from the Taxpayers’ Union

What a day! In what is probably the fastest backdown in the history of backdowns, Revenue Minister David Parker has just announced that he is pulling the pin on the Government’s proposed “Super Tax” on Kiwisaver and managed retirement funds!

The hundred billion dollar back down

The news came through as the staff were literally going through draft designs for full-page nationwide newspaper ads pencilled in for tomorrow.

What’s incredible is that Ministers were across the media all morning defending the policy – they were clearly well briefed and knew exactly what they were proposing. But by this afternoon the writing was on the wall. Minister Parker was forced into a swift U-Turn following widespread opposition.

This Government is student politics disorganisation but at a national level.

In Parliament today, the Prime Minister claimed that the GST change has been in the pipeline for years, but we keep a very close eye on IRD’s tax consultation papers – and let me tell you this proposal came from nowhere.

This Government’s fiscal management and wasteful spending is out of control. Grant Robertson, David Parker and Jacinda Ardern are desperate to paper over their fiscal holes with your money. That’s why a strong Taxpayers’ Union is so important right now.

David Farrar, Taxpayers’ Union

PS – no time for celebration, the team are back to work!  In addition to Stop Three Waters campaign, tomorrow we are releasing the 2022 edition of “Ratepayers’ Report” local government league tables. Keep an eye on your inbox to see how your local council compares.

(Below is the original statement sent earlier)

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Have you seen the news this morning? Grant Robertson, Jacinda Ardern, and David Parker are coming for your retirement fund with a new tax.

I’m emailing to ask for your support so we can stop this outrageous tax on savings, superannuation, and retirement.

Make no mistake Margaret, this proposed change to GST is the most significant and sneaky introduction of a new tax we have ever seen. It is clearly an attempt to paper over the financial mismanagement of Grant Robertson and the explosion of Government spending in the last few years.

The tax hits the very thing New Zealand needs more of: savings and investment. That’s why we need to step up and launch a campaign to force the Government to Axe this Super Tax.

So much for ‘No New Taxes’ – a raid on Margaret Stevenson-Wright’s retirement fund

This tax came from nowhere. The Government has snuck it into an administrative taxation bill. But as the Tax Partner at Deloitte told NewsTalk ZB, this is a new tax that treats KiwiSaver (and all other managed funds!) as ‘collateral damage’. It directs funds from savers into the Government’s pocket.

The numbers are eyewatering

The Financial Markets Authority says this new tax, and its compounding effects will dent retirement funds by $186 billion by 2070.

That’s the equivalent of more than half the size of New Zealand’s entire economy this year. Remember, even small annual changes in taxes applicable to savings compound into thousand-dollar fees. That’s what makes this new tax so nasty, and economically destructive.

Someone with a $100,000 Kiwisaver fund being charged a 1% fee will them lose $21,000 to Grant Robertson’s Super Tax over the next 25 years.

We’ve won against this Government before, and we can do it again – but we’re counting on your support

Margaret, the Taxpayers’ Union has beaten this Government repeatedly on early attempts to introduce new taxes. In 2019, our “Axe This Tax” campaign defeated the proposed capital gains tax. Earlier this year, we forced the Government to cut fuel excise tax in response to the cost-of-living crisis.

And all they are doing is showing how biased they are now — the media company of and for the Far Left.

As we expected, small groups of both supporters and opponents of independent media showed up outside the Christchurch courthouse this morning and understandably, security was there in case of violence instigated by the latter.

This hearing was simply a perfunctory deposition one, pleas will be entered on 21 September, and no doubt the case will occur around Christmas time or in the New Year.

from CO2 Coalition

Electricity prices in the European market have reached unprecedented levels, rendering millions with an uncertain future.

Though the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the subsequent ban on Russian gas have been blamed for the ongoing crisis, the real reason for the catastrophe is the embrace of green policies by leaders who refuse to acknowledge their blunders.

“The energy situation in Europe is really looking bad,” says Alfonso Peccatiello, an investment analyst and podcaster. “Electricity prices in Germany and France are expected to be 10-15 times higher than the last 10 years average.”

High energy prices are hurting the industry’s ability to produce and reducing economic activity. “Some of the businesses in Germany, France, and Italy are not viable because the input costs are so high,” said Peccatiello.

In France, the cost of electricity production continues to increase at a rapid rate. On August 25, the one-year forward price rose to 900 Euros per megawatt-hour from its 10-year average of just 41 Euros per megawatt-hour.

