In economics, regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for large firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
How does Dad end up getting the power to decide the cost of labour? I appreciate the point, but the analogy does rather fall down at that point. Now, if the Dad had clearly been democratically elected and had run on a policy of $3 an hour for mail services… 😉
..With perhaps one (or maybe two) exception(s), the journalists, producers, technicians, and hosts at RNZ are folks I hold in high regard. They have tough jobs to do - especially when trying to elicit some semblance of comprehensible answers from our robotic Prime Minister, programmed to give automated responses to ...
There’s one thing China’s ambassador to Australia got right in a call to add artificial intelligence to the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA): ‘China has always viewed Australia and China-Australia relations from a strategic and ...
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is concerned that the artificial intelligence (AI) “strategy” document released today by the Government ignores impacts on working people and replicates the corporate hype of Microsoft and other tech giants. “It is crucial that no workers are left behind as ...
Beijing’s coercion campaign against Taiwan is entering a more litigious phase. While military drills and cognitive warfare remain staples of its coercive playbook, China is now intensifying the systematic use of law to target Taiwan’s ...
A government lavishes corporate welfare on a project managed by one of its donors, then appoints him as a director of a government body. The USA? No, its National's New Zealand: A newly-appointed KiwiRail board director is associated with a company which donated to NZ First. Scott O'Donnell is ...
The Pacific’s patchwork of national policies and voluntary regional frameworks often falls short of delivering unified, timely and effective responses. A comprehensive and legally binding regional maritime policy could build a more cohesive and resilient ...
The things, you sayYour purple prose just gives you awayThe things, you sayYou're unbelievableWriters: Ian Dench, Mark De Cloedt, Zachary Foley, James Atkin, Derran Brownson.Things are a bit strange right now. Don’t you think?With the right emboldened, the usual standards of decency, evidence, and logic have been abandoned, lying in ...
Briefly for paying subscribers at 7am on Wednesday, July 91, the key scoops, breaking news, deep-dives, Op-Eds, analysis and other news links in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:Top Six Pick ’n’ Mix for Wednesday, July 9Emma Ricketts for Stuff: Health NZ backtracks on proposal to reallocate ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters heads off today to Kuala Lumpur for a meeting with South East Asian foreign ministers, which will now be ground zero for the trade war with the United States. It is the annual Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers conference, and New Zealand ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming just due to El Niño? El Niño Southern Oscillation is a short-term and cyclical weather phenomenon caused by alternating wind ...
Australia’s strategic risk has increased significantly, and the government needs to increase its defence spending to match it. Defence spending is the premium for Australia’s defence insurance policy—it underwrites Australia’s protection from external threats, with ...
Order of Ceremony for the Jacinda Ardern Show Trial and Ritual HumiliationMs HDPB-Allen will rise to say:I want to hear you apologise for showing empathy during a crisis. She may, if she chooses, add: This made me feel very uncomfortable.Mr M Hosking, wearing Armani and looking as though he has ...
Provide a desJournalist and former university professor Dr David Robie reflects on the 1985 Rainbow Warrior mission to Rongelap atoll to help US nuclear refugees and the bombing of the Greenpeace campaign ship by French secret agents. His analysis is that far from the sabotage being an isolated incident, it ...
The ASPI Defence Conference in June highlighted the critical importance of national preparedness and resilience to Australia’s national security. Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston, set the stage by emphasising a pivotal shift ...
A cyberattack on a Qantas call centre, revealed last week, put cyber risk back in the headlines, as did similar attacks on Medibank and Optus. But these are not one-off shocks: they represent a new ...
A very, very nice bit of writing news today. Prison for One, my 3,250-word piece of Space Opera, has earned itself an acceptance by Bullet Points (https://bulletpoints.nathantoronto.com/), a magazine specialising in speculative military fiction. To call this an exciting acceptance is to understate the case. You see, Prison for ...
The Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments on whether it should uphold or overturn previous court rulings that four Uber drivers were entitled to be treated as employees of the firm, rather than as contractors. Hospital workers are pushing back against a trial to reduce the number of maternity beds ...
As the Uber drivers have their case heard in the Supreme Court today, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi believes that the outcome of the case will have lasting implications for people working the in the platform economy and workers who have been misclassified as contractors. ...
