Category Archive

Tax Working Group head, Michael Cullen, asserts that the capital gains tax (CGT) is best described as a “tax on capital income”. Since when have capital gains been income? Show me any country’s national income accounts that include them in … Read More

Recently a Fairfax journalist asked me, in my capacity as head of research at The Morgan Foundation about the annual rich list. As a public policy think tank, we have done quite a bit of research on tax policy. I … Read More

Every year the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) using data collected by Statistics New Zealand reports on how New Zealand households are doing economically. We get a raft of data on household income and material wellbeing. Bryan Perry is the … Read More

With the discussion we are having about social policy at the moment I thought it would be good to discuss the science of what happens to anyone who lives on a low income, especially over any prolonged period of time, … Read More

As part of the pre budget announcements the Government has allocated $321million to a “social investment package” for vulnerable families and children. There are 14 initiatives in the package, and $69 million over four years, will be for “a national … Read More

The Privacy Commissioner is not mincing words on the issue of requiring social service providers to give citizens personal data to MSD in exchange for funding contracts. Words like “insufficient consideration to unintended consequences”, “Insufficient consideration of alternative means”, “Real … Read More

Last week was the official reinvention of Children, Young Person and their Families Service (CYFS). With the creation of Oranga Tamariki (also poorly named the Ministry for Vulnerable Children) the Prime Minster has said the Government is ” strongly committed … Read More

The chair of the National Party’s Kaikohe branch, Alan Price, has advocated for physical punishment as a solution to some pretty grim stuff that Northland has to put up with. Northland is a low-income area in New Zealand. It has … Read More