President Macron warned of tough times ahead for the French, but conspicuously absent is any mention of disastrous European energy policies that shunned fossil fuels in favor of less efficient sun and wind energy.

“I believe that we are in the process of living through a tipping point or great upheaval,” Macron said. “Firstly because we are living through… what could seem like the end of abundance.

“The moment we are living … may seem to be structured by a series of crises, each more serious than the other,” Macron said, referring to the drought, fires, and storms that have hit France during the summer as well as the Ukraine war and disruptions to global trade.

“Freedom has a cost,” Macron said, urging his ministers to be ambitious and the French to accept new policies adapted to current circumstances. “The battles we have to fight … will only be won through our efforts.”

In the UK, electricity prices are set to triple. The Director of Petrol Retailers’ Association of UK says, “The prospect of soaring energy costs is extremely worrying. Members are already operating on tiny margins and have little room to maneuver.”

Energy suppliers in the UK now are refusing new contracts to businesses or demanding huge up-front deposits. The Guardian reports:

“In the latest sign of the deepening energy crisis, business owners said they were struggling to find a supplier in the run-up to the busy October period for renewing gas and electricity contracts, leaving them facing extortionate bills or demands for a deposit.”

The government’s cost for shielding UK families from rising energy bills is estimated to be around £100 billion over two years.

In Ireland, the energy minister said that the government is prepared for power shortages, but points out that the real problem may be the high energy prices for Irish consumers this winter.

An Italian news report says, “Bars and restaurants…are putting their monster gas and electricity bills on public display as part of efforts to highlight the dramatic situation faced by Italian businesses struggling amid a surge in energy prices.”

A business association head said, “With increases in energy costs of 300 percent, we are working with a gun to our heads.”

Germany’s situation is no different. The one-year forward electricity price rose to 730 euros per MWh last week. The cost of the nation’s gas consumption has risen from less than one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to a whopping 8.4% of GDP.

Javier Blais from Bloomberg has warned, “Europe’s energy-intensive industries range from aluminum to chicken farming. All will be under threat of closure.”

Most of the current problems are due to the European states’ policy decisions to reduce fossil fuels and increase the capacity of renewable energy installations. Almost all of the countries in Western Europe have been closing coal plants in the past 10 years.

There were 324 European coal plants in 2016. Now, 50 percent of them are on track for a 2030 closure. Coal-fueled electricity production already has been reduced significantly.

Germany, which is suffering the most in the EU, has opposed both fossil fuels and nuclear power. The shortage of natural gas prompted political leaders to restart coal and nuclear plants, although decommissioned facilities cannot be started immediately.

So, most of the news is about shortages, high energy prices, and the disruptions of war and supply chains. Little, if anything, about correcting long-standing policies that have deprived citizens of economical and reliable energy.

Much less is there public recognition that the purported climate emergency is a falsehood based on a baseless theory that carbon dioxide is warming the planet to dangerous levels.

Mixed in all of this are efforts of elite financial institutions to force onto businesses ESG (environment, social, governance) criteria that deny financing to fossil fuel development.

This does not bode well for avoiding further damage from ill-conceived energy policies.

Read more

Some of the present crisis is also due to NATO support for the Zelensky regime in Ukraine with sanctions on Russia. There are predictions of major civil unrest this coming winter if they are not scrapped. —Eds

By Brandon Smith

All people seek to control their environment to a certain degree. They want a reliable level of management over their world, and to remove whatever doubts they might have about their survival in the future. If they can, people will take measures to remove any potential pain or struggle and establish a life of perpetual comfort. The easy road is the dream for most, and in order to get it human beings see power as a formidable tool.

I’m exploring this common condition because I want to make it clear that almost ALL PEOPLE desire power to a degree. Sometimes this even means controlling the actions of others to prevent them from disrupting the oasis of comfort we construct around us. Sometimes there are destructive people that we feel we are forced to inhibit and cage in self defense. And still other times, we try to control those around us out of irrational fear.

The tyrannical mindset is not exclusive to the Stalins, Maos and Hitlers of history, it is a deep rooted shadow that lurks in the majority of us at times. It is this condition that political tyrants try to exploit to their advantage, because no authoritarian government can ever be successful without the help of millions of little tyrants supporting them. They find a way to feed our desire for control and predictability while simultaneously enslaving us.

The point is, tyrants need us. We all have a little dash of tyranny in our souls; we are linked, but we are different.

