NZ Politics

David Seymour is an evil individual and we as a society should be ashamed that we have given him this much power and that the media treat him with any degree of respect.

Thoughts / opinions

Inland Revenue is warning that unless what the government spends its money on changes, taxes will need to increase in the coming years to cope with an ageing population.

"A core driver of these fiscal pressures is that New Zealand's population is ageing."

By 2060, a quarter of the population will be older than 65.

"This means that the amount the government needs to spend on superannuation and health care will increase if the government maintains current policy settings.

"In its last Long-term Fiscal Statement, the Treasury predicted that government expenditure will exceed government revenue by 13.3 percent of GDP by 2061 if the government takes no response to rising fiscal pressures," IRD said.

That would mean either that existing taxes would need to be levied at a higher rate - such as higher levels of income tax or GST - or there would need to be new taxes implemented.

It said New Zealand taxed a more limited set of capital gains than most other OECD countries. It could be possible to broaden that scope.

"The absence of a general approach to taxing capital gains can provide an incentive for individuals to reduce their tax liability by undertaking activities that are not taxed rather than those that are taxed.

"This can reduce government's ability to raise more revenue in a way that is progressive."

ACT Party Leader David Seymour is defending the Regulatory Standards Bill getting only 30 hours of public submissions allocated.

Speaking to media, Seymour said the bill was "probably the most consulted on bill this century" given it would be the bill's fourth time through the house.

But, Labour's Regulation spokesperson Duncan Webb said it was the "most rejected bill we've ever seen" and Seymour wanted to "slip it through under the radar".

Toop said it was a "travesty" that there would only be 30 hours for people to be heard in by Select Committee and the bill would insert "far-right ideology" into the law making process.

"I don't believe there's ever been a bill in this Parliament where every single written submission has been heard. A lot of people make written submissions and they ask not to be heard. That's normal." Seymour said.

Labour's Duncan Webb said the bill had so far been "rejected every time" and Seymour did not want the bill to go through a full process.

I imagine they are clutching their pearls after Winston called an MP Dickhead in parliament.

Surely they will call for severe punishment right?

A British billionaire with links to offshore tax havens and a history of controversial political donations has been granted New Zealand residence, and he’s been meeting with government ministers in Wellington.

Peter de Putron had a packed schedule for his trip to Wellington late last year. At 10am on Monday, December 2, the British billionaire met with Todd McClay in the forestry minister’s office at the Beehive, then was back at parliament at 2pm to catch up with finance minister Nicola Willis. That evening, he had dinner with science, technology and innovation minister Judith Collins at Jardin Grill at the Sofitel Wellington (Shed 5, the first choice, was booked out). At 11am the next morning, he returned to parliament for a meeting with associate finance minister David Seymour.

Four ministers in 25 hours.

De Putron’s meeting with Seymour the following morning had been set up by Lewis, who emailed Seymour’s deputy chief of staff on October 10. “Wondering if David would be keen to meet if schedules align (its less ministerial and more as ACT leader)?” he wrote. “It would be purely a meet and greet but Peter [redacted text] so could have some insights that might be of interest to David… He expects to significantly expand his New Zealand investments over the next few years, and is building a portfolio across multiple sectors and regions.”

“Significantly expand his New Zealand investments” is a line that is likely to have made Seymour’s eyes light up.

Just two days after Lewis reached out, Seymour announced a shake-up of our overseas investment policy settings, which he said were “the worst in the developed world” – so restrictive that wealthy offshore investors were giving New Zealand the cold shoulder, he lamented. Change was coming, though: a shake-up of the Overseas Investment Act to fast-track the assessment process, with “yes” being the default message sent to international investors unless a clear risk to New Zealand was identified.

Often described as secretive, de Putron keeps out of the public eye. While his wife Hayley de Putron pops up in society snaps with the likes of Carole Middleton (mother of Catherine, Princess of Wales), not a single photo of him can be found online, but he has links to everything from Formula 1 (US court documents suggest he is the ultimate owner of the Williams F1 team, with employees referring to him as ODL or “our dear leader”), to fuel to, in New Zealand at least, forestry.

According to the MPI briefing prepared for McClay, de Putron is the sole shareholder of a company called New Zealand Forest Industries (NZFI) Ltd, through which he owns 830 hectares of commercial pine forest and 230 hectares of native bush in the Marlborough Sounds. Overseas Investment Office documents released to The Spinoff, however, suggest his land holdings total closer to 1,780 hectares. According to the documents, de Putron acquired NZFI Ltd when his British Virgin Islands-registered holding company, Issoria Offshore Ltd, was granted permission to acquire NZFI Ltd’s Singapore-registered parent company, NZFI Sing, in July 2019. NZFI Ltd owned a 1,116-hectare forest at Te Whanganui/Port Underwood in the Marlborough Sounds known as Underwood Forest. Consent was also granted for the purchase of Hakahaka Forest, a smaller “bolt-on” block immediately next to Underwood. Later that year, two further consents were granted for NZFI Ltd to acquire another unnamed block adjoining Hakahaka, as well as Whataroa Forest across the bay.

With what’s looking likely to be a tightly fought election just over a year away, the quiet quest for influence over our elected officials is likely to ramp up, and de Putron will be far from the only cashed-up client working with lobbyists to secure a spot in the diaries of our leaders. Even if the mysterious billionaire does return to New Zealand to make his presence (and feelings) known to our politicians, we may never put a face to the name. While the caricature of globetrotting billionaires may often be one of headline-grabbing interjections and flamboyance, many of the most powerful – and effective – of their number prefer to operate as invisibly as possible.

