DOCSLIB.ORG

Public Sector, Vol. 30, (4) 2008

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Public Sector, Vol. 30, (4) 2008 PUBLIC SECTOR Public Sector, Vol. 30, (4) 2008 Articles The changing nature of parliamentary practice Politics and administration Reflections on the partnership between the School of Government and the State services State-owned Enterprise governance News Fellowship and Distinguished Service Awards Submission IPANZ’s submission to the investigation into the Public Service recruitment and employment of Madeleine Setchell Publisher Institute of Public Administration New Zealand. P O Box 5032, Wellington, New Zealand. Phone +64 4 463 6940 Fax: +64 4 463 6939 PUBLIC Email: [email protected] The whole of the literary matter of Public Sector is copyright ©2007 – IPANZ Editor Allen Petrey SECTOR Layout Hettie Barnard Volume 30 Number 4 2008 ISSN 0110-5191 Editorial Office c/- The Publisher as above Contents Editorial Committee Articles Tom Berthold Ralph Chapman The changing nature of parliamentary practice Chris Eichbaum by David McGee .................................................................................................................... 2 Geoff Lewis Allen Petrey Politics and administration: some reflections on the ‘Setchell Affair’ (or Michael Reid boundary riding in the purple zone) Carol Stigley by Chris Eichbaum and Richard Shaw ................................................................................... 8 Advertising Reflections on the partnership between the School of Government and Jay Matthes the State services: where to from here? Phone: +64 4 463 6940 by Gary Hawke ....................................................................................................................15 Fax: +64 4 463 6939 State-owned Enterprise governance Email: [email protected] How should State-owned Enterprises be governed?How should State-owned Enterprises be governed? Scope How should State-owned Enterprises be governed? IPANZ is committed to promoting by Richard Norman ..................................................................................................... 36 informed debate on issues already signifi- cant in the way New Zealanders govern Improving board selection and development: lessons from the themselves, or which are emerging as issues private and public sectors calling for decisions on what sorts of laws by Karen S Martyn ...................................................................................................... 42 and management New Zealanders are prepared to accept. News IPANZ arranges seminars and workshops for people to debate these issues. Much of School of Government ................................................................................... 21 this debate is reflected in Public Sector. Awards .......................................................................................................... 46 Information for Authors See our web page at Book Review www.ipanz.org.nz/pub.html Kiwi Keith: A Biography of Keith Holyoake by Barry Gustafson Reviewed by Judy Whitcombe ............................................................................................ 45 Subscriptions The Institute welcomes both corporate and Obituaries individual membership and journal subscriptions. Please see the subscription Maurice (John) Belgrave DCNZM ............................................................... 47 form on the inside of the back cover. Sir George Robert Laking KCMG ................................................................. 48 The views published in Public Sector do not necessarily represent those of IPANZ or IPANZ’s submission to the investigation into the Public Service those of the authors’ employers. recruitment and employment of Madeleine Setchell .................................... 22 Public Sector Volume 30 Number 4 2008 1 Article The changing nature of parliamentary practice David McGee Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives (1974–2007) This article is an expansion of the lunch-time address David gave to the Institute in Wellington, 31 October 2007. Editor Some considerable time has past since I was asked to speak to parliamentary session extended from May/June to November/ the Institute. Since then my circumstances have changed and I December. The organisation of business through the session am to leave office as Clerk of the House preparatory to taking ranged from the leisurely to the frenetic. On meeting, Parliament up appointment as an Ombudsman. So my reflections on the would embark on a three- or four-week Address in Reply debate changing nature of parliamentary practice, especially in regard to during which all members would speak. This would be almost the impact of mixed member proportional representation immediately followed by the Budget and a further three-week (MMP) on select committees, take on something of the nature debate, again with all members participating. Apart from Budget of a valedictory address reflecting on how parliamentary practice legislation, little progress