At the Initiative, we read the latest economic research, so you do not have to. Sometimes we find studies that are clever. Sometimes they are useful. And sometimes they are just fun. 

One recent paper in The Journal of Political Economy caught our attention: “Subversive Conversations.” The title sounds more like a spy novel than an economic investigation. But its idea is pure genius. 

Imagine two people who want the same thing but cannot just say it out loud. That is because someone else is listening in and might try to stop them if it becomes clear what they are up to. 

And so, the two speak in hints and half-sentences. Each drops clues that only the other will understand, but never enough for anyone else to catch on. 

Imagine two colleagues at mandatory compliance training with their boss watching. “Fascinating topic,” says one. “Absolutely unmissable,” agrees the other. “Especially slide seventeen on procurement.” Both know slide seventeen is when they will slip out. 

Once you know this trick, you start spotting it everywhere, especially in politics. Coalition ministers are so busy, they rarely meet directly. Which is why their real conversations happen in public, through the media. 

Take the Interislander ferries saga. In December 2023, Finance Minister Nicola Willis cancelled the iReX mega ferries project. “Only 21 per cent of these costs are associated with replacing ageing ferries,” she said. “Ministers do not have confidence there will not be further increases.” 

A year later, the Government unveiled a new plan. ACT leader David Seymour called it “a win for taxpayers” at “half the cost of iReX” and praised private investment. 

The next day, Winston Peters, by now in charge of finding new ferries, shot back that Seymour was wrong. “He’s wrong on the figures… wrong on the question of privatisation… wrong on what it’s going to cost.” 

To the public, this looked like a coalition at war or talking past each other. But perhaps, after reading “Subversive Conversations,” we should see it differently.  

Maybe the apparent quarrels were really coded signals. What if they knew exactly what they were planning all along? They could be steering us towards two new, rail-enabled ferries by Christmas 2029, while we thought they were just bickering. 

The Journal of Political Economy has opened our eyes. What looked like coalition chaos may have been a clever way of running the country.  

Absolutely unmissable.