Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Finance Minister Grant Robertson have again ruled out introducing a Capital Gains Tax. Photo / Marty Melville, File
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Finance Minister Grant Robertson have again ruled out introducing a Capital Gains Tax. Photo / Marty Melville, File
Tax referendum
There is a consensus today, among most economists, tax experts, and panels on tax, that NZ should have a Capital Gains Tax (CGT). It should be on everything but the family home (that is, one home per family). David Lange famously said that any Government that brings ina CGT, “will lose, not just the next election, but the next three”. So NZ politicians are frightened to even appear to be considering a CGT. And it’s the voters they’re most frightened of, not Opposition parties. It’s time this was put to the voters themselves to decide – inform, debate, then activate through a binding nationwide referendum. This will decide for the Government, not by them. They (the Govt) cannot then justifiably be “blamed”, and so fear defeat at the next election. However, if I were a politician, I too would be very wary of NZ’s current voter ignorance, confusion, and perversity over this issue. Along with the experts, I too believe it is essential that a CGT be put in place – for balance, fairness, and to help reduce the huge, and now self-perpetuating fiscal gap, between the richest 1 per cent and the rest of us. Let us tell the Government what to do. Finally, the most democratic way of settling this issue is a binding, all-in referendum. Clyde Scott, Birkenhead.
Reputation risk
Simon Botherway (NZ Herald, April 28) makes a valid point that Three Waters reform is a risk to New Zealand’s reputation, but not for the reasons he details. While he makes very cogent points in respect of internationally accepted conventions around asset ownership, capital markets, regulation and corporate governance, they are all based on an incorrect assertion that the assets in question are all owned by elected local body structures. This continues to perpetuate that myth that unfortunately seems to have become fact in many commentators’ eyes. While certainly some of the concrete infrastructure assets such as pumping stations and in-ground pipe networks etc., have been developed and paid for by those bodies, the water which flows through them has a mixed bag of ownership. One can argue about the rain falling out of the sky, but one can’t argue about the water assets coming from rivers and lakes which are subject to ownership rights enshrined in the Treaty of Waitangi. So indeed the reputation of New Zealand as honouring that basic obligation to the indigenous owners of the land and its associated assets is at risk if the ownership governance rights Botherway so eloquently champions are to be maintained. Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.
Gary Hollis (NZ Herald, April 27) tells us that those born from 1945 are a lucky generation to have mortgages paid off and have the comforts of life. He made me grind my teeth. Granted, I was born three years earlier than he mentions but little differences exist. There was the bomb damage, problematic schooling and rationing of almost everything then. I was out to work at 15, and gained a five-year fitting and turning apprenticeship at 16. When I met my lovely (future) wife at 17, we saved like mad to afford a “do it yourself” wedding reception and a short bed-and-breakfast honeymoon in London. Following this, we again saved like mad, got our first house (with a hefty mortgage). Then, and only then, we started our family. We saved to buy what we needed and shunned hire purchases. I carried on until I was 27 at night studies to gain my mechanical engineering qualification. We didn’t get it easy and we weren’t lucky as Mr Hollis suggests. We planned throughout, did things the “right way around” and made good decisions together as did multitudes of others. People make choices and decisions throughout their life and if they are largely incorrect, then they suffer. Luck has nothing to do with it. David Hallett, Mt Maunganui.
Worth more
It is agreed that National’s plan to assist nurses and midwives with their student loans is a step in the right direction. Nurses Midwives and Doctors are deemed essential health workers by the immigration department and therefore incentives have to be given to retain them. A current petition calls for nurses when they train in hospitals at least receive the minimum wage, This is not unreasonable as they are obliged to spend 1100 hours which is more than 6 months of their three-year course training in hospitals. Nursing, midwifery, and being a doctor are great professions but you have to be a special person to complete the training and remain at the coalface. We are nothing without our health and unless we improve the lot for essential health workers they will look for where they are more appreciated. Reg Dempster, Albany.
The recent shooting of a “501″ deportee and the subsequent IPCA inquiry which claimed the shooting was unjustified continues along our current path of excusing and therefore partly justifying unacceptable actions. Guns or weapons of any sort in the hands of the mentally unstable should trigger alarm bells. Police should be fully supported to respond effectively to neutralise risks to unarmed others where weapons are present. Weapons should come to be seen as a risk to offenders should they seek to carry them. Chris Chrystall, Epsom.
Crime waive
The current wave of crime is in considerable part due to Government policies and attitudes. In 2017 Andrew Little started the programme of reducing the prison population by 30 per cent. His methodology was to release convicted criminals back into the community early and to instruct police to let “small” crimes go. As the criminal justice system is also very slow – there seem to be few consequences for “minor” crime and offenders are starting to escalate their crimes. Often the public don’t even bother to report crime anymore nor the police to prosecute. At the same time government ministers started engaging with gangs, providing them with mana amongst the young and vulnerable. They even funded them directly as providers of (questionable) drug rehabilitation programmes. So even without the added issue of Australian deportees it is hardly surprising that gang numbers on the street have grown hugely as have incidences of gang violence in public areas. It is time we saw consequences for actions reintroduced – including for youth crime. Andrew Little’s experiment has clearly failed. Can we please instruct police to get back to full time law enforcement? Lucas Bonné, Unsworth Heights.
