Infrastructure is high on the agenda this election year. And why wouldn’t it be? Read more
Last week marked a significant milestone in Europe’s ongoing struggles to navigate the complex issue of migration. After years of fraught discussions, the European Union (EU) finally reached a consensus on a new refugee policy. Read more
Wellington has a lot of problems. No one thing will fix all of them. But the current review of council ratings policy could fix an important problem and provide an example for other urban councils. Read more
Last year, Kiri Allan was forced to withdraw the government’s latest ‘hate speech’ proposals, only a year or so after Kris Faafoi was forced to shelve similar plans. We have no doubt that you were as dismayed as we were by these developments (or lack of developments). Read more
Taking an unusual step, Foodstuffs North Island addressed the escalating retail crime rate in the country in a media release this week. The retailer reported an increase of 38% in retail crime incidents between February and April 2023 compared to the same period last year. Read more
The Budget’s flagship announcement presented an enticing proposal: 20 hours of early childhood education (ECE) per week for children aged two and over, funded entirely by taxpayers, due to commence in March 2024. Nonetheless, there appears to be a hidden cost. Read more
New Zealand’s universities are in crisis. Their most immediate problem is financial. Read more
Businesses typically avoid taking a stance on contentious political matters, particularly during election campaigns. That makes this week’s media release from New Zealand’s Foodstuffs North Island quite remarkable. Read more
Housing crisis makes growth all about ‘up-and-out’ not ‘up-or-out’ If you want affordable housing, it isn’t a choice between whether people should be able to build townhouses and apartments downtown or subdivisions at the city’s fringes. Cities need to be able to grow in all directions, guided by where people want to live and the cost of providing infrastructure. Read more
In my last column, I used a puzzling proverb to show that we can’t simultaneously have low inflation and cheap money. Today, I use the equally puzzling comment made by Adrian Orr in the OCR announcement that the government is ‘more of a friend than foe’ to explore the relationship between our government and the Reserve Bank. Read more
When I was a lad in the 1950s, I absorbed from adults the notion that it was shameful to be reduced to applying for a state handout. Self-reliance was virtuous. Read more
Last week Victoria University of Wellington announced that it was looking to cut some 230 to 260 jobs as part of its plan to tackle a $30 million deficit. The news followed an announcement by the University of Otago that it would shed ‘several hundred’ positions in an effort to fill a $60 million dollar hole in its budget. Read more
If there is one constant in New Zealand’s foreign policy, it is its unpredictability. But last week, Defence Minister Andrew Little asserted that New Zealand “knows which side we’re on.” Which was news to us. Read more
For many years, Germany’s Greens had a good run. They kept increasing their share of the vote in elections at the federal and state levels. Read more
Local government often finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Councils have limited sources of funding – mainly ratepayers and borrowings – which have practical limits. Read more