This is not to say that order in itself is evil or that social structures are inherently oppressive. People need boundaries because not all people are good or sane; some are vicious, some are lazy, some are crazy, some are incompetent and some are dishonest and they drag the rest of us down. Anarchy is not the solution, but neither is totalitarianism. It’s all about who sets the boundaries and how.

This is where we uncover a specific human element that is obsessively attracted to control, not because they are afraid, and not because they want comfort, but because they enjoy the feeling of power. They are addicted to it. I’m speaking specifically about narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths; they are members of our species but they are lacking the key psychological traits that make us human, such as empathy, conscience, imagination, love and shame. In almost every case of government gone wrong it is because these types of people were able to slither into positions of authority and take advantage.

Despite the exaggerated depictions in movies and TV, your average psychopath is not all that complex or interesting – The fact of their existence is interesting, but as people they tend to be boring. The idea of them is fascinating because they are a biological anomaly, an evolutionary mistake or maybe a spiritual deformity. Around 1% of any given population is prone to psychopathy and an even smaller percentage are high functioning psychopaths that are adept at hiding their monstrous natures.

Most average psychopaths eventually end up in prison or involved in an endless succession of life failures. They can’t get it together and maintain relationships and build a normal life because they are too self obsessed and dangerous and eventually the people around them notice. These types of people are what I would call the “little tyrants.” They seem to rise to the surface of society when times are desperate; when people are distracted by crisis is when psychopaths feel it’s safe to show their true natures.

For example, during the covid pandemic lockdowns and the government attempts to introduce draconian vax mandates the little tyrants were everywhere. They just appeared out of the ether and swirled around the authoritarian vortex like it was a feeding frenzy. They took pleasure in the opportunity to order others around about masks and vaccines and “social distancing,” even though none of these measures made ANY difference whatsoever to the spread of covid or the rather minor median Infection Fatality Rate of 0.23%.

They were being tossed scraps from the table of power and they savored every minute of it. The real science wasn’t on their side, but they didn’t care; the media and the government were on their side and that’s all that mattered. They were happy to be used as weapons against other citizens that just wanted to be free.

Beyond the symbiotic (or maybe parasitic) relationship between big tyrants and little tyrants, there are a set of standards that have to be met for tyranny to be successful:

Read the rest

(media release)

Kapiti Mayoral Candidate Martin Halliday and District Wide Candidate Liz Koh have announced they are standing at this year’s elections as a team.

Mr Halliday says “I am excited to announce that when elected I will be asking Ms Koh to be my Deputy Mayor. Liz and I have been involved in championing community issues over the past 5 years culminating in the formation of the Kapiti Economic Development Association (KEDA) a support network for business startups. KEDA were also key in advocating and ensuring implementation of the Economic Development Strategy this triennium.” 

“We are very fortunate that Liz has put her hand up to represent our community at the Council table” says Mr Halliday. “Liz has an exceptional background and reputation in both business and philanthropic activity on the Kapiti Coast as well as nationally and internationally. Having also chaired the Chamber of Commerce, KEDA, Nikau Foundation and other organisations Liz’s background in economics and financial planning would be a significant asset to our community as we take Kapiti forward.”

Ms Koh says “I am delighted that Martin has asked me to work with him to lead our community. Martin has the energy, passion and community focus we need to get things done for the betterment of all. Our complementary skill sets are exactly what Kapiti needs for the challenges of the next triennium and beyond. There is significant local government reform ahead of us as well as priority issues such as climate change, housing, healthcare and economic development. We need strong advocates for Kapiti in all this change and community leaders with vision and drive. Martin and I working together as a team will provide the advocacy and leadership that Kapiti needs.”

For more information:

Martin Halliday  Ph 021599648  halliday4council@gmail.com

Liz Koh  Ph 021313339  lizkohnz@gmail.com

by Geoffrey and Eva Churchman

Fundamental Questions: Who benefits from this spending (the payees of the Council) and what value does the payer (the Ratepayer) get from it?

Martin Frauenstein believes these have not been asked aggressively enough by Kapiti Coast councillors of the management over the past decade. Like most Kapiti Coasters he is alarmed by big increases in Rates every year with no extra services in return for them.

He says that compared to Christchurch’s average increase this year of 4.86% and Auckland’s increase of 3.5% this is unacceptable. He also points out that Rates for equivalent-valued properties in Kapiti and Wellington make those of Kapiti unfavourable.

A lot of our discussion when we met was on what the successive Kapiti Councils since 2007 and the election of Jenny Rowan as Mayor have done that have caused this blowout in spending, and the Rates to pay for it. Martin wasn’t quite as aware as us of the history because he moved to Kapiti relatively recently in 2019 to retire after spending several years in Wellington and Christchurch.

