Daily review 14/10/2026

5 comments on “Daily review 14/10/2026”

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1. 1

   One would think that Mariana Mazzucato is a household economist name here. Anyway, she’s written a new book The Common Good Economy (A New Compass).

   https://theconversation.com/this-economist-believes-the-system-is-broken-maybe-she-has-a-point-292129

   Governments need to work hand in hand with the private sector, rather than leaving business to its own devices. They should be “moving away from fixing market failures and government failures towards actively shaping how markets are governed”.

   Here you go, National Party & coalition enablers, move away from fixing [the basics] and your own failures – there are too many to list here – and start governing [of NZ] and formulating a plan [for all New Zealanders]!

   And she remains critical of outsourcing policy development to consultancies. This has eroded the capacity of the public service.

   Another warning for National. She’d be aghast at the light-handed regulation of AI by the Luxon-led Government that strongly encourages offloading to AI; even the big consultancy firms do this, as we’ve already found out – David Seymour sees nothing wrong with this!? (https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics_election-2026/1680618/act-leader-david-seymour-doesn-t-see-why-ai-shouldn-t-write-government-cabinet-papers)

   Moreover, Luxon & Willis see this outsourcing of public service as a sure way to save money (by cutting thousands of jobs) and to reduce the role of the State. National leaves businesses to their own devices to figure it out for and by themselves – what could go wrong?

   Scientific insights and information about water use, costs and allocation should be widely shared. Household and community access to water should take precedence over industrial uses.

   Doesn’t this immediately raise the prospect on AI data centres? Mazzucato applies her ideas to the management of water but they could equally be applied to [all] other natural resources and electricity, etc.

   Reply
2. 2

   National has hired just 54 nurses in two years, and now it wants nursing schools to train fewer nurses altogether.

   “The health system is in crisis and now the Government wants to stop training more nurses,” Labour campaign chair Kieran McAnulty said.

   National’s Answer To The Health Crisis? Train Fewer Nurses

   The Government’s sudden cap on nursing students is a failure of workforce planning and shows there’s no credible plan to build a sustainable homegrown nursing workforce, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO [NZ Nurses Organisation] says.

   Order To Train Fewer Nurses Counter-Intuitive

   You’d think that the Government dropped the ball and are a bunch of numpties, wouldn’t you? Or is intentional to save a few more dollars for Nicola Willis’ books? Regardless, it defies logic and common sense.

   Reply
   1. 2.1

      Health NZ, of course, knows nothing about any enrolment caps!? FFS, use a stethoscope if you can’t hear or a microscope if you can’t see what’s going on!

      Health NZ national chief nurse Nadine Gray said it was not aware of an enrolment cap, but it had been working with the TEC and educators to deal with low clinical placement capacity.

      Health NZ, of course, is passing the buck.

      Some of the onus was also put on educators.

      […]

      Gray said HNZ was also working with the sector to streamline curricula and planning to reduce administration administration and "last minute changes and requests from nursing schools". [my emphasis because I’m not sure it’s an unintended typo]

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/health/1899866/health-nz-suggests-nursing-schools-look-elsewhere-for-placements

      Reply
3. 3

   The cutting & slashing continues even though there’s a good chance that Coalition Mark I will be discontinued in a few weeks.

   'Baking in severe understaffing' – PSA

   The Public Service Association (PSA) said 1187 permanent roles will be disestablished under the proposal – staff will need to reapply for nine in 10 permanent roles.

   National secretary Duane Leo said: "This proposal will bake in the severe understaffing that MCERT has already been experiencing with 365 already vacant positions and will go even further with a total permanent reduction of 400 roles.

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1892126/new-ministry-mcert-proposes-cutting-400-jobs-in-restructure

   There’s some hope though that there’s light at the end of the tunnel and that the suffering will stop or at least not get worse.

   Labour promises to stop restructure

   The Labour Party is asking the chief executive and government to stop any binding decisions until after the election.

   Labour public services spokesperson Camilla Belich asked the Government to "show restraint and leave those significant decisions around workforces in public services to New Zealand to that incoming government".

   She said if Labour was voted in, it would stop the restructure.

   "We do not support these cuts. We've been really clear that we wouldn't be implementing the cuts that the National party announced in their upcoming budgets."

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4. 4

   I find it odd that there was nothing said about banking in either the leaders' debate or the minor parties' debate. Were all the participants afraid the talk about the excessive profits of banks might open a "can of worms"?

   Reply