We believe you have a right to:
1. The Necessities of life via a Universal Basic Income funded though redistributing a 10% land tax.
2. Freedom to live as you desire so long as your actions do not harm others.
3. An end to public education and healthcare so everyone is free to purchase their own education and healthcare using their Universal Basic Income.
4. A Sustainable Environment with a cap on urban sprawl until urban centre population density increases; more 'greenspaces' in urban areas; heavy penalties for polluters; increased public parks and natural reserves and taxes on waste/carbon usage to encourage renewables/recyclables use.
5. A Written Constitution which enshrines the rights and responsibilities of all citizens and Government
6. Separately elected and Independent Legislature, Executive and Judiciary to prevent corruption.
7. A Publicly-elected Chief of Independence (COI) - with wide-ranging powers to control all independent govt functions such as: calling elections; authorise MP's expenses and incomes; run elections, conduct all independent inquiries/investigations, House Speaker, , run the Reserve Bank and IRD, and fund all private legal expenses and operate the Human Rights Commission.
8. FAIR Elections - by abolishing MMP in favour of a 100% proportional party vote for the legislature and a preference vote for the President, Supreme Court Judges and the Chief of Independence; any citizen must be able to run as a candidate for President/Supreme Court/COI or form a political party without restrictions; and all candidates/parties who agree not to raise their own funds should receive publicly-funded campaign finance.
9. ZERO income tax or GST - replaced by a simple 10% land tax and Govt control of the money supply.
10. A National Insurance Cooperative (NIC) so everyone can afford fair and reliable health insurance
11. 100% publicly funded Legal Services so we all receive justice, not just the rich.
12. Better Public Infrastructure 100% publicly owned/controlled, environmentally friendly and well-run.
13. An end to Wasteful Local Councils because bylaws and city services can be delivered equally and more efficiently on a national scale for everyone.
Step 1: Constitution Reform
As a NZ citizen, you need your say on your non-negotiable rights and freedoms, the make-up of your government and how you want to elect it. NZReform will initiate nationwide consultations and those items which prove popular will be put to referendum for approval by no less than 66% of voters. Any future amendments would also require a 66% majority in public referendum. Read more...
Step 2: Election Reform
To ensure a level playing field, any and all restrictions on NZ citizens who wish to run as a candidate or form a political party in New Zealand must be abolished. In addition, any political party or candidate who agrees to not accept donations must be eligible for public campaign financing. Local Government must be abolished and replaced by a local bodies who simply represent their people to central government while their existing powers of taxation and local regulation should be transferred to the central government where they could be carried out cheaper and more effectively on a nationwide scale. This would mean an end to rates and municipal services managed on a nationwide basis. Elections for the four major parts of government - Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and Chief of Independence - must be made fairer. Election of a 100-member Legislature would be via a single national proportionally-representative party vote with a representation threshold of 1%, whereas the Executive (President), Supreme Court Judges and Chief of Independence can all be elected via national preference voting. This is where voters rank candidates from first to last, the highest polling "first preference" choices above 66% immediately being declared the winner, otherwise second, third and successive preferences are added to the first, until the highest polling candidate above 66% is inevitably found. Read more...
Step 3: Monetary Reform
Establishing a government-run Kiwibank as the only bank in NZ, while preventing it from giving financial credit, would create a stable, efficient, economy-wide $NZ transaction platform which is immune to credit shocks and liquidity crises. Credit for private and business needs - the lifeblood of economic growth - can be more than capably raised using NZX-traded asset backed securities (ABS). Such securities are already the dominant method of financing for residential mortgages and corporate financing in the US and other major economies. Adapting ABS to be used to all other forms of credit needs in the economy is simply a matter of removing commercial banks as an avenue of credit and therefore requiring that new types of ABS appear to satisfy unmet credit needs. There is nothing new in this strategy and it has already been shown ant any kind of credit can be supplied through the use of ABS. Steady increases in the money supply are needed to maintain a steady low inflation rate. Low inflation rates are considered by most economists to be a key factor in promoting long-term economic growth. Steady low inflation rates can be easily achieved under this proposed Monetary Reform through Kiwibank depositing new debt-free money into government's bank account which is then spend into the economy in the form of infrastructure, defence, law enforecement, and investments into our economy and environment. tThe best result of this method is that by using new money to pay for these services, the need for income taxes and GST is greatly reduced - by more that 33%! Read more...
Step 4: Tax Reform
Eliminating Income Taxes and GST and replacing them with a single 10% Land Tax would be simpler and more efficient. Once collected, the Land Taxes could then be immediately redistributed back to citizens in the form of a Universal basic Income (UBI). This UBI would eliminate the need for government to spend any money on health, education or welfare because everyone would already be able to cover these costs. A 10% land Tax would be levied annually on the ‘unimproved value' of each property in NZ which means just the bare land value excluding any buildings or development. Under such a system, only land owners pay taxes so those who are renting would not pay any tax to the government. Any residential home owner would easily be able to afford their own land taxes because their UBI would be easily enough to cover this plus other basic necessities. This is because while the Land Tax would be collected off residental, commercial, industrial and government lands - the money collected would only be redistributed back to citizens on an equal basis. Therefore each person will receive much more back than they wouyld pay on a median-priced house. Land taxes would also act as a natural counterbalance spelling an end to speculative housing bubbles because rising house prices would eventually be pulled back by rising land taxes. Read more...
Step 5: Policy
All pieces of legislation passed by the legislature must be consistent with the constitution. The roles and responsibilities of the President, Judiciary and Chief of Independence would be specifically prescribed in the constitution and monitored and challenged in a constitutional court. The Legislature will have no ability to influence the actions of the Executive except via altering the overall level of the executive budget. Our views on how the Executive (President) should achieve its goals ca nbe found here.