Posts by slarty
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I too am terrible with names.
Be grateful,
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Thanks for the link to the 2004 Stats thing - lets see how many people point out it was pre-[insert policy here].. :)
FWIW I am currently working off the 2008 OECD numbers here. If anybody fancied re-working them into that nice tidy format it would be gratefully received!
Of course they're all going to be moot: the impact on a) GDP and b) tax take when you dramatically distort your economic landscape will mean some frightening shifts...
e.g low Govt. Debt to GDP : It's the private sector debt that's in the crap)
High proportion of Corporate Tax: When debt gets written off businesses can deduct it but individuals can't
Hang on for the ride...
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So it appears that Prebble is just pulling numbers out of his ass, but can anyone help with definitive, up-to-date numbers and any relevant commentary?
If it's any consolation, you're not alone in struggling to find stuff.
Logically you'd think that Treasury should produce something, but it's considered to be too political. The difficulty is how you categorise public and private expenditure for comparative purposes: the classification can be argued to be Politically driven.
This goes equally for tax revenue figures (e.g. should Britain's National Insurance contributions be counted as tax, given they just go into the general fund?)
So you have to rely on a "neutral" third party... and then you're into think tanks etc.
FWIW the sources you quote looked pretty good to me. Otago have done work in this area in the past...
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Let us turn to Britain for a sensible solution to knife crime
gngn after all I just said :)
Carrying a Knife over 4 inches (about 10cm) was a crime (well, sort of - Graeme can fill you in on the subtleties I'm sure) in Britain when I was a kid in the 70's. What these guys are proposing is banning their sale.
A number of things spring to mind:
- Why do kids feel they need to carry a knife? Perhaps because they've been convinced it is a matter of self defence? Llap Goch?
- How are you going to get the existing squillions of them out of circulation?
- Are you going to x-ray on the channel ferries to stop all the kids like me who bring them back from school trips (in my day it was flick-knives, illegal to sell in the UK but not the continent)
- Is there any evidence that any of this approach is actually tackling the underlying issues: perception of safety, engagement with society etc.?
Or perhaps we are just building mechanisms that further isolate communities from one another (such as when small minds propose general arming of the Police)
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You may recall me trying vainly to point out during the allegedly out-of-control wave of murders in South Auckland this year
I do indeed - in fact I rely on PA (and the system) not only to expand my understanding of what is going on, but also to gently research policy history
I was away from NZ for about 18 years when lots of interesting things happened, and I've found the best way to quickly understand their context is to monitor / prompt a discussion here. I soon get a grasp of the crux of the matter :)
I guess, like a la Che, that means PA participants may well be influencing policy to a greater extent than they expect ?
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It's astonishing to me how going without TV re-regulates your brain.... But no commercial TV.
Same. We've been sans drivel for about 3 years.
The trigger for me was moving into a job where I am exposed to raw information about the criminal, social and economic landscape in NZ, specifically in a global context.
Basically I couldn't resolve the outright lies presented as news with my understanding of the facts. So I had to turn one of them off. It wasn't a hard decision.
And I don't just mean the news: documentaries and particularly fiction got to me too. I know we're meant to understand that a movie is just a story, but honestly, I suspect that lots of people think deep down in side that the Death Wish theory that crime had dropped because of a vigilante on the streets was actually true (it isn't of course, and you can figure out why without research).
One of the most important pieces I've read in some time suggests that the media industry is forgetting that with rights come duties and that freedom of expression is an individual right, not that of an institution.
Have a look at Baroness O'Neill's Reith lecture here
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will seem rather easy-going to any ordinary citizen who has faced, say, a tax audit
Section 143B of the Tax Administration Act 1994
Evasion or similar offence
1. A person commits an offence against this Act if the person -
1. Knowingly does not keep the books and documents required to be kept by a tax law; or
2. Knowingly does not provide information (including tax returns and forms) to the Commissioner or any other person when required to do so by a tax law; or
3. Knowingly provides altered, false, incomplete, or misleading information (including tax returns and forms) to the Commissioner or any other person in respect of a tax law or a matter or thing relating to a tax law; or
......4. A person who is convicted of an offence against subsection (1) or subsection (2) is liable to -
1. Imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years; or
2. A fine not exceeding $50,000; or
3. Both. -
But seriously...
I reckon the copyright question.
And do the panel think there is a demonstrable, material link between economic growth and broadband coverage?
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About this time in the electoral cycle all I can say is...
... not the comfy chair!
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PS. I mean a sensible analysis of how "bad" things really are, not Darlings blitherings...