Archive for January, 2013
Thursday, January 31st, 2013
Like one of those inept British generals in World War One, Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman is more than willing to declare defeat as victory, ignore the carnage – that’s old news! - and move on to the next debacle. Evidently, Coleman has learned nothing from the damning list of errors ...
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Monday, January 28th, 2013
As one would expect at the outset of the political year, the recent trio of ‘state of the nation’ addresses have been more about impression management than policy detail. Well aware that his government is increasingly seen as being mere tinkerers and sideline observers of political events, Prime Minister John ...
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Friday, January 25th, 2013
In the wake of David Shearer’s Labour party conference speech last year, housing policy has become a crunch test of how well each political party aims to respond to the country’s pressing social needs. Labour for its part, has ambitiously promised to enter the housing market and build 100,000 low ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on On the Greens housing proposals, and Pita Sharples
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
There are not many problems in life where “Bring back Nick Smith!” seems like an ideal solution. Nor will the public be inclined to think that keeping Hekia Parata on a Ministerial salary is a very wise use of the scarce resources in Education. Which suggests that yesterday’s Cabinet mini-reshuffle ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on On the Cabinet reshuffle
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
The lack of affordable housing, as Finance Minister Bill English conceded last year, is an example of market failure, and in this Q&A transcript English frankly conveyed the enormity of the problem. Our housing prices are inflated, that our building costs are higher than in Australia, there’s a shortage of ...
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Thursday, January 17th, 2013
It does have a familiar Winston Peters ring to it. Peters’ proposal earlier this week that Warners should repay its Hobbit subsidies taps into (a) a pre-existing vein of resentment in the guise of (b) upholding a principle that all but disintegrates on closer inspection. Not to mention that ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on On the subsidies for The Hobbit