Electing local representatives to the governance boards of our hospitals is ineffective and farcical. We need a system which provides patients with better representation and support.
Read MoreEconomy
'Why Don't We Celebrate the Arrival of Tupaia in New Zealand?'
James Cook arrived in New Zealand accompanied by an impressive Tahitian chief and priest. Eurocentrically writing Tupaia out of our history distorts it and loses valuable lessons.
Read MoreBehind the Census
Data from the newly released augmented 2018 Population Census seems to be OK in quality terms. But there are some irritating gaps – and perhaps deeper problems..
Read MoreIn Praise of Dictators – Those Under the Control of Representative Democracy.
A British Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, described parliamentary democracy as an ‘elected dictatorship’. Recent events illustrate how right he was.
Read MoreWhat Happened to Egalitarian New Zealand?
New Zealand is a less egalitarian society today than it was when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Read MorePrivate Affluence and Public Squalor?
What does National’s just-released economic manifesto tell us about the state of economic discussion in New Zealand and where the economy might go?
Read MoreReviewing Truth and the Treachery of Truthiness
Is it a coincidence that the Spring 2019 issue of The New Zealand Review of Books reviewed five books concerned about truth in its many guises?
Read MoreScoring the Accountants
Elements of our Public Finance Act are world class, as a recent conference reported. But other parts need to be overhauled.
Read MoreMuddling Over Methane
New Zealand has got itself into a right proper muddle over methane emissions and their impact on climate change. A simple change to the proposed legislation would sort it out.
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. However, methane from livestock is measured gross.
Read MoreHow Important Is Local Knowledge?
Many foreign appointments to leading public agencies have proved disappointing. Is that inevitable?
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within the New Zealand public service.
Read MoreDoubts and Hopes About The Treasury
The kerfuffle over the budget leaks precipitated a public exposure of a simmering concern about the quality of Treasury’s work.
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.
Read MoreInequality and Mental Health
It may be that higher levels of inequality have increased the incidence of poor mental wellbeing in the community. A recent book suggests a causal mechanism from one to the other.
International research shows that there is a socioeconomic status (or class) gradient, in which those with low SES experience higher morbidity from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, rheumatoid disorders, a number of cancers, psychiatric diseases, dementia and so on.
Read MoreHow to Reduce Accountability: Downgrade the Chief Archivist!
espite its manifesto promise to make the Chief Archivist an officer of Parliament, the government has not yet announced its decision. It is taking so long there must be a problem. Let’s guess an outcome if the officials have their way.
One of the major issues which face a democratic nation is the challenge of keeping its bureaucracy accountable and responsive to the public. Over the years a variety of arrangements have developed with this objective.
Read MoreShirley Smith: In Her Own Right
Shirley Smith would say that in her childhood she was known as the daughter of (later Sir) David Smith, then she was known as the wife of Bill Sutch and later as the mother of Helen Sutch. Throughout her life she struggled to be a person in her own right.
Read MoreWas it Really a Wellbeing Budget?
If the Government is serious about redirecting policy towards wellbeing, it is going to have to do a lot more than making the odd statement in the budget.
Read MoreNew Zealand’s Living Fossil
The Chatham Islands are a world we have left behind.
Read MorePlundering the Planet
Can we consume limited resources forever? Is economic growth just a Ponzi scheme in which we borrow from the future? Is economic growth as we know it coming to an end?
Read MoreFrustrations of an unreconstructed, unrepentant Keynesian
Two weeks out from the Budget, it's a good time to remember what is the means of economic management and what are the true ends
Read MoreWhat Do We Mean by Wellbeing?
The government has promised a ‘wellbeing budget’. No one seems to know what that means. We can set out some preliminary economic understandings.
Read MoreHubbard Bubble: Toil and Trouble
While Chris Lee’s “The Billion Dollar Bonfire: How Allan Hubbard and the Government Destroyed South Canterbury Finance” traces the rise and fall of the finance company, it also provides valuable insights into how the financial system works – or doesnt.
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