Tax Heroes: It has paid billions in tax since 2003, but the NZ Super Fund’s head of tax John Payne says it sees tax as simply a return to the government. The New Zealand Super Fund was set up in 2003 to help pre-fund the future cost of universal superannuation in New Zealand, and it … Read more
No capital gains tax no problem? Not exactly – Tax Heroes has uncovered our biggest property players pay a much lower tax rate, Maria Slade reports. Whether New Zealand should introduce a capital gains tax is set to be almost as hot a topic in Labour’s first term as the prime minister’s pregnancy. While debate … Read more
Tax Heroes: We always hear about who is not paying tax, but who pays the most hasn’t been measured – until now. Maria Slade talks to the two Auckland professors behind the numbers of Tax Heroes. In the days of former prime minister Rob Muldoon you couldn’t get a first class flight out of the … Read more
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know will never fully leave your ageing body, remember the true reasons for the season. Death, suffering, betrayal, … Read more
It is only a matter of time until the former US president bestows upon a humble nation some upbeat social media content. Here we measure that matter of time. Incontrovertibly, Barack Obama’s recent visit to New Zealand, during which he travelled the length and breadth of two golf courses, was a massive boon to this … Read more
The executive director of the NZ AIDS Foundation responds to claims that Pharmac funding of a brand-name HIV drug is a waste of taxpayer money. Last week Stephen Berry wrote an op-ed column for The Spinoff entitled “Pharmac’s anti-HIV drug subsidy is an own goal for LGBT”, regarding the recent funding of the HIV prevention … Read more
Today we launch Tax Heroes, a project created in partnership with the IRD which aims to ‘invert the rich list’, and instead focus on the entities that contribute the most to New Zealand. Duncan Greive explains what it’s all about. Every July for 32 years the National Business Review has published its ‘Rich List’, a … Read more
Tax Heroes: We take a closer look at how much tax our 50 biggest companies paid in 2017. “Tax is love”: Read Duncan Greive’s introduction to our new Tax Heroes series here. Do our biggest businesses pay their fair share? This was the question confronting Auckland accounting professors Jilnaught Wong and Norman Wong. So they … Read more
Alex Casey talks to the women behind Body Double, a show in the Auckland Arts Festival that seeks to destroy traditional ideas of sex, desire and female passivity in the bedroom. It’s 9am and the Q Theatre cafe is blasting the song that, we’re excitedly informed, Julia Croft lost her virginity to. ‘The Truth’ by … Read more
Having voted down a 2% pay offer from district health boards, nurses will soon decide whether to instigate a strike. In a post first published on Facebook that has since gone viral, nurse Elizabeth Alice explains why they’re not backing down. Update, July 12: Following the breakdown of talks with the DHBs, nurses are on … Read more
A bunch of people seem to have taken the Green MP and minister for women’s comments about diversity on boards very personally, when the research suggests there’s nothing controversial about them at all, writes Anna Connell for RNZ. I am always astounded by those who take a comment about institutionalised racism or sexism personally, but … Read more
When should you start you children’s KiwiSaver? Simplicity’s Amanda Morrall says it depends on how much you can contribute. When someone offers you $1,000 for free, you’d be an idiot to say no. Kiwis aren’t dumb and this sweet incentive was key to KiwiSaver’s early success. The additional $1,000 a year in matching funds from the … Read more
A freakishly potent opioid has been discovered at a music festival in New Zealand. What is it, and what does its presence in this country mean? What’s all this then? Fentanyl, a drug responsible for thousands upon thousands of overdose deaths in the US and Europe, has been discovered at a festival in New Zealand. … Read more
Former US president Barack Obama is in New Zealand for three days. You might not get to see him but as Madeleine Chapman shows, you can still travel like him. It’s easy to like Barack Obama. It’s even easier to like him when his successor has the charisma of a lit turd. Soon after his … Read more
With the 2018 census pushed online there’s been much discussion about reaching those without computer access, who still need someone to knock on their door. But what about those without even a door to knock upon? Lee-Anne Duncan visits Wellington’s Downtown Community Ministry The southerly marks a sharp turn from a stunner summer to chilly … Read more
