Category Archive

Creating jobs will not end poverty

Gareth MorganDecember 12, 2013Tax and Welfare

For families’ sake it’s time to rethink our welfare and tax systems. The Prime Minister’s reaction to the latest survey of child poverty was predictable but misguided. It is not just about jobs. As the welfare regime already attests with … Read More

State Housing a Joke

Gareth MorganJuly 9, 2013Tax and Welfare

Here is a classic illustration of how stuffed the welfare system is. Housing New Zealand (HNZ) allocates it’s low-rent properties to people based on their income and savings. Ms Bella Bowden easily qualified on all their criteria – a working … Read More

Bold tax treatment of housing needed to end the bubble

Gareth MorganJuly 8, 2013Property, Tax and Welfare

Watching the political debacle unfolding over housing is as excruciating as watching the Black Caps play test cricket. Tentative steps forward, no application and not daring to do differently characterise both. Some policies are just too important to leave in … Read More

Time to Get Cereal About Our Kids – Food in Schools

Gareth MorganMay 30, 2013Tax and Welfare

The Government’s food in schools plan isn’t all snap crackle and pop, and certainly won’t solve the underlying issues. It would be mean-spirited to rain on the PM’s parade. Who can really have anything too negative to say about giving … Read More

Owning a house now out of reach for most – and it’s all our own fault

Gareth MorganMarch 5, 2013Property, Tax and Welfare

In recent weeks accountants and property investors were trading blows over the tax treatment of housing. As well, a survey was published which revealed most New Zealanders now believe owning your own home is out of reach for most. One … Read More

Short term opportunism has a price

Gareth MorganFebruary 28, 2013Economics, Tax and Welfare

It’s not obvious at first glance that allowing employers to breach minimum wage regulations is bad news for youth employment. Clearly if the price of youth labour is going down, more will be hired, so what is the problem? In … Read More

How to get rid of smart and honest employers

Gareth MorganFebruary 22, 2013Economics, Tax and Welfare

The Living Wage campaign is quite rightly drawing attention to the issue of pay and working conditions in New Zealand. With record numbers of Kiwis heading for Australia, it’s certainly time for that debate. Regardless of where you sit on … Read More

Benefits system needs to evolve

Gareth MorganFebruary 19, 2013Tax and Welfare

On Thursday last week, the Living Wage campaign was given a very public airing at AUT University with a collection of international speakers. While much of the focus of this campaign has been on the hourly rate paid to low-wage … Read More

Housing boom figures should convince government to put its hands back on the steering wheel

stewart-islandNovember 11, 2012Economics, Tax and Welfare

Guest post by Bernard Hickey There’s a tipping point for any pragmatic policy-maker where the facts change to such an extent as to render any existing strategy redundant. Depression-era economist John Maynard Keynes explained his change of mind on monetary … Read More

Unemployment on the march: Whose Fault?

Gareth MorganNovember 8, 2012Economics, Tax and Welfare

Personally I wouldn’t blame the exchange rate, the government, or any lack of entrepreneurship. The world is really struggling if you hadn’t noticed and the ability of our firms that export or compete with imports, to maintain sales, is being … Read More

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