Founded by Max Farndale 1947 - 2018
Nov 24, 2017 - SafePlus, a new Government developed and endorsed health and safety toolkit, is now available to all New Zealand businesses, and is set to help lift the health and safety performance in workplaces across the country. SafePlus currently consists of three products: Resources and Guidance, the market-delivered Onsite Assessment and Advisory Service and the Online Self-Assessment tool.
Malcolm MacMillan, SafePlus Programme Manager says, "New Zealand has an unnecessarily high rate of serious workplace accidents. The social and economic cost of this in New Zealand workplaces is conservatively estimated at $3.5 billion each year, and inflicts an enormous emotional toll on the people affected. We need a change in our workplace health and safety culture and SafePlus provides an important toolkit to achieve that change.
"SafePlus digs deep into a business to assess workers practices, behaviours, attitudes and culture towards health and safety, this behavioural approach helps them identify opportunities and strive for excellence."
The launch of the Onsite Assessment and Advisory Service includes the SafePlus Register of Independent Accredited Assessors so businesses will now be able to directly engage with assessors. The Accredited Assessors have been trained to deliver SafePlus and carry sector specific and generalist experience. This public register can be found at www.safeplus.nz
Mr MacMillan says, "SafePlus Accredited Assessors are an essential component of the SafePlus initiative. The services they provide during an Onsite Assessment and Advisory Service will change the way businesses view their health and safety in the workplace.
"Accredited Assessors use an approach that focuses on the people and their practices rather than written policies and procedures. They engage at all levels of a business, from senior leaders to front line workers, then use these insights to measure a business’s health and safety performance, and provide them with advice and guidance."
SafePlus is a voluntary performance improvement toolkit that defines what good health and safety looks like in the workplace, and sits above minimum legal compliance. It is a joint harm prevention initiative developed by WorkSafe New Zealand, ACC and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
SafePlus has been developed in direct response to the Independent Taskforce into Health and Safety, and the Working Safer Reforms. Working Safer is aimed at reducing New Zealand’s workplace injury and death toll by 25 per cent by 2020. The Act’s key emphasis is on everyone in the workplace being responsible for health and safety.
For more information visit safeplus.nz
Nov 24, 2017 - New Zealand, which since 1999 has described itself as “100% Pure” in its famous tourism tagline, is battling a rising tide of pollution, with 16 beaches in Auckland reportedly too polluted for swimming and critics blaming intensive livestock farming for making up to 60% of the country’s rivers and lakes unswimmable.
Sixteen Auckland beaches have been given the lowest grading possible, D, on the Auckland Council’s new water quality forecasting system – Safeswim: https://safeswim.org.nz/
Half of those swimming spots are in West Auckland, including popular Piha and Bethells Beach, according to Auckland’s Western Leader newspaper. The most common form of contamination is excrement – animal and human faeces.
The publication quoted an environmentalist who said he’d seen day-trippers defecating in lagoons.
“This happens especially in summer time when the public facilities are quite full, or at times are closed.”
Idyllic but controversial scene in Tourism New Zealand video
Recent Auckland Council reports blamed the problems on faulty septic tanks, along with faecal contamination from dogs, birds, and livestock, the publication said.
Auckland Council plans to invest NZD 6 billion over the next 20 years in wastewater infrastructure.
Meanwhile, cows are being blamed for polluting New Zealand’s waterways. Agricultural runoff, in the form of nitrates, adds to the problem. In an article headlined “Dairy farming is polluting New Zealand’s water”, the Economist magazine said “scrub where sheep once grazed is being given over to intensive dairy farms – some of them irrigated to help the pasture grow”.
The Economist said some 6.6 millon cattle are now “squeezed into the country of 4.7 million people, transforming even an iconic arid grassland, the Mackenzie Basin (made famous by the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films), into a tapestry of emerald fields”.
Waterways play a big part in New Zealand tourism campaigns, such as in the video below:
Greenpeace agriculture campaigner Gen Toop says farms are “overstocked with too many cows and that causes nitrate to leach down through the soil and into our waterways. The only way to have clean rivers and safe drinking water is to have fewer cows.”
Greenpeace advocates regenerative farming, a way of farming with fewer cattle and more diversity.
In August, New Zealand’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the Tourism New Zealand promotional video (on YouTube above), which includes a scene showing a tourist about to drink river water, did not violate advertising rules.
Not all members of the ASA board agreed.
At one point in the video, a tourist cups her hand in the water and brings it to her mouth as if to drink. The shot cuts away before she does so.
