When New Zealand First leader Winston Peters delivered his ‘Supercity of Sin’ speech last Friday, it was a frontal assault on Chinese migration. Despite his protestations that he and his party were not anti-China, or even anti-migration, the dog-whistling was all too clear. Read more
When New Zealand First leader Winston Peters delivered his ‘Supercity of Sin’ speech last Friday, it was a frontal assault on Chinese migration. Despite his protestations that he and his party were not anti-China, or even anti-migration, the dog-whistling was all too clear. Read more
It is a difficult time for social democrats. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and liberalisation programmes here and abroad, old school socialists and social democrats have struggled to come to terms with the changing tides of time. Read more
By now, householders must be used to being exhorted by politicians, economists, and international agencies to save more. Yet, some policies encourage them to borrow in order to save or invest. Read more
Education Minister Hekia Parata released a discussion paper with recommendations for reforming the New Zealand Teachers’ Council. The paper firmly acknowledges the importance of teachers. Read more
Since moving across the ditch to New Zealand last year, I have been astonished by how often a potential Trans-Tasman currency union is seriously discussed on this side of the Tasman. In Australia, the issue hardly seems to excite anyone – probably also because Australians have more important things to do than worry about New Zealand. Read more
A regular question in New Zealand and Australia is whether our respective nations succeed because of, or in spite of, our politicians. As both nations' Budgets were read this month, it was a story of two countries that have faced a vastly different set of circumstances over the past five years, and the choices both have made in light of that. Read more
At first glance, the glowing reports about Finnish education make it sound like a magical fairyland. Some of the myths surrounding the legend of Finland’s education system are that teachers’ work is easy and there are no high-stakes tests. Read more
It was difficult not to be underwhelmed after reading the government and Auckland Council’s Housing Accord released a couple of weeks ago. It was a manual of what has failed in almost every housing market in the world and showed one common problem: everyone agrees to build more houses and sets an arbitrary target without following through. Read more
The 2025 Taskforce’s 2009 report put New Zealand’s income gap with Australia (2008) at 35%. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) latest statistics for real GDP per capita show that the income gap with Australia increased to just under 41% in 2011. Read more
Sometimes it is worth quoting the European Treaty at length to understand what an utterly absurd machinery the European Union has become. So with apologies to the rules of clear and concise writing, here we go: “Resolved to mark a new stage in the process of European integration undertaken with the establishment of the European Communities, drawing inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law, recalling the historic importance of the ending of the division of the European continent and the need to create firm bases for the construction of the future Europe, confirming their attachment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and of the rule of law…” After this preamble, it was really only a matter of time until the European Union would ban olive oil. Read more
A regular question in New Zealand and Australia is whether our respective nations succeed because of, or in spite of, our politicians. As both nations' Budgets were read this week, it was a story of two countries that have faced a vastly different set of circumstances over the past five years, and the choices both have made in light of that. Read more
Budget 2013 confirms the government's determination to achieve fiscal surpluses by 2014/15 by stopping the growth in government spending. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, projected government spending in 2014/15 will be 6% lower than in 2008/9, the year in which John Key's government took office. Read more
Early this week, the government announced a rather distasteful plan. In return for giving regulatory favours to the Sky City Casino in the form of more favourable gambling regulations, the casino will build a massive conference centre. Read more
Germany found in 2001 that their 15-year-olds ranked well below the OECD average in maths and reading in the Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) study. They also had one of the largest gaps between high and low performing students in the world. Read more