Legitimate pressures on government spending suggest we are going to have to raise total tax revenue or suffer a poorer quality New Zealand.
Read MoreWhy We May Expect to Pay More Tax
Is the Māori Caucus So Dominant in Labour?
Journalist Graham Adams recently drew parallels between David Lange in the Fourth Labour Government and Jacinda Ardern in the Sixth, arguing that just as Lange was a hostage to the Rogernomes in his cabinet, Ardern is a hostage to the Māori in her caucus.
Read MoreA strong start - but can Luxon last?
Christopher Luxon spent his first, impressive appearance as National Party leader stressing his newness to politics and his leadership pedigree. But are both traits quite the strengths he thinks they are?
Read MoreCovid as Warriors
The book I am currently working on – tentative title ‘In Open Seas’ – looks at the current and future New Zealand. One chapter describes the policy towards Covid using the trope of warfare. It covers an important period in our history but it also shows how policy evolves and why, as Jacinda Ardern said, it was difficult to plan. This is as far as I have got (edited).
Read MoreParliament, the Courts and the end of three strikes (for now)
National’s Shadow Attorney General thinks that the impending repeal of the three strikes law reveals a government in thrall to an overreaching judiciary. Is he right about that?
Read MoreSing Song about Hard Times
Celebrating Poet Anne Kennedy
Read MoreVaccine mandates: a severe step responding to a dire situation
Vaccine mandates should not be seen as anything other than a severe step responding to a dire situation. There may well be good reason for them, but before deciding that we need to honestly recognise how severe an imposition they are.
Read MoreWatering Down Local Authority
The tunnelling machine for Auckland Watercare’s $1.2b 14.7km Central Interceptor Network which is expected to substantially reduce sewage overflows onto Auckland beaches by 2025.
Why is there so much local opposition to the Three Waters restructuring?
Read MoreCorporatising the Water Infrastructure
What is the Three Waters Restructuring Actually About?
Read MoreThe hole in the vaccine mandate
The government is introducing a vaccine mandate which will cover much of the work force. There’s a hole: an unclear provision for exemptions is probably wider in scope that the Ministry of Health seems to think.
Read MoreNobel Thinking About Wages
An introductory economics course student is likely to meet the above graph. It shows that if the minimum wage (in purple) is above the point where the labour supply curve (in red) and labour demand curve (in blue) cross there will be less employment. That is what students are taught. But research shows the world does not work that way.
Read MoreGovernment must learn from mask exemption mess
As the Government moves to make vaccination compulsory in more and more situations, it should learn from the problems associated with the already existing mask mandate.
Read MoreVaccinating the Underclass
If we want to minimise the impact of the Covid virus we are going to have to think about social class.
Read MoreThe Picnic Period: A sign of our Covid times
Picnics have come to symbolise many things about life in Auckland right now - they are a blessing and a curse, a political masterstroke and a retreat. Now they need to be the start of something more
Read MoreAbstraction and Reality in Economics
Sometimes high theory loses the human point of the exercise.
Read MoreForced Re-entry
The elimination of Covid strategy is not so much defeated but changing circumstances means that policy has to evolve.
Read MoreAUKUS deal closes one nuclear window, but could open other doors
The new AUKUS pact leaves New Zealand on the outside with its traditional allies. But that means there’s a chance to build new alliances in Africa, based on shared values such as nuclear-free policies and the Commonwealth
Read MoreWhat Happened under Rogernomics and Ruthanasia?
A Rogernome Defends the Policies.
Read MoreACC and birth injuries - a change all to the good?
The Government plans to expand ACC to cover some birth injuries. That’s good. But it’s doing it in a daft way.
Read MoreThere can be only one... reason Collins is still in her job
Looking back to this point in the last political cycle, you see Labour tearing itself apart and fighting for the future of the party. National is facing the same crisis, but no-one seems to want to lead
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