Australia’s ability to generate breakthrough ideas has never been in doubt. But despite increasing recognition of the need for national resilience, the country still lacks a capital system built to serve strategic purpose. The failure ...
There are clear signs from leading indicators that the economy is sliding back into recessionary territory in a third consecutive winter of economic discontent. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, July 8:On the eve of an ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink The publication of an article titled “The World Is Warming Up. And It’s Happening Faster” by the New York Times kicked off a pretty heated debate among climate scientists over the evidence of acceleration and how strong a claim can be made based ...
In Canberra, it’s called taking out the trash. Late on Friday, 27 June, the Department of Defence quietly issued a media release with news it must have hoped would get little media attention: it had ...
Despite the myriad concerns being expressed about the Regulatory Standards Bill – including misgivings by his own Regulations Ministry and scorn from constitutional law expert Sir Geoffrey Palmer – David Seymour has professed to find no merit in any of the objections. Sure, he’ll add in a reference to the ...
Despite the impressive and undeniable strides quantum computing has made in recent years, it’s important to remain cautious about sweeping claims regarding its transformative potential. To avoid future disillusionment as the technology matures and ensure ...
The web of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network and its ties to powerful figures continues to unravel, revealing a chilling pattern of suspicious deaths, allegations of intelligence connections, and unanswered questions. From Epstein’s own mysterious death in 2019 to the unsolved murders of Barry and Honey Sherman, the apparent suicide of ...
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s second visit to China—pencilled in for this month—will come weeks before the People’s Liberation Army’s 98th anniversary on 1 August 2025, a date laden with symbolism as Beijing approaches the military modernisation ...
It can feel as though I'm often saying goodbye here. Friends who have gone; and I remember when.I’m at an age where I have more years behind me than ahead, and I'm writing for many people in the same position. But it's not always or ever just goodbye, I hope. ...
The dust has barely settled on the 2025 federal election and the returning government has already reaffirmed its commitment to delivering a national food security strategy. That’s a welcome and long-overdue step forward. But unless ...
This submission comments on select aspects of the Public Finance Amendment Bill. The NZCTU opposes the removal of the wellbeing provisions from the Act. These were inserted in 2020 to make clear that the goal of fiscal policy is to support the wellbeing of New Zealanders. The wellbeing provisions help ...
Revolutionary Intentions:The Regulatory Standards Bill sounds like one of those pieces of legislation debated on a dreary Thursday afternoon in an almost empty House of Representatives - it is anything but.FOR A BILL set to transform New Zealand into a libertarian nightmare, it has an extremely boring name. The Regulatory ...
Reality Check Radio’s petition to prosecute former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, alongside Chris Hipkins, Ashley Bloomfield, and a cadre of public health experts, is a bewildering display of political theatre. Launched on the cusp of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s Covid-19 response, this campaign is less a call ...
Cloud infrastructure is now the backbone of everything from social services and emergency response to critical industry operations and defence. The shift has been fast, and often invisible to users. What began as a convenience ...
The PSA are saying that months after commissioning a report into sexual harassment, Corrections has not moved fast enough to address its “old boys club” culture that has impacted a quarter of their staff. A survey of student nurses has found almost 62 percent are considering a job overseas if one ...
Willis says she has sought advice on whether the major banks are paying their fair share of tax. Photo: Getty ImagesBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, July 7:Finance Minister Nicola Willis is considering changing the tax settings for banks in Budget ...
Then raise the scarlet standard highBeneath its folds, we'll live and dieThough cowards flinch and traitors sneerWe'll keep the red flag flying hereLyrics: Billy Bragg / Traditional.On this day in 1916, smaller socialist parties and trade unions came together to form our New Zealand Labour Party. So, congratulations to all ...
Many nations, including Australia, continue to operate as if strategic shocks are exceptional, not the new norm. This illusion of peace leaves us dangerously unprepared for the multipolar, contested, and volatile world rapidly unfolding around ...
Hi,Four years ago on Webworm, my friend Kate wrote an essay about having aphantasia. In her words, “Aphantasia is the inability to visualise mental images. Most people who have aphantasia are also unable to recall sounds, smell or sensations of touch. That’s me. I can’t do any of it. Never ...
