Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the number of New Zealanders paying the top marginal rate of income tax has grown to 659,000, equivalent to 18.1% of the working population. In 2010, when National last changed rates, there were only 377,000 people (11.2%) paying the top tax rate. Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the Taxpayers’ Union, says, “Under Bill English, the number of people paying the highest tax rate has increased by 75%. The failure to adjust tax thresholds with inflation or average wage growth has meant that Kiwis are being asked to pay higher tax rates without any increase in real income.” “For comparison, in the UK, only 364,000 taxpayers pay the top tax rate, almost half the number of people that pay the top rate in New Zealand despite the UK having a population 14 times larger.” “The change in tax thresholds announced in Budget 2017 fails to address the growing number of people in the top bracket. In a recent report, `Lifetime Tax: Post Budget Update’ our economic staff showed that the largest tax relief from Budget 2017 went to middle and low-income earners. Meanwhile, top earners are asked to shoulder an ever-increasing share of the tax burden.” Key Facts:
| A Taxpayers Union release || July 10, 2017 |||
Today signals 50 years of decimal currency in New Zealand and the Bank is marking the anniversary with a new display in its Museum and Education Centre.
This coincides with a new Bulletin article titled “A litmus test for society: Reserve Bank decimal note designs 1967-2017” which traverses New Zealand’s currency as it showcases national and cultural identity. It is accompanied by a downloadable timeline poster showing all seven series of Reserve Bank notes released since 1934.
Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said “This milestone is a great opportunity to reflect on a point in time and see how our banking has evolved and how our money has changed over the years.
“Despite the growth in electronic payment systems, cash in circulation continues to grow and I expect cash, as a means of exchange, to be around for a long time yet. However, we do need to understand more about what drives our use of cash and this is the theme of some research the Bank will soon undertake.”
Highlights of the Museum and Education Centre display include:
• a screen display of the original television and radio advertisements and jingle featuring ‘Mr Dollar’, the character created to bring the decimal currency into New Zealand households • footage of the first distribution of currency to the banks prior to launch day • education and publicity material including a Dollar Scholar certificate and quiz • early coin designs • artist’s preliminary layout for the $100 banknote • the story of the Bahamas Mule, a minting error of the 2 cent coin.
“Reading through the material and watching the footage you get an understanding of how different our operations were run back then,” said Mr Wheeler.
The Museum and Education Centre is open to the public from Monday to Friday 9.30am – 4.00pm.
More information • Bulletin article: “A litmus test for society: Reserve Bank decimal note designs 1967-2017” • Mr Dollar video • Currency timeline poster
| A RBNZ release || Monday 10 July 2017 |||
Some 50 staff are set to lose their jobs as forme supplier Hygrade Group enters voluntary administration.
The 60-year old operation was one of the Australia’s leading forme suppliers, with locations in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as one on New Zealand.
David Raj Vasudevan and Andrew Reginald Yeo from Pitcher Partners are handling the administration. Vasudevan says, “As the joint administrators, we have assumed control of Hygrade Group, Hygrade Management and Software, and Hygrade Cutting Formes. The affairs of all three are intermingled and intertwined.
“Effectively, the companies had to cease trading. We have invited offers from interested parties to submit bids for the assets. We will then enter an investigation stage, where we will look into the affairs of the company, and how the directors had handled the business.”
Over the last 18 years, Hygrade has established an additional manufacturing plant in Melbourne, two manufacturing plants in Sydney and one in Wellington, New Zealand.
Closure came as the company submitted for document 505, a notification of appointment of administrator, and a week later had lodged for a Declaration of Relevant Relationships and/or Indemnity Copy.
Australian Printer reached out to Rudi Jansen, the group CEO, but was unable to get comment prior to publication.
There is likely to be substantial interest in its assets, as the company had recently invested strongly, purchasing technology including: seven lasers, three counter cutters, computerised rule benders and processors, half a dozen axis engraving machines, CNC Water Jet cutting machine and its latest acquisitions, a 2.5 kilowatt laser and a CNC router.
| AnAustralian Printer release || July 5, 2017 |||
Cities will become safer and more desirable to live in when the internet of things (IoT) takes hold a research study report says. The IoT research was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member funded group of tech firms, major corporates, startups, universities and government agencies. Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says by managing traffic flows to reduce congestion, deterring crime using intelligent lighting and cognitive CCTV, enhancing public transport and using adaptive city lighting both for aesthetics and safety, IoT can make a city a more desirable place to be. Data collected from IoT sensors can assist council to create evidence based policy. In Wellington, a safe cities programme uses cognitive CCTV and overlays data from police, social welfare, district health board and organisations such as City Mission.
