An elite private school, Wanganui Collegiate, started receiving taxpayer money in 2013. It educates the sons of farmers and business owners and old boys would have lobbied National Party Ministers or some could have been Ministers. Since 1990 many overseas residents pretend to immigrate to New Zealand so they can get a free English education […]
A UMR Research paper showed that 70% of New Zealanders believe that Hollywood companies should pay back the $67 million subsidy to make The Hobbit. The report also showed that 56% of National voters were in favour of Hollywood repaying the subsidy. The Hobbit movie has made more than US$1 billion at the global box
The definition of a charity arose in a court case over 100 years ago and it has not been reviewed since. An organisation may qualify as a charity if it promotes the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion or is for other purposes for the benefit of the community. An
The hospitality industry has got politicians and councillors to support the building of convention centres by telling them that they would help to stimulate economic activity and increase jobs in the area. There is no ideal level of economic activity so this was just a confidence trick. What they failed to mention was that Convention centres
CONVENTION CENTRES Read More »
Prior to the pandemic farming contributed less than 10% to GDP and dairying was 3.6% of GDP. Clearly, farming is not the backbone of the economy and 30,000 farmers have a far greater influence on Government policies than they deserve. Over the past few decades farmers have claimed that they are concerned about damage to
In October 2020 businesses had $22,700 million or 24% more in the bank than in October 2019. At that time there were a lot of reports about a high demand for all types of luxuries including luxury homes and expensive holiday homes and there were waiting lists for luxury cars, boats and camper vans. Businesses
How scams impact you Read More »
We wrote to Jonathan Boston in 2009 and 2010 to say that we wanted to fund research work on lobbying and political party donations and decision-making processes but he made it clear that he did not want to do this work. In 2011 and 2012 we had discussions and correspondence with two other School of
STATEMENT BY GRANT AND MARILYN NELSON TRUSTEES OF THE GAMA FOUNDATION. Read More »
Its failure to clarify or include in the Declaration important objectives, requirements and conditions. Its failure to adopt established beneficiary investigation and prosecution processes and, consequently, to use lax processes that rarely resulted in a prosecution. Its reliance on phone calls by staff inexperienced in business and accounting processes. Its avoidance of requesting evidence that
Summary of ministry of social development wage subsidy failures Read More »
The following are from the Cabinet Minutes on decisions made on 16 March 2020. (CAB-20-MIN-0108) COVID-19 Overview of the Government’s Response Economic Package (Refer to covid19.govt.nz for Cabinet papers) 9. Noted that the estimated cost of the business and worker support package could be around $8 billion over the next five years. On 9 March
Cabinet decisions and advice to ministers Read More »
(Refer to TREASURY OIA RESPONSE FEBRUARY 2021) ADVICE TO MINISTER OF FINANCE 21 March 2020 REGARDING REMOVING CAP OF $150,000 Description: This paper proposes options for Cabinet to: Remove the cap of the existing Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme to increase the coverage of the scheme to more employees in larger firms. Treasury supports the expansion
Advice on potential waste and fraud Read More »