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is warning that the FamilyBoost changes announced today by Finance Minister Nicola Willis will fail to make early childhood education more affordable for the families who need it most and will instead widen inequities. “The Government has missed an opportunity ...
Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal enterprise represents one of the most sophisticated pedophile and blackmail operations in modern history, facilitated by an extensive surveillance network that recorded illicit activities across his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach mansion, Little St. James island, New Mexico’s Zorro Ranch, and the New Albany estate. Despite numerous investigations ...
A listing of 27 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, June 29, 2025 thru Sat, July 5, 2025. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (4 articles)What does climate change mean for agriculture? Less ...
Source: DanOnEarthFriends,I have not been well, and am going to take a few days off from the Substack to recuperate. If I can, I will take the full week - I don’t think I’ve taken that long since I started writing…Who knows? Maybe I’ll grow up with a break! Maybe ...
You will never understandHow it feels to live your lifeWith no meaning or controlAnd with nowhere left to goYou are amazed that they existAnd they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder whySongwriters: Jarvis Cocker, Russell Senior, Steve Mackey, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle.Under every government, there are winners and ...
The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the ...
The callous rhetoric emerging from this Government's housing ministers reveals a profound disconnect from the harsh realities facing thousands of New Zealanders. When politicians like Mark Mitchell and Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell suggest that homelessness is somehow a matter of personal choice, they perpetuate a dangerous myth that absolves the ...
What can you do when you have hit your borrowing limit and still want to spend? One option is to cut back on maintenance of your capital – say, to delay repainting the house or keeping the car in tip-top condition. The government does the same. Hence our three water ...
The Australian government’s dispute with the United States over the level of defence spending has distracted our media and public from the core issue. The main driver of increased defence spending should not be requests ...
Questions 1. What were participants in this year’s Youth Parliament effectively prohibited from saying?a.Death, death to the IDFb.There’s some hoes in this housec.Freddie Starr ate my hamsterd.Anything critical of the government2. About what does this government like to flex like a gym bro?a. Being tough on ...
Australia was high on the list for Britain’s revamp of its alliances after Brexit, and the stormy geopolitical climate that followed has only reinforced the need for a more ambitious partnership. Looking ahead, public demonstrations ...
Cybersecurity requires more than legal compliance; it demands constant vigilance and adaptation. A cyberattack on a third-party platform used by a Qantas customer contact centre in Manila, discovered on 30 June, made this clear. Six ...
Taiwan urgently needs to overhaul its air defence strategy to prevent the rising threat of low-cost drone saturation attacks from China. This demands three major reforms: expanding air-defence capability with low-cost weapons; improving survivability with ...
NZNO says Health New Zealand’s latest pay offer is a “massive backward step” for the health system and patients, and there are “very strong indications” members will want to strike. The amount of money Health New Zealand is spending each year on locum doctors to plug staff shortages is increasing ...
Instead of learning from Europe’s mistakes in the decade leading into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—underinvesting in defence, increasing trade with a strategic adversary and expecting the United States to disproportionately carry the security burden—Australia ...
Prime Minister Luxon makes Alt-Right Extremist Group Proud Boys Legal AgainPrime Minister Christopher Luxon has removed the extremist group “Proud Boys” from New Zealand’s terrorist list despite its history of violence1 and far-right extremism. Journalist Paula Penfold notes the group is operating cross border, and have made their own New ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts and talking with regular guests and about the week’s news in geopolitics and climate. This week’s Hoon featured:a discussion over research showing the sensitivity to climate change of extreme weather ...
Mark Mitchell walked around Rotorua’s shops for TV cameras and said some rough sleepers did it more as a ‘lifestyle choice’. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Friday, July 4:Police Minister Mark Mitchell says people who ...
Australia needs a national strategy that explicitly prioritises the integration of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) into its defence industrial base to strengthen sovereign capability and infrastructure resilience. Despite high-level pledges to build a self-reliant ...
It has long been a cliché whenever Parliament is seriously discussed that the real work is done in the Select Committees. It is not anymore entirely true. The Committees are becoming platforms for political protest. One left-wing activist has recently widely circulated a document on how to “deluge” a Select ...
Canada has just made a great step forward in minimising the security risk from China. Now Australia should step forward and propose to work with Canada to create international, harmonised arrangements to protect critical infrastructure. ...
