John Shewan’s report is here. He outlines four options:

Option 1 Some increase in information required to be disclosed by foreign trusts (details of settlor and beneficiaries as listed in trust deed).

Option 2 Significant increase in information required to be disclosed (details of settlor, persons with effective control, non-resident trustees, beneficiaries, trustees, trust deed) coupled with an annual return, expanded application of the AML laws and a register of foreign trusts, searchable (but not by the public).

Option 3 As for 2, but foreign trust register is publicly available.

Option 4 Amend the foreign trust tax regime to repeal the exemption from tax on foreign source income.

Shewan recommends Option 2. His conclusions are:

The Inquiry concludes that the existing foreign trust disclosure rules are inadequate. The rules are not fit for purpose in the context of preserving New Zealand’s reputation as a country that cooperates with other jurisdictions to counter money laundering and aggressive tax practices.

The Inquiry considers that a significant increase in information disclosed when a foreign trust sets up, annual reporting and increased enforcement, will satisfactorily address the issues identified. Banning foreign trusts or removing the current tax exemption is not considered to be necessary or justified.

The full report is 136 pages long.

No doubt Andrew Little will still insist that all foreign trusts should be banned, as part of his party’s efforts to make up policy on the hoof.

The Herald reports:

Matt LeBlanc has threatened to quit as Top Gear host if Chris Evans is not sacked.

Reports suggest that the former Friends actor is becoming increasingly frustrated with how rude his co-presenter is with the staff on set and has told producers that they can no longer work together.

The revelations are said to have rocked the BBC and could leave them having to pick between the pair, with filming for the second series due to start in September.

A show source said: “The big question now is who goes and who stays.”

Almost everyone says LeBlanc is the strongest host followed by Sabine. Yet Evans is the main host. How would it look if they dropped him?

The Herald reports:

A commuter rail link to Auckland Airport – which could slash travel times to the international gateway – has been dumped in favour of trams or buses.

The scrapping of the heavy rail connection is a U-turn by the New Zealand Transport Agency, which last year said it was “extremely committed to providing a rail link connecting the airport and the city”.

Auckland Transport (AT), which has favoured rail to the airport as a high priority, meets today to decide if it will endorse the agency’s position.

Road travel typically takes about an hour from the city centre to the airport. Commuter rail could cover the 20km journey in 35 minutes.

This isn’t a surprise as the cost would have been many billions.

However the status quo is pretty appalling. I can’t think of any other major city where the route from the airport to the CBD goes through a residential suburb like Auckland does.  Hopefully the completion of the motorway network will make a difference though. Last time I had an early morning flight to Auckland it took around two hours to get to the CBD!

Lord Ashcroft blogs the findings of his exit poll of over 12,000 voters. The findings include:

• 57% of AB (managers, professionals) voted to remain while 64% of C2DE (working class) voted to leave
• 58% of Conservatives voted to leave, 37% of Labour voters, 30% of SNP voters, and 96% of UKIP voters
• Over 20% made their mind up in the last week
• Voters thought leaving the EU would bring a better immigration system, improved border controls, fairer welfare system, better quality of life and the ability to control their own laws
• 43% of Conservative Leave voters want Boris as Leader. Among Conservative Remain voters 28% want Therese May.
• 82% of those with no formal education voted to leave while only 36% of those with a higher degree voted to leave
• Only 48% of those in work voted to leave and 57% of those not in work (retired etc) voted to leave
• By religion support for leave was Christians 58%, Jewish 54%, Sikh 52%, Buddhist 49%, None 45%, Hindu 30%, Muslim 30%
• Only 30% thought Leave would win

Stuff reports:

The head of New Zealand’s biggest car company says the future will see nobody owning a motor vehicle – just sharing them.

Toyota New Zealand managing director Alistair Davis made the prediction at the media launch of a new Toyota Corolla hybrid in Manawatu.

