NACT: Going backwards for politics

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 pm, May 20th, 2009 - 33 comments
Categories: economy, farming, science - Tags:

The Fast Forward Fund was axed by the NACT government in Feburary. This was a fund that was to be invested and the proceeds and capital drawn down over 10-15 years to invest in agriculture. The funds would be distributed with equal contributions from agricultural businesses. Farming provides well over a third of our overseas earnings and is likely to be one of the prime drivers in helping us out of the recession.

Now the government will apparently put in a simple provision for  $90 million over 3 year according to Moana Mackey:-

Moana Mackey says that an AgResearch paper presented to a Waikato agricultural advisory committee suggests National’s promised “better” deal in place of Labour’s guaranteed fund will be a mere $90 million over three years.

“And it gets worse. Where Labour’s fund, with promised industry support, may well have eventually reached $2 billion, National’s promised replacement appears contingent on matching dollars from industry at a time when industry has been hit by the economic crisis. In a time of recession we should be investing more in R&D and innovation, but what the Government seems to be proposing is a fund which will be effectively limited to short-term research.

“What the country and the primary production sector in particular need is long-term certainty. I am sure Professor Gluckman would agree, but the AgResearch paper suggests that government contributions to any initiatives other than those producing short-term results will be quite uncertain,” Moana Mackey said.

Which means that the expected average government contribution of about $45 million per year under the Fast Forward Fund is now going to be $30 million with a far shorter time horizon. This is hardly the type of contribution that is likely to build an ongoing research programs in  agriculture. Since it is difficult to see how most agricultural research projects will come to fruition in 3 years, I suspect that there will be a lot of projects that simply don’t start – because there is no continuity of funding.

Agricultural research has been one of the most productive areas long-term for scientific investment. However NACT prefers to invest in lower-yielding infrastructural investments like the Waterview connection, the Auckland super-city, and the farcical Fibre-to-the-home project. None are likely to yield as much to the economy as investment in agricultural research. They appear to be done mainly for various political reasons that have nothing much to do with helping the economy in the medium to long-term.

Alan Emerson had this to say in the NZ Farmers Weekly last month:-

It’s getting increasingly lonely out here in the rural sector. Almost daily we can read about more money for Auckland, more motorways for the cities, more money for city broadband users but, correspondingly, no money or recognition for farming.

It gets worse with our key to the future, the Fast Forward Fund being wound up, no doubt to pay for Auckland motorways or Wellington broadband.

The Fast Forward Fund told our scientists, business people and school leavers that we had a government prepared to invest in our future and that agriculture was the way of the future. We now have a government with an opposite view. Reality is that agriculture will lead us out of recession; no other sector has that capability.

What irritates me most is that there’s no-one standing up for rural NZ. Feds’ Donald Aubrey did stand up for rural broadband but what about the Fast Forward Fund, tax credits, subsidies to manufacturing, further subsidies to tourism and the planned mega-city of Auckland?

There’s been a dearth of rural leadership on the current goings on in government and that has enabled the government to trample over us and support others to our detriment.

I agree. Perhaps it is about time for farmers who look forward to stop voting for these idiots who only seem to be able think without any forward vision.

As an aside, the most stupid statement I’ve seen for a while comes from MacDoctor. It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of research and development strategies.

In a time of recession you cut costs, Moana. The only research you fund is the stuff that will have immediate benefits (you know, the stuff National is keen to fund) – otherwise you go belly up and bankrupt.

So wrong. In a time of recession you increase spending on R&D when there are less demands on the resources required to do it. There are few benefits left in research that takes a short time to realize. That is because all of those things have been done before, and the yield is small. You get the benefit from research that changes the business fundamentals. So when you are coming out of a recession it increases the following rise in the economy. But then, Mac like NACT, thinks like an accountant. With a lack of vision that drives our economy backwards compared to others. That is what showed in National’s last term and they are trying again through a monumental lack of vision.

33 comments on “NACT: Going backwards for politics ”

  1. Backwards for politics perhaps, but forward for economics. If farmers are crucial to our future, then they will still be regardless of whether we subsidise them. In the overwhelming majority of cases, and sauf positive externalities, subsidising industries makes the majority of society worse off. I think that’s fairly widely accepted, except perhaps by those who are to be subsidised!

    • Lew 1.1

      R&D is only really a subsidy when the industry in which the results of that research will be used is capable, equipped and prepared to conduct the research itself. One of the major historical problems with NZ’s primary sector until relatively recently has been a lack of aptitude, facility or willingness to change for the better; this is not only bad for the primary industries, but for the other industries whose export dollars they support. One of the significant reasons why Australia has such a strong primary sector is decades of sustained, targeted blue-sky research and development by the CSIRO in partnership with universities and the private sector, aggressively deployed and commercialised, in bad years and good. The Fast Forward Fund, craply named though it was, represented a start toward that sort of model.

      L

    • Tom: The attitude you espouse has seen a long list of industries obliterated in New Zealand in recent years. Your statement appears to assume success is automatic if no one does anything simply because something has been successful in the past. This is despite history being littered with failures following successes for want of investment to support continued success. Farmers could, I suppose, club together and contribute a portion of their earnings to fund research. The reality is they haven’t and don’t support research on the scale required because – like everyone else – there are not enough of them who will make the contributions required.

      The record on investment is very clear: if the government doesn’t do it from taxation as a form of insurance, then in New Zealand that means no one does it. The producer boards have filled some of this role in the past, but they sprang from a collective, co-operative impetus now out of fashion and supposedly bad (despite decades of success in the dairy industry where collectives have been the norm).

