Posts by bmk
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to BenWilson,
It could be popular with business, if it were altered so as not to be a tax on them.
Most businesses don't mind it much since they allowed to offset their contributions against those employees wage/salary raises. I know several people whose workplace gave the staff not enrolled in Kiwisaver a blanket pay raise while those in Kiwisaver got less to allow for their Kiwisaver contributions. One friend was pissed when he found out this was possible and wanted to withdraw from Kiwisaver because he thought the employer contribution was one of the benefits off the scheme only for him to find out it wasn't really.
In effect employees pay for Kiwisaver twice - once in lower income and again in their own contributions. As far as I can tell the only benefit of it is the government contributions. Which is why even most proponents of Kiwisaver simply recommend putting in only as much as you need to get full government contribution and then no more. And considering the money from the government isn't free but coming from everyone; you can perhaps see why I think in it's present incarnation it is a deeply flawed scheme.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Sacha,
Too many NZ businesses don't think it's their job to do any in-house training, just like they refuse to fund their share of research.
Yep, exactly the problem. They all insist on only hiring trained and experienced employees in the specific role they want with none of them willing to train or provide that experience.
I think one of the reasons NZ is so bad for this is simply that we have far too high a proportion of small businesses. From my experience and from what I've seen the larger the company the better they treat their employees and the more willing they are to higher new grads and train them. They also meet all their statutory obligations which small businesses often ignore.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to BenWilson,
The most sensible middle ground is probably means tested super, with a sinking lid as the amounts in super start growing into serious money.
I could get behind that. But it would probably also need other alterations. Such as a higher rate of deductions for kiwisaver but then lower income tax accordingly. IE 10% kiwisaver deductions with a corresponding tax cut for people under 30. For people over 30 standard kiwisaver but no income tax deduction.
Then you have a very basic means-tested super to catch the people who fall through (obviously this would apply only to the people coming through from the change) for whatever reason and don't accumulate enough savings.
I think the current plans proposed both by Labour and National are messy and aren't an answer. National is just burying their heads in the sand and leaving it future governments to sort out. Labour is trying to prepare; but imo doing it in a ham-fisted ill-thought out manner. Labour are just trying to patch things on without fundamentally reforming the system in a meaningful manner - but still at least they are admitting that something has to be done.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Kumara Republic,
I also work in ICT and while having a IT degree and a couple of years experience it can still be hard to find work. I have a good current job but know that I can't easily get another one if needed though a lot of that is where I live.
For all the talk of ICT shortages it's only really in the highly-experienced category (five years plus). Companies hiring in ICT never want to take people with less than a couple of years of experience which means there aren't enough experienced people to fill the positions and so on.
Meaning we have this ludicrous position where companies say they can't fill their ICT positions while there are a large number of ICT grads struggling to find work.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to BenWilson,
For sure. Is a tax-home reduction your only criticism, though? I ask, because that one is pretty easily nullified just by dropping taxes slightly, particularly for lower incomes. Would you object to compulsory Kiwisaver if it didn't cost you anything more per week than what you're already paying?
It's the chief criticism and if that were removed then my major objection would certainly be gone.
However, I still think Kiwisaver is a very messy situation when you consider it is running concurrently with Super. I think they should either drop Kiwisaver or make it compulsory under a certain age (with a suitable tax rebate) with the clear proviso that there will be no Super.
The proposed compulsory Kiwisaver running in conjunction with Super just seems a messy inefficient system.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Sacha,
But if the policy package makes your pay go up further than that, why oppose the policy? You'd need to see the whole deal - much like the Nats tax switcheroo after the 2008 election.
That's very true. And you're right I'll have to see the whole package. I'm not opposed to the concept of Kiwisaver but just can't handle anything further digging into my net pay until my student loan is entirely re-paid (only another three years thankfully). I'm sure I'm not alone in this position so I think Labour should think through their policies very carefully and make sure that people on middle or lower incomes aren't worse off.
If they are completely committed to compulsory Kiwisaver I can think of a few options to make it more palatable. What they could look at is compulsory Kiwisaver on the employer contribution but voluntary on the employee basis. That way everyone is enrolled and getting going but without hurting people who can't afford it. Another option would be introducing it but allowing exemptions such as people re-paying student loans (since they are paying off debt which is just like saving really) or under a certain income threshold.
please don't - you saw what happened last time.
Good point. I never have in the past, but I certainly hope Labour or the Greens can offer me something that actually makes me feel enthusiastic about voting.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to BenWilson,
CGT and universal Kiwisaver, and resuming the Cullen Fund contributions are things I think are vital.
The universal Kiwisaver is enough to make me not vote for Labour. I can only just get by as-is, if I lose 2% (or whatever it is) of my gross pay - life would become so much harder. I already have 12% of my gross pay deducted for student loan repayments so to have Kiwisaver plus income tax would just stretch me far too thin. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat.
I don't vote purely out of self-interest but there's a point where for all your noble intentions you simply have to consider the impact of a particular policy on yourself.
The threat of universal Kiwisaver is almost enough to make me vote National. But I just couldn't do that so guess I'll be staying home this September. Funny that cause I've always voted left and if you asked me two years ago I would have been sure that I would be voting Labour or Green.
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Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to BenWilson,
you could consider the way you respond to new and alternative voices
OK, noted.
Ben - I thought you were perfectly respectful and responded fine. You argued the statement and didn't insult - there are some regulars here who can be actually abusive to newcomers and yet I don't see them called out (or not often).
It's be a real pity if you felt you couldn't comment for awhile for having your tone misunderstood. Already PAS can feel like a shadow compared to the past since so many interesting commentators never comment here anymore.
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Hard News: Unscripted Drama, in reply to Richard Wain,
I found the opposite – delayed on the newsroom PC, worked on my phone at Eden Park in the press box.
It could be that it was cached where you were. Proxy servers will often cache Cricinfo aggressively - since it's the type of page many users can have open at once and it has a short auto-refresh time.
I find at home it doesn't cache at all. At work it gets cached badly and to get an up-to-date score I have to do a CTRL-F5.
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Hard News: Unscripted Drama, in reply to Russell Brown,
I had the cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary on pretty much the whole game and it wasn’t delayed.
It only seemed to be delayed via the Cricinfo mobile app, for some reason.
This is exactly it. It's mad. I'd follow on Cricinfo on the web and it would be live, check on my mobile app and it would be delayed. Makes no sense.