Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, December 9th, 2010 - 70 comments
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, November 29th, 2010 - 167 comments
By backing private public partnerships David Cunliffe has potentially given the government a free pass on privatisation – one of the biggest issues of the next election.
That’s bad policy and bad politics. I expected better from him.
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, November 17th, 2010 - 11 comments
I know it’s in National’s DNA to fight regulation where ever they find it but it looks like the meat industry and government ‘watch dog’ MAF’s Food Safety Authority may have bitten off more than they can chew with their proposal to do away with independent meat inspectors in the country’s freezing works. Seems a 6 month trial to […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, October 21st, 2010 - 25 comments
In three short years John Key and National have gone from economic bravado, to failure, to lies, excuses and whining. As the economy languishes they will have nothing to offer except more lies and excuses.
This is a time for fresh thinking, both globally and locally. But we won’t get it from National.
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 pm, October 6th, 2010 - 31 comments
Seems these days that when people get in to financial strife, the Government is all too happy to offer a helping hand loaded down with wadges of cash. Sometimes…
And then sometimes something altogether more short and sharp is offered. Depending…
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, September 24th, 2010 - 22 comments
“I also want to pay a special acknowledgement to my friend and deputy, Bill English. What a great job he is doing as Finance Minister. He’s delivered two Budgets that have steered New Zealand out of recession and put the economy firmly back on track to grow and create jobs”. Or has he?…
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 17 comments
Contrary to the sunny prognostications of Nice Mr Key, job queues are getting longer. How much more great economic management from John and Bill can the country stand?
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, August 15th, 2010 - 22 comments
More often than not we discuss politics and the economy only within the boundaries of current political structures.
But these structures can only offer limited democratic participation.
Perhaps the answer for the left is to embrace movement politics.
Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, August 14th, 2010 - 38 comments
Some within Labour believe that the tide of popularity is beginning to go out on the National government. Commentators seem to be waking up too. John Armstrong takes the Nats to task for their scare-mongering on benefits. And Fran O’Sullivan, cuts to the chase – it’s the economy stupid.
Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, August 11th, 2010 - 38 comments
In his own surreal and ultra-privileged way Paul Holmes has discovered the recession. And it seems to have shaken him up a bit. Paul cuts loose with some Holmes truths about the useless Nat government. But in claiming that there is no alternative Holmes reveals nothing but his own lack of vision…
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 9th, 2010 - 44 comments
The rate at which National have been spinning of late is giving me nausea. It can’t be long until they get to the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide scenario of declaring black to be white and getting run over on the nearest zebra crossing.
Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, August 8th, 2010 - 82 comments
For the last several decades the over-riding mantra across western governments has been that what is important above all else is economic growth. Now is the time to question whether it should still be our main aim and guiding light.
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 am, August 3rd, 2010 - 130 comments
John Key trotted out a huge lie in Parliament last week: “It took 9 years for Labour to make a complete and utter mess of the economy; it might take a bit longer than that for us to sort it out”. Let’s compare National and Labour’s economic records shall we.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 8th, 2010 - 4 comments
Auckland Transport Blog saying the bleeding obvious about the aggrandizement project that appears to be Steven Joyce’s grand vision for the future of transport in Auckland. If he was concentrating on reducing the road toll on this stretch of road, there are simpler and cheaper ways than wasting taxpayers money.
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, July 6th, 2010 - 14 comments
Economists, bankers, Treasury officials, financial wizards of various kinds, they like to pretend that they know what they’re talking about. All too often they don’t. Predicting the behaviour of complex systems is hard. Consider for example, the big banks’ predictions on the winner of the Football World Cup…
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, June 25th, 2010 - 44 comments
The point of an ETS isn’t to just blindly pay more, it is to change our behaviour so that we don’t have to. National don’t get it, so they have brought us the worst of all possible ETS schemes. Badly designed and devoid of vision. An ETS with all of the costs and none of the benefits.
Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, May 24th, 2010 - 30 comments
Tories claim that tax cuts “cause growth” in the economy – they “grow the pie”. But it’s rubbish. No honest review of the long term historical picture can sustain the claim. Tax cuts don’t cause growth.
Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, May 21st, 2010 - 109 comments
In 2008, Bill English was sprung secretly telling National members that he and Key would sell Kiwibank “‘eventually but not now”. After being caught out, English and Key categorically ruled out asset sales in the first term of a National government and said they would seek a mandate to make any sales in a second term.
