Politics NZ Politics

Who will get your vote in this years election?

  • National

    Votes: 17 26.2%
  • Labour

    Votes: 13 20.0%
  • Act

    Votes: 7 10.8%
  • Greens

    Votes: 9 13.8%
  • NZ First

    Votes: 5 7.7%
  • Māori Party

    Votes: 3 4.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 11 16.9%

  • Total voters
    65
  • Poll closed .
There’s also a need to stop wealth transfer by reintroducing gift duties and an inheritance tax. Both are easier to run than either a wealth tax or capital gains tax as gift duties and inheritance taxes are less to administer and, from overseas expense, harder to evade.
When did distorting with taxes ever fix anything?

The only way young people can afford a house is through intergenerational wealth by your own words so you want to pull up the ladder even more with inheritance tax? 🤣

The problem is that the cost of property is rising faster than incomes/ inflation. Nothing to do with tax and tax won’t fix it. It’s driven by population growth faster than capacity and costs pushed (by govt) into building new supply.

If you lower the cost to build/ develop, house prices drop and FHB and investors can afford property. That is the solution. You can never fix this with any tax - except maybe REMOVING GST on new builds (yes, remove taxes, regulations and interference!)
 
When did distorting with taxes ever fix anything?

The only way young people can afford a house is through intergenerational wealth by your own words so you want to pull up the ladder even more with inheritance tax? 🤣

The problem is that the cost of property is rising faster than incomes/ inflation. Nothing to do with tax and tax won’t fix it. It’s driven by population growth faster than capacity and costs pushed (by govt) into building new supply.

If you lower the cost to build/ develop, house prices drop and FHB and investors can afford property. That is the solution. You can never fix this with any tax - except maybe REMOVING GST on new builds (yes, remove taxes, regulations and interference!)
Mmmmm……where I wrote about inheritance tax and gift duties was in response not to housing but whether or not I favoured a CGT.

You’ve also conveniently left out where I said that an inheritance tax would only be used when an estate is over a certain figure. Although, I didn’t say what it was, I’d want it to be set at $5 million. I don’t think, that unless you’ve thinking of a Catholic family with a tribe of children, that those who a beneficiaries of that estate would have trouble with a deposit if the estate was subject to say a 10% inheritance tax.

The reason why I’d also like gift duties reintroduced would be, using the $5 mill starting point mentioned above, is to stop people distributing their wealth to ensure their estate would get below that $5 mill threshold. What’s the use of giving young Johnny $1.5 mill now to be taxed at his personal tax rate of 33% or 39% or wait until you had gone and the entire estate shared amongst all your beneficiaries get taxed at 10%……. unless the really hate Johnny and want him to be hit hard by a gift duty.
 
More fake news and scare tactics from Labour:

“The Government’s confirmation ... it will repeal the affordable water reforms will see higher rates for every ratepayer – up to 90 per cent in some individual councils – in 30 years,” McAnulty said.

Doesn’t mention that based on inflation for the past 30 years rates are expected to go up 100%., so no impact at all.

Do Labour think voters are dumb? Well maybe Labour voters are but the rest of us don’t fall for negative scare mongering.
 
Mmmmm……where I wrote about inheritance tax and gift duties was in response not to housing but whether or not I favoured a CGT.

You’ve also conveniently left out where I said that an inheritance tax would only be used when an estate is over a certain figure. Although, I didn’t say what it was, I’d want it to be set at $5 million. I don’t think, that unless you’ve thinking of a Catholic family with a tribe of children, that those who a beneficiaries of that estate would have trouble with a deposit if the estate was subject to say a 10% inheritance tax.

The reason why I’d also like gift duties reintroduced would be, using the $5 mill starting point mentioned above, is to stop people distributing their wealth to ensure their estate would get below that $5 mill threshold. What’s the use of giving young Johnny $1.5 mill now to be taxed at his personal tax rate of 33% or 39% or wait until you had gone and the entire estate shared amongst all your beneficiaries get taxed at 10%……. unless the really hate Johnny and want him to be hit hard by a gift duty.
Wouldnt trusts get get around gift duties?

And how would this lower property prices?
 
More fake news and scare tactics from Labour:

“The Government’s confirmation ... it will repeal the affordable water reforms will see higher rates for every ratepayer – up to 90 per cent in some individual councils – in 30 years,” McAnulty said.

Doesn’t mention that based on inflation for the past 30 years rates are expected to go up 100%., so no impact at all.

Do Labour think voters are dumb? Well maybe Labour voters are but the rest of us don’t fall for negative scare mongering.
Other thing that isn’t mentioned is whether it’s paid for by central organisations through tax or council controlled water companies through rates, it’s still us paying for it. The money doesn’t magically appear just because it’s more central.
 
