Is an inheritance tax better than a CGT?
Labour may be looking at an Irish-style inheritance tax, instead of, or as well as, a CGT; Inside Sam Stubbs' plan to turbocharge infrastructure investment; Gisborne's two big 'Nature Positive' shifts
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:
Labour may be looking at signing up for an Irish style 33% inheritance tax instead of or as well as a capital gains tax;
Sam Stubbs has proposed the Government sell off most of their gentailer and Kiwibank stakes to raise over $10 billion for infrastructure investment, as long as they agree on a long-term bipartisan strategy with the Opposition;
Gisborne District Council has launched a two-prong ‘Nature Positive’ strategy to stop more Gabrielle-style slash disasters and potentially shift up to 80,000 hectares of erosion prone land out of plantation forestry and pastoral farming and into native regrowth forests;
Rod Drury is calling for structural separation of retailing from generation in electricity, arguing the separation in telecommunications fueled competition that lowered prices and a similar separation in electricity could turn Aotearoa into the Saudi Arabia of renewable power exports through data centres;
The temperature in Las Vegas last night rose to a record-high 48.9 degrees celcius; and,
Gisborne District Council has built a new erosion mapping model with Landcare that would identify the most erosion-prone areas to be re-wilded under ‘Land Overlay 3B’.
Also, my pick of the top six news, analysis, deep-dive and opinion links elsewhere in today’s Pick ‘n’ Mix for fully paid subscribers includes:
Scoop: Waipareira Trust political donations probe referred to Charities Registration Board NZ Herald-$$$’s Matt Nippert
Scoop: Migrant whistleblowers speak out after damning Darleen Tana findings. “I am proud, because it is justice,” former worker Santiago Latour Palma says after an investigation into the former Green MP supported allegations raised by workers. Stuff’s Steve Kilgallon
Scoop: Sir Peter Jackson nabs 50 public car parks for $1 per year The Post-$$$’sTom Hunt
Scoop: Government wants 'remote' building inspections to be norm. The Government wants to make house building simpler and cheaper by moving away from in-person inspections. The Post’s-$$$ Thomas Manch
News: Watercare deal to hike debt costs. Auckland Council and Watercare remain confident that debt costs can be managed, despite advice suggesting they’d double. The Post’s-$$$ Thomas Manch
Op-Ed by Sam Stubbs in The Post-$$$ ‘A four-step plan to solve the infrastructure crisis. Both major political parties should sit down and agree on a long-term infrastructure plan - whoever gets elected. It is possible.’
Also, today’s Journal of Record for July 9 for fully paid subscribers also included these top six items:
Politics: Full news conference: 'Please resign', Chloe Swarbrick tells Darleen Tana RNZ Video
Paper: Increasing speed limits defies the science - more deaths and pollution expected. PHCC’s Simon Kingham & Angela Curl
Health: The Employment Court ruled in favour of immunologist and public intellectual Siouxie Wiles in her dispute with Auckland University over whether it protected her from online abuse and harassment. The court ruled the University would have to pay her $20,000 in damages, but reserved its decisions on costs.
Politics: The Health Select Committee called for public submissions for an inquiry into the aged care sector's current and future ability to support people with neurological cognitive disorders.
Poverty: MBIE disclosed the indefinite delay of its annual report on energy hardship for the year ended June 2023, saying: “due to the change in Government and ongoing work programme realignment at MBIE, this report will not be published in June 2024 as originally planned.published.” It did not say if it would ever be published.
Launched: Tainui Group Holdings announced the formation of its new subsidiary Ruakura Energy, which will own and operate an elecitricity distribution network serving the Ruakura Superhub.
(Full paying subscribers can see and hear more detail, analysis and commentary in my podcast above and below the paywall fold, as well as our daily Journal of Record and daily Pick ‘n’ Mix sent earlier this morning. They also get our Weekly Diary, If we get more than 100 likes, we open this articles up for full public access and sharing online. Join our community of paying subscribers to also be able to comment and get access to our ‘Hoon’ webinars.)
Top Six Things to note on Tuesday, July 9:
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