Posts by chris
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Hard News: Kia kaha, Helen Kelly, in reply to Sacha,
Or calling a spade a spade
“Northland’s family wins full public funding for GW Pharma spray bottles containing CBD, THC, Ethanol anhydrous, Propylene glycol, and Peppermint oil at a an annual taxpayer cost of $16,000.”
Each 100 microlitre spray contains:
2.7 mg delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and 2.5 mg cannabidiol (CBD).
Each ml contains:
38-44 mg and 35-42 mg of two extracts (as soft extracts) from Cannabis sativa L., folium cum flore (Cannabis leaf and flower) corresponding to 27 mg delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and 25 mg cannabidiol.
Extraction solvent: Liquid carbon dioxide.
Excipient(s) with known effect: each 100 microlitre spray also contains up to 0.04 g ethanol.Harking back to Russell’s original post
Even when, as was the case in November when Pharmac’s Pharmacology Therapeutics Advisory Committee advised against extending the subsidy for Sativex, the advice is frankly misguided. The committee advised against the funding in part because of the risk of “diversion” of Sativex for recreational use. Sativex is an oral spray containing a 50-50 ratio of the two main cannabinoids, THC and CBD – and is thus a poor candidate for getting high. The idea that criminals might seek to misuse it when actual cannabis (which will get you high) is widely available is simply ludicrous. But that’s the nature of the environment we’re in.
Given the over-inflated price to the user despite the subsidy, Pharmac’s Pharmacology Therapeutics Advisory Committee might consider whether criminals will start manufacturing it – given the comparative ease and cheapness of production against something like Methamphetamine – saving money for the country and those in need while offering a substantially greater profit margin than any other substance on the black market.
Meanwhile New Zealand’s opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an exciting and valuable new industry slips out of our hands.
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from the comments
Pragmatistz 17 days ago
Hope the US drop a hellfire missile on his lap +28pretty radical aye
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http://www.studentloan.org.nz/blog/arrested-man-could-have-avoided-90000-in-interest
I’ve not checked whether the removal of interest on islanders’ loans in 2010 wiped all historical interest, in fact I doubt that was the case for interest accrued prior to his departure in 2004. The number of relevant acts and amendments since 1990 makes research incredibly time consuming.
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
If you’re overseas and earning less than $19k (student, volunteer work, on the local dole, bludging off parents), do you have to make repayments?
Unless you notify IRD of your circumstances and successfully apply for a hardship application you are annually obligated to pay at these rates and penalised an additional 9.3% of your obligation for failing to do so.
However the IRD will consider removing these obligations and wiping the penalties for those earning below the threshold, contingent of course on the borrower’s communication with the IRD.
It’s possibly also worth noting that many full time jobs overseas don’t pay 19k NZD. Among the various criticisms about defaulters is the thread in which their willingness to move abroad for such meager salaries is being called into question as an individual choice.
Alternatively you could earn $15,000 over the threshold for 5 or so years, get arrested at the airport and for just seven hours in a police cell and $5k + $2k lawyer enjoy the removal of $15,000+ worth of obligations.
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Hard News: Radio being made, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to izogi,
And sorry I didn’t have time to properly read your posts before posting that. One thing I’ve felt missing today, except from the IRD itself and Puna after the fact is the advice to contact the IRD to customise the arrangement to your circumstances.
It’s all very well these student leaders saying things like “harsh penalties would only scare people off.” or “there is a lot of concern out there in the student community especially the ones overseas that they won’t be able to get home,” but pragmatically the best thing they could be doing is strongly advocating that borrowers make contact – to alleviate the stress etc.
Having taken a leaf from Moz and Chris Waugh’s earlier posts on this thread, I contacted IRD before returning home, and yes they required screeds of documentation, and made me jump through hoops ’o fire, but I remained committed and was ultimately able to get a significant sum wiped off my loan, legitimately. So I’d imagine even though Puna is earning what I would class as well over the threshold, with a bit of persistance there would have been some dispensations available to him as was the case with his settlement. instead he's just become a pin-up boy for the political right.
Despite that, my passionate disdain for many elements of this lending system and its enforcement remains unwavering.
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to izogi,
This was a shocker Izogi from all concerned. I’ve got to hand it to whoever targeted this particular individual. Having been a long time proponent against certain elements of the student loan system there’s little question in my mind now that any chance of overhauling any of these issues has been dealt a major setback by the mess that was today’s reportage.
Over the course of the day the reported total debt ranged from $20,000 to $130,000.
Ngatokotoru Puna is reported to be on a salary of $30,000 or $35,000.