at all would be made on the legislative has evolved over the decades of my association with Parliament programme before the session was half over. from a ‘pre-modern’ to a ‘modern’ system. I will end by speculating whether, in some respects, even a ‘post-modern’ But, in contrast, the second half of the session was extremely epoch can be envisaged. pressurised. This was because the legislative programme was concentrated into it and because legislation that would not Thirty years ago when I was a junior parliamentary official I come into effect until the following 1 April or 1 July had to be accompanied a delegation to the European Parliament, then passed before the House rose for Christmas, since the House meeting in Luxemburg. Our host at a dinner given in honour would not sit or have time to attend to it closer to its com- of the delegation was one of the European Parliament’s Vice- mencement. In this way legislation that was not to take effect Presidents, Senator William Michael Yeats of Ireland (the son for another eight or nine months was regularly passed under of the famous poet, and who died recently). During my urgency. Urgency was a parliamentary staple. It was invoked parliamentary career I must have listened to thousands of virtually every day for the last two months of the session. It speeches but Senator Yeats’ remarks on the New Zealand also involved far more onerous consequences than does Parliament have remained with me. urgency today. Once urgency had been taken the House did not rise until the business concerned had been completed (or the According to Senator Yeats, if one wished to learn how the Government decided to pull out) or 12 midnight on Saturday British House of Commons worked in 1922, one should visit was reached. There were no meal breaks, for example. This, the Dail (the Irish Parliament); and if one wished to learn how combined with the fact that individual stages on bills were not the House of Commons worked in 1865, one should visit the subject to the time limits applying today and that members New Zealand House of Representatives. expected debates to last much longer than they do now, meant I have no idea where Senator Yeats drew this reflection from (he that it really was legislation by exhaustion. did not say) but I was struck by it and reminded of the saying All of this and much else changed, not with the 1996 about how many a true word is spoken in jest. introduction of MMP, but with reforms to procedure adopted At the time of Senator Yeats’ speech the New Zealand Parliament in 1985. Indeed it is 1985 that I would identify as the year in was in many respects unchanged in its practices from the previous which Parliament became ‘modern’. After 1985 what Senator century. This was especially so in the parliamentary sitting pro- Yeats had said about the New Zealand Parliament ceased to be gramme. This still operated on the basis of members assembling true. Today, although the British House of Commons and the in Wellington late in the year (after gathering in the harvest), House of Representatives are recognisably of the same genus transacting business in a continuous block of sittings, and then (and the same can be said of other Commonwealth legislatures) adjourning in late spring for six months or more. Thus the and an observer familiar with one would not find it difficult to 2 Public Sector Volume 30 Number 4 2008 find his or her way around the other, they do operate in quite different ways. Comprehensive select committee structure Before focusing on select committees, it is as well to remind First, a comprehensive select committee structure of general ourselves what changed in overall parliamentary organisation purpose committees was established for the first time. from 1985. Up to 1985 the Standing Orders required that a few named First, the reforms introduced a pre-announced programme of committees be established (Statutes Revision, Local Bills, parliamentary sittings. This comprises a sitting programme for Petitions etc). A number of other committees were also the coming year identifying the days on which Parliament will be regularly established by convention and in this way a structure sitting. This hardly sounds dramatic today, but it was in 1985. of committees covering most subject areas existed. But in 1985 When parliamentarians adjourned for the Christmas recess they the committees were reorganised into 13 subject committees did not know precisely on which date Parliament would that between them explicitly covered the field as far as govern- reassemble in the following year. (Though they could surmise ment activity
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958
