As Mahatma Gandhi once said: “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win”. I was reminded of this quote when I read about George Osborne’s speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester last week. Read more
As Mahatma Gandhi once said: “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win”. I was reminded of this quote when I read about George Osborne’s speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester last week. Read more
If you wanted to sum up the madness of mining regulation in New Zealand the tongue-in-cheek phrase “what’s yours is mine and mine’s my own” is a great fit, as judged by a situation playing out in Northland right now. Minewatch Northland, an anti-mining group, is urging local residents to resist any attempt by Evolution Mining to conduct exploration work near Whangarei over concerns it could introduce heavy metals and other chemicals into the waterways. Read more
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) has made all kinds of waves in the media recently, but the least expected has to be the news that Auckland Council spent two and half hours debating the free trade agreement. The result of the meeting was that the council’s Regional Strategy and Policy Committee kicked for touch by requesting that the final text of the agreement be released before a firmer position was taken on the trade deal. Read more
A year ago this week, the John Key-led government was sworn in for its third term. This followed a remarkable election night victory, revealing voters had turned their backs on both Kim Dotcom and David Cunliffe’s lurch to the left. Read more
David Cameron was furious. The report just released by his favourite think tank was “insane”, "barmy" and “rubbish from start to finish”. Read more
Plans to overhaul the school funding system were rehashed by the Minister of Education at a recent secondary teachers' union conference. Details for the new model are scant but the Minister stated that school performance will be included as a factor in funding decisions. Read more
To offset the greenhouse impact of an economy round-trip flight between New York and London, you would have to recycle approximately 40,000 plastic bottles. Fly first-class, however, and that number increases to a whopping 100,000 bottles. Read more
With all the excitement around the Volkswagen affair, the refugee crisis and UK Labour’s return to socialism, the euro crisis has been relegated from the front pages. (It is still ongoing.) But at last, there are positive signs of a change. Read more
Large tracts of farmland, Kiwi-managed and Kiwi-owned, are a matter of national pride, which is why selling such assets, especially rural land, to foreign interests is equated with a loss of sovereignty and often met with strong local resistance. It is an issue of real concern to many New Zealanders, who fear foreign direct investment (FDI) could exploit domestic employees and the environment, or that Kiwis will become tenants in their own land. Read more
The saying that if your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail seems particularly apt when describing central government’s approach to local government reform. Staring some pretty daunting challenges in the face, like the wave of infrastructure that needs to be refreshed off an ageing ratepayer base over the next 30 years, central government’s preferred solution so far has been to amalgamate councils into bigger structures. Read more
As far as corporate scandals go, they do not come bigger than the Volkswagen affair. Yes, other companies make mistakes too. Read more
There is a perplexing thing that continues to challenge the education sector, where a deluge of new teachers enter the market and yet many principals report difficulties filling vacancies. This may seem improbable, but there is one likely explanation for it: weak quality signals. Read more
Since the third position here at Insights is usually reserved for a light-hearted take on the events of the day, let me play devil’s advocate, taking the opposite side to two of Oliver’s recent arguments. Oliver is almost certainly correct, and if the Initiative has a position on anything, it is his. Read more
The Volkswagen emissions cheating affair is only the last in a long row of German corporate scandals, as I wrote last week (The fallout from the Volkswagen fiasco, 24 September). But it is not just a corporate scandal we are witnessing, what is on display is also a piece of crony (or at least cosy) capitalism. Read more