This is of course by design. NACT wants to privatise healthcare in this country turning it into an American style system.

The Reserve Bank has revealed a dispute over funding was behind Adrian Orr's abrupt resignation as governor.

A raft of documents - released by the central bank under the Official Information Act - reveal an "impasse" as Orr argued Finance Minister Nicola Willis was not providing enough funding for the next five years.

In an accompanying statement, an RBNZ spokesperson said it became clear in late February that the board - chaired by Neil Quigley - was willing to agree to a "considerably" smaller sum that Orr thought was needed.

"This caused distress to Mr Orr and the impasse risked damaging necessary working relationships, and led to Mr Orr's personal decision that he had achieved all he could as Governor of the Reserve Bank and could not continue in that role with sufficiently less funding than he thought was viable for the organisation."

Both sides engaged lawyers to negotiate an exit agreement, resulting in an immediate departure and "special leave".

On 5 March, the Reserve Bank revealed Orr's sudden resignation, with three years still to run in his five-year term. At the time, Quigley said it was for "personal reasons" but would not be drawn on any details

The NZ International Film Festival will be featuring "Prime Minister", a behind the scenes doco about Jacinda Ardern.

Food safety officials are investigating the discovery of a dead larva found in a government funded school lunch in Auckland.

He said the larva has been sent away for testing and the results were expected back next week.

The lunch scheme was plagued by problems in term one, with criticism of late, inedible, repetitive or nutritionally lacking lunches, and even a case of a lunch containing melted plastic.

Liar.

I had low expectations, but damn. Lowering the Govt's KiwiSaver contribution, pay equity changes, income testing for Best Start child payments and 18-19 year olds on the benefit tested against their parent's income, tax breaks for businesses, increased rebate threshold for SuperGold?

Will we ever get a Government brave enough to means test Superannuation. Boomers and businesses profit again and the younger generations have to pay for it with their futures.

Suspend him!

I think the C word is apt here.

Most severe punishment in the history of the country and it's based on a perjurious statement by Collins saying ACT was prevented from voting.

Nobody will convince me this isn't race based.

Unprecedented punishment. The first time in the history of our nation where a party has been punished this severely and it's based on false testimony by Judith Collins.

You'll never convince me this isn't motivated by race.

On Wednesday, Parliament's Privileges Committee released its final report into the MPs who protested the Treaty Principles Bill with a haka in the House in November 2024.

There was surprise and shock over the recommended punishments for Te Pāti Māori MPs, which seemed both unprecedented and extreme.

In retrospect, considering this week's response from Parliament's Speaker, the advice now available from Parliament's Clerk, and Committee Chair Judith Collins' public defence of her own report, that the initial reaction was overly calm. The committee report now appears partisan, indefensible and open to attacks of racism.

On Tuesday, 20 May, Parliament's House will debate whether or not to accept the Privileges Committee Report and its recommendations for punishments, namely that Te Pāti Māori's two co-leaders be suspended from Parliament for 21 days and their junior colleague for seven days, all without salary.

Talking to RNZ's Morning Report, Collins gave her view of the actions and motivations.

"This is not about haka, this is not about tikanga. This is about MPs impeding a vote, acting in a way that could be seen as intimidating MPs trying to exercise their right to vote.

"After Te Pāti Māori had exercised their right to vote, they then stopped the ACT Party from exercising theirs."

That is not true.

ACT had already voted. Every party had voted before Te Pāti Māori did. As the smallest party in Parliament, Te Pāti Māori is always the last to be called on for their vote.

It has been that way all Parliament.

Judith Collins could not fail to be aware of that.

The vote tallies and outcome had not yet been declared by the Speaker, so the fuller voting process was incomplete, and disrupting it was disorderly behaviour; but the claim that the MPs were intimidating another party to prevent it from voting is entirely unfounded.

The answer Collins gave RNZ was either misinformation (perhaps Judith Collins mistakenly believes the MP's actions were more serious than they were) or it was disinformation (in the aftermath of the report, she might have felt it necessary to convince the country the incident was more serious than it was).

Whatever the reason for the untruth, the claim suggests that Collins has a more jaundiced view of the MPs' actions than is realistic or defensible.

Did she fundamentally misunderstand the MPs' actions during the investigation (which would cast the committee findings into doubt), or did political or other prejudice make those actions appear worse than the evidence showed?

Research has repeatedly found that in any justice system, dark-skinned defendants are treated more severely based on ethnicity.

Findings based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the sequence of events would be highly embarrassing. Findings tainted by political or other prejudice would bring both the committee and the Parliament into disrepute.

A company's plan to mine 50 million tonnes of South Taranaki seabed every year has cleared the first hurdle in the Fast-track process.

Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) executive chair Alan Eggers said he was "delighted" the company's application for its Taranaki VTM project had been accepted as complete and would now move on to the next stage of the Fast-track process.

Opponents, meanwhile, are "livid" and have vowed to continue their fight against the project.

TTR wants to mine 50 million tonnes of seabed a year for 30 years in the South Taranaki Bight.

Eggers said the company had identified a world-class vanadium resource that could contribute $1 billion annually to the economy.

NACT's assault of the Maori isn't over yet. They aren't going to stop attacking until they have their boots on the throats of every non white, non cis, non het, non christian person in this country.

Don't wait until they come after you to speak up.

Hey everybody crying about decorum in parliament. What's your take on this?