    THE COMMONWEALTH TRANS-ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1955-1958 HOW THE CROSSING OF ANTARCTICA MOVED NEW ZEALAND TO RECOGNISE ITS ANTARCTIC HERITAGE AND TAKE AN EQUAL PLACE AMONG ANTARCTIC NATIONS A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree PhD - Doctor of Philosophy (Antarctic Studies – History) University of Canterbury Gateway Antarctica Stephen Walter Hicks 2015 Statement of Authority & Originality I certify that the work in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. Elements of material covered in Chapter 4 and 5 have been published in: Electronic version: Stephen Hicks, Bryan Storey, Philippa Mein-Smith, ‘Against All Odds: the birth of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958’, Polar Record, Volume00,(0), pp.1-12, (2011), Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print version: Stephen Hicks, Bryan Storey, Philippa Mein-Smith, ‘Against All Odds: the birth of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-1958’, Polar Record, Volume 49, Issue 1, pp. 50-61, Cambridge University Press, 2013 Signature of Candidate ________________________________ Table of Contents Foreword ..................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Rationing’ in New Zealand 1968-C.1980
    The “Ugly Sister of Welfare” The idea of health care ‘rationing’ in New Zealand 1968-c.1980 Deborah Salter Submitted for the Degree of MA in History Victoria University of Wellington November 2011 Abstract This thesis explores the influence of healthcare ‘rationing’ in New Zealand from 1968 to c.1980. Rationing is a term and concept drawn from health economics and the history of the idea will be traced as well as its influence. The influence of rationing will primarily be explored through case studies: the supply of specialist staff to New Zealand’s public hospitals, the building of hospitals (and specialist units in particular) and the supply of medical technology. This era has been selected for historical examination because of the limited attention paid to it in studies of the health service, and more generally, welfare histories of New Zealand. Often in these studies the 1970s is overshadowed by the period health of reform in the 1980s and 1990s. Contents Acknowledgements List of Acronyms Chapter One, Introduction p. 1 Chapter Two, The road to rationing p. 19 Chapter Three, Rationing and Specialist Treatment p. 44 Chapter Four, Specialist ‘Manpower’ p. 67 Chapter Five, Buildings and Technology p. 90 Conclusion p. 111 Bibliography p. 116 Appendices p. 124 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who have supported me in any way, large or small, whilst I was working on this thesis. I would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the Victoria University Masters Scholarship and the F.P Wilson Scholarship in New Zealand History. Thank you to Capital and Coast District Health Board who kindly granted me access to some of their archival holdings.
    [Show full text]
  • New Zealand's Income Tax in the Rollercoaster Muldoon Years: 1967-84
    New Zealand's Income Tax in the Rollercoaster Muldoon Years: 1967-84 Paper for Asia Pacific Economic and Business History Conference, Hamilton, New Zealand, 13-15 February 2014. Keith Rankin, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand 1 Introduction The period from 1967 to 1984 represented easily the most difficult external economic conditions faced by New Zealand since the Great Depression of the 1930s. New Zealand's terms of trade fell precipitously at the end of 1966, and generally declined for two decades (Figure 1). For all except three of the years 1967-84, one man – Robert Muldoon (later Sir Robert) was Minister of Finance in a National (centre-right) government. For the three years of centre-left Labour government – 1973-75 inclusive – he was Opposition Finance spokesperson. A chart of inter-sectoral balances is shown in Appendix 6. It shows the prevailing juxtaposition of New Zealand's current account and budget deficits from 1965 to 1985. For the most part, New Zealand's financial story was one of government deficits funded by overseas borrowing. Prime Minister Holyoake was clear that government-led development had priority use of overseas funds, especially borrowed funds (Gustafson 2007, p.326) These two decades were a transitional period of huge change for the New Zealand economy. Not least of the changes were to the income tax structure. Radically different in 1984 compared to 1966, there have been few significant changes in the 30 years since. The structure arising from Muldoon's 1982 Budget continues to prevail, with only the late-1980s' introduction of a comprehensive goods and services tax, and the related removal of marginal tax rates in excess of 40 percent, being the only further changes of significance.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights in New Zealand