CITI – Cook Island Teachers Institute President Nga Puna said the last contact he had had with IRD was in 2010, to ask for a three-year holiday from payments. As the head of the maths department at Tereora he’s reported as claiming that he is only paid a $30,000 salary and up until 2010 he had been under the repayments threshold ($19,084). In the JC interview he points out that the starting salary for teachers there is $25,000. As you mention, and as he stated in the Campbell interview; that same year The Student Loan Amendment Bill made student loans interest free to borrowers who live in Niue, Cook Islands, Tokelau or the Ross Dependency for at least 183 consecutive days.
Broadcasting on RNZ, broadcaster John Campbell allowed Nga Puna’s claim that the annual repayment threshold income for New Zealand student loan repayments is $30,000 to go uncontested.
Inverviewing New Zealand University Students’ Association acting president Laura Harris, Jesse Mulligan asserts that Puna’s repayment obligation when he left for Rarotonga in 2004 would have been $2000 p/a (2:08) based on his understanding that the outstanding amount was $30,000. While the current obligation for oversease borrowers for loans up to $30,000 is $2000 p/a, in 2004 the obligation of overseas borrowers for loans greater than $15,000 was one-fifteenth of loan balance (loan balance/15) + Estimated interest (7%) (Massey University Centre for Public Policy Evaluation, 2004, p.37). So in 2004 Puna’s repayment obligation would have been closer to $4000.
In this same interview Laura Harris claims that being arrested at the airport is "not something that would happen to you if you had bank loans or court fines":
Travellers can be stopped leaving or entering at New Zealand Airports if they have unpaid fines.
Student leaders are reported as having criticised the arrest of a Kiwi student loan defaulter at the border as being "not fair". However when objectively compared to many underpaid foreign borrowers Puna’s case is ripe for prosecution under current legislation. As Moz correctly pinpointed over the page, it’s the compound interest that is the chief issue.
An IRD spokesperson said: “Our powers to arrest at the border are used as a very last resort, and would only follow strenuous efforts to contact the borrower to make repayment arrangements – these would typically involve making phone calls, sending correspondence via mail and email to the borrower, and attempting to contact them via any third parties such as nominated persons and/or any known employer]]
Ngatokotoru Puna
P. O. Box 108, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands – President: Email: nga.puna@tereora.edu.ck mobile: +682 79321 -
OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to izogi,
In that John Campbell interview, when first asked how much he earns Ngatokotoru states that the starting salary for his job is $25,000, then lacking the fundamental research they reach a consensus that the repayment threshold is $30,000 (2:10). later he states that he now earns $35,000. The student loan repayment threshold is currently $19,084. In 2008 it was $18,148. Ngatokotoru Puna was in the country for a two-week maths conference organised by the New Zealand Association of Mathematics. His trip was funded by the Cook Islands’ government.
First time listener. Not particularly impressed.
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to izogi,
I assumed that although he graduated in 2003 he may have begun studying much earlier and perhaps missed a year or two somewhere along the line. Considering his age (he’d have turned 18 in about ’94) and the fact that he would have been eligible for allowances from about 1999 onward I assume something less straightforward like this to be the case. Remembering also that this was an era when the Government was still lending to students who failed courses year after year. We only know how much he borrowed as opposed to the total cost – possibly supplemented by other sources.
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OnPoint: Budget 2013: Bringing Down the…, in reply to chris,
Well that was about as incorrect as it could possibly be, so Ngatokotoru Puna’s family paid a single annual repayment obligation. The updated RNZ report states
He had made an arrangement with the IRD, he said. "They said if I paid for this year's obligation [$5000] then they would wipe my 2011 to 2015 [obligations]."
I assume meaning the figures in these areas of the Late Payment interest/penalties and annual obligation/assessment columns of the spreadsheet were removed, and the incurred penalties on the obligations wiped. The current penalty rate for not meeting annual obligations is 9.3% of the annual unmet obligation. His compound interest remains at around $7400 p/a. It would be difficult to argue that this isn't a fairly generous deal for someone earning $21,000 over the repayment threshold, paying a mortgage on a $300k house, and who has made no effort to contact the IRD, but not everyone's uncle is a PM.
Sorry for the freak out; a culmination of years of anxiety about a debt that has felt insurmountable from the outset. In terms of killing a chicken to scare the monkey I guess they couldn’t have picked a better target (but one wonders if wiping the penalties was necessary) and this would appear to be the express purpose of the exercise given that:
in July 2015, IRD said it was looking into 20 student loan defaulters for possible arrest if they attempted to return to the country.
In contrast with 2,200 overseas-based student loan borrowers whose loan balances are over $100,000 and 84,562 defaulting borrowers.
