Should Eden Park hold more concerts? Photo / Getty Images
Children need to learn about our history
Having lived in France for a number of years, I can safely say the average French person knows more about key moments in their history than the average New Zealander. They know why Napoleon tried to take Waterloo and the origins of the French Revolution. Why? Because from an early age, they learn about it. It’s not seen as a political tool, it’s the facts of their history.
Whereas way down here, the Government is looking to make education around our key founding document an optional extra. Newcomers to this country will know nothing of its past or fascinating origins.
Act Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour says some parents found there was too much Māori content in their children’s education.
So, is a select group of parents now determining the national curriculum? Isn’t that the job for elected officials and education specialists? I certainly didn’t vote for these parents to determine what my children will and won’t be allowed to learn about. My hope is that my children will be well educated through the public system but that now seems in doubt.
Our future generations now march forward not necessarily being taught our important history and all the characters and lessons that come with it.
Obscuring such key parts of our history from children is the definition of creating an uneducated generation that doesn’t know its vital place in the world. We didn’t come out of nowhere but it seems we are heading that way.
Claris Harvey, Grey Lynn.
Getting tax right
Deborah Chambers is right that many New Zealanders feel uneasy about being taxed on what they already “own” (Nov 3). Property has become our substitute pension scheme — we save through land because we falsely think there are few other secure options.
Citing Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong as proof that thriving economies avoid capital gains taxes is misleading. All three tax property and wealth in other ways: Switzerland levies cantonal real estate gains taxes, wealth taxes, and even an imputed rent tax on owner-occupied homes. Singapore and Hong Kong impose stamp duties, seller’s duties, and property taxes that strongly deter speculation. None relies on untaxed capital growth as a national savings plan.
New Zealand’s problem isn’t over-taxation but mis-taxation. We tax low and middle earners heavily through GST with no bottom exemptions, while lightly taxing wealth. The IRD found 311 wealthy New Zealanders paid a median effective tax rate of 9.4%, compared with 20.2% for ordinary workers once GST is counted. In this country, cashiers famously pay a higher share of tax than millionaires.
The OECD’s price-to-income ratio shows New Zealand housing at almost an unprecedented 146% of its long-term average, with the median home nearly nine times the median household income. We’ve built an economy where buying your neighbour’s house is “smarter” than building anything new in our crumbling infrastructure.
Almost every other advanced economy, including the United States, already taxes capital gains. A fair system should (while compensating for inflation) treat income from work and income from wealth alike.
Brit Bunkley, Whanganui.
Not democracy
Democracy has been sidelined in New Zealand when all three Government parties voted to pass the Regulatory Standards Bill through its second reading.
There will be excuses and references to the coalition agreement but we should remember that National, Act and, NZ First all chose to vote for a bill that many learned experts spoke against it, while 98.7% of 159,000 submitters opposed the bill.
That is not democracy.
Mary-Ann de Kort, Gisborne.
Face the music
Could the Bishop of Reform please take his preaching back to Wellington. We do not need the RMA Minister telling Auckland how to govern itself.
Concerts at Eden Park are an economic gain for Auckland and a loss for the rest of New Zealand - taking discretionary spending power out of the hometowns of those travelling to Auckland.
What we do need is a new stadium not in a suburban location.
Tony Waring, Grey Lynn.
Tackling retail crime
The Government is giving public money to Sunny Kaushal in his role as a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Victims of Retail Crime but this group’s ideas so far, notably increasing penalties and extending powers of citizens’ arrest, will only add to the desperation of offenders and endanger the public.
However, ministers Paul Goldsmith and Nicole McKee are happy to throw our money at Kaushal and others appointed to the group, as it allows the Government to avoid looking at the root causes of this type of offending, which are poverty, deprivation and other forms of social inequity.
Andrea Dawe, Sandringham.