    Acknowledgements: The New Zealand Law Foundation funded the three year research project and we are enormously grateful for their financial and moral support. We would like to thank the stakeholders who contributed to the research and to those experts who read individual chapters and provided feedback. We appreciate the work of Kyle Stutter of the New Zealand Human Rights Commission and Kirsty Whitby in the School of Social Sciences and Public Policy at AUT for money matters. Millie Wall patiently formatted the report and designed the cover. Heidi Jones and Anne-Marie Laure provided valuable research in the early stages of the project. Sir Geoffrey Palmer undertook the overall peer review and John Harvey proof read the report several times. Any errors of fact or grammatical imperfections are ours alone and will be corrected in web-based versions of the report. Contact details: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 1 Contents Summary of recommendations ............................................................................................. 9 Chapter One Human Rights ........................................................................................ 11 1 Introduction to human rights .................................................................................................. 11 1.1 A short history of the evolution and development of human rights in New Zealand. ... 12 1.1.1 1948 to 1968 – Period of inaction .................................................................................. 13 1.1.2 1968
    [Show full text]
  • Blood on the Coal
    Blood on the Coal The origins and future of New Zealand’s Accident Compensation scheme Blood on the Coal The origins and future of New Zealand’s Accident Compensation scheme Hazel Armstrong 2008 Oh, it’s easy money stacking carcasses in the half-dark. It’s easy money dodging timber that would burst you like a tick. yes, easy as pie as a piece of cake as falling off a log. Or being felled by one. extract from The Ballad of Fifty-One by Bill Sewell Hazel Armstrong is the principal of the Wellington firm Hazel Armstrong Law, which specialises in ACC law, employment law, occupational health and safety, occupational disease, vocational rehabilitation and retraining, and employment-related education. ISBN no. 978-0-473-13461-7 Publisher: Trade Union History Project, PO Box 27-425 Wellington, www.tuhp.org.nz First edition printed 2007 Revised and expanded edition printed May 2008 Acknowledgements The author would like to thank: Social Policy Evaluation and Research Linkages (SPEARS) funding programme for the Social Policy Research Award Rob Laurs for co-authoring the first edition Hazel Armstrong Law for additional funding to undertake the research Dr Grant Duncan, Senior Lecturer in Social and Public Policy Programmes, Massey University, Albany Campus, for academic supervision Sir Owen Woodhouse, Chair, Royal Commission of Inquiry into Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand (1969) for discussing the origins of the ACC scheme Mark Derby for editing the draft text Dave Kent for design and production DISCLAIMER The views expressed in this paper should not be taken to represent the views or policy of the Social Policy Evaluation and Research Committee (‘SPEaR’).
    [Show full text]
  • New Zealand Gazette Extraordinary
    No. 82 1943 THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY Published by Authority WELLINGTON, MONDAY, 12 DECEMBER 1960 Resignation of M embers of the Executive Council and of The Honourable Mabel Bowden Howard, holding a seat Ministers in the Executive Council and the office of Minister of Social Security; The Honourable John Mathison, holding a seat in the Executive Council and the offices of Minister of Trans­ His Excellency the Governor-General has been pleased to port and Minister of Island Territories; accept the resignation of : The Honourable Raymond Boord, holding a seat in the The Right Honourable Walter Nash, C.H., holding a seat in Executive Council and the office of Minister of Customs; the Executive Council and the offi ce of Prime Minister, and Minister of External Affairs, and Minister of Maori The Honourable William Theophilus Anderton, holding Affairs; a seat in the Executive Council and the office of Minister The Honourable Clarence Farringdon Skinner, M.C., hold­ of Internal Affairs. ing a seat in the Executive Council and the offices of Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Lands; Dated at Wellington this 12th day of December 1960. The Honourable Arnold Henry N ordmeyer, holding a seat By Command- in the Executive Council and the office of Minister of D. C. WILLIAMS, Official Secretary. Finance; The Honourable Henry Greathead Rex Mason, Q.C., hold­ ing a seat in the Executive Council and the offices of Members of the Executive Council Appointed Attorney-General, Minister of Justice, and Minister of Health; The Honourable Frederick
    [Show full text]
  • The Case Against an Australian Bill of Rights