“I foresee a future where there will be MaaS (Mobility as a Service) everywhere,” he said. “Instead of people buying cars, the vehicles will be shared and the drivers will be billed monthly for car usage and road user charges.”

In fact the change is already happening on a rapidly increasing scale, Davis said. Car-sharing initiatives such as Zipcar in USA, DriveNow in Europe, and Uber in many parts of the world are gaining traction – Uber is now completing five million rides a day.

I’d happily not own a car so long as I can get access to one within say half an hour or so. The business models are not quite there, but are coming.

Taxis and even Uber are too expensive, especially for longer distances. And rental cars have a minimum hire of a day so are no good for shorter trips. Once we get driverless cars, I think the business model will follow.

Research is proving that car-sharing is a far more efficient way of vehicle use, Davis said. At present the average vehicle spends 95 per cent of its time not being used, whereas car-sharing initiatives and autonomous driving would see them used at least 60 per cent of the time.

Far more efficient.

Amazing to see the contempt so many in UK have for their fellow citizens. Rather than accept the referendum result, and the fact it was by a decisive margin, they are rolling out:

• 52% of British are racist
• Older citizens shouldn’t get a vote
• The working class are stupid and were fooled

We also see Stuff reporting:

Just days after voting to leave the European Union, more than 2 million Britons and UK residents had signed a petition calling for a second vote, forcing lawmakers to at least consider a debate on the issue.

Parliament has to consider a debate on any petition posted on its website that attracts more than 100,000 signatures.

The proposal, posted before the June 23 referendum, said the government should hold another plebiscite on EU membership if the support for Leave or Remain in a referendum was less than 60 percent in a turnout of under 75 percent of eligible voters.

In other words they want an elite minority to be able to keep everyone else in the EU against their will.

Mind you the way they have worded it, the result would actually be endless referendums as neither side is likely to ever get 60%.

Tim Blair shows other petitions trying to overturn results people don’t like 🙂

The Herald reports:

The suspended Auckland University student who emailed an offer of sex to her lecturer continued to send provocative emails.

Last week the Herald on Sunday revealed a 30-year-old physics student had been suspended after being found guilty of sexual harassment. The student said she emailed her lecturer in March asking: “Would you like to have sex in Bali?”

The Herald on Sunday has chosen not to name the student or the lecturer. More emails detail how the lecturer responded, rejecting the mature student’s advance.

“You wrote not to worry about crafting a reply, but I just want to confirm that my only interest is for you (and all the other students enrolled in [class name withheld] for that matter) to succeed academically.”

Within an hour of the lecturer’s first reply, the student sent the man another email: “You would deny that there was some strong chemistry?

“Not that you’d move to act on it, obviously not, but you mean you didn’t actually think of me at all?” she wrote. “It’s perfectly fine that you chose not to act on it as a teacher and as a married person. That’s your choice, of course.”

The lecturer responded again, this time with a warning.

“This communication is highly inappropriate and I wish it to stop with this email. Our interactions will be limited to the academic side of [class name withheld], and I have NO interests in any other forms. If that turns out not possible, you force me to report these matters to the appropriate channels in the university.”

The student fired back, telling the man she felt his reaction was “threatening” and made her feel like “expressing a crush on someone is some great and inappropriate violation”.

This is clearly inappropriate. The married lecturer has said he has no interest, and she is trying to get him to put in writing that he is attracted to her. No means no.

A good lesson to never believe one side of the story until you hear the other.

The Guardian reports:

More than half of the Labour shadow cabinet is expected to stand down on Sunday in a major coup against Jeremy Corbyn, triggered by the result of the EU referendum and the leader’s decision to sack Hilary Benn.

Loyal members of shadow cabinet told the Guardian they were writing their resignation letters after Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, stepped down on Sunday morning.

A Labour source said Alexander’s decision to resign in the wake of Benn’s dismissal would prove hugely significant, because unlike the shadow foreign secretary she was a more “loyal and pragmatic” member of the Corbyn team.