City based IoT initiatives, often called smart cities, are designed to save on the costs of running a city, making it more efficient and providing a better experience for the citizens who inhabit, visit or work there. “The data is used operationally to help make the city safer and the Wellington council is also using it to inform its new policy on homelessness,” Muller says.
A city can also use IoT to start to understand the economic return on public events. Wellington city for example, is trialling stereoscopic cameras to count people at different choke points in the city. The system also uses wi-fi to understand the flow of pedestrians. This is enabling the council to better understand attendance at its free public events, from which an economic return on those events can be calculated. “Auckland Transport is utilising an IoT network to improve school safety by connecting school zone road signs to the network, a proof of concept solution developed by Massey University in conjunction with Auckland based industrial design company Motiv. “Auckland Transport is delivering a project that will see 40,000 individually addressable street lights deployed. The lights will be managed by an IoT central management system. “Connectivity is currently via the cellular network but Auckland Transport are moving from SIM to fixed connectivity for more assured capacity, speed and security reasons. They will retain SIM connectivity for hot standby. The driver for the project was the anticipated cost savings from a reduction in electricity consumption and reduced maintenance costs,” Muller says. City infrastructure maintenance will benefit from IoT. Tracking the structural health and use of highways, roads, tunnels, bridges and buildings reduces costs by optimising maintenance frequency. IoT can also reduce the time required to ascertain structural integrity of assets post-quake or other disaster event. For example, Wellington City Council are implementing a project to sense whether a building is safe to enter after a quake. The report says smart on-street car parking reduces congestion in the city, improves usage and occupancy of car parks and improves revenue collection from parking fees. It is estimated there is a potential $128 million net benefit to New Zealand, in present value terms, from the use of IoT in the management of city infrastructure over the next 10 years, and an extra $27 million net benefit from IoT use in managing on-street parking, in the three main cities alone.
| An NZ IoT Alliance release || July 3, 2017 |||
Tradestaff is celebrating the success of the Canterbury Trade Pilot Initiative Programme. Twenty-one graduates were recently awarded the certificate in New Zealand Level 4 Carpentry.
As part of a PACER Plus initiative Tradestaff partnered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on the pilot scheme. PACER Plus is a trade and economic integration agreement between New Zealand and Pacific Island Governments that aims to create jobs, raise standards of living and encourage sustainable economic growth in the Pacific region.
The pilot project was designed to provide an opportunity for up to 24 skilled carpenters from the Pacific Islands to fill job shortages in the Christchurch rebuild.
Kevin Eder, Managing Director of Tradestaff, says the pilot project was a great success.
"This programme has been a win-win for all stakeholders. Tradestaff was able to ensure our Pasifika pilot workers remained in consistent work throughout the programme. Many of them were personally requested by our clients as they have become recognised as hard workers with great skills.
"Pacific nations are at regular risk of severe cyclones that cause widespread damage. With the support of their governments, we expect the graduates to return home with greater experience and skills from their time with us. We were able to expose them to a wide variety of work environments, providing learning experiences across construction techniques they would not otherwise had the chance to encounter."
Tradestaff ensured the recruits were taken through a specifically tailored induction programme. This covered everything from health and safety practices and expectations, site safe training, kiwi building jargon, and familiarisation with what to expect on a large commercial construction site. With support from ARA Institute of Canterbury the recruits were provided with onsite training and skills assessment throughout the pilot programme, culminating in them being awarded the certificate in New Zealand Level 4 Carpentry.
"We are confident the outcomes that we have achieved are in line with the spirit of the PACER Plus agreement and will raise the standard of living for those involved and encourage sustainable economic development for the Pacific nations included," Eder says.
Tradestaff was recently recognised for their work with the Pasifika migrant workers. It received the Award for Excellence in Candidate Care at the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) New Zealand Industry Awards.