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, April 30th, 2010 - 48 comments
The US Department of Energy shows a comparison between the world’s likely demand for liquid fuels (including oil) over the next 20 years and the various components that will make up the supply of liquid fuels over that time. The emerging gap is alarming, as “Unidentified Projects†would actually be more accurately described as “unfulfilled demand†– meaning quite literally a demand for oil that will not be able to be met.
Forget wondering when peak oil might happen in the future – the answer to that question is: it’s already happened.
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, April 29th, 2010 - 15 comments
The government announced a package of measures for the aquaculture industry – including a power for Ministers “to amend regional coastal plans in exceptional circumstances where it is in significant regional or national interest”. The Minister can unilaterally decide what is in a region’s interests, irrespective of what the people of that region may say to the contrary.
This continues this authoritarian government’s assaults on voters ability to choose the own representation.
Written By: - Date published: 8:16 pm, April 22nd, 2010 - 48 comments
John Key is planning to slash and burn $2 billion out of our public services. Key says the slashing is needed to pay for increasing health and education costs. Bullshit. It’s about paying for John Key’s and his rich mates’ tax cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 58 comments
In 2008, John Key was promising us a brighter future. 18 months on, we’re in that future he was talking about and Kiwis are reporting their lives are worse than they were before he came to power. 83% of Kiwis surveyed by ShapeNZ rated their quality of life as ‘good’ or better, down from 89% in 2008 and 92% in 2007. Key has a responsibility to live up to his promises
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, March 29th, 2010 - 26 comments
The eXileD has a piece on Ireland’s woes and how they got there. The 1980s neoliberal revolution and dodgy deals for the Right’s mates are familiar. Ireland became a tax haven for bludging international financiers. It’s all come crashing down but John Key wants to copy their mistake by creating an offshore financial centre here.
Written By: - Date published: 5:03 pm, March 6th, 2010 - 15 comments
This looks to be a fascinating set of lectures. I’ll be going – will you?
Economic orthodoxy continues to fail New Zealand. This failure is systemic, not cyclical. Despite this, prevailing political and economic orthodoxy has become almost immune from scrutiny. It seems that policymakers have yet to comprehend that the status quo will inevitably lead to economic collapse.
Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, February 22nd, 2010 - 19 comments
Bill English’s argument that cutting taxes for the few at the top can cause an economic step change has always been nonsense.
His appearance on Q&A yesterday simply confirmed it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, January 27th, 2010 - 31 comments
Fran O’Sullivan has a piece pointing out the vested interests of senior Nats regarding tax reform: “More than two-thirds of the National line-up have beneficial interests in trusts (entities that the Inland Revenue believes are responsible for a $300 million hole in tax revenues at the current 33 per cent tax rate).” – National wants to […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, January 27th, 2010 - 56 comments
Before they were swept along by the latest incarnation of US Right anti-intellectualism, National used to have some smart people. One of the last to go was Simon Upton. You might not always or even often agree with the man but at least he is informed and has the capacity to engage in serious debate […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, January 27th, 2010 - 14 comments
Leading US economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman sees a 30-40% chance of the US re-rentering recession this year, and the conditions that would cause that would almost certianly be replicated in other countries, including New Zealand, with the same result. More evidence that a second wave of recession may be on its way came […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:09 pm, January 20th, 2010 - 135 comments
The Tax Working Group has given its recommendations for tax reform to the Government. It predictably recommends: Dropping the tax income tax rates to 30% in line with the corporate tax rate. Dropping the corporate tax rate (and presumably the top income tax rate) further in the future. Paying for this with 15% GST, a land […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, January 16th, 2010 - 70 comments
Phil Goff has picked up on the point I made yesterday: while unemployment is falling in Australia due to the $42 billion stimulus package implemented by the Rudd Government, in New Zealand unemployment is still rising while this do nothing government sits on its arse, and unemployment here is now higher than in Aussie for […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 pm, January 4th, 2010 - 54 comments
Bill English has usurped his do-nothing leader with an op-ed in the Herald framing National’s agenda for the year to come. This piece was English’s chance to convince New Zealanders to accept his agenda. He gets off to a bad start: As New Zealand emerges from recession, the Government’s focus has firmly shifted towards significantly lifting our […]
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