Grief, anger at fine
Piri Bartlett went to work in a forest on the East Cape on August 18, 2017, to provide for his young family.
The 23-year-old never came home.
Tragedy struck again for Bartlett’s fiance, Te Rangimarie Rautjoki, with the death of the couple’s 2-year-old boy a year later.
Bartlett’s employer, Blackstump Logging Ltd, has admitted it failed to keep him safe and was fined $150,000.
Rautjoki said the fine was a disgrace.
‘‘There is no sentence that could equal the suffering we endure daily, or justify the lifetime and future stolen from us.’’
The wha¯nau’s hopes of justice were shattered by the ruling, issued in April, Rautjoki said.
‘‘It has ripped apart my already broken heart. The pain is indescribable, and
I hope no family will ever have to go through this.
‘If they do, I would ask them not to place their faith in the socalled justice system to do what is right. They will only be left with nothing but heartache.’’
When he left home that morning nearly three years ago, Bartlett left Te Rangimarie and their 1-year-old, Rehua.
Rehua died of illness just short of his third birthday, a year after Piri died, and is now buried with Piri at Te Araroa.
Bartlett died from injuries he suffered while working near a hauler as the machine pulled logs up a hill by a wire cable.
There were no witnesses to his death, and pathologists were unable to say what caused his injuries, but a WorkSafe investigation found that Blackstump had been operating the hauler without guards covering the drums around which the cable was hauled back on to.
The company knew it was supposed to be using guards and that their absence posed a risk that could be fatal. It advised workers to stay clear of the drums during extractions.
The company had arranged for a guard on the drum about six weeks before Bartlett’s death. It had not been installed because it was being painted.
WorkSafe charged Blackstump with exposing Bartlett to a risk of death or serious injury. The company pleaded guilty in June last year.
thomas.coughlan@ stuff.co.nz
The tax system is the biggest single lever politicians have to change the economy.
Just under 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP – a measure of the economy), is taken by the Government as tax each year. Changing both the amount that’s taxed and where it’s taxed from has huge implications.
Good adjustments can shore up the system and make it run more smoothly, while bad changes can create chaos and distortions.
The Green Party this week announced its major tax policy for the election, the centrepiece being a tax of 1 per cent on wealth over $1 million and 2 per cent over $2m.
The tax would be individualised and would only tackle net wealth, meaning while many Auckland homeowners may fear their million-dollar family home being caught up in the scheme, they’d likely be excluded because most homes are owned by multiple people who would each only be on the hook for a portion of its value.
The Greens say their policy will only touch the wealthiest 6 per cent of New Zealanders, slapping them with a tax that would yield nearly $8 billion by 2021/22.
It’s a mighty amount of income, although it’s still less than a quarter of what the Government expects to rake in with GST in the same year ($32b, dropping to $20b if you deduct refunds).
Tax consultant Terry Baucher says the tax is a long time coming.
‘‘I’m coming round to the view that it’s something we’re going to need,’’ he said.
The tax system needed shoring up, not just to deal with the enormous costs of the Covid-19 economic clean-up, but to also deal
with long-term financial challenges like the costs of the ageing population to our superannuation and health systems, Baucher said.
On the most recent forecasts, Treasury thinks the Covid-19 shock will hit tax revenue by $49.2b over the forecast period, before eventually picking up again. But research compiled by the Government’s Tax Working Group reckoned that the rising costs of things like superannuation would create a budget deficit of roughly 1.2 per cent of GDP by 2030 and a massive 4 per cent of GDP by 2045.
A full 87 per cent of all tax income is captured by three taxes: GST, taxed at a single rate with few exemptions; company income tax, taxed at a flat rate with few exemptions; and income tax, paid at progressive rates.
Wealth taxes are inherently more complex. Wealth can mean anything from the equity an individual has in a home to something far more complex, like the value of a small business.
Deloitte tax partner Robyn Walker said the policy would likely run into the same issues as Labour’s now jettisoned capital gains tax. ‘‘It’s an unrealised CGT, which is not something that is popular,’’ she said.
New taxes are never easy – the imposition of GST was difficult but, with all the easy taxes reaching their use-by dates, future governments don’t have much choice but to look elsewhere.
The tax would be individualised and would only tackle net wealth.