Labour mobility schemes
The 2007-10 Gibson & McKenzie report on Vanuatu and Tonga found the following for countries involved in a labour mobility scheme:
The following applies to the receiving countries:
It is predicted that within three years 100 percent of all effective IoT efforts will be supported by cognitive or artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, a landmark New Zealand IoT Alliance study says. For an IoT deployment to be really effective, New Zealand organisations need applications such as machine learning and cognitive systems to obtain insight and action from data, the report says. The 92-page report was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member funded group of tech firms, major corporates, startups, universities and government agencies. It says the potential net benefit to New Zealand could be worth as much as $3.3 billion over 10 years from just nine applications of IoT alone. Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says New Zealand can be more effective and efficient, by understanding and acting on a raft of improvements from issues as simple as water system improvements and intelligent street lighting through to more complex challenges such as driverless vehicles and better farm management. To achieve this, New Zealand needs more collaboration between businesses to understand the wider opportunities that IoT data and the combination of data sources can provide. “A clear Government position on IoT will help New Zealand to deploy cohesive and unified smart city initiatives across the country. Government investment in flagship IoT initiatives will also accelerate New Zealand's transition. “IoT is a discipline, no different than finance or planning and requires national leadership. A national role of chief technology officer would help provide leadership in this burgeoning area. “Accelerating a connected New Zealand and artificial intelligence (AI) applications will be particularly useful for understanding unstructured data, such as video, sound and images.” By 2019, it is estimated that more than 75 percent of IoT device manufacturers will improve their security and privacy capabilities, removing risk for technology buyers. “As security and privacy challenges are overcome, use cases involving human data will hit the spotlight in New Zealand. For example, connected cars, insurance telematics and personal wellness,” Muller says. To deliver a programme that creates awareness and develops knowledge, the report says New Zealand first requires an IoT vision and strategy. The vision and strategy needs to consider: • Is the right structure in place to create a sustainable and scalable IoT ecosystem in New Zealand? • What overseas models could the New Zealand Government learn from? • Should the Government partner with industry to look globally for the best emerging technologies and bring that technology to New Zealand? • What are the key IoT areas we aspire New Zealand to be world leaders in? • How will we enable the ecosystem to deliver innovation? Developing the right policy and regulatory frameworks for privacy and security will enable an explosion of new uses of IoT to be invested in as enterprises are no longer inhibited by uncertainty. As IoT matures in New Zealand, with appropriate support and guidance it will become mainstream in most enterprise's digital transformation journeys. Organisations will endeavour to use IoT for a competitive advantage, improve customer experience and gain deep insights into their business, alongside improvements to productivity and efficiency, Muller says.
| A Make Lemonade release || JUne 30, 2017 |||
The Reserve Bank today published a report on compliance by insurers with the requirements to disclose their financial strength ratings and solvency information.
A recent survey by the Reserve Bank of a sample of 36 of the 89 licensed insurers found that the overall level of compliance with disclosure rules was well short of minimum requirements, with 53 percent of respondents complying at a low or poor level, and only 22 percent performing relatively well but with room to improve further. Only three insurers demonstrated an excellent level of compliance. Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Grant Spencer said “While we can’t necessarily extrapolate these results to all insurers, the results were very disappointing. Compliance with disclosure obligations needs to improve”. The survey should not be read as indicating underlying viability issues. The report shows that the most common issues found were: insurers not meeting their legal requirements to disclose the financial strength rating in writing prior to policyholders entering into and/or renewing a contract of insurance; solvency disclosure in financial statements being incomplete or incorrect; and website disclosures being incorrect, incomplete or not updated within the required timeframe.
“Compliance with disclosure requirements is a key component of the Reserve Bank’s prudential framework, which emphasises market discipline in addition to regulatory and self-discipline,” Mr Spencer said. Insurers have been told to improve and those who rated poor and low must report back to the Reserve Bank on improvements made. The Reserve Bank will undertake further assessment of compliance with disclosure obligations. “We need to see a marked improvement in compliance across the industry, and with some urgency,” Mr Spencer said. More information:Thematic Review – Insurer Disclosures
| A RBNZ release || June 29, 2017 |||
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Jacqui Dean has today released the terms of reference for a review of the Copyright Act 1994.
“Copyright affects how people create, distribute and access information,” Ms Dean says.
“It is important we ensure our copyright regime is fit for purpose in today’s rapidly changing technological environment.
“Launching a review now will also build on the insights of the Government’s Study of the role of copyright and designs in the creative sector, completed last year.
“The Study highlighted a range of opportunities and challenges faced by users, creators and owners of digital content. This review will look into these opportunities and challenges to ensure we have the right settings in New Zealand.”
The terms of reference provide an outline of the objectives, context and process for the review and will be further refined with industry feedback on an issues paper.
“I want stakeholders to get involved in the early stages of the review. In the coming months we will develop the issues paper and will be looking to engage with the wider industry,” Ms Dean says.
The terms of reference and further information on the review and Study are available on the MBIE website: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/business/intellectual-property/copyright/review-copyright-act-1994
| A Beehive release || June 29, 2017 |||
Revenue Minister Judith Collins has today signed a new tax protocol between New Zealand and Hong Kong. The protocol updates the existing double tax agreement between New Zealand and Hong Kong, to allow full exchange of information on tax matters between the two jurisdictions.
