The heading of this piece is a quote from AUT Criminal Law lecturer Khylee Quince on Tim McKinnel’s excellent documentary “Crime: Need Vs Greed” on TVNZ last night.
If you didn’t see the programme then make sure you see it on demand – or listen in to the RNZ podcast interview with Tim McKinnel about the programme here.
The Khylee Quince quote is a neat summary of one aspect of the programme and will be enough for National, Labour and ACT party politicians to condemn the documentary outright but hopefully it will get the rest of us thinking and talking.
Tax fraud is several times bigger than benefit fraud but much more resources are put into chasing benefit fraud than tax fraud. Both steal from the community but how they are treated varies dramatically. There are many more prosecutions for benefit fraud (the “low-hanging fruit”) than tax fraud and when people are found guilty, beneficiaries are much more likely to go to jail, for smaller amounts of fraud, than tax evaders.
The messages from this programme should resonate hard within Labour but there is no prospect of the transformative change needed from the current government.
Labour is limping to the election next year by which time we will have endured six years of hand-wringing and with all the key social indicators, which drive the petty crime politicians and police fixate on, either static or worse than when they were first elected.
Thank you Tim McKinnel – I hope you have started a discussion outside the political establishment which will bring demands on our politicians for change.
Thanks John, I’ll watch it on demand. It’s a no brainer though really.
“all the key social indicators, which drive the petty crime politicians and police fixate on, either static or worse than when they were first elected.”
ACT and National have a better plan that will fix all the languishing social indicators and it will involve 20% flat personal tax, 20% business tax and GST to 20% with exemptions for food and essentials like petrol.
Social indicators sorted under ACT and National
Great idea with the 20% across the board tax rationalizations for ACT and National… they will certainly get my vote with fairer tax policies like this
Also get rid of Fair Pay Agreements. New Zealand needs to be competitive on the world stage.
One person one vote!
Ditch 3 waters!
More great policy for the majority of right-minded Kiwis.
Ridiculous, so let’s not have fair pay and see the benefit numbers skyrocket to 500,000!
There’s many perpetrators of tax fraud who ought to be put into prison. I’m not talking about a mere one or two years, either. Five years minimum is more like it. That would be a suitable sentence for scores of so-called businessmen who’ve so far escaped punishment.
I watched the doco, and found it very interesting. In particular my summary is that there is undoubtedly a lot of loose ends within South Canterbury Finance which ought to be tied up. This company took the most money from investors’ out of all the finance companies we’ve ever had operating in this country.
Yes, an excellent documentary highlighting the need for change.
Whether left or right, one can see the current system is not fit for purpose.
The question is, how long will it take for our politicians to figure it out, let alone, sort it out?
Hand wringing by the PM indeed the angst the grimace she has it down to a fine art.
We need to look at what Finland did when they cut their prison population by two thirds. Treating ‘prisoners’ as human beings would be a great start.
This would be a real challenge to our society.
http://cuttheprisonpop.nz/how-did-finland-reduce-its-prison-population-by-two-thirds/
Yes, look at Finland but also look at how the death penalty and very high incarceration rates hasn’t worked in America.
Can we also do something about the huge blue segment, that represents other crime. Maybe stop worrying about revenue gathering with undercover cops staking out phone use and speeding, but more resources into stopping criminals disabling victims, by being beating them up on the streets for no reason, constant theft, burglary, car theft, now it’s ram raids, meth smuggling creating massive poverty, family and other violence.
Yes, it was a great line–impactful–similar to “For the many not the few”.
“Get Tough on Poverty” succinctly covers a lot.
It’s about scapegoating. Easy scapegoats who have no social, economic or political power, no status and cannot bite back. Let’s face it- New Zealand’s own ’empty eaters’ – the worthlesss who prove the worthiness of everyone else. Who serve the function of wiping everyone else clean and as the warning to the others.
Agree z John. Benefit fraud people trying to survive. Tax fraud self entitlement.
Sounds like a good programme. I like that TOP would wipe out beneficiaries debt.
Phone use and speed can often lead to death of other innocent road users so road policing needs to be stepped up as does the fines for both . This policing should be done by a dedicated road force .The biggest mistake John Banks was to do away with traffic police just to bolster his police numbers at no cost .
This would improve the relationship between the driving public and the regular police force .. Freed from traffic control they could concentrate on solving the growing crime figures in all fields . Once caught the judges need to be on notice that the public have a right to be kept safe and sentences need to send a strong message . With tough sentences the prisons need to have good rebilitation services
Good post Trevor
The thing is John, this imbalance has been reported on and off in the media for at least the last ten years.
National knew it and the rest of us who knew also assumed that it was exactly the way National liked it. I expected Labour to start to change it but so far not a peep. Now that I understand that they are at least as Neo Lib as National and only really look for the middle class vote (assuming the poor will always vote for them) then I dont expect anything will change at all.
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