A protest group carries out repeated non-violent actions to highlight its cause, highlighting the fact that the regime's foreign policy is in violation of international law and is at odds witht he values and wishes of its people. The regime responds by banning the organisation, and threatening 14 year jail ...
Sometimes you've got to take your chance at the flood, even when everyone says you've got it all wrong. Sometimes you've just got to back yourself and ride that tide.Sometimes this is the worst advice you could possibly give yourself. You imagine you know better than everyone else, but you ...
The Quad must formalise through a permanent secretariat and expand to include South Korea and New Zealand to remain relevant to Indo-Pacific security. Now is the time to assess whether the group’s current structure is sufficient ...
There’s no shortage of measures that the United States’ major East Asian friends could spend an increased defence budget on. NATO allies of the US have agreed to allocate 5 percent of GDP to defence ...
Arise, libertarians above totalitariansOur guide is the mighty invisible handReject state controllers, collectors and patrollersOur choices are better than government plansSongwriter: Dominic Frisby.This week, Prime Minister in waiting, Chris Hipkins, ventured into the centre-right heartland of Newstalk ZB and told them what he really thought.No major surprises; it was what ...
The recent blacklisting of British punk-rap group Bob Vylan, following their provocative chant of “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury 2025, exposes a chilling double standard in Western governance.The swift and heavy-handed response, launching a criminal investigation, revoking the band’s visas, cancelling future concerts, and seeing them dropped by ...
China has reasserted its dominance over Australia’s export markets, taking a record of almost 1 billion tonnes of mineral resources and agricultural commodities last year, and displacing the trading partners that helped Australia out during ...
Sea state Defence Minister Richard Marles visited the Maldives in early June and announced a present of one Guardian-class patrol boat and hydrographic equipment. They are expected to be delivered in 2026. Australia has an ...
The StrategistBy Linus Cohen, Astrid Young and Alice Wai
Australia's national broadcaster is called Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It's regularly attacked by Rupert Murdoch's Sky News & Australian broadsheet - as well as Atlas Network think tanks such as IPA - as "wasting taxpayers money" The last Liberal (conservative) leader Peter Dutton also labelled ABC (and the Guardian) as ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Republicans in the U.S. Senate are working to pass their version of the budget reconciliation bill before Congress goes on holiday for July 4. As it stands, the bill would terminate most clean energy tax credits long before their original ...
Seymour says there is no need for the unit - and he wouldn’t trust what the officials said anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāBriefly in the news from Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Thursday, July 3:Deputy PM David Seymour has forced Finance Minister Nicola Willis ...
The United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda suffers from an ongoing burden: the need for less talk and more action. Invariably, several speakers raise this issue at the Security Council’s annual Open Debate ...
Politicians do like being tough on crime. Flexing law and order muscle is a feature of the patriarchal Daddy State, and is beloved by the very same conservatives who deplore the workings of the Nanny State. But tough on which crimes – and even more to the point – tough ...
How did a small Shenzhen-based manufacturer of telephone switches defy tough domestic and international competition to become a world leader in telecoms technology? And how did it manage to start producing its own 5G processors ...
Dr Robert Howell UN Secretary General: We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe. In facing this wake up call, Dr Howell will describe the lessons to be learned from Wesfamers; the work of the External Reporting Board; the National Climate Change Risk Assessment for New Zealanders; and the Dasgupta Review.Dr Robert Howell ...
Most of us who live in the Mahurangi region are well aware of the ongoing challenges faced by oyster farmers because of multiple significant sewage spills into Mahurangi Harbour. Watercare’s sewerage network in Warkworth is infiltrated with stormwater following rainfall, resulting in overflows into the Mahurangi River and the wider ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would protect New Zealanders’ ability to use cash. The Bill will provide for the enduring use of cash as a private, accessible, and reliable method of payment. “People who rely on cash due to barriers to digital banking deserve ...
As the Government pulls out of global climate commitments, a significant new report shows that sea ice around Antarctica is melting at unprecedented speed. ...
Today’s announcement on the Family Boost scheme is little more than tinkering around the edges while real issues in the ECE system are ignored, says the Green Party. ...
