Posts by Matthew Poole
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Are we ever going to find out the name of this mysterious Chinese official? And if so, how is this going to hit the Chinese press?
You reckon the "food safety" angle might be enough to get over the "A corrupt border official? *yawn*" factor?
-
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Sacha,
It also has nothing to do with the rule Williamson breached – nice piece of water-muddying by the govt spinners.
In the same way that Grant Robertson following the correct course of action and asking the Minister of Police about his police-officer-cum-Olympic-athlete child's options for getting additional leave was unrelated. But nice job by the media in trying to baffle us with the false equivalence.
-
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Russell Brown,
She probably shouldn’t have written a letter as a school board of trustees chair on MP’s letterhead
I actually don't see it as a problem at all. I consider it entirely proper for an MP, even a list MP, to raise with police management matters of concern regarding the management of the policing of their community.
It gets a bit messy that she was also writing as chair of the school BoT, but it's still appropriate for an MP to be be concerned about relationships between the police and their local school.Nobody thinks it the least bit dodgy that local body mayors have close relationships with their police district's senior management.
-
Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Paul Campbell,
GST is trivial, attaches to everything, my NZ company’s returns take 5 minutes every 2 months (most of it spent trying to remember the bizarre fraction I have to multiply by)
File your GST returns online. Let the computer remember the "Mazda rule" (divide by 3 then multiply by 23, hence "Mazda rule").
-
Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Lilith __,
My beef with secondary tax is how it relates to couples. If one spouse is non-earning, and the other spouse has 2 jobs, the household pays significantly more tax than if both spouses are earning.
That's the fault of a lack of income splitting rather than the fault of secondary tax. Sure it'd still be a hefty loss up-front, but if the sole income could be split within the relationship there'd be a healthy refund at the end of the tax year.
-
Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to izogi,
like a tax discount on the cost of hiring a personal tax accountant
You mean like the 100% deduction of the cost of a third-party's help in preparing an income tax return? That kind of discount?
-
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Russell Brown,
If Rob Salmond is right, Collins’ own colleagues have been phoning journalists with material.
Which suggests that she might actually be crucified by the Privileges Committee. It'll be a close-run thing, with National+Act being five members of 11. If Winston and Tariana sided with Labour+Green it'd be six-to-five, but if even one of the National Party members voted against her it'd be all over no matter which way Tariana flipped.
-
Speaker: Why we can’t just fix secondary…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
As izogi says, it's not that it's hard to have zero-rated GST on some products, it's that the definition of what's zero-rated is devilishly complex and ripe for rorting. GST is the most-contested part of our tax system despite its simplicity, and introducing ground for very grey areas just means that will become even more true.
-
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to merc,
There should be a trial.
The almost-certain complaint to the Privileges Committee for misleading the House repeatedly will suffice, no?
She's lied long, loud, and consistently, and she's done so to Key, to the media, to the voters and, most unforgivably (as far as MPs are concerned), in answering questions in the House.
With it being seen as nearly a foregone conclusion that Carter will grant a snap debate on Williamson when the House sits again tomorrow, it would provide for some doubly devastating footage if there were also to be clips of Cunliffe asking in his sweetest tones "Does the Prime Minister have confidence in all his ministers?"
-
Hard News: The sphere of influence, in reply to Paul Campbell,
I see no reason why any New Zealand political party should get any money from any business. Let’s ban all money from them
What about the self-employed? What about partners in a non-limited partnership?