So, evidence was published earlier this year (see previous post) that charging people $5 to pick up their prescribed medicine costs the health system more (in increased hospitalisations) than it brings in. So it's a no-brainer to abolish user-pays prescriptions, as the current government just did.

No sensible political party would campaign on putting that $5 charge back in place, right?

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132083751/budget-2023-national-vows-to-bring-back-5-prescription-fees-if-elected

Oh.

#Aotearoa #NZ #NZPolitics #Election2023 #PolicyNZ

@spraoi
> What would you do?

Provide people with low-carbon transport options so they can easily choose to get rid of their cars.

* high-speed, electric trains between all major population centres, like what they have in Japan and China

* Electric buses to every town or neighbourhood not served by trains

* Electric ferries in navigable waterways

All frequent and cheap.

* EV-only rideshare systems for all journies that can't be done by train, bus, or ferry

#PolicyNZ

@arudwick @evan

NORML have released their assessment of the drug policies put forward by NZ political parties for the upcoming election:

https://norml.org.nz/tokethevote-2023-your-cannabis-based-voting-guide/

The first few times I voted, this served as the canary in the coalmine. It takes both the intelligence and courage to publicly support drug law reform. My rule of thumb was that the party with the most progressive policy on this would be progressive in other areas too, and brave enough to say so.

#Election2023 #PolicyNZ #cannabis #NORML #TokeTheVote

It's easy to call government spending "wasteful" in the abstract. But could you honestly look a creative worker in the eye and tell them their salary is "waste"?

If you believe creative workers in Aotearoa...

"... deserve fair payment for their work"

... then you agree with the Greens, who want to...

"... ensure that all artists working on publicly-funded projects receive at least the living wage. They would also increase paid artist residencies..."

https://policy.nz/2023/party-vote/policies/media-culture-and-recreation

#PolicyNZ

Two simple way to reduce the likelihood of semiconductor storages *and* reduce the volume of e-waste we have to deal with.

1) Oblige vendors to guarantee N years of useful life for electronic goods, and advertise price-per-year of life alongside purchase price. This could reduce the wastage of semiconductors in disposable electronics, and help people avoid being ripped off by the designer landfill that's misleadingly marketed as being cheaper.

#PolicyNZ #semiconductors #EWaste #RightToRepair

If we want elections to produce governments that actually represent the interests of citizens, and respond to their needs and desires on an equal basis between elections, then we need to stop those policy auctions;

* only allow people - human individuals not companies or trusts - to make campaign donations

* limit how much each person can contribute per election, based on what the average person can realistically afford

@billbennett
@isaacfreeman @SlaneCartoons @Powareverb

#PolicyNZ

Chris Hipkins says Labour can't raise the income thresholds on the tax brackets at the moment, because reducing the tax take is inflationary:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/focusonpolitics/audio/2018887871/parties-navigate-fresh-tax-debate-ahead-of-no-frills-budget

I agree with the second part. As I said (upthread), they can raise the thresholds *without* reducing the tax take, or feeding inflation. They just need to make the super wealthy pay an effective tax rate that's at least as high as that of ordinary workers. Their Tax Working Group had all sorts of good ideas...

#PolicyNZ #tax

As for the student loan threshold, it needs to be almost doubled just to be higher than what we earn in a year working a 40 hour week, on the Living Wage ($54,800). Given the user-pays logic that it's supposed to reflect the higher wages tertiary qualifications attract, it probably needs to be higher than that.

(9/9)

#PolicyNZ

In summary, both the lower tax thresholds and the student loan threshold need to be raised, and pegged to a reliable metric that keeps them proportional (eg annual inflation, the average wage).

The second tax bracket should not be low enough to capture income from the benefit payments of people who aren't in paid work. Even the base rate for Jobseeker Support is enough to put single, childless person into the second bracket, and that's before accomodation supplement.

(7/?)

#PolicyNZ

A quick reminder to everyone from Aotearoa, or living here, you're invited to contribute to a policy brainstorm using the tag #PolicyNZ. Propose a policy you would have the next government enact, in as much detail as you can, including some detail on measuring outcomes to determine success or failure of the policy. Let's do what we can to focus the upcoming election campaign on policy changes that could improve our lives, not partisan conflict.

#Aotearoa #NZ #politics #NZpolitics #NZTwits

#PolicyNZ Give all households a baseline of free electricity every month, proportional to the number of people who live there. Metered charges for electricity can only be applied to usage above that baseline.

About 3/4 of the electricity generate in Aotearoa comes from hydro, geothermal, and wind:

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-statistics-and-modelling/energy-statistics/electricity-statistics/

The public are entitled to a dividend on the use of these natural commons, which electricity companies leverage for massive profits:

https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/127905584/power-company-profits-jump-60-as-customers-warned-to-prepare-for-hard-year

#Aotearoa #NZ

When politicians travel domestically on official business, ban them from flying unless their trip passes a high bar for being considered urgent, and make they pay 50% of their travel expenses from their own salaries. Then they might be motivated to work on and advocate for policy to improve the land transport options available in Aotearoa.

#PolicyNZ

#PolicyNZ

1) create a public register of professional lobbyists and their clients, and a database of their meetings with decision-makers.

2) "rules to ensure that contractors, senior public servants, and people appointed to government committees and boards must declare - or even remove - any commercial interest that might bias their decisions."

3) "reform the OIA so that there is proactive publication of advice and research provided to ministers."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/lobbying/486503/a-three-point-plan-to-clean-up-lobbying-and-vested-interests

#lobbying

"... we can restore balance going forward: by mandating the use of vendor-neutral, royalty free, open standards for all software procurement. In doing so, we would simply be applying the same prudence to software procurement that we do for procurement in almost every other industry. Having signed up for the D5 Charter, we'd be demonstrating that we've learned from the UK's sensible and bold example: they mandated open standards in 2014."

@lightweight

https://openstandards.nz/

#PolicyNZ

In an attempt to start doing something constructive about the problem discussed in this thread...
https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/109718322687020113

I invite everyone from Aotearoa, or living here, to contribute to a policy brainstorm using the tag #PolicyNZ. Propose a policy you would have the next government enact, in as much detail as you can, including some detail on measuring outcomes to determine success or failure of the policy.

#Aotearoa #NZ #politics #NZpolitics #NZTwits