On
the back of yesterday’s finding that no government official is to be punished
for GCSB’s illegal spying activities, why am I wholly unsurprised that Gerry Brownlee, doing his damnedest to earn himself a nic of Brownshirt, doesn’t
understand the nature, nor the need, of a free press:
Cabinet Minister Gerry Brownlee has
questioned why political reporters' phone, email and swipe card records should
be protected when they frequently publish classified information or the private
records of others.
There
are reasoned debates, and pretty basic ones, as to why this is, Gerry, but I
prefer to let my readers experience the truth in the way novelists would do:
show not tell.
In
case Gerry suspects my veracity given the supposedly extreme nature of this
blog, by which I mean I believe in the blasphemy of an individual’s freedom
from himself, the below was published just two days ago
by a reputable, conservative firm that runs continuing education courses in
taxation for the legal and accounting professions. When reading the below
powers of IRD to raid YOU ask yourself are these powers those that would exist
in a free society, or that authoritarian one which existed behind the Iron
Curtain. The extract is long, but if you want to understand the central theme
of this blog, written from behind the Kiwi IRon Drape, and more importantly, the nature of the surveillance state you
live in, you will find this fascinating.
The Commissioner has recently published an Operational
Statement (OS 13/01) on the Commissioners search and seizure powers under
section 16 of the Tax Administration Act 1994. OS 13/01 seeks to provide
practical guidance to IRD officers and taxpayers when the Commissioner invokes
these powers.
That the Commissioner has immense powers under section 16 is
beyond debate. The Commissioner can
search any property at any time, and may remove and retain any and all
documents and records the Commissioner considers may be relevant to any tax
issues. Where however such search is to
take place at a dwelling, the Commissioner is required to obtain a District
Court warrant beforehand. In practise the Commissioner will obtain such a
warrant without notice to the taxpayer concerned, and so without the taxpayer having
an opportunity to present their case to the Court considering the issue of the
warrant.
The
scale of the Commissioner’s search and seizure powers presumably makes the
Police Commissioner’s eyes water with envy. In addition, the Commissioner
effectively answers to no one, save for the Courts where a taxpayer has
sufficient financial resources and is sufficiently brave to challenge the
Commissioner.
Taxpayers
have few rights when being raided,
and these are effectively restricted to claims of privilege or non-disclosure
in respect of documents seized. It is imperative that taxpayers who are being
raided obtain the services of a tax solicitor to represent them when the IRD
arrive. Usually a solicitor is able to agree a process applicable to the conduct
of the raid with the IRD officers whereby the Commissioner’s rights are
secured, as is the taxpayers’ privilege or non-disclosure rights.
In
practise it is unclear exactly how wide the IRD's powers are, and so the presence of a tax solicitor can
be useful to monitor events so as to ensure that the IRD officers carrying out
the raid do not overstep their powers. In our experience IRD officers
generally do try to act in a professional manner, but it needs to be borne in
mind that their objective is to advance the Commissioner’s interests, not the
taxpayers.
Practical issues that we have been
confronted with during IRD raids include;
·
IRD officers attempting to ‘detain’ or
restrict the movement of staff and other persons present at the premises during
the raid.
·
IRD officers seizing immigration documents
and passports belonging to relatives of the taxpayer.
·
A locksmith engaged by the IRD who forcibly
opened a combination lock leather briefcase with a hacksaw, (the combination of
which the taxpayer had forgotten) after declaring that he had the ‘expertise’
to open the combination lock.
Note
the telling use of the word brave, as in you would need to be brave in taking on the commissioner. This is the standard of life in all police-surveillance
states where you are wise to be scared of those state officials who have the power
of God over you: the tax state, as with all terror states, achieves its evil by
invoking a prudent fear of itself. That said, and before getting to the beef of
the free press, a question for Gerry:
Given
‘in practise it is unclear exactly how wide the IRD’s powers are’, and let’s
face it, they are pretty much limitless, what point is there having a tax
solicitor present ‘to monitor events to ensure that the IRD officers … do not
overstep their powers?’ Just
intellectual curiosity, though perhaps you might ask the invisible Minister McClay
for a little more clarity to the tyranny.
But
here’s the scary thing, speaking to the point. Government in New Zealand has
assumed these incredible powers to surveil and raid its own citizens, not to protect
us from the outside threats of dreary bearded beaded men, but to take the property and
the freedoms of we who are forced to pay for our own enslavement 'inland'. The powers
described above are 100% pure police state, because how else can you interpret
them? And government has assumed these powers with a free press. Indeed - BREAKING NEWS - many in our MSM are brain-washed enough to have voted for this. Regardless, Gerry only
knows where we would be without a free press. I don’t frankly understand how we ever got
to this dark place we find ourselves groping around in, forcibly prostrated in
front of the Fortress of Legislation in the Capital, our wallets and bank
accounts held open to them.
Do
you get it yet, Gerry?
Or
to approach it via a quotation (hattip Café Hayek) from Deirdre McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues that points out
well the hypocrisy of the Left whom tried to own the debate against the GCSB
spooks, while supporting the wholesale surveillance and plundering of myself by this department:
No left egalitarian has explained
how such [taxes] square with Kant’s second formulation of the categorical
imperative: “So act as to use humanity, both in your own person and in the
person of every other, always at the same time as an end, never simply as a
means.” Taxing Peter to pay Paul is using Peter for Paul. It is
corrupting. Modern governments
have been encouraged to think that any abuse of Peter is just fine, that Peter
is a slave available for any duty that the ruler has in mind. A
little like non-modern governments.
The
free press, Gerry, is required to report on just that abuse described, until at
some stage enough of us hopefully wake up, and we take the free West back again
from bullies like yourself. To keep iterating this, you have all the power, individuals have been left with none, so journalists are our canaries down the mine shaft, and must be protected as long as possible, for when their freedoms go, the tiny flame of freedom left us, will be blown out entirely.
Needless
to say, I’m not holding my breath for the Western Spring. So let's change the topic: how are the
compulsory property confiscations going in Christchurch then?
Postscript:
Yes, I'm gutted I didn't work a Gerry-rigged pun into the above.
It's Friday . . . one martini or two tonight?
ReplyDeleteYay Friday.
DeleteSaturday night for Martinis ... always two, sometimes three.
Friday night it's our favourite bottle of wine, each. (Then we try try try try not to move to Martini).
You?
Martini and a sharing a nice bottle of red tonight, hopefully next year I'll start making my own booze in bulk.
ReplyDeleteAh, you see, I'd have to be careful combining red wine with Martini.
DeleteGood idea making your own; I'd probably drink far more(er) than I should though.
Just noticed you've got a blog. Have bookmarked it.
DeleteI'm hoping to start writing next year, right now it's a place holder letting U.S. citizens know they are free to become stateless should they wish, most countries have removed this ability but the U.S. never signed the U.N. conventions regarding statelessness so it's still possible at the moment for them.
DeleteWell you'll have a 'captured' market with FATCA.
DeleteYou know of the Issac Brock Society?
Yep, been posting on and off there for a year or more now, good people really being tortured by the USG.
DeleteOff for my first Martini, have a great weekend.
Have a good one ... as the silly saying goes.
Delete