Solid advice
Almost a year ago, I submitted this letter, which was never published (Do you ever regret not publishing a letter?):Are the public aware that the entire site selected for the Erebus Memorial in Parnell is shown on Auckland Council’s own planning maps as being at risk of coastal erosion? This raises a number of pertinent questions - Why was such a site selected? And having been selected, why did Auckland Council then grant it an exemption from a building consent? To whom will the public turn in the event of the adjacent unstable cliff subsiding, possibly taking the memorial down into Judge’s Bay with it? Would it not be prudent to locate the national memorial to a disaster in a safe place, to avoid the risk of a second one? Claire Chambers, Parnell.
The top of one of three slips below the site where the Erebus memorial was due to be built after years of wrangling. Photo / Engeo NZ
Jab, jab, hook
With the alarmingly low child/baby vaccination rates for Maori and Pasifika, the newly formed Māori Health Authority must make the protection of our tamariki a top priority and, in any way possible, persuade caregivers to participate. Public Health nurses need to get in their cars/vans and door-to-door visit homes in rural areas and promote vaccination “parties” in the urban areas such as those held for Covid. They could combine this with flu and Covid shots for adults living in said households. With the health system in dire straits, the more people prevented from needing hospital care this winter the better. Forget the consultation, contracts, new vehicles, revamped clinics, for both entities, just get on and do the practical safety mahi, infrastructure can come later. If people cannot be bothered to protect themselves and their children or fill in a Census form that gives areas greater health funding, then they have no cause to complain about long wait lists in our hospitals. Many who arrive there have conditions or injuries that were totally preventable. It is time for some New Zealanders to act responsibly, freeing up more health money for nonpreventable conditions such as cancer drugs, joint replacements, etc. Marie Kaire, Whangārei.
Question: what would you prefer, 10 per cent of 1 million or 20 per cent of 50,000? It is like margins, one doesn’t bank percentages, it’s the amount of money you bank, and so does the Government. That’s why the top 2 per cent wealthiest pay a total of 26 per cent of all collected taxes. Don’t get it? Then, go back to school. There is only one road to financial freedom which is work, and always has been. Just don’t waste your hard-earned money on dogs, tats and drinking in the pub. Eddie Grooten, Red Beach.
On your assets
Whenever the words “Capital Gains Tax” are uttered in this country, you can be sure those words will very shortly be followed by howls from rich-listers like Rod Duke to the effect: “but it will be punitive for hard-working people”. Is there any form of wealth accumulation less involving “hard work” than sitting on your derriere while your assets handsomely appreciate? Doug Hannan, Mt Maunganui
A bit rich
It is my experience that, in general, the wealthier they get, the more people seem to lean to the right, politically. Then the problem is that they will claim: “I’m not paying b….y tax so those communists can waste it” as justification for maximum tax avoidance. But, really, selfishness is the reason. Hamish Walsh, Devonport.
Other end
Higher tax rates or a capital gains tax for the wealthy will have no impact on their lifestyle. Tax cuts for those on lower incomes can make a huge difference. It can help reduce the anxiety of having to carefully budget for basics such as food, healthcare and accommodation. So why are those on lower incomes who proportionally pay more tax subsidising the wealthy? Annette Perjanik, Mt Roskill.
Short & sweet
On policies
Don’t get too cut up when politicians change their minds with a budget and election looming. After all, shouldn’t they change their minds when the circumstances change? Stuart Mackenzie, Ōhura.
On coronation
When will this hem-tied silliness end and New Zealand strike out as a grown-up with a multi-national Pacific focus and no longer a far-flung outpost of a humbled, global power? Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri.
On NZ First
Matthew Hooton writes (NZH, Apr. 28) of the NZ First leadership passing to Shane Jones when Winston Peters retires. Joe Biden was born three years earlier and has just announced he is running for President again. I suspect Hooton may be premature. Alan Johnson, Papatoetoe.
On wealth
To the anonymous “uber-wealthy Kiwi” who asserted (NZH, Apr. 28) that the Government’s “spin” made those in business “look like criminals”. Yes, and your point is? Rolf Turner, Birkenhead.
Not only do they want all the money and everything their own way, but they want us to like them too. John Davison, Manurewa.
On co-governance
To all those people saying co-governance is unfair to Pākehā because Māori do not make up 50 per cent of the population, Māori have the right to be involved in co-governance because they were here first, it’s as simple as that. Jacqui Furniss, New Plymouth.
Our wealthy in New Zealand have made their money by taking risks, financial and by employing hundreds or thousands of people. They mostly give significant money back to the community and to others. If Labour dabbles in this space it could be hugely impacting on many of those disadvantaged by life who the government doesn’t support but the wealthy do. Stop trying to cut every daisy off in the lawn, encourage people to dream big, to take risks, and be successful. Mike M.
Why should Gloriavale, Sanitarium, iwi and other orgnisations run businesses at the expense of the rest of us? Labour needs to remove their tax-free status or other preferential terms they enjoy, so we are not just the mugs who pay tax. Stephen H.
If you become wealthy you can do a lot of good and support many charities. Chances are you are also creating employment for a huge number of people so they can support their own families as well. These are the last people that we can afford to chase out of NZ with envy taxes. If you are poor, then it’s difficult to help anyone. Simon A.
So they will go to other similar countries which already have Capital Gains Taxes then? They will have to, as almost all do now unless they go to a lesser country. A false argument that one. Not envy taxes, fairness taxes. Stephen H.
We don’t need to be taxed more, we just need a government that operates on the tax they collect, not borrowed billions that the next two generations will struggle to pay back. David S.
I don’t get it. Most people commenting would say “Australia is the envy of us all”. They are a wealthier country with many more wealthy people. They also have a higher tax rate for higher earners and a Capital Gains Tax. Why are people so scared of NZ catching up with Australia? It’s how you pay for a working education system, healthcare and build needed infrastructure. Tony P.
