Posts by Mike Graham
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Gio - totally agree with you. My poor choice of words when trying to put something succintly - the 'less well off' was meant to imply something more than just financial.
Edit: and that sounds sort of patronising, but hopefully you'll forgive my poor vocab.
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It seems that the whole underlying premise of this budget (and many others before it) is: 'What tax cuts can we give to make us more popular?' and then the next step is to look at the services that have to be cut to fit the tax take (give or take a few billion).
imho, it should be the other way around, i.e. 'What public services are appropriate to provide?' and then look at what level of taxation is needed to fund those services.
As with Stephen above, I was hit with the 39% rate that Cullen introduced, and didn't have a problem with it. For me, lower taxes is not the end objective, but creating a society that respects and provides for those less well off is what we should be aiming for.
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I wish PAS had been around when Dr Cullen introduced the 39 cent rate back in 2000. No doubt it would have been cheers and beers all around.
Well it was a very clear election promise that they were going to introduce it, unlike the 'No increase in GST' that we heard from the Nats at the last election.
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correction/addition to my post above - these charges for Bryers were for bad accounting, the SFO charges are yet to come.
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Mark Bryers - multiple charges, $millions defrauded - sentence: fine + community service
Palm Nth woman - defrauded WINZ of $39,000 - sentence: 8 months jail (2010)
Southland couple - defrauded WINZ of $38,000+ - sentence: 8 months jail (2007)
Where is the justice?
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It's a nice world Key lives in
some call it Parnell, others Hawaii
but no one calls it Helensville
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I thought that part of National's cunning plan was to equalise the top personal rate and the company rate, it has been reduced from 8% to 5%, but that is still quite a gap.
After all the bleating about the borrowing that is going on, the Govt now has to borrow to pay for these cuts. I guess it would never come from this flavour Govt, but a top threshold of say $150,000 with a 38% rate would have taken care of the borrowing (If Idiot/Savants numbers are correct, and I have no reason not to believe them).
@Sacha - agreed re Bryers. What is the point of handing out a huge fine to a bankrupt? Bizzare.
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I think that the Herald must have closed the John Key poll about mid-morning as it's been showing those same percentages since then (and possibily earlier).
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On BBC Andrew Neil has just described the UK electoral system as 'the most sophisticated in the world'!!!
I think that he needs to get out more.
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"maybe, just maybe, there will be some surprises".
Well I was surprised to see that convicted criminal (and ex-MP) Sir Jeffrey Archer on TV3 News last night. (I think that it was from an overseas broadcaster) I would have hoped that they could find someone with a bit more credibility.