what is the magic that gets fringe ideas into the mainstream ? I don't think telling John Key what he needs to do will do it.

    I would think it's likely more effective than not telling him ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston,

    I would think it's likely more effective than not telling him ...

    Yeah fair enough but if that's all you do ...

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    The drug decriminalisation maybe, but the rest of them are just major policy changes - not ending the Cold War.

    The other way of looking it is at that the drug decriminalisation is easier, given that other countries are already, to varying extents, doing it. Portugal has, as Slarty notes, gone basically all the way without making the sky fall.

    Yes, I know that's not the reality though. It looks like the anglo-saxons are going to trail the field on that one.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Bruce Thorpe,

    This country has never been further from legalising drugs, so forget that one.

    Abating GST against carbon tax is a real goer. Do it John, Do it!

    How do these things happen?

    Somebody puts the innovative PM on the spot.
    It worked with Lange and the nuclear ban. He tried to wriggle this way and that, even sneaked off in communicado and zealots did it in his absence.

    I reckon the plotters should get to Pita, he is the false panel in the bookshelf.

    Hokianga • Since May 2007 • 52 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    The politics of selfishness will be with us forever. It's up to those few of us with good ideas to keep pushing them until they get traction, and then push them through the process, attempting to keep the dilution to a minimum.

    It seems only an Icelandic meltdown would fix that. Or the Waxman-Markey Act.

    Seriously though, there's another idea that wasn't explored in the original post. Remove all tax benefits that encourage housing speculation (exempting the family bach of course). Better still, levy a "McMansion tax" to discourage inefficient land use.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston,

    I reckon the plotters should get to Pita, he is the false panel in the bookshelf.

    I love the image Bruce - Pita does the political leader/friend of govt so well but their is a lot more behind him that and from what I have seen of him its deeply human and connected.

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    Remove all tax benefits that encourage housing speculation

    Well, it appears that, incredibly, that may just happen. There are a number of ideas that have been floated in columns in the Herald, detailing different ways that other jurisdictions have dealt with the issue of taxing residential property.
    Unsurprisingly, the most negative column on the topic came from Roger Kerr. It's a shame he and his cronies have so much sway with the occupants of the Beehive, because NZ is a complete poster-child for the folly of believing that an unfettered market will do anything other than seek to enrich the largest players at the expense of all others.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • ScottY,

    I'm not optimistic about any real change occurring in relation to the taxation treatment of investment property. Especially when John Key recently indicated it would take a lot to convince him of the need for a capital gains tax.

    And any CGT would be a blunt instrument, and would probably have only limited effect. It's probably still worth doing - anything to discourage property speculation.

    If the Nats are serious about using tax policy to encourage growth in productive areas of the economy, they could bring back the R&D tax credit. Given the lack of vision so far displayed by them, however, that's unlikely.

    Possibly the biggest factor affecting our ability to grow the economy is the dollar. Its instability makes it difficult for people to make sensible financial decisions. No wonder sticking it in property seems the safer option.

    And there's got to be something wrong with our system when the NZ dollar is one of the top ten traded currencies and when our politicians just shrug their shoulders and says there's nothing they can do about it. I'm not one of them high-falutin' economicians, but isn't there something we can do?

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    And there's got to be something wrong with our system when the NZ dollar is one of the top ten traded currencies and when our politicians just shrug their shoulders and says there's nothing they can do about it. I'm not one of them high-falutin' economicians, but isn't there something we can do?

    How about a Tobin Tax?

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Clarke,

    Unsurprisingly, the most negative column on the topic came from Roger Kerr. It's a shame he and his cronies have so much sway with the occupants of the Beehive

    I'm always amazed by how much influence the Business Roundtable has, given that after more than 25 years in business up and down the country, I've never met a single person who actually belonged to the organisation. It just seems like the entire membership is Roger Kerr and a couple of PR flacks.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 85 posts Report Reply

  • ScottY,

    It just seems like the entire membership is Roger Kerr and a couple of PR flacks.

    Not quite. They even have a woman!