    Don’t Leave Us with the Bill: The Case Against an Australian Bill of Rights Edited by Julian Leeser and Ryan Haddrick Don’t Leave Us with the Bill The Case Against an Australian Bill of Rights Edited by Julian Leeser and Ryan Haddrick Published by The Menzies Research Centre Limited RG Menzies House Cnr Blackall and Macquarie Streets BARTON, ACT 2600 ISBN 978-0-9806383-0-1 The Menzies Research Centre Limited is a company limited by guarantee ACN 067 379 684. The Menzies Research Centre is supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Department of Finance and Deregulation The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Directors or staff of The Menzies Research Centre. © 2009 The Menzies Research Centre Project management and production: QOTE Canberra (02) 6162 1258 iii Foreword THE RT HON SIR NINIAN ST EPHEN , KG, AK, GCMG, GCVO, KBE, QC he expression ‘a bill of rights’ has an immediate attraction to it; to be subject to such a measure seems at first sight inherently desirable, just the kind of legislative measure a freedom loving nation would Taspire to. Only with experience of the operation of such measures do doubts arise. The true measure of those doubts lies in the assumption, inherent in any such measure, that at a given moment in time it is possible once and for all to identify and declare, both for now and for the future, all those rights which citizens should desirably possess, secure in the knowledge that such a declaration will serve all future needs of the community.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Zealand Gazette 2251
    21 DECEMBER THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE 2251 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1954-Cancellation Wellington Central: Daniel Johnston Riddiford. of Registration of Industrial Union Westland: Patrick Blanchfield. Eastern Maori: Puti Tipene Watene. Northern Maori: Matiu Rata. PURSUANT to section 85 of the Industrial Conciliation and Southern Maori: Eruera Tihema Tirikatene. Arbitration Act 1954, it is hereby notified that the registration Western Maori: Iriaka Ratana. of the New Zealand Radio Officers Industrial Union of Workers, Registered No. 1922, situated at C.T.A. Building, Dated art Wellington this 20th day of December 1966. 109 Customhouse Qvay, Wellington, is hereby cancelled as J. V. MEECH, Clerk of the Writs. from the date of the publication of this notice in the (I.A. 72/2/3) Gazette. Dated at Wellington this 8th day of December 1966. H. G. DUNCAN, The Standards Act 1965-Amendment of Standard Specificatz'on Registrar of Industrial Unions, Department of Labour. ___;__, PURSUANT to the provisions of the Standards Act 1965, the Standards Council, on 14 December 1966, amended the under­ Members of the House of Representatives Elected-General mentioned standard specification by the incorporation of the Election amendment shown hereunder: Number and Title of Standard Specification Amendment PURSUANT to the Electoral Act 1956, I have received returns NZSS 1818: 1963 Small fusion-welded air reser- to the Writs issued on 26 October 1966 for the election of voirs for road and railway vehicles; being BS members of Parliament to serve in the House of Representa­ 3256: 1960 ...... ...... ...... ...... No. 4 (PD tives for the electoral districts hereinafter specified, and by 5326) the endorsement on those writs it appears that the under­ Application for copies of the standard specification so mentioned persons have been duly elected members for the amended should be made to the Standards Association of said districts, viz: New Zealand, Private Bag, Wellington C.
    [Show full text]
  • Government in New Zealand, 1940–511
    4 An Age of the Mandarins? Government in New Zealand, 1940–511 John R . Martin The passage of more than half a century allows us to view the period following the end of the Second World War until the 1950s genuinely as history. Research materials, principally in archives, are supplemented by official histories, and biographies, with a few interviews enriching the story. I have been struck by the number of leading public servants of the period who were still in office during the 1950s and 1960s and who influenced the public service in which I spent 35 years. I was privileged to have known a number of them. In this chapter, after sketching the political and economic situation in New Zealand in 1945, I identify two principal challenges – managing the economy and national development – facing the Labour Government led by Peter Fraser. I also examine changes in organising government business made after the National Government came to office late in 1949. I then describe briefly the state of the public service as New Zealand emerged from the war. I consider the role played by several prominent public servants – a team to set against the Seven Dwarfs – and reflect on what we know about their working relationships with ministers. In essence, the picture is, first, of a group of outstanding and long-serving public servants who worked very closely with Prime Minister Fraser and his deputy, Walter Nash, the minister of finance, through the war and afterwards. With the change of government in 1949, the close, personal and somewhat haphazard methods of working under Labour were succeeded by a more conventional (in the Westminster model) relationship between ministers and officials, conducted within a more formal machinery for the handling of Cabinet business – a change sought unsuccessfully by officials when the Labour Government was in office.2 1 In writing this chapter I have benefited greatly from discussions with Dr Brian Easton, Professor Gary Hawke, Sir Frank Holmes and Mr Noel Lough.
