THE CURRENCY ROLLER COASTER

I hate roller coasters at theme parks. But you don’t have to get on them. No choice I am afraid with the international currency roller coaster. And the New Zealand dollar is on one as the United States dollar keeps going down. The NZ dollar becomes even more attractive for the international currency speculators (and plenty of them are patriotic Kiwis) as Alan Bollard keeps pushing interest rates higher. So the speculators swap their low rate currency for those like New Zealand’s which return such high interest rates. This speculative buying to take advantage of high interest rates in turn fuels the real estate boom. However, the roller coaster also goes down and the currency plummets. At that stage exports will gain but import prices (particularly oil) will soar and feed into inflation. The Progressives suggest that it is time to look again at the Tobin Tax which we had proposed to replace GST in New Zealand and bring in more revenue but be less burdensome on the population. This tax places a charge on all bank transactions and was first suggested by Tobin to apply as an international finance tax to put the break on the speculators and develop a fund for sound international development. So here is a policy that we could take up internationally and domestically along with a genuine international development fund to encourage sound economic development world wide. Ask your Library for The Tobin Tax edited by Mahbub ul Haq OUP 1196.

AND IF YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GETTING HARDER TO MAKE ENDS MEET

then obviously you didn’t work hard enough to get yourself into the top 10 percent who now own 52 percent of the wealth. The most recent Statistics NZ survey shows that since 2001 when the richest half of the country owned 93 percent of the wealth that they have been working very hard and now own 95 percent of the wealth. Meanwhile the poorest half of the population has obviously been taking it easy and its share of wealth has dropped to 5 percent. Within the top half though the richest 5 percent have been very hard working and they now own 38 percent of the total wealth. A further breakdown in the Survey shows that Europeans outstrip all other ethnic groups with the highest median net worth of $86,900, with Asians next on $21,000, a grouping called others on $19,000, Maori ( surprise!) on $18,000 and Pacific people ( surprise again!) on $6,700. It looks like there are plenty of policies to implement to ensure a more equal distribution of wealth. Tax cuts yes – but not for those who have secured the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth- www.stats.govt.nz?NR/rdonlyres

A FURTHER TOP UP FOR PARLIAMENTARY PARTIES?

Some of the parliamentary parties have learnt that they were not popular with voters for dipping into public funds to pay for their election campaigns – take a bow here Progressives as the only Parliamentary Party that didn’t avail itself of this cheap credit. But Labour hasn’t learnt this lesson it seems. It has to pay back $800,000 and now wants to recover that by voting for big payouts to political parties. Now while it is about time that more transparency and firm rules were brought in to govern election practices that shouldn’t be used as a cover to smuggle in a system whereby the public has to foot the bill through taxation for parliamentary parties. Parliamentary parties already enjoy huge advantages with the funding provided to MPs which includes unlimited travel, telephone and stationery and many other contributions. State funding would also mean that ordinary party members can kiss good by to influencing the parliamentarians. If anonymous donations are the source of the evil then abolish anonymity.

EYE FOR AN EYE

Last Saturday I went on a panel on TV One’s Eye to Eye programme. The main topic was corruption in prisons. All the political parties , including Progressive, agreed that there could be better management practices and an independent prison authority to control corruption and other illegal practices in prison. However, it was clear that New Zealand First in particular wanted these type of issues to dominate the justice debate rather than the fundamental issue of why the prison population is growing and why there is not serious funding and resourcing of early intervention initiatives and effective rehabilitation programmes. Political parties in the main it seems do not actually want prisons to stop being a default system for our serious social failures. Interestingly both New Zealand First and the Maori Party sang the praises of private prisons. There is another policy (failed) that have in common with National and Act.

GUANTANAMO

Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi who has been a British resident for 19 years, was released after four and a half years in US custody in Guantanamo. He had been seized in Gambia, taken to Afghanistan and then Cuba. International pressure finally brought his release. In a statement he said:

“After four years in Guantanamo Bay, my nightmare is finally at an end. The hopelessness you feel in Guantanamo can hardly be described. You are asked the same questions hundreds of times. Allegations are made against you that are laughably untrue, but you have no chance to prove them wrong. There is no trial, no fair legal process .I was alleged to have participated in terrorist training in Bosnia and Afghanistan. I’ve never been to Bosnia and the only time I visited Afghanistan was thanks to the hospitality of the CIA in an underground prison...outside Kabul “. On release he was shackled and blindfolded before being handed over to British officials.

It is time that New Zealand took a stand against this gulag where the norms of international law are laughed at. Yes Helen it should be on the agenda for the next talks with George Bush or his representatives. Norman Kirk would not have ignored this issue.

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ENDS

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