Carl Peterson

Carl has traveled widely since leaving the United States for Canada in 1969.  Carl lived in a remote spiritual commune for two years in British Columbia before settling in Nova Scotia for three years renovating old farm houses there.  

Moderate success allowed him to migrate to Fiji in 1974 with his family, where he purchased an even more remote 500 acre freehold property on northern Vanua Levu.

It was in Fiji that Carl began seriously studying economics, intent on understanding why Fiji, with all its natural resources and favorable climate, remained a depressed third world country.

The 1987 Rambuka military coup ended Carl's Fiji experience after he was arrested three times and finally violently beaten and kidnapped by armed soldiers for voicing his opposition at racial apartheid.

Carl entered New Zealand with his family in 1987 as political refugees, after abandoning all his investments and properties in Fiji.

Carl quickly began developing a portable sawmill idea he had played with while in Fiji.  The Peterson Portable Sawmill won a share in the Fieldays Invention Award at Mystery Creek in 1988.  This rapidly became a business success story.

The Peterson Portable Sawmill featured on the 'Made in New Zealand' TV Series in 1994.  At the peak of his success his Australian agent copied a Peterson design, patented it, and sued Carl and his company for patent infringement in 1998.

Incompetent legal representation and likely corrupt judges ruled against Carl in the High Court and Court of Appeals, causing the Peterson Portable Sawing Systems Ltd. to be wound up in 2005.

In 2006 Peterson and company reversed those decisions in the first IP case to be heard by the New NZ Supreme Court.

In 2009 the Peterson claim for compensation was denied in the High Court because an earlier judge had not required Carl's adversaries to sign an undertaking for damages.

Carl continued to try, as a lay litigant, for compensation for the loss of his company, and for judicial abuse, until 2016, to no avail.  Chapman vs the Attorney General was used by the courts in striking down Carl's claims against the government.  This is the Supreme Court 3-2 ruling that set aside the New Zealand Bill of Rights making it unenforceable in the courts.

Carl has written several books about taxation, the most recent being "The Zen of No Tax" in 2005 available either as a PDF or hard copy through this website.

Carl presently resides near Porangahau in Central Hawkes Bay where he is renovating an old villa and looking after a small herd of miniature Highland cattle.

Current SOVEREIGNZ Patrons

Carl Peterson- Porangahau CHB

Gary Sutton- Kaikoura

Lachie Cooper- Waipukurau

Glenn Grayston- Papamoa

Tom Parsons- Nelson

Thank you anonymous!