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Economy

An Update from Myanmar

An Update from Myanmar

19th September 2021 There have been a number of incidents by rebels in Myanmar with infrastructure damage designed to hurt the junta members financially being at the forefront of their activities. Monywa in the Sagaing region was the centre of much of this activity. The Monywa office of Mytel, the

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The Government Is Flying Blind

The Government Is Flying Blind

In March 2020, Jacinda put us all into lockdown. At the time the whole pandemic was bewildering but she told us that if we locked down once and got on top of the disease, it would be best for the economy in the long run. “Do It Once, Do It

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Not One, Not Two, but Three Layers of Tax

Not One, Not Two, but Three Layers of Tax

Morris 8 Morris 8 is a veteran motor industry insider, a small-c conservative, fiscally dry but socially liberal. Loves New Zealand, but hates the current slide towards separatism and socialism. Farmers and people living in rural New Zealand are upset about the proposed “ute tax” elements of the government’

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Robertson Tops up COVID Slush Fund with Borrowed Money

Robertson Tops up COVID Slush Fund with Borrowed Money

Grant Robertson’s $7 billion top-up of the misused Covid Response and Recovery Fund gives him carte-blanche to splash more borrowed money between Budgets, says National’s Finance spokesperson Michael Woodhouse. “The Finance Minister has referenced the positive economic performance figures for the June quarter, before the Delta

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Robertson Has Emptied the COVID Piggy Bank

Robertson Has Emptied the COVID Piggy Bank

Confirmation yesterday that the Government has sought authorisation to spend a whopping $41 billion over and above Budget 2021 is proof that the Finance Minister is once again using the cover of Covid-19 to spend taxpayer funds on pet projects that have little to do with New Zealand’s

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A Hole Fit for a Ministerial Hobbit

A Hole Fit for a Ministerial Hobbit

Neil Miller Taxpayers’Union Taxpayers’ Union Analyst Neil Miller has been dwelling on the disastrous outcome of the taxpayer-funded subsidy granted to Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series, which has now shifted production to Britain. In a hole in the Beehive, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty,

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Rarotongan Vaxhole Bans Unclean Unvaxxed from Resorts

In a bizarre move, The Rarotongan Resort General Manager Tata Crocombe has deemed all unvaccinated persons to be unclean and banned them from his various premises! You might think that, for a small island nation that relies almost exclusively on tourism for their livelihood, banning a large chunk of your

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In Afghanistan, Opium Is as Big a Winner as Islamic Extremism

Giada Ferrucci Western University Giada ferrucci is a Ph.D. Candidate in Media Studies at Western University. She holds a BA in Economic Development and International Cooperation from the University of Florence, Italy, where her research focused on the opium trade in Afghanistan and alternative economic development reforms, and an

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Higher Taxes for Superannuitants

Higher Taxes for Superannuitants

It was only ever a matter of time. The government has been looking at ways to solve the so-called ‘ageing population’ issue and has proposed that, if superannuitants have earnings other than their pension, they should pay a higher rate of tax on those earnings. Welcome back to the

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‘Green’ Hydrogen Is Just Another Bomb

‘Green’ Hydrogen Is Just Another Bomb

No doubt attracted by the irresistible scent of mountains of government money, renewable energy and climate activism are fields rife with charlatans, troughers, rent-seekers and frauds. From the billions the clueless Obama sunk into boondoggles like Solyndra, to the obvious scam of burning trees and calling it “emissions free”

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Will the Government Borrow More or Make Cuts?

Will the Government Borrow More or Make Cuts?

David Seymour ACT Leader Grant Robertson has today told the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee that it doesn’t matter how much of the COVID-19 Recovery Fund he’s blown on unrelated spending because he can always borrow more. Three months ago, there was only $5 billion left from

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Op-Ed: Hey, Big Spender – Spend a Little Time on Priorities

Andrew Bayly Shadow Treasurer For several weeks now, National has been highlighting the fact that, according to Budget documents, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has already blown $57 billion of a total $62 billion of funds set aside to deal with the Covid pandemic. We were highlighting this before the current

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The Rainy Day Is Here, So Where’s the COVID Fund?

David Seymour ACT Leader The day has arrived where businesses will rightly need support from the Government after they’ve been forced to close but the rainy-day fund has already been raided. The Government has been dipping into the $50 billion COVID fund, with $515 million on school lunches,

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