Howl of a protest

So, on the back of increasing effects of climate change this week saw the “Howl of a Protest” event run by Groundswell NZ - a group that purportedly represents farmers and tradies and ute owners who protested against new government regulations they say are unworkable.In particular, they're concerned about the Clean Car Discount programme, dubiously dubbed the “ute tax” as it will penalise those who drive vehicles which spew excessive CO2 emissions.

Interestingly, only 9% of all utes are registered for work purposes. There's an interesting FBT (fringe benefit tax) loophole (or exemption as it's referred to) that allows companies to avoid paying FBT on double-cab utes:

“IRD has decided that most double cab utes satisfy the requirement that the vehicle was not primarily designed or intended to carry passengers. Therefore, companies are incentivised to purchase utes as employee vehicles, even if another type of vehicle would suit the work better.

Moreover, although the requirement that FBT be paid when the employee uses the vehicle privately - to tow their boat out to the lake over the weekend, for example - this is rarely enforced, tax experts say.”

It would be nice to see the government address this distortion of the market that is causing more climate-damaging CO2 emissions.

The protest was largely in rural towns. In my reading, it's been pointed out that there are plenty of farmers who are on board with the need to change practises and take climate change into effect.

So, how big was the protest? Well, the following photo was tweeted out to show the scale of the protest.

Except that that photo was actually of a Dutch protest. The photo was reversed (and cropped to remove the non-English signs) so the tractors were driving on the correct side of the road for our country. Slightly dishonest, I'd say.

Here's the original photo:

The protest was also used opportunistically by the Voices for Freedom group to protest vaccines - more on them a bit further down.