“She is seen as a moderate, practical and pragmatic voice,” they said. “Hilary always had a problem with Jeremy. Now that Heidi’s gone, most of the shadow cabinet will step down. He can’t just replace those positions because other frontbench ministers won’t step up to the roles.”

Corbyn has so little support in his caucus that his replacement shadow cabinet members will have to be what are known as the D team.

Leaked internal Labour party polling of people who voted for Labour in 2015 reveals that nearly a third (29%) would support a different party if a general election was held today.

It shows that just 71% of those who voted for Ed Miliband’s party in May last year say they would vote Labour now, and this drops further – to 67% – among working and lower middle-class C2DE voters.

A Labour source said: “MPs and members were worried about their prospects at the next election under Corbyn, but thought they had four years to turn things around. Now many fear they may have just four months if a snap election is called, so know they must act now to change the leader.”

An election within the next year is very likely, and Labour MPs know they’ll do even worse than in 2015.

The Washington Post reports:

Donald Trump has revised his proposed ban on foreign Muslims, with spokeswoman Hope Hicks saying Saturday that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee only wants to ban Muslims from countries with heavy terrorism. …

This firm new position is a dramatic deviation from those Trump took on Dec. 7, when he called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” The next day Trump said the ban would be “temporary” and have a series of exceptions, including ones for dignitaries and athletes. More recently, Trump has said that the ban and all of his policy proposals are merely suggestions open to negotiation.

This is almost a complete u-turn. If Trump gets elected, who knows what he would actually do as President. He might ban immigration from any countries without a Trump hotel.

The Herald on Sunday editorial:

Retirement used to be synonymous with receiving National Superannuation. Not any more. New Zealanders can still collect National Super at age 65 but, as we report today, nearly 40 per cent of those reaching that age now continue working. We have one of the highest rates of employment in the OECD for people aged 65-69, exceeded only by Iceland, South Korea and Japan. Why is this?

One reason is the health of people of pension age today. We report that NZ Health Surveys have found 88.5 per cent of New Zealanders aged 65-74 rate their health as “good” or better, which is virtually the same as the proportion of all adults.

In other words, we feel as well in our late 60s and early 70s as we ever have. And if we are enjoying working we carry on, pocketing a pension of $385 a week (or $592 on the married rate) in addition to our earnings.

It is the generosity of that arrangement that probably accounts for our high placing in the OECD. In places such as Australia, senior citizens are just as healthy as here, can look forward to living just as long as we do and probably enjoyed their career just as much as we did.

But maybe when they reach the qualifying age they have to choose whether to continue working for a living or taking the pension. Maybe we should, too.

So long as the administrative costs of any means test was a small proportion of the revenue it saves, that is what I would do. If you are earning $100,000 a year still you don’t need a welfare benefit!

Stuff reports:

MP Marama Fox walked off the set of The Nation this morning after calling a spokesman for big tobacco a “peddler of death”.

She told Imperial Tobacco spokesman Dr Axel Gietz: “You make billions of dollars every year profiting off misery and death. You are a peddler of death.”

Before getting up and walking out, she said: “I’m not going to listen to you. I think you should crawl back into the hole that is reserved for corporate executioners.”

During the debate, Fox likened Gietz to “Dr Goebbels” – referring to Joseph Goebbels, the head of propaganda during Adolf Hitler’s rule in Nazi Germany.

Gietz – who is German – said the attack was a first for him.

“I get called a lot of names,” he said. “What happened to me this morning, that was a first.”

“Yes, I get called names, but you know what, my experience is it doesn’t help to do a tit for tat. I try to do the voice of reason. I try to put forward my arguments.”

If you are incapable of making a sound argument, you call your opponent a Nazi. Very embarrassing that an MP thinks this is acceptable.

Better than for the UK election but overall still not great.