Critics say drinking river water is unsafe in many parts of the country.
| Source: Global Travel Media Written by Peter Needham || November 24, 2017 |||
Nov 23, 2017 - Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Revenue Minister Stuart Nash today announced the Terms of Reference for the Tax Working Group and that the Group will be chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. “Our 100 Day Plan includes the establishment of a Tax Working Group. The Working Group will consider changes that would improve the structure, fairness and balance of the tax system,” says Grant Robertson. “This Government is committed to a fair and progressive tax system. It is important that New Zealanders have confidence in their tax system and know that everyone is paying their fair share.”
“At the moment the tax system appears unfair – for example, it doesn’t treat income from speculation in housing as it does income from work. We want to consider how we can create a better balanced system and can encourage a shift to investment in the productive economy.
“Individual wage-earners, businesses, asset owners and speculators should pay their fair share of tax. Right now we don’t think that is happening. This working group is not about increasing income tax or the rate of GST, but rather introducing more fairness across all taxpayers.
“The Working Group will also consider how the tax system can contribute to positive environmental outcomes and the impact of likely changes to the economic environment, demographics, technology and employment practices over the next decade.
“As former Minister of Finance from 1999 to 2008, Sir Michael’s credentials are impeccable and he will be a huge asset to the Working Group.”
“The other members of the Working Group will be announced before Christmas. They will include a diverse range of tax and finance experts and representatives of the business and wider community. The Working Group will be supported by a secretariat of officials from Treasury and Inland Revenue and have an independent advisor to analyse the various sources of advice received,” says Stuart Nash.
“Final recommendations to Ministers are expected by February 2019. As promised before the election, any significant changes legislated for from the Group’s final report will not come into force until the 2021 tax year.
“It is important to ensure that all sectors of the New Zealand economy can feed into the Working Group’s processes and that all relevant perspectives are considered.”
“As we promised during the election campaign, certain areas will be outside the scope of the review, including increasing any income tax rate, the rate of GST, inheritance tax and changes that would apply to the family home or land beneath it,” Grant Robertson says.
“We also want to thank our government partners, the New Zealand First and Green parties, for their input and support of the Terms of Reference for this important piece of work on the future of our tax system.
"This review is a core part of the government’s programme and I’m confident it will deliver recommendations that will enable us to put in place a tax system that is fair for all New Zealanders,” says Grant Robertson.
| A Beehive release || November 24, 2017 |||
| Related Documents:
Tax Working Group Q&A.docxTax Working Group Terms of Reference.docx
Nov 24, 2017 - The investment group will grow the niche export apple brand Rockit, which is a mini-apple under licence by Rockit Global. One of the Rockit Global's challenges has been growing enough apples to meet global demand despite production lifting 40 per cent on last year. In spite of higher numbers, the crop sold out several months earlier than last year and delivered a price increase to growers.
The miniature snack apples, sold in a plastic tube, are grown under license in nine countries and sold in airports, sports stadiums, and in cafes in 29 countries. MyFarm chief executive, Andrew Watters said it had worked closely with Rockit Global to create a one-off opportunity for New Zealanders to share in its apple success story. He said Rākete Orchards Limited Partnership would lease and fund the planting of 55 hectares across four orchard blocks in the Heretaunga Plains of Hawke's Bay. This would be the only new planting of Rockit apple trees in New Zealand next year. Rockit Global would provide the Rockit apple trees, orchard management services, packing and storing and markets and sell the apples offshore. The Rākete Orchards lease model, with a term of 18 years plus two rights of renewal of five years each, suited the production of the trade marked apple which had a further 22 years to run under its plant variety rights, Watters said. MyFarm is forecasting that the partnership would generate a higher return than the "darling" of New Zealand horticulture, Gold3 Kiwifruit.
Watters said investors were forecasted to receive the value of their original investment back within seven years.
"It's a stunning product and an outstanding, unusual investment opportunity. Rockit has cleverly marketed its niche as a sweet crisp, small apple perfect for snacking and then carefully controlled its licensing and supply." Applications for the partnership offer for 1300 parcels of $10,000 closes on December 15.
Watters said investors had previously responded swiftly to opportunities to access returns from the pip fruit industry.
"MyFarm's $3.6 million capital raise to purchase a Hawkes Bay apple orchard in July was fully subscribed within one week of issue."
The company is a specialist syndication business providing land-based investment opportunities in dairy farms, sheep and beef farms, the horticulture sector and rural commercial property. It has more than $500 million of rural assets under management.
| Source: FreshPlaza || November 24, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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