As New Zealand has positively responded to the crack down on gang patches there has been a growing recognition of the influence of organized crime on our communities. New Zealand First continues to be focused on all aspects that undermine the safety and security in our neighbourhoods, businesses, and ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a member's bill which would make it law that government buildings can only display the official flag of New Zealand. “Government buildings are for all New Zealanders and should not be hijacked to force cultural, woke, or divisive political ideology down the throats of ...
With mandatory Healthy Homes standards coming into effect for all tenancies tomorrow, the Green Party is calling for a new Rental Warrant of Fitness system to give the new standards true effect. ...
Te Pāti Māori stands in solidarity with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui after revelations the Government is looking to derail their almost completed Treaty settlement. Minister Goldsmith has stated that the Government will not budge on its position that the Crown is sovereign. They are seeking to remove the ‘sovereignty clause’ agreed to ...
Christopher Luxon’s Government pulling out of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance is just the latest sign they care little for the climate crisis or cost of living it’ll exacerbate, says the Green Party. ...
Legal advice commissioned by the Green Party shows the coalition Government’s $200 million “investment” in new gas fields is a clear breach of the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS). ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to condemn the United States for its illegal bombing of Iran and inflaming tensions across the Middle East. ...
Te Pāti Māori stands firmly against the rising tide of global military aggression. While the Luxon scrambles to appease Trump and Israel, we choose peace, sovereignty, and an independent foreign policy grounded in justice and truth. More than 56,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel over the past 20 months. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marc Trabsky, Associate Professor of Law, Monash University Northern Territory Coroner Elizabeth Armitage’s inquest findings into the death of Kumanjayi Walker have sparked conversations across Australia. The coroner found the NT police officer who shot Walker, Zachary Rolfe, was “racist”, and she ...
Tara Ward bids an emotional goodbye to a national treasure… or is it?Friends, we are gathered here today to mourn the sudden and unexpected loss of Jaffas, the small but powerful confectionary that delighted New Zealand tastebuds for nearly 100 years. Last week, Levin-based RJ’s Confectionary announced that they ...
Party affiliations and political views are the perfect icebreaker at these kinds of events, but a group of young people united by shared politics and given a national platform is a risky mix. ...
80 Youth MPs gave speeches in the General Debate portion of the event. Of these 80, several spoke about mental health issues that young people face. ...
A year after purchasing the ailing lifestyle magazine he edited, Michael Andrew reflects on the changes that have turned the title’s fortunes around – and one that almost proved a disastrous mistake.Not long ago, when I told a new friend that I owned and ran a magazine for a ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Ross Calman (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Kāi Tahu), author of The Treaty of Waitangi which is a finalist for the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction at the 2025 ...
On Friday, picket signs bearing Palestine flags and banners about genocide gathered around three Rocket Lab locations in New Zealand. Why? Rocket Lab, founded in 2006 by Sir Peter Beck, is often lauded in New Zealand for catalysing our space industry. Today it still leads the sector, one with a ...
Outrageous Week continues as Alex Casey celebrates Aotearoa’s sweariest show. Content note: This article contains many, many, many swear words. You have been warned. When co-creator of Outrageous Fortune James Griffin stood up to address the cast and crew at the series wrap of the beloved show in 2010, he ...
The scientific report from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), released last week, indicates that the fishery, known as East and South Chatham Rise (ESCR) is in a dire state, with over 80% of the original orange roughy population wiped out. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Walker, Visiting Fellow, National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University Stellalevi / Getty Images Science in the United States in in trouble. The National Science Foundation, a key research funding agency, has suffered devastating funding cuts ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jesse Cale, Associate Professor of Criminology, Deputy Director Research (Griffith Youth Forensic Service), Griffith University When we think about who’s responsible for sexual abuse in Australia, we usually picture adults. But young people are responsible for a substantial proportion of sexual offences ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Griffin, Professor, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, The University of Queensland visualspace/Getty Images Given the number of times this has happened already, it should come as little surprise that we’re now faced with yet another new subvariant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pooria Pasbakhsh, Research Fellow in Polymer Upcycling, The University of Melbourne ViDCan/Shutterstock Have you ever gone to toss something into the recycling bin – a jam jar, a pizza box, a takeaway container encrusted with yesterday’s lunch – and wondered if ...
Taxpayers’ Union, Investigation Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said: “Councils have been using ratepayers as a bottomless ATM. It’s refreshing to see a mayor finally admit that the current model is broken and something needs to change.” ...
