In a recent survey[1], New Zealand voters were asked to nominate the issue of most importance to them in the forthcoming election. Unsurprisingly, hip-pocket matters topped the list, with the cost of living on 28% and the economy on 17%. Read more
The ban on the only cold medicine that seems to work never seemed likely to work. On Friday, some twelve and a half years after John Key banned it, David Seymour announced that the ACT Party would work to restore over-the-counter access to pseudoephedrine-based cold medicines. Read more
Everyone knows the best rom-coms are built on love triangles. Think of Mark, Juliet and Peter from Love, Actually. Read more
The Bucket Fountain in Wellington’s Cuba Mall has long been the capital city’s iconic water feature. However, it seems that new competition is emerging. Read more
Here are a couple of highlights from the leaders’ debate last Tuesday evening: “That’s a good point, Christopher. Most economists do agree that selectively removing GST from fruit and vegetables is a dumb idea. Read more
The debate about inequality is one of the most impassioned in contemporary politics. It touches on core beliefs about justice, rights and the ideal structure of society. Read more
As voters consider their options for the forthcoming election, it is a good time to reflect on the democratic process. New Zealand is a representative democracy – voters elect politicians to legislate on their behalf. Read more
Transport funding has become an incoherent mess. In August, the Ministry of Transport released the Draft Government Policy Statement on land transport funding. Read more
That is the sign all Ministers of Finance should have on their desk. Treasury’s latest pre-election economic and fiscal update this week forecast cumulative fiscal deficits of $17 billion for the four years ended June 2027. Read more
Imagine the outrage if it were revealed that our medical schools ignored scientific research in the training of doctors. Yet, when it comes to training teachers, ignoring science seems acceptable. Read more
Victoria University of Wellington has defended its plans to stop teaching German, Italian, Latin and Greek and to cease research in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and French. ‘It’s not like anybody speaks these languages anymore,’ Ex Nihilo Vice Provost Brenda Boffin told us in an exclusive interview, ‘except for the 1.1 billion or so Chinese speakers, the 559 million Hispanophones, the 310 million speakers of French, the hundred and twenty million or so speakers of German and Japanese, and the almost 70 million Italian-speakers.’ When we mentioned that China and Japan together accounted for over $15 billion in exports last year, and that Germany, Mexico and France accounted for over a billion more, Prof. Read more
On 14 October, the same day Australia will vote on the Voice referendum, New Zealanders will also go to the polls, to elect a new Parliament. But where the choice in Australia is between a relatively straightforward ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, things are not quite as clear-cut in New Zealand. Read more
Tuesday’s Treasury’s pre-election forecasts confirmed that Government spending exceeds revenue by more than what was forecast in the May 2023 Budget. Far too many commentators are concluding the increase is not too bad. Read more
Good teachers need to be many things. They must be experts in the knowledge they teach. Read more
In June, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand told us something surprising. It said it had never banned experts in monetary policy from serving as external members of the Monetary Policy Committee. Read more