In the last week the National government’s ideological approach has been heavily criticised by the very organisations that should be the beneficiaries of the it’s proposed policy changes. Lowered regulation in housing construction On Monday Radio New Zealand reported that the government is planning to allow builder self certification and that “New Zealand had “moved […]
Needed: a public survey on social attitudes
I’ve just come back from living in England for six months last year. During the time I was there they had the referendum on Scottish independence. It was generally a pleasure to witness the quality of debate in print and broadcast media. Now we know the result of the referendum and while it wasn’t a […]
Airways Lite coming soon to airspace near you.
Ed Sims, the Chief Executive of State Owned Enterprise (SOE) Airways Corporation, was interviewed on the business section of Radio New Zealand’s Morning Report programme in 9 September (2014) and revealed the thinking at the centre of the government’s policy on public ownership. Airways Corporation provides New Zealand’s Air Traffic Control services but only 40% […]
New Zealand’s industries have low productivity. Let’s help by privatising the public sector.
Printable version The Productivity Commission has been asked by the Government to review the Social Services Sector. Their brief is broad including social development, the education sector including schools, polytechnics and universities as well as hospitals and the wider health sector. The Commission’s role is to look at the policy, regulations and legislation that hamper […]
Are you happy with a ‘market for social services’ in New Zealand?
Image from the Productivity Commission’s issues paper. Printable version The Productivity Commission has been instructed by the government to work on delivering advice on legal and policy changes to support “More Effective Social Services”. The issues paper is open for submissions with a closing date of 2 December. The paper focuses on social services as […]
Speech to the clean politics rally Parliament 10 September
Several people at the rally asked me to publish this speech. Here it is Tena koutou e hoa ma Ko Jan Rivers toku ingoa We held a conference at St Andrews on the Terrace on Aug 1 and 2. The topic was democracy, ethics and the public good. But the Public Good is really much […]
Privatisations and the Public Finance Act
Does the partial sale of Meridian Energy comply with the government’s fiscal principles, as laid down in the Public Finance Act? Now that the number of investors in Meridian Energy has been revealed at a disappointing 62,000 and the share price at launch has been set at the lowest end of the proposed value it […]
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