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The events of last Friday were unfolding as this column met its deadline.
Needless to say a mixture of relief and grief emerged.
Our hearts ache for Coral, her parents, siblings and wider family.
Our respect for the spirit of community became more solid by the massive display of help and care offered during this ordeal to date.
Admiration for the leadership, grit and determination of Detective Inspector Rod Drew and his stoic team goes without saying.
A grateful thanks to a nation whose response has been uplifting and appreciated.
There will be questions yet to be answered but this we know, all efforts will be made to address them.
Rural Affairs Minister Jim Sutton is seeking feedback on proposals to clarify and enhance the legal situation relating to public walking access over private land, along riverbanks and the foreshores of lakes and the sea.
The Government has organised a series of public consultation meetings and hui around New Zealand following the recent report of the Land Access Ministerial Reference Group.
The consultation will be an opportunity for anyone to tell the Government their views on walking access to land.
The Ministerial Reference Group found that the current law and institutional arrangements are inadequate to meet public expectations for access in today's society.
It found that there is a lack of clarity and a gap between expectations and understanding of those seeking access and those providing access to recreational areas - particularly where it involves crossing private land.
The common belief by most New Zealanders is that the Queen's Chain gives us the legal right to access rivers, lakes and the sea. The reality is that there are many wilderness areas and parts of rivers and the seashore that people cannot get access to because of the ad hoc legal situation around the country.
Some members of the former Land Access Ministerial Reference Group, including the former Chairman John Acland, will attend the meetings to explain the group's proposals.
The proposals include ideas such as the formation of a New Zealand Access Strategy, with five objectives to:
- Strengthen leadership, to provide direction for, and coordination of, access arrangements nationwide;
- Provide greater clarity and certainty of access by locating and publicising what is acceptable and where it may occur;
- Affirm the validity and embrace the ethos of the Queen's Chain by providing mechanisms for its promotion and enhancement;
- Encourage negotiated solutions for access across private land; and
- Find ways to improve current legislation provisions for access.
This is about securing access to the outdoors in the long term but the report does not set out Government policy. It is a separate issue from the Government's current consultation on New Zealand's foreshore and seabed.
Public meetings in or near Wairarapa are as follows: 10 October, Napier; 17 October, Masterton; and 22 October, Palmerston North.
Further information on the Reference Group's report and public meetings is available from MAF, (04) 474 4380, or on the website at: www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/rural-nz or email helen.avery@maf.govt.nz
Small businesses are as crucial to New Zealand's economy as rain is to farmers and sprigs are to All Blacks forwards.
That importance is underscored by a report that says if small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are defined as businesses employing fewer than 20 people, these account for 97 percent of New Zealand firms. They employ 43 percent of employees and contribute 39 percent of this nation's GDP.
This Government is serious about recognising the importance of SMEs and is working in partnership across a range of areas to make life easier and help them flourish.
As part of that work, the Government has released a discussion document entitled "Making tax easier for small businesses". The document is the result of extensive research carried out by Inland Revenue and contains a number of proposals.
Helping small businesses with PAYE is the first major proposal. If the proposal goes ahead, the Government would offer a subsidy to provide the help that payroll agents can give to firms with small number of employees - say, up to five. Some 87 percent of New Zealand firms have five or fewer employees.
Aligning provisional tax and GST payments is the next major proposal. Provisional tax would be paid with GST, which for many businesses would mean more frequent but smaller provisional tax payments. Related to this is the proposal to base provisional tax payments on GST turnover. If provisional tax and GST payments were aligned, businesses could then choose to base their provisional tax payments on a ratio of their GST turnover. This would help businesses with seasonal income or those having a lean year.
The final major proposal is to provide a discount for self-employed people who pay provisional tax in their first year of business. Self-employed people who make voluntary payments of provisional tax in their first year of business would be offered a 6.7 per cent discount for each dollar of tax paid in the first year.
The discussion document "Making tax easier for small businesses" is available at www.taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz and www.treasury.govt.nz.
Submissions close on 31 October.
That's all for this week.
Any comments on any matters raised in this column or other issues you might feel strongly about can be sent to me through email gbeyer@wise.net.nz or post to PO Box 913, Masterton.
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