Wouldnt trusts get get around gift duties?

And how would this lower property prices?
Gifting to trusts was still controlled by the old gift duty restrictions of $27,000 per year…. which, in my opinion, would be too low. No reason while a new gift duty also wouldn’t cover gifting to trusts.

Also, I wasn’t talking about an inheritance tax lowering property values but how the proposed Debt to Income ratios was going to make it harder for FHB’s buying into the property market, especially Auckland’s.
 
I'm not in favour of any new taxes. We've seen taxes go up over the last few years, along with government borrowing and unfunded future commitments, yet the benefit from those taxes has been in decline. Before we can accept any redistribution of taxes from one group to the next, the government needs to look at the effectiveness of every dollar taxed and spent.

Furthermore, making home ownership more fair should be fixed through increased supply, rather than taking dollars from one group and giving it to another. Purely from a rudimentary supply and demand perspective, total demand stays the same and therefore price does too. Much more effective to shift the supply curve out than to redistribute the demand curve.

How to increase supply?
  1. Free up land via rezoning to residential
  2. Allow more materials to be approved for use in NZ building. If a product can withstand a typhoon in Asia, why does it need to be BRANZ approved? Why do we think NZ environments are the harshest in the world and require local approval? Why can't Australian products that are used in Sydney not automatically be used here? I'm sure there would be avenues here to place liability on the NZ distributor and for them to obtain requisite insurance
  3. Guranteed margin contracts for major residential property developments of first homes. Currently, residential property developers have gigantic margins as they wear all the risk. Some have huge successes, while others go bankrupt. Tightening and guaranteeing margins for large developments would allow them to mitigate risk and get on with the job
  4. Review the building code and make it simpler. We installed a pool a few years ago and had countless visits by different pool inspectors that all had different opinions on what a "safe boundary" looked like. After each visit we had to design and build something new to make it safe, which added spiralling costs and delayed CCC. The council had zero care or conscientiousness of the downstream financial havoc they cause on people trying to build stuff. The problem really was in the ambiguity of the building code and the lack of common sense and consistency of building inspectors
  5. simplify and speed up the RMA process
those are just a few ideas. I'm sure there are plenty more ways to increase supply and help FHBs in a manner that doesn't just tax and redistribute
 
Allow more materials to be approved for use in NZ building. If a product can withstand a typhoon in Asia, why does it need to be BRANZ approved? Why do we think NZ environments are the harshest in the world and require local approval? Why can't Australian products that are used in Sydney not automatically be used here? I'm sure there would be avenues here to place liability on the NZ distributor and for them to obtain requisite insurance.
One of the problem we have in NZ is that the Acceptable Solutions part of the Building Code was brought about based on submissions from the major suppliers. For instance, flashing sizes were determined by the roofing manufacturers and are generally larger than those required overseas. So, if a new roof supplier wants to come into the NZ market, not only do they have to prove their products meet the Building Code to be used in NZ via BRANZ or other lab testing, they need to provide larger apron and transverse flashings for the NZ market only. It's just not worth them doing it.

Winstone had such a large role in the plasterboard sections, the two companies which tried to bring in competing products have left the market. For goodness sake, the building code should have forgotten about the generic words it's based and just said Braceline, Aqualine and Fyreline.
Review the building code and make it simpler. We installed a pool a few years ago and had countless visits by different pool inspectors that all had different opinions on what a "safe boundary" looked like. After each visit we had to design and build something new to make it safe, which added spiralling costs and delayed CCC. The council had zero care or conscientiousness of the downstream financial havoc they cause on people trying to build stuff. The problem really was in the ambiguity of the building code and the lack of common sense and consistency of building inspectors
I've had clients threaten to sue me because I've refused to change the documents provided to council from a product I know and have specified to one that is either inferior or it's unknown if it's been installed properly. It's meant they can't get the CCC but once I change the drawings, it's my arse on the line.

The classic one is Sika Blackseal Plus (used to called Flintkote in NZ) which can be picked up from Bunnings, Mitre 10, Carters or pretty much any building supplier. Anyone can slap it on to a retaining wall and they don't have to be licensed by the manufacturer. I only specify products like Ardex "Shelterseal 3000X" wall system which is only sold to licensed applicators and not installed by some half blind labourer with no idea what he's doing.
 