He’s held a position as Principal Architect at the Ministry of Health, designing the national health information platform, and is highly IT savvy. As an Enterprise Solutions Architect, he sees his ability to question and challenge proposed changes and promote strategic approaches as invaluable to the community. 

The first concern that he mentioned was the government’s reorganisation of the health sector which will dramatically affect all New Zealanders, especially the establishment of new Health Localities. This means means Council and Community involvement will be central to the success or otherwise of the project. Ten years of experience in the Health Sector have given him an in-depth understanding of the machinery of government and insight into the direction of the proposed reforms.

Martin is of German descent but the accent you hear comes from South Africa which he left in 1996 to come to New Zealand. The South African experience impressed the importance of multiculturalism and the benefit that comes from having communities with experiences in different parts of the World. There is no ‘one culture fits all answers.’ All cultures can contribute positively.

Apart from a software business, he and his wife Natalie run a cattery in Rimu Street, Paraparaumu. Linkedin : www.linkedin.com/in/martinfrauenstein

In Jacindaland — TV One, Newshub, RNZ, NZ Herald, and of course, the Stuffers.

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

None are more hopelessly ignorant than those who falsely believe they’re informed.

None are more hopelessly propagandized than those who don’t know they are propagandized.

Living in a liberal western democracy means having the freedom to criticize the tyranny of your government, but instead spending your time criticizing the tyranny of foreign governments who your government doesn’t like.

Free speech in a liberal western democracy means you have the freedom to say whatever you want about the abuses of your government, and the press has the freedom to hammer you with propaganda to ensure that you never do.

In a liberal western democracy you are free to criticize your government, but instead you are propagandized into criticizing the impotent puppets who get rotated in and out of office while your government continues doing all the same evil things regardless of who gets elected.

In liberal western democracies you are free to call the president “Drumpf” or “Brandon”, but you are not free to know who’s actually calling the shots in your country underneath the official government.

In liberal western democracies people say, “I’m so glad I don’t live in a country like Russia or China where people are forbidden to criticize their government. I live in the west, where I’m free to criticize Russia and China all I want.”

It doesn’t matter if you have freedom of speech if those in power can control what you will say. And in liberal western democracies, this is exactly what happens.

We grow up saturated with US empire propaganda in the west. We marinate in it. It pervades our consciousness. But because it’s all we’ve ever known, most of us don’t even notice it.

We think it’s normal that we’re always told our government is on the good and righteous side of every international conflict. We think it’s normal that we hear constantly about the tyranny of foreign governments while only occasionally hearing about bad things our own government did years ago (but it was an innocent mistake and it’ll never happen again).

“If we were being propagandized, I’m sure we’d have heard about it in the news,” we tell ourselves.

But the news is the propaganda. And it will never report on that bombshell story.

Propaganda is the single most overlooked and underappreciated aspect of our society. In controls how the public thinks, acts, votes and behaves, but hardly anyone ever talks about it. Because the sources they’ve been trained to look to for information never say anything about it.

So people say what’s on their mind, after what’s on their mind has been carefully curated by the imperial narrative managers who are responsible for controlling what information goes into their mind.

And they say it with complete freedom. Sure if what they’re saying goes against the interests of the western empire they won’t be allowed to speak on any large platforms where they might infect the mainstream herd with wrongthink, and sure if what they’re saying is really inconvenient they might get banned from even speaking on any of the major online platforms, but they still get to speak. Alone, where no one can hear them. Preferably into a hole in the ground.

And everyone else gets to ingest the mainstream swill. The authorized narratives that get amplified on traditional media and by the algorithms of Silicon Valley. The authorized narratives which mask the abuses of their own government — foreign and domestic — while magnifying and exaggerating the abuses of empire-targeted governments.

That’s why when some people hear my objections to the empire, they say “Well at least where I live we’re allowed to criticize our government!”

And that’s why I reply to them, “Okay. But you don’t.”

If speech wasn’t free people would realize they’re being oppressed, but if people started using their speech to voice real grievances about real power, they would swiftly discover that their speech is being ignored and power is doing as it likes. So inconvenient speech is curtailed by propaganda, by censorship, by algorithm manipulation and by media marginalization.

People are kept hopelessly enslaved by giving them the illusion that they are free, and any voice which interrupts that illusion is silenced by whatever means necessary.

That’s what free speech means in a liberal western democracy. You can say whatever you like, as long as it’s what they like.