The AM Show host claimed this week that while it is ‘hard work’ being a mum, ‘you can’t call it a job’. But should payment be the yardstick by which we measure work? Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw thinks not. Parenthood is no walk in the cricket oval. There are many parents who would agree that it … Read more
Rather than waste our energies finger pointing, taking collective responsibility for tackling the complex underlying causes of youth offending has a better chance of success, argues Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker When we hear about an aggravated robbery of a dairy or service station by a young person, and we read about the long-term … Read more
The effects of the gender pay gap don’t only last throughout a woman’s working life – they carry on into her retirement. But there are ways to soften the blow to your KiwiSaver, writes Merewyn Groom. If my recent article Super screwed: How the pay gap wrecks women’s retirements was all a bit depressing, for … Read more
A young lawyer wonders if her older peers’ response to the Russell McVeagh revelations might be just a bit too convenient. When the Russell McVeagh sexual assault allegations were published I imagine I wasn’t the only recent law graduate who felt smug. The stories of what had happened that summer were an open secret around … Read more
Instead of increasing prison time for the supply of drugs like synthetic cannabis, let’s focus on the solutions that have been proven to work, argues Victoria University criminologist Dr Fiona Hutton. Last week parliament debated an amendment to the 2013 Psychoactive Substances Act which would increase penalties for supplying new psychoactive substances such as synthetic … Read more
From State Services to Russell McVeagh, from the Human Rights Commission to the Labour Party, a clear pattern emerges in sexual harassment stories across NZ, and it reveals we just don’t take the issue seriously, argues Catriona MacLennan. Sexual harassment is still not regarded a serious issue in Aotearoa. That is what we have learned … Read more
The key to better jobs, more money and a successful economy for all New Zealanders? Investors need to quit thinking like shareholders and start thinking like stakeholders, says Simplicity’s Sam Stubbs. Let me start by declaring my bias here. I’m a capitalist. I believe that competition and markets are the best way to maximise wealth … Read more
The legal profession has done a lot of soul searching since the revelations about widespread sexual harassment at the law firm Russell McVeagh. But, asks commercial litigation lawyer Ana Lenard, why have we heard from so few men? It has been nearly a month since Newsroom exposed sexually inappropriate behaviour by senior male lawyers at … Read more
Dating apps have made meeting people to date and have sex with simpler than ever, but with their ease of use comes risks. Is it time we had a #MeToo conversation about Tinder? PLEASE NOTE: this article includes graphic descriptions of sexual assault. When the #metoo social movement emerged from the Harvey Weinstein fallout, I … Read more
The government is about to make a final decision on a 1500-bed expansion to Waikeria Prison that would make it larger than even the biggest prison in the UK. Anti-expansion campaigner Roger Brooking explains why building more and larger prisons is exactly the wrong solution to our incarceration epidemic. Cutting the prison population by 30% … Read more
The Southern Response spying scandal is just the latest in a string of post-earthquake disasters in the Garden City – and many of them can be traced back to one man, writes James Dann. Almost as soon as the ground stopped shaking on February 22, criticism began about the National government’s handling of the response … Read more
First came the bizarre witch hunt cartoon, and then the indignant tutting. Jess McAllen considers the responses to the #metooNZ investigation launched a fortnight ago by Alison Mau. Mike Hosking called it “tacky and tabloid”. David Cohen asked about a “sense of professional justice – or ideological fantasy”. Tim Beveridge decried a “trial by media”. On Newstalk ZB … Read more
Equality and fairness for all is the end goal, but PledgeMe founder Anna Guenther says first we have to make a proactive effort to level the playing field. You know what? If it’s an -ist, I’m probably it. Sexist, racist, ablest (I know, that’s -est not -ist). Not consciously, because those are fucking horrible things … Read more
International students caught out by the closure of the New Zealand National College have had their lives here put on hold, and may be unable ever to return. Don Rowe reports. The closure of the failing New Zealand National College in Auckland has left at least two international students stranded in their home countries after their student … Read more