Dawn chorus: When is a levy not a tax?

TLDR & TLDL: The quest for an unemployment insurance scheme unveiled in last week’s Budget is remarkably close to being a consensus policy that risks slipping through Parliament and into the social contract between taxpayers at large, employers and workers without much debate.

But it deserves a much closer look because the way it’s structured and funded could, in various combinations, turn into a tool that widens inequality; creates a new middle class tax break; creates compulsion without compensation; and could become the basis for two-tier social safety net — with one level of support for the rich with ‘proper jobs’ and a much lower level for the rest.

I’ll be digging around more on this in the coming days.

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Briefly elsewhere in our political economy

Stuff.co.nz Business @NZStuffBusiness

Billion-dollar Sleepyhead development gets the go ahead

dlvr.itBillion-dollar Sleepyhead development gets the go-aheadCommissioners have approved the massive industrial and housing community in north Waikato.

The Royal Family @RoyalFamily

The Queen, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister of New Zealand, has been pleased to approve the appointment of Dame Cindy Kiro as the next Governor-General of New Zealand. bit.ly/2RFONJS

Royal Society Te Apārangi @royalsocietynz

"This notion of service has really gone to the heart of everything I have done in the past.” Ka rawe! Congratulations to our Ahorangi Chief Executive Professor Dame Cindy Kiro who has just been announced as the next Governor-General of New Zealand. https://t.co/fFW44QvmGE

RNZ News @rnz_news

National Party's chief press secretary Michael Forbes resigns after two years

rnz.co.nzNational Party’s chief press secretary resignsNational Party chief press secretary Michael Forbes has resigned to take up a senior communications role in the public service.

Briefly in the global political economy

The Age @theage

Victorian contact tracers are working to identify the missing links in a growing northern suburbs coronavirus cluster as @VictorianCHO warns that one of the infected people had been moving around the community with a high viral load. #coronavirus

theage.com.au‘Silently brewing’: No lockdown as missing links to new COVID cluster soughtVictorian contact tracers are working to identify the missing links in a growing coronavirus cluster, as the Chief Health Officer warns that one of the four new positive cases had been moving around the community with a high viral load.

Michael Morrah @MichaelMorrah

Tuilaepa has called today’s swearing in of the FAST Party “treason” & said action would be taken tomorrow. It came after FAST leader Fiame & the judiciary was locked out of Parliament, forcing an impromptu ceremony on the lawn outside. @NewshubNZ #Samoa

newshub.co.nzSamoa: Tuilaepa accuses FAST party of treason following official swearing in ceremony“This is treason, and the highest form of illegal conduct.”

Geoff Wade @geoff_p_wade

Australia: A senior intelligence officer has said there were about 500 known or suspected cases of foreign interference and espionage in Australia in late 2020.

smh.com.auSpies suspect 500 incidents of foreign meddlingThe current head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, said covert agents of foreign powers made up just a tiny minority of diaspora communities.

Signs o’ the times news

Patrick Morgan @patrickmorgan

Wait - is that @JulieAnneGenter on the pop up Berhampore connection bike lane? #respect @CyclingActionNZ @CycleAwareWgtn

Newstalk ZB @NewstalkZB

#LISTEN Wellington pop-up cycleway taken down after less than a day bit.ly/3oQgsE3

bernardchickeysubscribers @bernardchickey2

Peak irrigation in Canterbury? Not so much, although it is sheep, beef and cropping rather than dairy.

newsroom.co.nzIrrigation expanded at controversial farmCanterbury’s regional council endorses expanded irrigation with setbacks from a scientific reserve

Chart of the day

Matthias Schmidt @auto_schmidt

.@VWGroup's 12-month cumulative West European BEV electric car volume now double that of @Tesla's according to exclusive Schmidt Automotive Research data published in the latest monthly report this week. Source: schmidtmatthias.de @Herbert_Diess @elonmusk

Longer reads to stock up for the weekend

Ollie Neas @ollieneas

For more, here’s a piece I wrote recently for @NorthSouthNZ on Mahia’s changing relationship with Rocket Lab

northandsouth.co.nzMahia, We Have A ProblemAs superstar Kiwi startup Rocket Lab takes on work for the US military, a tiny beach community faces some major moral dilemmas.

Charlotte Graham-McLay شارلوت @CGrahamMcLay

As people I know and don't know arrived back in Aotearoa over the past year, I kept hearing the same thing from many: they planned to stay for good (or at least didn't plan to leave) even though it was v much against their financial interests. @nytimes

nytimes.comNew Zealanders Are Flooding Home. Will the Old Problems Push Them Back Out?More than 50,000 have escaped the pandemic by moving back, offering the country a rare chance to regain talented citizens. But they are confronting entrenched housing and employment challenges.

Fenit Nirappil @FenitN

An entire family in New Delhi contracted coronavirus, and local doctors wouldn’t return their calls. So they turned to a physician 7,700 miles away in Missouri. My latest story on how the Indian diaspora is mobilizing:

washingtonpost.comPatients in India are desperate for care. This family turned to a doctor 7,700 miles away.Doctors throughout the Indian diaspora, including in the United States, are trying to fill a medical void from afar through both organized and unofficial channels.

Some fun things

Maiki Sherman @MaikiSherman

A teacher only day at kura meant my two eldest children were at work with māmā and witnessed history in the making as the first Māori woman was appointed Governor-General. E mihi ana, Dame Cindy Kiro. @1NewsNZ #nzpol

Billy Bragg @billybragg

Thought for the Day

🌺Arlene @MsShira50

Pic by Peter El Pedro Cox. New Zealand Fantail/pīwakawaka. #BirdsPhotography #bird #birdwatching