    [Show full text]
  • Kiwi Keith: a Biography of Keith Holyoake
    REVIEWS (BOOKS) 103 Kiwi Keith: A Biography of Keith Holyoake. By Barry Gustafson. Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2007. viii, 429pp. NZ price: $59.95. ISBN 978-1-86940-400-0. THIS IS A COMPREHENSIVE and eminently readable biography which will confirm the view of those who, like this reviewer, rate Keith Holyoake highly among New Zealand’s twentieth-century Prime Ministers. Keith Holyoake’s early life and career are covered briefly. His rural upbringing is not sentimentalized, and the early promise of his first period in Parliament is noted. I would have liked a little more on the beginnings of Holyoake’s relationship with Norma Ingram; she emerges through brief references as forceful and down to earth. There is a full discussion of the deal by which Holyoake secured his Pahiatua farm; the purchase price was not far short of a million dollars in today’s terms and Holyoake had to find only a sixth of it. Although not exactly improper, it is clear that Holyoake was not averse to mixing business and politics. His long association with A.E. Davy is also hard to reconcile with the image of the benign centrist. The discussion of the Holland administration and Holyoake’s part in it is a prelude to the long premiership. Holyoake was a successful and competent Minister of Agriculture, and his instincts in 1951 were a little more conciliatory than Sidney Holland’s and William Sullivan’s. I would have liked more on the broad approach of that administration; apart from Holland’s last disastrous year there is little on Holyoake as Deputy Prime Minister.
    [Show full text]
  • The Iron Rule of Political Contest 33 4 the Everyday Paradox 47 Conclusion to Part One 59
    With Respect Parliamentarians, officials, and judges too Mark Prebble Institute of Policy Studies First printed in 2010 Institute of Policy Studies School of Government Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600 Wellington © Institute of Policy Studies ISBN 978–1–877347–38–2 IPS 167 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without the permission of the Institute of Policy Studies. Copy editors: Belinda Hill and Victor Lipski Indexer: Diane Lowther Cover design: Milne Print Cover illustration: ‘Benefits of Good Government’ (detail, inverted); tapestry by Mark Prebble based on the painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti Printed by Milne Print To information and information technology staff in government agencies who ensure government websites have accessible and accurate information. Their efforts contribute to honesty and openness in the New Zealand government Contents Preface vii Contributors xi 1 Introduction 1 Part One: Principle, Contest and Clash: The basics Introduction to Part One 9 2 Constitutional Principles Come from History 11 3 The Iron Rule of Political Contest 33 4 The Everyday Paradox 47 Conclusion to Part One 59 Part Two: Parliament is Sovereign: Or so they say Introduction to Part Two 63 5 Who Makes the Law? 65 6 Who Is in Charge Here? 89 7 Who Makes Things Happen? 105 8 Who Controls Parliament? 119 Conclusion to Part Two 127 Part Three: Parliament in Action Introduction to Part Three 131 9 Making Governments 133 10 Making Laws 147 11 Funding Governments 159 12 Scrutinising Government 173 13 Representation 189 Conclusion to Part Three 207 v With Respect: Parliamentarians, officials, and judges too Part Four: Conclusion 14 Conclusion: Their parliament, and ours too 211 Afterword: A Summary 215 References 217 Cases cited 226 Index 227 vi Preface This book originated in a series of research papers and discussions convened by the Institute of Policy Studies in 2007.
    [Show full text]
  • The Five Phases of Company Taxation in New Zealand: 1840-2008
    The Five Phases of Company Taxation in New Zealand: 1840-2008 ANNIE CHO* I INTRODUCTION This article traces the history of the company income tax in New Zealand from 1840, through its various phases of development, to the modern form of the tax in 2008. A consideration of the taxation of companies also involves consideration of the tax treatment of their shareholders, because, although the company is at law a separate person, it is inextricably linked with its shareholders in an economic sense. As Oliver and Plunket have observed, "a company is not an economic entity in its own right, it is merely a vehicle through which individuals make their investments".' This article, therefore, focuses on the inter-relationship between the tax treatment of companies and their shareholders, and also explores the economic, social, and political reasons for particular changes in company taxation. Companies have made an important contribution to New Zealand's economic landscape, but surprisingly little has been published on the history of the ways in which they have been taxed. This article aims to go some way towards filling this gap in the literature. The history of company taxation in New Zealand falls into five distinct periods. The first phase was from 1840, when New Zealand became a British colony, to 1890. As a new colony, New Zealand adopted the tax system of New South Wales, relying on customs and excise duties. This was the country's first tax system and lasted until 1844 when a tax on property and income was introduced. This was short-lived, however, and was repealed in 1845.
    [Show full text]