Inflation uncertainty is driving expectations that the Reserve Bank will hit pause on cash rate cuts, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. RBNZ set to keep cash rate steady The Reserve Bank is widely expected to push ...
The ACT Party's "red tape-busting" Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) threatens to harm patients by undermining the public health system, health experts are warning. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Dodd, Professional Teaching Fellow, Business School, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau For a long time, universities worked off a simple idea: knowledge was scarce. You paid for tuition, showed up to lectures, completed assignments and eventually earned a credential. ...
The new public transport payments were supposed to be operating in Canterbury already. What’s happened? Last year, people in Canterbury were expecting a subtle, but useful, change to how they use public transport: the advent of the Motu Move system, which would allow Cantabrians to tag on to the bus ...
Day two of select committee hearings into the Regulatory Standards Bill saw submissions from the Taxpayers’ Union, Tania Waikato and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.It was another quiet morning in select committee room four on Tuesday, and for the second consecutive day, no committee members from NZ First showed ...
The government wants to make it easier to remove protections on heritage buildings – but more change is needed. The Oriental Parade sea wall is a long, concrete barrier that curves around the stretch of Oriental Bay. It’s a critical piece of infrastructure, first built in the 1920s to protect ...
Unknown recovery rates for titanium dioxide saw it excluded from an economic impact assessment, while NZ’s share of mineral export value is questioned The post Titanium could double value of Taranaki seabed mine appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Those of us who are old enough will remember how the windscreens of our cars would be covered in insects after a long drive through the countryside. If we travelled overseas, we could visit wilderness that lacked roads and wild animals seemed plentiful. This has changed, as humans expand ...
It is the triple-murder case that captivated a global audience – a sleepy Australian town, a family Sunday lunch, and a deadly beef Wellington. Now, after a marathon two-month trial involving more than 50 witnesses, four days of closing arguments and seven days of jury deliberations, Erin Patterson has been ...
He describes them as “hard-headed deniers” but spends a lot of time thinking about how he can win them over. James Whittaker wants to improve hearing health in New Zealand and a big part of that is convincing the deniers that wearing hearing aids can prolong good health. Whittaker is the ...
Already under pressure from the Government and with an increasingly tight budget, the Human Rights Commission is pinged for financial errors The post Human rights body hooked by phishing scam appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Over the past few years, gendered learning has been organically woven into initiatives for women in high performance sport – not just to support women, but to strengthen the entire sports system in Aotearoa. We spoke to three wāhine leading the charge: Helene Wilson (netball coach and Women in High ...
I find myself instinctively reaching for the new essay collection Slowing the Sun by Nadine Hura on two significant occasions. The first was under the blanket of Mount Manaia, the mountain on my Ngāpuhi side, the night before mum received her moko kauae. Mum is the first in six generations ...
Comment: As the dust continues to settle from the peak pandemic years, New Zealand is taking a long, hard look in the mirror. The first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 Lessons Learned has been delivered, and it offers an unflinching account of our preparedness, decisions, and ...
Asia Pacific Report A prominent academic has criticised the New Zealand coalition government for compromising the country’s traditional commitment to upholding an international rules-based order due to a “desire not to offend” the Trump administration. Professor Robert Patman, an inaugural sesquicentennial distinguished chair and a specialist in international relations at ...
The Royal Commission investigating New Zealand's Covid-19 pandemic response has not made any decisions about which leaders and politicians will appear for a public healing. ...
Thanks Wikipedia –
In economics, regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as an encouragement for large firms to produce negative externalities. The agencies are called “captured agencies”.
What’s the term for agencies that are deliberately designed from the outset specifically to be captured, like ACT/John Key’s EPA?
Corruption.
Maritime NZ is the poster child for that one here.
probably CAA as well for the aviation crowd.
Then there is Mine Safety part of Labour dept. That wasnt so much capture as cut off at the knees.
Productivity commission springs to mind or doesn’t that count.
What about the fishing part of MAF?
How does Dad end up getting the power to decide the cost of labour? I appreciate the point, but the analogy does rather fall down at that point. Now, if the Dad had clearly been democratically elected and had run on a policy of $3 an hour for mail services… 😉
The question you have is that of legitamacy. And when it comes to parental child economic relationships thats very interesting indeed.