First let’s look at the polls of polls. None predicted Brexit, let alone by 3.8%. Their summaries were:

1. The Economist – tie
2. HuffPost – Remain +0.5%
3. Elections etc – Remain +1.2%
4. Telegraph, FT, Number Cruncher, Britain Elects – Remain +2%
5. What UK thinks – Remain +4%

And the individual polls:

1. TNS – Leave +2%
2. Opinium – Leave +1%
3. Survation/IGG – Remain +1%
4. YouGov – Remain +2%
5. Ipsos Mori – Remain +3%
6. ORB – Remain +7%
7. ComRes – Remain +8%
8. Populus – Remain +10%

So TNS did best and many well out. The only two to predict leave were both online polls, not phone polls. The phone polls are bolded and online polls in italics

Stuff reports:

More than one in four households are contributing nothing to New Zealand’s tax take.

A table from Finance Minister Bill English’s office shows 663,000 households – or 40 per cent – receive more in tax credits and other benefits than they pay in tax. Thousands more are neutral contributors, or are close to it.

A timely reminder how generous a welfare system we have.

Here’s how the 12 regions voted in order of support for Leave:

1. West Midlands 59.2%
2. East Midlands 58.5%
3. North East 58.0%
4. Yorkshire & Humber 57.7%
5. Eastern 56.5%
6. North West 53.7%
7. South West 52.6%
8. Wales 52.5%
9. South West 51.8%
10. Northern Ireland 44.3%
11. London 40.1%
12. Scotland 38.0%

So nine of the ten regions of England voted to leave – all except London.

UPDATE: Also interesting to look at it just in terms of the margin to leave, as not all regions the same size. They are

1. West Midlands +548,512
2. East Midlands +442,443
3. Eastern +431,751
4. Yorkshire & Humber +422,639
5. North West +267,905
6. North East +215,508
7. South East +176,247
8. South West +166,692
9. Wales +82,225
10. Northern Ireland -91,265
11. Scotland -642,869
12. London -750,287

USA Today has a list of salaries for US Governors.

The highest paid is Pennsylvania at $190,823 and the lowest Maine at $70,000 where the Governor’s wife works as a waitress to supplement their income.

This reminds me that the Mayor of Auckland is paid a salary of (NZ)$259,500 putting them ahead of every US Governor (ignoring exchange rates for now). The Deputy Mayor gets $146,200 which is higher than 30 of the 50 US Governors.

It was amazing watching the results come in and as the small lead for Brexit remained and then started to grow, to realise that the peoples of the United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union. Until the votes were counted no one from the Prime Minister down knew what the outcome would be. The polls, the pundits, the experts, the media – none of them counted – just the votes of 33.5 million people – where each vote was worth no more or no less than any other.

It is rare the people get to make such momentous decisions. Normally they get to decide things indirectly through proxies such as MPs. But on such a fundamental decision, this was their decision.

Matthew d-Ancona wrote in the Guardian:

Before analysis, let us admit to awe: the sheer scale of the moment requires it. The word “historic” is deployed too lazily in political discourse. But it is entirely appropriate this morning. This is a hugely significant day in British (and European) history.

When a party loses an election, its soon-to-be-ex-leader rallies the troops and promises a different result next time. But no such option is open to the crushed chieftains of remain today. There is no “next time”.

This was a unique opportunity to seal Britain’s relationship with the European Union, or to end it. And the voters – at a high level of turnout – decided that it was time to go. They heard the warnings, listened to experts of every kind tell them that Brexit meant disaster, watched the prime minister as he urged them not to take a terrible risk. And their answer was: get stuffed.

So why did they vote for Brexit, despite all the warnings? I think there were three reasons – two major and one minor.

1. Democracy

The EU overall has been a force for good with many benefits for many people. However it is not what most would regard as a democratic government. The heart of democracy is that the people can sack a Government they have got weary of.  There was no real way for the people of Europe or the UK to sack the EU Government when they think it has got it wrong and needs to go. Without such a pressure release valve, discontent grows and grows.