    West • Since Feb 2009 • 794 posts Report Reply

  • Quo Vadis,

    I like the last points about the electricity system, but have to say good luck with that.
    Remember it was the Nats who GAVE us the current dog's breakfast of a system (thanks, Max B). And the separation of generation, lines and retail was SUPPOSED to give us "competition" and deliver "cheaper power".
    Come back Max, tell us how well you think that worked.
    Not personally a huge fan of NGO mega corps, but back when we had an Electricity Department, if the hydro ran low, we could switch generating emphasis to geothermal and coal...if coal was expensive we could use geo and hydro.
    Now each of those sources (and of course wind, which as a nation we are not short of) are "owned" by separate organisations who all want their bit of the profit pie, who all pay back to the Government (thereby perpetuating the current system) and who would scream blue murder if forced to buy power from their neighbours at regulated prices.
    And every time the spot price goes up, the Govenrment makes even more money from the system as the GST take soars upward.
    So explain to me again why a Government would want to move to a fairer (ie less obscenely profitable) business model for electricity?
    If Max Bradford is indeed still among us (hovering on the dry right wing like a grey ghastly ghostly adjunct to the likes of Roger Douglas) I would LOVE for him to find the guts to tell the nation again how he was "acting on the basis of the best advice" when he screwed the nation so royally...

    nobby auckland • Since Jun 2009 • 10 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    How about a Tobin Tax?

    The problem with that idea is that the world, or at least the major currency-trading nations, needs to all be in on it together. Although our currency is heavily traded, we're a minnow in the markets. That gives NZ zero room to try and enforce a Tobin Tax in the absence of cooperation by the major trading economies and our main trading partners.

    The only other solution is to de-float the currency, and that idea is just too obscene for words. I'm a free trade absolutist, and believe that the only way that NZ can ever hope to push along the free trade agenda is to never go backward on being the most open economy in the world. The alternative would see NZ consumers worse-off, the national economy in no better shape than it is now, potentially worse-off also, and NZ producers possibly on the wrong side of tariff wars with aggrieved trading partners.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    I don't have time to comment in full, but will just very briefly note two things. Brazil just the other week put a 2% tax on capital inflows. It's currency has behaved much like ours in recent times, on the back of speculative investment into non-productive capital. It received approval from places as diverse as the Financial Times and Melbourne's The Age, and there's been suggestions that it could work well in other countries with similar problems. While this doesn't directly affect the debate on controlling the currency, it does show that we have options, if we want to use them.

    The RBNZ does intervene in the currency, buying and selling to moderate it, but it can only prevent spikes, rather than control its direction. I actually wouldn't be entirely averse to pegging the dollar again, but for me the bigger question is who would we peg? Our monetary policy settings are different to those of almost every other nation, for a number of reasons.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    I'm always amazed by how much influence the Business Roundtable has

    .. given how obviously wrong they are about how the world works. C'mon, 15 years until 1999 wasn't long enough to see that?

    If Max Bradford is indeed still among us (hovering on the dry right wing like a grey ghastly ghostly adjunct to the likes of Roger Douglas) I would LOVE for him to find the guts to tell the nation again how he was "acting on the basis of the best advice" when he screwed the nation so royally...

    Totally agree. And Maurice Williamson can tell us how his prolonged, handwringing gutlessness with Telecom did us all such a favour in the 90s. Real broadband anyone? Bet Rod Deane still sniggers every time he thinks of his impotent ex-Minister.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Andre,

    John Key is at the end of the boomer years but well entrenched and rewarded within the baby boomer hierachy. But he may listen to those about to have heaped upon them the responsibitily to support themselves and their families until a very old age.
    Let's face it... once they have paid themselves out anyone who is 20 today will be retiring at 80 with no money unless they save it for themselves. My baby boy is likely to live until 100 - apparently it's going to be the average age of death when he dies. By then he'll be retiring at 92 or something.
    I expect Key to sell off assets to pay for the boomers' retirement leaving us nothing.
    Legalising marijuana will generate millions in tax revenue, get rid of our gang problem, alienate P dealers from their clients and halve the prison population. No-one can do it though...
    We should remove all tax benefits enjoyed by religious organisations.
    The untaxed property market is robbing the younger generation of the chance to buy a house and is starving business credit. A Retrospective Capital Gains Tax is needed - but one only related to property.
    We shouldn't be paying $6 billion for the leaky home crisis. Those involved should be.
    We should still be paying into the Super Fund each year.
    Whoever gave Labtests that contract should be fired. Everyone involved. I've admittedly no idea about the health system other than through friends that work in it but vision seems lacking.
    I like our schools but think that they over-police teachers and remove a lot of opportunity for teachers to break out of the curriculum by giving them too much "policing" work. And we give money needlessly to wealthy private and religious schools.
    We should remove the right for pub owners and their mates to decide where lottery money is distributed. Make the applicants public using DM and each community can vote. It'll certainly keep those small-town tyrants on their toes.
    That's enough....