Once in force, the updated double tax treaty will require both Hong Kong and New Zealand to automatically exchange tax information with each other, in line with the G20 and OECD Automatic Exchange of Information global standard.
“This will allow New Zealand to meet its international obligations to complete the first automatic exchange of information by 30 September 2018,” Ms Collins says.
Under the global standard, New Zealand financial institutions must review their accounts and compile information to be reported.
New Zealand’s existing double tax agreement with Hong Kong was signed in 2010 but was limited to exchanges of information on request.
“The protocol will remove this limitation to allow automatic and spontaneous exchanges of tax information to take place,” says Ms Collins.
The Second Protocol will come into force once both signatories have completed their respective legal requirements.
| M Beehive release || June 28, 2017 |||
Palmerston North City is the quintessential university town. It is the second youngest city in New Zealand per capita with an average age of 33, due to its large student population of nearly 20,000 tertiary students, Grant Smith, the Mayor of Palmerston North City, tells GovInsider.
The city has plans to attract young people not just to study, but to live in the city. “We’ll grow by another 20-30,000 people in the next twenty years,” says Smith. For a city with a population of 90,000, that is a substantial 30% increase.
But Smith notes that the council “[needs] to be mindful that just being a good city to live in will not retain young talent or attract investment”. In the coming years, Palmerston North will embrace technology, improve sustainability and create jobs to attract millennials to the city.
Going digital
With a great number of young people, Smith says, “you get take-up of technology [that is] greater than you would in an older demographic, or even in a metropolitan city”. “We have a great uptake of ultra-fast broadband here, one of the highest in New Zealand,” he notes.
The city council is going paperless in a number of ways, according to Smith. Firstly, similar to Tauranga City Council, building consent documentation will be done digitally from this week, on a cloud-based system. “The system enables building consent to be tracked from when they’re launched through to when they’re completed. That’s quite a big thing for us internally,” Smith explains. He adds that the council itself is going paperless too: “We conduct all our meetings electronically.”
The city also has a big focus on agricultural technology. Building on a “good agricultural reputation”—70% of the world’s sheep meat comes from within two hours of Palmerston North—the council is now in negotiations with Microsoft to establish an agritech centre in the city, he shares.
“They have honed in on New Zealand because of our good agricultural reputation and footprint. I’ve looked at different regions and we’ve probably got the most diverse agricultural sector here,” says Smith, adding that besides sheep meat, the city produces dairy, beef, produce, venison and deer.
Creating jobs
The council plans to accommodate more people through “intensification”, rather than building suburbs outwards, in a phenomenon called ‘urban sprawl’. “In terms of the district plan which enables the growth to develop, we prefer to look at buildings and more CBD [Central Business District] living rather than just continuing to grow suburb after suburb,” Smith says.
And for this growth to be sustainable, creating and retaining jobs are big on the agenda for the council. To that end, Smith believes the city is “very well-positioned” to host big data centres. “It is something we’ve been talking to some of the major players about,” he says.
“They generally don’t go into big cities, because the power is too expensive. They need lots of water to cool their facility,” Smith adds. “If you look overseas in places such as Europe, they are traditionally based in a rural but well-connected area.” To illustrate, Palmerston North is strategically located on the central lower part of the North Island of New Zealand, allowing it to be the “logistics distribution hub that we’ve become known for”, he says. “Our geological location really helps us.”
Clean energy
Technology also enables the council to achieve its sustainability goals, which are a big priority for them. “We’ve embraced electric vehicles, we have a number of them in our fleet now,” Smith says. Building inspectors and general officers now use electric vehicles, and so does the council’s eco advisor, who helps the public and businesses make better use of energy within their homes and buildings.“We will be looking to going electric rather than petrol in the coming years,” he adds.
There is also a focus on clean energy and lowering carbon emissions; the council produces 30% of its own energy. “We like to see ourselves as a eco-city, and we are future-focused,” Grant shares.
And in the next ten years, there will be a “major wastewater plant upgrade”, which will move away from the traditional method of simply discharging wastewater into a waterway. “We’re looking at all sorts of different options,” Grant explains.
As Palmerston North gears up to welcome 30,000 new citizens into its fold, millennials studying there may one day want to live there, too.
|I nterview with Mayor Grant Smith, Palmerston North City Council by Nurfilzah Rohaidi, GovInsider || June 28, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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