The concept of an EU is good. The structure of the EU is bad. It may have worked when they had nine members, but not for 28.

Consider how unhappy we would be in NZ if our Government was not elected at the polls directly. Instead we each elected a local Mayor and Council (and all at different times) and all the Mayors got together and they decided who would make up the national Cabinet and Government to decide on our laws.  We would not stand for it.

You need to have the ability for the people to directly sack a Government, and effectively choose its replacement. It is that ability and need to be responsive to the public that makes a Government accountable.

2. Borders

The whole point of nation states is to have control of your borders and your population.  This is not racist or xenophobic. The elites who think it is, are out of step. You can be pro-immigration, but against uncontrolled immigration.

NZ has a good pro-immigration system. We set criteria for immigrants and if you have enough skills, education, wealth, prospects etc you can qualify to live here.

The UK as part of the EU has almost no control over who can live and work in the UK. 500 million people in the EU all have the right to move to the UK and work there if they wish to. Of course it also gives UK people the right to work and live in the EU – and that was a great right for many UK citizens.

Now again when the EU was nine countries, this might have been seen as a good trade off. But in an EU of 28 countries, with such a disparity in living standards, it was not.

Think of NZ again. We basically have an EU type agreement with Australia. Citizens of each country can live and work in the other. Not quite as good as the EU, because no guarantee of welfare eligibility.

But think if this arrangement was expanded beyond NZ and Australia. And it included all the Pacific countries who have much less developed economies (and hence many more people would want to live here). Think if it included all of Asia – that we have to take anyone from 27 other countries who choose to live here, regardless of their skills, education, experience, wealth or ability to support themselves. Do we think we would sign up for that?

Again you can be very pro-immigration but anti uncontrolled immigration.

3. EU regulations

A decade ago most of the angst against the EU was the endless regulations coming from Brussels that were ridiculed and resented. However I think this was a minor factor when it came to the vote. The Tories in 2005 campaigned on these, and lost. While people agreed with them, they didn’t think it was as important as issue as the economy, the NHS, schools etc. For the hard core activists, this was red meat, but less important to the majority of the public.

For the majority it was about being independent, being able to sack your Government and being able to control your borders.

The Telegraph reports:

David Cameron has resigned as Prime Minister after Britain voted to leave the European Union.

It followed a turbulent night with Remain campaigners quietly confident until the early hours when results from Newcastle and Sunderland showed better than expected returns for the Brexit camp. …

With the Leave campaign securing 52 per cent of the vote, Mr Cameron addressed the nation in an emotional speech outside 10 Downing Street to announce that he would be stepping down.

Statements are expected to be made by Sinn Fein and the SNP later today calling for a breakaway from the Union.

The end of David Cameron’s political career barely a year after he had the huge triumph of winning a majority between all expectations.

It may also be the end of the United Kingdom as Scotland is quite likely to secede and Northern Ireland less likely.

And possibly the beginning of the end of the European Union in its current form.

Less significantly Jeremy Corbyn may be toast also.

Well Leave is doing better than expected and is currently leading by around 4%. However many London areas yet to report and they are expected to vote remain.

Only prediction from me at this stage is it will be very close.

UPDATE: I think Leave may have done it. Their lead is now over 700,000 and growing. Not certain but would need some large margins for Remain in remaining areas to pull that back.

UPDATE2: BBC and ITV have called it for Brexit. Today is UK Independence Day.

Doubt Cameron will survive even a year.

Auckland Future have announced:

Graham Lowe, highly respected former rugby league football coach and administrator, is to contest the Albany ward for Auckland Future in the upcoming council elections. He will join current Upper Harbour local board chair, Lisa Whyte as the second Auckland Future candidate.

