http://hdl.handle.net/10092/839 Thu, 23 May 2013 06:13:12 GMT 2013-05-23T06:13:12Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7684 Title: Organizational Involvement in Carbon Mitigation: The New Zealand Public Sector Authors: Birchall, Stephen Jeffrey Abstract: Introduction: New Zealand (NZ) ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, committing to prudent greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. In an effort to promote public sector carbon management, in 2004, Clark’s Labour-led Government funded local government membership in ICLEI’s Communities for Climate Protection - NZ (CCP-NZ) programme. In 2007, the same Government, in tandem with efforts to price carbon and develop an Emissions Trading Scheme, through the Carbon Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programme, sought to move the core public sector towards carbon neutrality (Clark, 2007c). In 2008, the NZ government changed from a Labour-led to a National-led Government, and this resulted in a shift in its carbon emission mitigation strategy, including the termination of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. Purpose: The research has two central objectives: First, to determine why NZ’s newly elected National -led Government cancelled the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes; and, second, to determine whether despite the discontinuation of these two programmes and in the absence of Government support, will NZ government organizations continue to strive for carbon emission reductions and neutrality. Approach: This empirical research is investigative and probing, and comprises a series of semi-structured interviews with senior managers responsible for the delivery of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes within their respective organization. The architects of each programme (e.g. the NZ Prime Minister and CEO of ICLEI/ Director of ICLEI Oceania) are also investigated in order to glean insight into the rationale for the ultimate termination of these two programmes. Fieldwork is informed by publicly available information that provides insight into Government’s rationale for creating and discontinuing the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. Narrative analysis and termination theory serve as the primary methodological tools for this study, providing insight into meaning, interpretation and individual experience as it relates to the dismantling of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. Findings: This study finds that though economic constraints and programmatic inefficiencies may have played a contributing role, political ideology is the primary rationale for the termination of the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes. With the ideological shift towards strong neoliberal market environmentalism, Government support for initiatives like the CNPS and the CCP-NZ programmes has declined markedly, with the desire to demonstrate leadership in this area in complete retreat. Ultimately, notwithstanding the desire of some government organizations to continue with programme objectives, albeit with less priority, NZ public sector organizational resolve towards these goals has weakened. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7684 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7683 Title: John George Russell and His Impact on New Zealand Tax Jurisprudence: An Investigative Analysis Authors: Hodson, Alistair Graham Abstract: Mr John George Russell holds a special place in New Zealand’s relatively brief tax history. He is a person who has challenged Inland Revenue’s authority and the taxing statutes more than any other individual. If Mr Russell had followed his father’s early advice and studied engineering he may have taken over the family farm on the outskirts of Hamilton and by now have been enjoying a peaceful retirement. Instead, his enjoyment of the accounting subjects taken at college, which he had enrolled into in error, ultimately led him to becoming a leading figure in the development of the then emerging New Zealand money market, and the managing director of the merchant bank Securitibank. Novel approaches to commercial issues and tenacity in litigation are the trademarks of Mr Russell, Auckland tax advisor and business consultant. Mr Russell is well known in New Zealand tax circles as the creator and defender of the ‘Russell tax template’, developed in the 1980s as a mechanism to turn the ‘water’ of taxable receipts into the ‘wine’ of untaxed gains. Template related issues are still being litigated some three decades later. There have been many cases related to the template covering both substantive and procedural issues. Mr Russell has had limited success on procedural grounds claiming his wins have been the result of good luck more than anything else. He strongly claims Inland Revenue have run a vendetta against him for many years. Inland Revenue have taken several different ‘Tracks’ when assessing various parties it considered received the tax advantage from the template. The ‘Tracks’ used to assess various parties are also regarded by Mr Russell as a vendetta tactic. Ultimately the litigation has led to ‘Track E’ with Inland Revenue personally assessing Mr Russell for tax, penalties and interest totalling in excess of NZD $200 million (underlying core tax of $15 million). A Court of Appeal decision found for Inland Revenue and confirmed Mr Russell’s personal tax assessment. Leave to the Supreme Court was not granted and Mr Russell has recently commented that a ‘Track F’ may now exist. Mr Russell has accused the Commissioner of Inland Revenue of fraud in respect of backdated assessments, and Inland Revenue have accused Mr Russell of fraud in relation to backdated documents. Mr Russell commented during one of our interviews when challenged about document backdating that “the only difference between an honest person and a dishonest one is often a date.” This thesis attempts to provide the reader with not only an overview of the litigation associated with Mr Russell, but also seeks to provide an insight into the person of Mr Russell. The Russell tax template was held to be a tax avoidance structure by the Privy Council in 2001. I did not intend to debate the merits of the Russell template with Mr Russell. One of the least known postures of Inland Revenue’s Compliance Model is that of the ‘game player’. It would appear that Mr Russell has many tendencies attributed to a person classified under this framework to be a classic game player. This thesis attempts to provide an in-depth overview of perhaps Inland Revenue’s most litigious taxpayer and asks whether Inland Revenue are now on ‘track’ to a conclusion. This thesis considers Mr Russell’s contribution to tax jurisprudence by looking at his journey over the last 30 years, giving the reader an insight into the life of Mr Russell. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7683 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7678 Title: Global governance in public services. Authors: Morsch, Camila Abstract: This thesis provides an overall picture of global governance in public services (also referred to as global social governance). It maps global aspects of welfare change: governance mechanisms, social policies and service provision developed at the global level. As it maps the relocation of social services from national to global, the research discusses the consequences for traditional and new understandings of publicness. Publicness has been slow to make its way into global forms of social policy-making and service provision, even if social services have been historically considered public, and vital for the governing of social life. A new form of publicness, global publicness, therefore, rises as an alternative political frame for more effective governance frameworks to come forward. Developing global publicness, however, requires profound economic, legal, cultural and political changes. Because these changes will not happen overnight, a maturity approach is suggested, instead of a purely outcomes-based approach. In order to map global social governance and suggest a maturity approach, I draw from international law and materials, multi-disciplinary theory and three case studies. The case studies introduce and compare global social governance within the United Nations family, in global health and in the contested field of global education. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7678 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7659 Title: Innovation in New Zealand: A Firm-Level Analysis Authors: Hong, Shangqin (Maggie) Abstract: The overall aim of this thesis is to uncover the key determinants of innovation in New Zealand firms and consider some of their likely effects. In order to provide a broad perspective on New Zealand’s local innovation processes, a mixed method approach combining both quantitative and qualitative analysis was adopted to allow analysis of both empirical data and case study data. The quantitative part of analysis utilises the unique dataset developed by Statistics New Zealand, namely the prototype Longitudinal Business Database (LBD), and the qualitative analysis includes four in-depth company case studies which complement the regression analyses by uncovering the key patterns of innovation behaviour at the firm level. In summary, a number of conclusions have been drawn from the research. Firstly, firms experience considerably smaller positive size effect because of New Zealand’s unique firm demographics, and the small size has limited individual firm’s innovation opportunities. Secondly, firms’ ability to develop new technologies directly influences their innovative ability, which is highly dependent on the availability of funds and skills. Lastly, innovation in New Zealand has a very strong market focus, while technology suppliers such as universities and Crown Research Institutes only have a limited role in selected industries. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7659 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z