    New Zealand • Since May 2009 • 371 posts Report Reply

  • Andre,

    Maurice Williamson was in with TUANZ. And Ernie Newman officially represented users but many/most of TUANZ's members were staff of ISP's or telecom companies. We sold their ads for a while in the 90's. I wasn't involved in their discussions but from a distance it wasn't a shouting match. The most supplicant organisation on the planet...

    New Zealand • Since May 2009 • 371 posts Report Reply

  • Andre,

    I also think that banning motorised transport other than buses from all CBD's and major commercial/industrial areas is a great idea. Including small towns. It will create a village atmosphere and get rid of boy racers. We could lead the world with that one if we included every city and town and enabled public transport as need arose. Maybe introduce it in increments as every other private utility company does. People will choose to catch a bus if it is 200 metres away from their home compared to a 1 - 2km walk at the other end if they take a car. Taxis and limousine businesses will go OFF! But at least passengers of either buses or taxi will be charged a rate reflecting real costs.
    We should introduce "safe biking" where a report of a driver acting dangerously carries real weight. I've biked in downtown Auckland and its environs fore twenty years and it's always been bad. But now it is almost impossible.
    I've got lots of other ideas I'd like to mention (raise the minimum wage) but... okay... later

    New Zealand • Since May 2009 • 371 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    We should remove all tax benefits enjoyed by religious organisations.

    You want to improve the economy, but you want to hit at organisations that do a lot of work to support people who are failed by the policies of the government? Yeah, you really thought that one through, didn't you.
    As Kyle Chapman points out here, the state benefits quite significantly from the charitable activities of religious organisations. And he declares himself to be an atheist.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    We can all rest easy - our superiors are going to work it all out for us, without the need for anything as messy as democracy.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    We can all rest easy - our superiors are going to work it all out for us, without the need for anything as messy as democracy.

    Just ask Pinochet or Suharto.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    As Kyle Chapman points out here, the state benefits quite significantly from the charitable activities of religious organisations.

    Please don't call me Kyle Chapman. Please.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    As Kyle Chapman points out here . . .

    Kyle Matthews, as it turns out. Can't have been a Freudian slip :)

    I can only conclude that those who advocate removing tax benefits from all religious organisations are either driven by a beady-eyed ideology, or are happy to undermine the vast amount of vital work that many of them do in order to nobble the Brian Tamakis of this world. There are plenty of religious people out there who are tolerant of other faiths, and of atheism, and are as enthusiastic about the benefits of science as any atheist. Literal bible-believers, IMHE, don't feature large when it comes to performing genuine charitable work.

    The old Methodist publisher and philanthropist A H Reed once stated, "I have been a life-long non-drinker, non-smoker and non-gambler. I take no credit for that; many better men than myself are moderately addicted to all three." It's a pity that such an attitude isn't reciprocated more often by unbelievers. If those hard-line atheists who advocate a punitive and morally superior state regime towards all churches are unable to admit that many believers might be better people than they are, it's probably because they've never had the good fortune to experience the self-effacing charitable work that religious belief inspires in some.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Aston,

    without the need for anything as messy as democracy.

    A boy is it ever messy !
    Our Rodney who art in Auckland thinks ACT are doing all the work
    Rodney seems unhappy that the tail is furiously wagging the dog but the dog isn't' doing any thing.

    Northland • Since Nov 2006 • 510 posts Report Reply

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