David Clark

“If Labour comes out and advocates heavy regulation on power companies it will certainly depress the price.  Ideally down to a level that National decide to scrap the idea, but that’s unlikely.  So hopefully at least down to a level that we can buy them back piece-by-piece over time.”  Read more »

David Clark has revealed the inner truth of the Labour party with his ill conceived tweet, either that or he is deliberately taking the piss:

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David Clark is an outlier in the modern Labour party, where the aggressive secular elite dismiss Christianity as something only the ignorant practice as no thinking person like them could ever believe in christianity. Non christian religions are acceptable. As long as they are not Jewish…or the Exclusive Brethren

Name one of your heroes outside politics.

I guess this sounds a bit cheesy but ultimately the Biblical Jesus is something of a hero to me, unsurprising given that I’ve got a background as a minister of religion. He was someone who stood up for the poor and vulnerable and was concerned about social justice issues and not afraid to take on the authorities of the day to ensure fairer outcomes for those who were struggling.  Read more »

Fresh from playing Hobbit Hypocrites, Labour are now accusing Facebook of being tax cheats.

Facebook New Zealand paid just $14,500 tax – give or take a few dollars – last year, making a mockery of Peter Dunne’s refusal to consider closing tax loopholes for multinationals, says Labour’s Revenue spokesman David Clark

If they were really a party of principle (cough) they wouldn’t be using the tax cheat’s services and they’d be boycotting it.

So will they stand by their principle, do they mean what they say, or will this just be another bit of political posturing like the Hobbit?

What term should we use to describe this behaviour…Facebook Frauds?

When did Labour announce that they want to introduce a tax on revenue as one of their major policies?

When were they thinking of announcing this major new initiative to “help” business…by taxing their revenue as well as their profits?

Facebook’s “tiny” and “barely believable” tax bill this year makes a mockery of New Zealand’s tax loopholes for multinationals, says the Labour Party.

In a statement entitled “Facebook’s tiny tax bill demands action from Dunne”, Labour’s Revenue spokesperson David Clark said the social media site’s New Zealand arm paid a mere $14,497 last year.

Its tax bill in the 2010 financial year was an even smaller $5238, he said.

“For a company that has 2.2 million users in New Zealand and makes billions worldwide, that’s barely believable.”

Facebook appeared to be using the ‘double Irish’ tax technique, Clark said.

“That’s where it uses Irish Facebook, which pays just 12.5 per cent tax, to determine revenue and expenses.”

This ensures the company can put most of its revenue through countries with low-tax systems, he said.

“Peter Dunne calls that ‘legitimate tax avoidance’. I call it a rort.”

Clark said the New Zealand government needed to follow the lead of Australia, which was bringing in laws to clamp down on this type of tax avoidance.

David Clark should have stuck with being a Presbyterian Minister, his grasp on taxation matters is a good as David Parker’s grasp is on arithmetic.

Stuart Nash has blogged at Recess Monkey about Louisa Wall’s Marriage Equality bill and the impact on Labour’s strategy:

I want to start by saying that I support gay marriage and, if I had been in parliament, I would have had no hesitation in voting in favor of Louisa Wall’s marriage equality bill. It sits perfectly with the Labour values of fairness and equality.

Despite that, I am not happy about it!

In a role I held earlier this year I wrote a strategic document in which I warned that Labour must not get sidetracked from going hard on the major issues that New Zealanders are telling us are important to them.  The National government have a proven ability at creating side issues in order to deflect media and public attention away from the issues that matter.  Labour MUST NOT get sucked into the game of responding to these periphery and/or manufactured issues because it would risk losing focus, momentum and credibility.

Little did I know that it wasn’t the Nats who would create the side shows (how ever worthy they may be), but Labour themselves.  Louisa’s Bill was ill-timed. I believe it’s the sort of Bill that a Labour government introduces in its first year in government (the fact that it was drawn out of the ballot was unlucky for Labour).  For the past month or so this issue has been at the forefront of the mainstream and social media.  In the meantime, the state assets sales programme is in trouble, farms have been sold to the Chinese, educationists decry the rise of charter schools, the poverty gap is increasing at an alarming rate, Kiwis are heading to Australia in record numbers, our unemployment rate is climbing, and there is at least one dreadful health story a day that should be in the papers.

I broadly agre with Stuart on that…and a case in point was the drawing of Jacinda Ardern’s bill the very next day where Labour was all at sea in responding to it.

Both David Clark’s $15 minimum wage bill and Clayton Cosgrove’s bill on state asset sales were both drawn in the same ballot as Louisa’s bill (how many knew this?). Both these bill’s represented headline Labour policies at the last election, and were very popular across a wide range of voters.  These are prime examples of Labour concentrating on issues that matter to a significant number of good hard working Kiwis, yet many of those same struggling Kiwis have no idea that we are still fighting hard on their behalf. Both issues have, by-and-large, been lost in the mele caused by the marriage equality bill.

