Category: Guest Posts
Calls for a capital gains tax are gaining momentum, but unfortunately the capital gains debate thus far has been tainted with misinformation and a lack of clarity as to what a capital gains tax would hope to achieve.
Who holds the New Zealand Government to account? The voters? The press? Both might be formidable forces during an election but sadly they seem to lose influence over politicians once they are appointed.
Constant repetition of assertions that Maori have a Treaty of Waitangi right to dedicated seats on the new Auckland Council doesn’t make them correct. It is clear that neither Tuku Morgan nor Len Brown, nor most of the other advocates of separate representation, has read the Treaty, sometimes called our founding document. It is a simple treaty of three clauses. It was written in 1840 when nothing approaching today’s concepts of democracy existed anywhere in the world. There was no parliament, nor any councils in New Zealand. Consequently there was nothing that could be deemed an Article Two “taonga” to be preserved on behalf of Maori. What there was in the Treaty, however, was an Article Three guarantee to Maori that the Crown would give Maori “the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England”. In other words, when it came to politics, Maori rights would be the same as everyone else’s.
We place a lot of weight on the word of authority figures, especially if they have qualifications and can call on supporting research. The media often report on research as if the findings are points of fact. Is this confidence misplaced?
A review of the NZ Families Commission Research Report...
John Key has told the country he doesn't want to see any 16 or 17 year-olds on the benefit, a sentiment I am sure will find a good deal of sympathy, especially among National voters. The problem is, only the Independent Youth Benefit has been mentioned. That is the benefit usually available to unemployed youth.
The government is about to announce a formal “Target” for reduction in New Zealand’s 2020 tonnage of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), expressed as a percentage above/below those of 1990.
There is a difference of opinion between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Peter Sharples, over New Zealand’s possible endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Mr Sharples believes that we have agreed to sign the document; the Prime Minister, I am happy to say, says it is still too early to say that we will.
I wonder if climate change fatigue has begun to bite.
Truancy is a societal disease; which left untreated spreads and affects the social, physical, judicial and economic well being within our communities. Every day over 25,000 children are absent from our schools, which is approximately 4.1% of the school population (AND this is increasing). A minority of these young people are chronic truants who hang-out in small groups causing havoc within their community. This group has been linked to theft, burglary, property damage, graffiti, car conversion and assault.
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