The Insider Having a bob each way
Perks to bet on
Lotto NZ raised a few eyebrows among MPs when it told them it could not compete with the salaries offered by commercial business. Instead, it promotes itself as a great place to work. Among the perks are daily food allowances for staff when travelling on business, increasing over the year from $60 to $90 per day, or $80 when breakfast is included in the room rate. When it provides hospitality for staff, it allows a standard budget of $25 per person for breakfast, morning or afternoon tea, $35 for lunch, $80 for dinner and sometimes more. It also has accommodation allowances which Audit NZ has concerns about. MPs did not make too much of a fuss — they benefit from pretty generous allowances themselves.
Still hoping
New Labour MP Jamie Strange is proving to have a good sense of humour. Noting some of the odd results in local body elections due to turnouts and name recognition, Strange reminisced: “I stood for council myself, in 2013. Unfortunately, I missed out and I ended up here, but I still have aspiration.”
Catching the tide
As Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf enters the final months of his time at No 1 The Terrace, he seems to be getting in touch with his spiritual side. At a speech to mark Treasury’s new Ma¯ ori name — Te Tai O¯ hanga — and the relocation of its wharenui, called Nga¯ Mokopuna a Ta¯ ne, Makhlouf said Treasury had a connection with Ta¯ ne. “Ta¯ ne separated earth and sky, allowing light and knowledge to shine into the world, and brought this world into being. He fashioned the first human.” After listing more of Ta¯ ne’s virtues, including providing “support and shelter for others” and being “loyal and bold”, Makhlouf declared “these are qualities and characteristics the Treasury holds in high esteem”. The approximate meaning of Treasury’s new Ma¯ ori name is “The Tide of the Economy”.
Policy process
NZ First is appointing a party director. The idea behind the role is to create a more professional and formal process for forming party policy. This will be a change from the current process, which essentially involves waiting to see what Winston Peters thinks. The Labour Party website has been running two petitions on a potential capital gains tax. One is for those in favour, the other for those opposed. This may be an interesting way to gauge the mood of the nation, or, more cynically, it may just be an exercise in gathering names and email addresses.
Throwing stones
Shane Jones may be a newish member of NZ First, but he might want to remember the old saying about people who live in glass houses. Focusing on the news that the Serious Fraud Office was looking into a National Party donation, Jones declared NZ First would be studying the SFO’s every step to ensure there was no whitewash. He added: “this is incredibly serious, and people may very well, Sir, go to jail”. He seems to have forgotten the controversy surrounding Owen Glenn’s donation to NZ First.
Sheer coincidence
As scrutiny falls on Jones and some of the spending by his Provincial Growth Fund, some wags have noted it has the same initials as the Problem Gambling Foundation.
KiwiSaver confusion
This KiwiSaver is obviously tricky stuff.
A Tax Working Group release claims that lifting the member tax credit to $0.75 per dollar of contribution would increase the maximum annual benefit to $718.50. Sorry, but the correct figure is $781.50. And an IRD email this week describes “new employer contribution thresholds” for KiwiSaver. Nope, that should have been “employee” contributions.
Significant birthdays
A law change has allowed people who are over 65 to join KiwiSaver or move to a new scheme. It’s a sensitive issue for some, as Deputy Speaker Anne Tolley (left) made clear in the debate: “the last two speakers have brought to my attention the contributions to KiwiSaver for those over the age of 65. Just because I’ve had a birthday that does not mean I need that sort of advice.”
Being prepared
Proponents of online voting are continuing their lobbying, despite more and more politicians getting cold feet about the idea. A law change allowing for more “novel” voting methods has this week been making its way through Parliament. It has been heavily watered down, but now allows councils to experiment in a smaller way — for example, through a local board election. In another change, it will allow a returning officer to seek court permission to disallow and rerun an election after votes have been cast, if the election has clearly been rigged in some way. Current law allows this only after the final results have been declared. So at least the law will be up to date when a vote gets hacked.