Completing the picture
Three separate pieces (NZ Herald, March 15), come from different places yet appear to be fundamentally connected. They each are based on the premise that we are not meeting the needs of children and young people appropriately.
First, Natalie Akoorie writes of two men who each told the Royal
Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care's Māori hearings of how the upbringing we as a community allowed them to have, failed to assist them to make good life choices.
Second, Shane Jones points out in his opinion piece that the wellbeing statistics for whānau remain woeful. He believes the average rangatahi wants practical solutions such as affordable staples, rather than being fed dogma where whānau circumstances don't change.
Lastly, development paediatrician Jin Russell posits that childhood circumstances have long-reaching effects on the rest of your life. Further, she says we are becoming involved in the lives of children at risk far too late when the problems are more difficult and more costly to fix.
It is dispiriting that those in positions of being able to do something about these issues still don't appear to be joining the dots.
Glennys Adams, Oneroa.
Political desperation
By what measure can anybody see fuel excise tax as a sensible economic response to our so-called inflationary crisis? Does nobody remember the hook from David Bowie's song, "putting out the fire with gasoline"?
Fuel costs fall inordinately on those who can least afford them, those who run less efficient vehicles, those for whom every penny counts. Reduction of fuel excise removes transport building opportunities as well as job opportunities in that industry and reduces GST income for Government spending.
The lowest personal tax rate in NZ is 10.5 per cent, for income up to $14,000. A targeted tax reduction within this sector would have a much greater benefit, particularly for those already at or close to minimum wage, as well as those receiving one or more of the nation's social welfare payments.
I was battling to pay a 17 per cent mortgage while agitating for wage rises during Robert Muldoon's inflationary crisis. Such things come and go. We have just witnessed a knee-jerk, thoughtless, short notice, political desperation, response to another wave of the same problem.
Nigel Meek, Raglan.
Get the gist
Several letters have been published demanding GST be removed from fruit and vegetables, or "healthy" food.
When GST was introduced, the basic living allowance, i.e. before tax was paid, was initially raised to supposedly cover the basics - for everyone. National's suggestion is to increase that basic allowance so as to put more into the pockets of the lower-paid, a non-inflationary move, as opposed to an increase in wages, which rolls on to higher prices.
From a business point of view, it doesn't matter whether you are buying or selling cabbages or toffee pops, GST is applied to all purchased and all sales. If a business sells a salad sandwich with a bottle of water and a burger with fries and cola, GST is applied to all. Filing the GST returns is a doddle, as there are no "zero-rated" components to be isolated.
Imagine the complications of doing the returns when any transaction has a mix of products, some taxable and some not.
Another benefit of a blanket GST is that incoming tourists (when we have them) contribute to the tax take, without any means of claiming it back, as do those gaining through the black economy, whether that is on a bottle of beer or a lettuce.
Ray Green, Birkenhead.
Too hard basket
Growing up in Pennsylvania in the 50s and 60s, there was no state tax on food or ready-to-wear clothing, but there was 6 per cent on non-consumables. This is in the days prior to computers, scanners, etc and yet here in New Zealand, the industry moans that it is too hard to implement. Really?
When we shopped, we put the food items first through the checkout and the non-food items like detergent, paper products, etc, last. I am convinced most people know the difference between an apple and a roll of paper towels. This is the most equitable form of tax reduction because we all may not have vehicles, but the great leveller is that we all need to eat.
Marie White, Pukekohe.
Every dollar taxed
Perhaps it's time for Labour to transform our tax system and fix things out of line with other OECD countries.
We are probably the only country excluding the US to tax individual incomes from the first dollar.
In Australia, the first AU$18,000 is tax-free; in the UK, the first 12,000 pounds.
We are the only country that doesn't have at least a concessionary GST rate for food.
In both Australia and the UK, food is zero-rated.
A university student working a few hours a week to cover some expenses pays 10 per cent PAYE and 15 per cent GST for food - 25 per cent tax to pay for his food while it is zero in Australia and the UK.
Kushlan Sugathapala, Epsom.
