Cutbacks to Central (and Local) Government Spending
As sure as night follows day, when farmer incomes come under pressure, Federated Farmers want to cut welfare – and slash anything else they think […]
Treasury
Taxpayer support for Bill English’s home and happiness
In recent days, there has been an odd symmetry between Graham Henry’s response to the All Blacks defeat in Durban and John Key’s rationale for […]
Foreign ownership rules, and California’s support for Chief Justice Sian Elias
To its critics, the government’s response to the recession has looked like an Eighties Revival. Psychologically speaking, that’s not so surprising, When in trouble, politicians […]
Treasury and the Don Brash revival
People are just so suspicious. When you have Treasury touting the virtues of contracting out public services and Don Brash – clearly, our best and […]
The bogus benefits of PPPs
Occasionally, someone in business lets the cat out of the bag in a way that is impossible to satirise. Thus in the NZ Herald this […]
Gordon Campbell on Peter Jackson’s review of the Film Commission
The selection of Peter Jackson to lead the ministerial review of the New Zealand Film Commission guarantees the review a prominence that no-one else in […]
The Budget’s tightening noose
Judging by the Budget, the good news is that Finance Minister Bill English is not the beady eyed ‘lets take this theory and see if […]
Budget to push the “P” button?
The tone of the Budget is almost as important as its content, and while everyone – for good reason – is expecting a grim Budget […]
Selling our defence bases to property speculators
The proposal to sell our defence bases and lease them back to the armed forces from their new, private sector landlords is a pretty good […]
Campbell: Power's reluctance to cap energy prices, and TVNZ Job Losses
Obviously, any Minister will try to dodge getting involved in a no win situation if they can help it, and the old ‘that’s an operational […]
Campbell: Power’s reluctance to cap energy prices, and TVNZ Job Losses
Obviously, any Minister will try to dodge getting involved in a no win situation if they can help it, and the old ‘that’s an operational […]
How Treasury put us on the hook to finance companies
Click to enlarge If a firm stopped taking deposits last September, and was heavily exposed in the current economic climate to a major loan to […]
John Key’s infrastructure announcement
Click to enlarge So earlier today, we saw Prime Minister John Key unveil phase two of his government’s ‘rolling maul’ of solutions to the financial […]
Campbell: Sir Roger Douglas, And His Orewa Speech
Quaint. 25 years after Roger Douglas first won the power to affect this country, he has returned to Orewa, the elephant’s graveyard of politicians ( […]