Posts by Matthew Poole
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Legal Beagle: Shirking their responsibilities?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
I think many MPs are less accessible now than 30 or 40 years ago as they have drivers, security guards and staff to keep them from interacting with the public apart from stage managed occasions.
Some senior ministers, maybe, but ordinary MPs, especially those in Opposition, have none of those "perks".
A commonly-expressed view on transportblog.co.nz is that Brownlee should spend a couple of days riding Auckland's public transport at peak hours, to get an idea of how busy it is, after first having made his way from the airport to the CBD by public transport (no Air Bus allowed) and finally making his way back to the airport by public transport. Such interactions with their supposed areas of expertise would serve ministers well.
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to merc,
Matthew, I was being heavily sarcastic. This RONS thing of all the evil things this Govt. has done, is the most glaringly stupid and cynical.
Ah, sorry. I missed the sarcasm.
Yes, RODS is totally economically-crippling, because it's costing so fucking much and won't even create very many jobs in the near term which might be of benefit in trying to drag the country out of recession. -
Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to merc,
the reason given as to why they didn’t need to run RONS through cost benefit analysis… because we have a mandate.
Can’t argue with that logic.Well, yeah, we can. The Roads of Dubious Significance concept didn’t exist until it was uttered by Steven Joyce in 2009. National did not campaign on it in 2008, and the idea of a four-lane motorway north of Alpurt as any kind of significant project was, similarly, not on the national radar until Joyce made it thus in 2009 (after getting stuck in traffic during the 2008/2009 summer holidays).
I’ll grant that the RODS were a campaign promise for National last year, but between 2009 and last year there was plenty of time to have subjected the entire concept to rigorous benefit-cost analyses. Treasury’s guidelines were established in 2010, still leaving plenty of time for National to have done proper costings and evaluations.
So, no, we can’t leave their “logic” to lie, because there is no logic and certainly there’s no sign of anything resembling fiscal rectitude.
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to Paul Campbell,
Any one know – the 10% bonus for paying off a student loan early is going away – anyone know when – I want to pay off some of the kids loans if I can
Given how the bonus is paid, it's unlikely that it'll take effect until the end of this tax year - 31 March 2013. At the very earliest it won't take effect until Monday, realistically 1 June, and that would be law-making at its most incredibly rapid: a speed not normally associated with something so trivial.
The change has been signalled, but because it's got tax implications and a bunch of other things tied in I would be stunned if it kicks in earlier than the end of this tax year. It's only a saving of a few million dollars, really not worth the out-of-cycle changes to how IRD handles student loan repayment calculations. -
Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to chris,
That removal of the tax credit for very low income earners is mean. It will affect young people doing things like after school jobs, and some students and women who have part time jobs.
Pragmatically I’m not sure the work will dry up
Nothing to do with employment. The tax credit is an offset of low incomes (ETA: credited to the earner) so that people with incomes below $9,800 pay less income tax. Taking it away means that they now lose more of that meagre sum to income tax.
It’s a stark contrast with Australia, which has just announced that their tax-free threshold will be increased to AUD18,000 from AUD6,000.
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Has Treasury actually done any scrutiny of the Roads of National Significance? If not, is it a case of regulatory capture or otherwise cosiness with roading contractors?
As Russell said, yesterday English not only admitted the Roads of Dubious Significance haven't been assessed against Treasury's guidelines, he stated they won't be assessed because, as best I can understand, they're election promises.
So I would say that's more a case of provincial thinking (everything good comes/goes by road) and some degree of cosiness with the Road Transport Forum.
Toss in a healthy dose of Auckland-hating/baiting and you've got a recipe for endless tarmac laying at the expense of everything else. The money that's earmarked for the RODS could pay for Auckland's City Rail Link, pay for Project Lifesaver (quick fixes to SH1 north of Auckland to make it safer and bypass Warkworth), and still have at least $10b left over for general spending on all kinds of projects with long-term benefits to the country and non-negative benefit-cost ratios.. -
Hard News: The Editorial Image, in reply to Kumara Republic,
child support payments currently go to IRD instead of directly to the worse-off parent. Is it because of anti-fraud measures?
Possibly, but also because until more money is being paid in child support than is going to the custodial parent in benefits the state keeps every cent. I imagine it greatly reduces the costs of collection to just pass through the small sum that needs to go out instead of chasing the large sum that would have to come back.
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Hard News: The Editorial Image, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Hardening up on child support, within reason, would probably reduce the need for the DPB.
It'd be nice if the Crown stopped using child support payments to offset the DPB, actually. Pass it all through, and use it to *gasp* support the child(ren) for whom it's being paid. I suspect there'd be somewhat more compliance on payment if fathers saw their contribution as benefiting their child(ren) instead of just being consumed by the state. AIUI we're about the only "civilised" country that has such a policy.
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This article is quite apposite to the discussion about scientific process and the "value" of A-grade scientists. Also has the added bonus of taking a pot-shot at the myth of Thomas Edison (and Oatmeal's Tesla comic is linked in the comments).
Basically, if we don't get high levels of investment in industrial-scale R&D we're not going to get very far in transitioning away from exporting moo juice and trees.
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Legal Beagle: MPs' Pay, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Next stop, comparisons to the median wage where data is available. Although I'm unimpressed by how much MPs' salaries have grown even within my adult lifetime, I'm even less impressed by how divorced they are from the incomes of ordinary people.