Lowe coached the New Zealand Kiwis in the 1980s including New Zealand’s first win over Australia in 12 years in 1983. He went on to coach Wigan in their first championship win in 27 years during the 1986-87 British Rugby Football League competition.

According to Auckland Future chairman, Peter Tong, Graham brings a wealth of leadership experience to the team.

“We are delighted Graham has chosen to serve the city after such a distinguished career in rugby league coaching and administration. Decades of sport leadership can only benefit the working of Council at the governance level,” he said.

Graham said he was entering local body politics because the city needed strong leadership and a united team and he strongly supported Auckland Future’s aim to secure a centre right majority on Council.

“Ratepayers need to know what they are voting for and in Auckland Future they will get a team of councilors who want to cap rates, eliminate wasteful expenditure and work together collaboratively as a team. For the North Shore our first priority is to see Penlink brought forward as a matter of urgency.

Great to see two great candidates for Albany. Auckland needs candidates who will not vote for 9.9% rates increases.

The Guardian reports:

Doctors will try to persuade ministers at Westminster, Holyrood and Stormont to introduce an opt-out system for organ donation to prevent 1,000 deaths a year because of organ shortages.

The British Medical Association will lobby the three parliaments to follow the lead set by Wales, which in December introduced presumed consent for organ retrieval. Under this system people who die in hospital are presumed to have consented to their organs being used for transplantation unless they have expressly indicated otherwise.

Great to see UK doctors voting for an organ donation system that will save more lives.

In NZ sadly some doctors seem to be against even an opt in system. You may have opted in by ticking your wish to donate on your drivers licence, but NZ doctors say they will refuse to even look at what your wishes are unless a family member ask them to.

I am mystified at how NZ doctors have ended up in such a different place to their UK counterparts.

Stuff reports:

The Government has rejected parts of a damning report into its handling of an inquiry into leaks from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Ombudsman Ron Paterson has told the Government it should compensate a former top diplomat whose career ended in tatters after he was targeted by the inquiry, which was instigated by the State Services Commission.

He has also recommended a formal apology.

The 2013 inquiry has already cost taxpayers as much as $1 million, including lawyers costs and fees paid to the woman who headed it, Paula Rebstock. 

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie said on Thursday he did not agree with some of Paterson’s findings and Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully stood by comments made at the time the inquiry was released.

McCully said the Ombudsman’s review criticised the steps taken in assessing the responsibility of particular individuals for “some very unprofessional behaviour” – but did not dispute that those behaviours occurred.

“My statement, made at the time of the release of the Rebstock report, referred to unprofessional and disreputable conduct but did not name any individuals. My statement was undoubtedly correct.”

The 2013 inquiry headed resulted in senior diplomats Derek Leask and Nigel Fyfe  being singled out , despite evidence the leaks that sparked it originated from within the State Services Commission itself. The person responsible cannot be identified because of suppression orders.

While they were not named in the State Services Commission-ordered inquiry, Leask and Fyfe were easily identifiable and their conduct was publicly  criticised by the State Services Commissioner and Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully after personal emails were published revealing their opposition to restructuring of the ministry.

I make no comment on Leask and Fyfe specifically but there was definitely some disgraceful behaviour within MFAT at the time. The lowlight being calls being made directly to Phil Goff from an MFAT conference room.

In a statement, Leask said the 2013 findings against him and other MFAT staff had been rubbished by the Ombudsman.

“It is good to have the slur on my reputation removed. Today’s findings by the Ombudsman go beyond the vindication of my actions. The Ombudsman’s report suggests that the 2012/2013 SSC investigation was out of control from start to finish.”

Leask, a former deputy secretary of foreign affairs and New Zealand’s high commissioner in London, said It was a matter of great public concern that the SSC acted in the way it did.

In a statement, Rennie said he did not agree with all elements of the Ombudsman’s findings, in particular that in making findings relating to the investigation being outside its terms of reference.

But  he accepted that the way in which the investigation dealt with Leask “could have been better”.