Labour only has itself to blame. They, for all intents and purpose, appear to be a bunch of individuals running individual strategies. Take Clare Curran’s latest foray into focussing on the things that matter by taking photos outside Bill English’s office.

ᔥ the tipline

It is interesting what comes in on the tipline.

Cadbury haven’t exactly been quiet about their move to Malaysia and Australia. This blog has known about it for a while, and has been very surprised that the local MPs have not been on it.

The basic details are thus:

Cadbury has moved their bar dies to other parts of the world, including Tasmania and Malaysia. They are allowing some of their top staff to leave the company. They make all the bars now in Australia and import them back, and will progressively wind down production in Dunedin over the next two years.

There are four MPs from Dunedin, three lefties and one from National. All had the opportunity to try to do something to keep the factory there, but they will find it a lot more difficult once the story is all across the papers.

Labour rising star Clare Curran has been an MP for long enough to have built the networks across the city and to know what is going on. As one of the best communication people in Parliament she could have run a very competent campaign to make it look like it was all National’s fault, and that the evil Tories were wrecking Dunedin.

Moving production off shore should be a perfect opportunity for Metiria Turei to go on and on about New Zealand Made and how we need food security, even if she doesn’t exactly endorse Cadbury. Usually the looney fringe have a good handle on stuff like this so it is a bit surprising Metiria’s friends didn’t give her a chance to break the story.

On the National side Michael Woodhouse is in a bugger of a position. He can’t win, as he can’t do a lot about a factory moving overseas. When in government this kind of thing is very difficult to deal with, because the high New Zealand dollar makes it very hard to justify keeping things onshore, and as a representative of a party that believes in free trade he can’t take a popularist approach to try to keep Cadbury’s in Dunedin. Hopefully he is well connected enough to have been given a heads up, so he can have a good message and a good campaign prepared for the weeks of negative publicity.

Dave Clark is a new MP and may be forgive for not having the networks to tell him what was going to happen, but this should be a lesson – he needs to be better connected with business in Dunedin if he wants to be an effective MP. He doesn’t have to like business, he just has to know them.

Meanwhile Cadbury continues with their plans to decamp from Dunedin over the next two years.

The awkward moment when Clare Curran forgets she’s the member for Dunedin South:

Labour politicians really know how to wreck an economy.

The Department of Labour has advised the Government against “Mondayising” Anzac and Waitangi Day holidays when they fall on the weekend, citing economic costs of up to $400 million.

Prime Minister John Key this afternoon said he’d now received advice from the Department of Labour on the issue after Labour MP David Clark’s Members Bill, which would give workers a holiday the following Monday when Anzac or Waitangi Day fell on the weekend, was drawn from a parliamentary ballot last week.

The advice pointed out that the next time either day fell on a weekend was in 2015 and it was not until 2021 that both Anzac and Waitangi Day fell on a weekend in the same year.

The department had told Mr Key the cost to the economy for an individual day if Mondayised was $200 million or $400 million in a year when both were Mondayised.

“The recommendation from the Department of Labour is not to Mondayise them,” Mr Key said.

it is bad enough that Len Brown is intent on wrecking the Auckland economy with 13 new tax ideas, but David Clark’s $400 million sting to Kiwi businesses really needs to be ignored.

If Labour wants to wreck the economy in this way then let them do it from the government benches when they eventually return to power.

National meanwhile should stay well away for it.

Labour continues to focus on the things that matter…like holidays:

Plans to “Monday-ise” public holidays have inched closer to reality after legislation to make the change went onto Parliament’s business programme today.

First-term Labour MP David Clark this afternoon had his Holidays (Full Recognition of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day) Amendment Bill drawn from the members’ bill ballot, lucking it out over 38 other MPs to take one of two members’ bill spots on Parliament’s business agenda.

Last year, Waitangi Day fell on a Sunday and Anzac Day on Easter Monday, which meant New Zealanders missed out on two of the 11 public holidays.

Mr Clark’s bill would ensure that if future Waitangi Days or Anzac Days fell on a Saturday or Sunday, the following Monday would be a public holiday.

“These are two of this country’s most significant days, yet a glitch in the system means they are not protected under the Holidays Act,” Mr Clark said.

“There are no plans to shift commemorations _ they will still be celebrated on the actual dates _ but it doesn’t seem fair that where workers are entitled to a day off they are sometimes missing out.”

Labour had 9 years in power to be fair to workers, instead they ignored it, now all of a sudden this is one of their most import issues.

Fat chance of this getting anywhere. Maybe Labour will select this bill to filibuster instead of a hapless charity.