-
IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
Health Insurance premium to go up by 35%. Retard Sinkies are you happy now ?
- Thread starter A Singaporean
- Start date
They already charged that this year. That means another hefty increase coming up?
Lol, even ntuc hv excess of 2Bil , really greedy, where the money goes to,lol
So better to die asap or migrate so to stop paying forever increasing premium of Medishield Life!
New global account rules may be coming
In the early 1980s, New Zealand was on the brink of economic collapse. Two oil price shocks had saddled the country with high inflation, and the UK’s decision to join the European Economic Community a decade earlier had cut off access to a key export market. Successive governments had compounded the pain with a series of policy errors — throwing around subsidies, awarding inflationary pay deals and trying to control prices, while keeping interest rates too low and taxes too high. The result was soaring unemployment and mounting debts. No wonder some dubbed New Zealand the Albania of the South Pacific.
Yet over the remainder of that decade, New Zealand was transformed into one of the most prosperous countries in the world. A new Labour government took office in 1984 and embarked on a form of shock therapy that came to be known as “Rogernomics,” after Finance Minister Roger Douglas. The government removed exchange controls, slashed subsidies, privatized services and handed responsibility for setting interest rates to a newly independent central bank. New Zealand also introduced a different accounting approach throughout the public administration.
It is impossible to separate out the precise impact of each of these policies. But Ian Ball, a former senior Treasury official, professor of public finance management at Victoria University in Wellington, and one of the authors of Public Net Worth (Palgrave Macmillan, February 2024), says accounting reform was among the most consequential.
Accounting is notoriously dry stuff. But switching to an accruals-based approach used in the private sector, and away from the cash-based systems traditionally used by governments, forced departments to think long-term and maximize the efficient use of assets. This is especially relevant in the UK at the moment with the government on the cusp of major budget reform.
New Zealand Finance Minister Roger Douglas in 1985.Source: Fairfax Media Archives/Getty Images
To see what this means in practice, take the case of public sector pensions.
Under a cash-based system, the debt is accounted for when the pension is paid, which could be years in the future. The government has little incentive to make any provision for it.
But with accrual-based accounting, the cost of the pension commitment must be recorded as a liability when the benefit is earned. That led the New Zealand government in 2001 to establish a Superannuation Fund to pay for future pensions. Today, this quasi-sovereign wealth fund is regarded jealously by countries that wish they had something similar.
Yet over the remainder of that decade, New Zealand was transformed into one of the most prosperous countries in the world. A new Labour government took office in 1984 and embarked on a form of shock therapy that came to be known as “Rogernomics,” after Finance Minister Roger Douglas. The government removed exchange controls, slashed subsidies, privatized services and handed responsibility for setting interest rates to a newly independent central bank. New Zealand also introduced a different accounting approach throughout the public administration.
It is impossible to separate out the precise impact of each of these policies. But Ian Ball, a former senior Treasury official, professor of public finance management at Victoria University in Wellington, and one of the authors of Public Net Worth (Palgrave Macmillan, February 2024), says accounting reform was among the most consequential.
Accounting is notoriously dry stuff. But switching to an accruals-based approach used in the private sector, and away from the cash-based systems traditionally used by governments, forced departments to think long-term and maximize the efficient use of assets. This is especially relevant in the UK at the moment with the government on the cusp of major budget reform.
New Zealand Finance Minister Roger Douglas in 1985.Source: Fairfax Media Archives/Getty Images
To see what this means in practice, take the case of public sector pensions.
Under a cash-based system, the debt is accounted for when the pension is paid, which could be years in the future. The government has little incentive to make any provision for it.
But with accrual-based accounting, the cost of the pension commitment must be recorded as a liability when the benefit is earned. That led the New Zealand government in 2001 to establish a Superannuation Fund to pay for future pensions. Today, this quasi-sovereign wealth fund is regarded jealously by countries that wish they had something similar.
Similar threads