The classic one is Sika Blackseal Plus (used to called Flintkote in NZ) which can be picked up from Bunnings, Mitre 10, Carters or pretty much any building supplier. Anyone can slap it on to a retaining wall and they don't have to be licensed by the manufacturer. I only specify products like Ardex "Shelterseal 3000X" wall system which is only sold to licensed applicators and not installed by some half blind labourer with no idea what he's doing.
And there’s the biggest problem - it’s a liability and ass covering exercise by yourself and councils to avoid half blind labourers because of the unfair way blame is apportioned.

Has the leaky building flow on effects caused more homelessness and condemned more FHB to poverty than all the actual leaky building damage?
 
One of the problem we have in NZ is that the Acceptable Solutions part of the Building Code was brought about based on submissions from the major suppliers. For instance, flashing sizes were determined by the roofing manufacturers and are generally larger than those required overseas. So, if a new roof supplier wants to come into the NZ market, not only do they have to prove their products meet the Building Code to be used in NZ via BRANZ or other lab testing, they need to provide larger apron and transverse flashings for the NZ market only. It's just not worth them doing it.

Winstone had such a large role in the plasterboard sections, the two companies which tried to bring in competing products have left the market. For goodness sake, the building code should have forgotten about the generic words it's based and just said Braceline, Aqualine and Fyreline.

I've had clients threaten to sue me because I've refused to change the documents provided to council from a product I know and have specified to one that is either inferior or it's unknown if it's been installed properly. It's meant they can't get the CCC but once I change the drawings, it's my arse on the line.

The classic one is Sika Blackseal Plus (used to called Flintkote in NZ) which can be picked up from Bunnings, Mitre 10, Carters or pretty much any building supplier. Anyone can slap it on to a retaining wall and they don't have to be licensed by the manufacturer. I only specify products like Ardex "Shelterseal 3000X" wall system which is only sold to licensed applicators and not installed by some half blind labourer with no idea what he's doing.
Elephant board is alive and well after 30 years of battling with Winstone.
I understand James Hardie Ltd, the supplier of the cladding mostly associated with leaky homes was the sponsor of BRANZ for years, maybe still is.
People think there is no corruption in NZ, there is. It is just not brown envelopes as is the case elsewhere.
 
And there’s the biggest problem - it’s a liability and ass covering exercise by yourself and councils to avoid half blind labourers because of the unfair way blame is apportioned.

Has the leaky building flow on effects caused more homelessness and condemned more FHB to poverty than all the actual leaky building damage?
No, once a product is in place and I charge the drawings to that product so a CCC can be issued, I accept responsibility that it is the equivalent of the product originally specified and, even though I never saw it installed, I, not Blind Billy the Labourer, am responsible for it.

The whole building industry has become a butt covering exercise. To put it back to where people feared the consequences of not doing a good job, we should abandon all the building code and H&S crap and just go down the route Hammurabi of Babylon did..... bet there wasn't too many cowboys in the building industry then!!!

The earliest known principles of construction law can be found in the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon and ruled from 1792 BC to 1750 BC. The Code of Hammurabi contained 282 laws inscribed on twelve stone tablets which were placed in public view. Hammurabi’s Code was one of the earliest written codes of law in recorded history. Several of the laws pertained to the built environment:

229 If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

 
One of the problem we have in NZ is that the Acceptable Solutions part of the Building Code was brought about based on submissions from the major suppliers. For instance, flashing sizes were determined by the roofing manufacturers and are generally larger than those required overseas. So, if a new roof supplier wants to come into the NZ market, not only do they have to prove their products meet the Building Code to be used in NZ via BRANZ or other lab testing, they need to provide larger apron and transverse flashings for the NZ market only. It's just not worth them doing it.

Winstone had such a large role in the plasterboard sections, the two companies which tried to bring in competing products have left the market. For goodness sake, the building code should have forgotten about the generic words it's based and just said Braceline, Aqualine and Fyreline.

I've had clients threaten to sue me because I've refused to change the documents provided to council from a product I know and have specified to one that is either inferior or it's unknown if it's been installed properly. It's meant they can't get the CCC but once I change the drawings, it's my arse on the line.

The classic one is Sika Blackseal Plus (used to called Flintkote in NZ) which can be picked up from Bunnings, Mitre 10, Carters or pretty much any building supplier. Anyone can slap it on to a retaining wall and they don't have to be licensed by the manufacturer. I only specify products like Ardex "Shelterseal 3000X" wall system which is only sold to licensed applicators and not installed by some half blind labourer with no idea what he's doing.
It's crazy eh. People the world over seem to be able to build houses in a much more effective way than how we've designed our systems. NZ's conditions are no more inhospitable than countless others the world over. Yet we've somehow designed a dog's breakfast of a consenting & construction industry that results in high building costs
 
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