      Perhaps it will help you understand it better if you think of it as insurance rather than subsidy. These farmers have paid tax and some of that tax is going toward work that will help them remain globally competitive.

      The record of individual humans taking responsibility for BIG collective issues is very poor. That almost 25% of kiwis still smoke proves how short-sighted and stupid huge numbers among us can be about our own bodies…..never mind the future of our industries 20 and 30 years in the future.

      Government definitely has a role in making sure SOMETHING is done. If that doesn’t square with your ideology then your ideology needs to learn a little history…and gain a better understanding of what people actually do.

  2. Lew –
    Firstly, you slightly confuse the issue by saying it’s not a subsidy – in a economic sense it is definitely a subsidy! But if it has positive externalities as you claim, it would just be a justified subsidy.

    Aside from that, it seems like you’re making two claims.
    First is that farmers were incapable or unwilling to invest in RnD, and because we rely on their exports we should do so for them. I don’t really buy this. If an industry is failing because it isn’t producing quality goods, I think we should let capital naturally migrate to more efficient uses. The people that benefit most from RnD for agriculture are the farmers themselves – if they aren’t investing perhaps we should consider why not!

    The second is the more plausible one that there RnD spending is sometimes a public good. Firstly however, it seems the private sector can take care of short term RnD pretty well. The vast majority of useful innovation comes from profit-seeking in the private sector – for recent examples think cellphones, ipods, etc. The remaining claim is whether there is a public good in ‘blue skies’ or long term funding. Perhaps, but only in limited amounts, and by its nature it is impossible to tell where that is going to be.

    So I think we should be careful about assuming that RnD spending should just be topped up by the Government so that we can keep up with the Joneses across the Tasman.

    • SPC 2.1

      R and D is vital to growth in the economy, to improving productivity and to business development (without question).

      R and D is either a tax incentive or it is a subsidy – via funding university research or other institutions doing research (available for local industry) or via public-private partnerships.

      R and D tax incentives and subsidy assist the government in maintaining and or improving tax revenues – its a form of investment (and more useful than roads for example).

      This is why governments offer R and D tax incentives – the Labour government had them at 15% (will National even sustain that?), much below the Oz rate of 40% and thus they are not competitive. If having competitive company tax rates is a priority, this is the more important area to start because we are the most uncompetitive here.

      We certainly will not match their wage rates until we improve our R and D spending levels (which unsurprisingly have been low while our wage rates fall relative to other OECD nations).

      The idea that R and D risk can best be left to the market … and then the cell phones will come is the economic version of awaiting the second coming. We have been awaiting it since 1984. If we do not build the R and D highway we will still be waiting for cross Tasman parity in a 1000 years time.

    • Luxated 2.2

      “The vast majority of useful innovation comes from profit-seeking in the private sector – for recent examples think cellphones, ipods, etc.”

      That is a big claim, would you like to substantiate it with some evidence? If you need counter examples:

      The Internet (DARPA)

      The World Wide Web (Sir Tim Berners Lee, CERN)

      Computing (Alan Turing, National Physical Laboratory)

      Jet Engine (Frank Whittle, as an RAF cadet)

      Plenty more examples lying around if you care to look.

      It is reasonably common for Universities and research institutes to work with private enterprise as a form of outsourcing R&D so the innovation is actually done at a (typically) government funded institute.

      “The remaining claim is whether there is a public good in ‘blue skies’ or long term funding. Perhaps, but only in limited amounts, and by its nature it is impossible to tell where that is going to be.”

      Firstly see above examples. All four had relatively short turn around times into mainstream use in their respective fields (Jet engine less so in part due to unwillingness of the MoD, largely made up for post war). Web adoption is positively, startling invented in 1989, ISPs in NZ in the early 90’s, mainstream adoption in the west in the late 90’s.

      A senior member in the LHC team recently announced that they had developed an all in one MRI and CAT scan (may have been PET) something that was until recently impossible due to the magnets in the MRI.

      Plenty of money is going into the development of high temperature superconductors which have the potential to revolutionise the pretty much anything that has electricity in it.

      All of the above was done with public money do you still suggest ‘blue skies’ research is of little value with no pay off? If so please surrender your computer as it obviously (and the fundamental governing principles behind it e.g. electromagnetism) have no relevance to the public good.

  3. Lynn:

    My statement may or may not be stupid, but it is exactly what most businesses will be doing in the recession. This is precisely why they were worried that they would not be able to access government funding, because they can’t afford to fund even half of their research. If you have even been involved in a business, you would know this.

    • SPC 3.1

      Successful investors talk about the behaviour of the group and why it is usually wrong.

      It is a truth that those companies which take the risks (invest for the future) make the real money. And while those companies playing it safe are the ones more likely to survive the present recession they subsequently become the more likely to fail to survive the next one. Our non resource sector economy is full of companies of the second type (the way of the hands off free market leaves us reliant on the primary sector so we have little choice but to support their ability to modernise).

    • lprent 3.2

      Don’t tell me that you are stupid enough to think that people involved in innovative export private sector always vote ‘right’. They’re not that stupid. That gets left to the bureaucracies like corporates, banks, etc who work based on back-scratching and the local economy. For that matter you probably think that public servants vote left? Simple analysis makes for stupid decisions.

      I’ve always been involved in business – why do you think I went off and did a business degree as well as the science? I’ve always been involved in product and systems development. It is what a programmer or manager (my two main careers) do when you focus on exports. Otherwise you get screwed by overseas innovations.

      It is why I’m saying that you’re being simplistic on this topic – in fact you sound just like an accountant in a business that is about to fail.

      Currently I’m working on a project that is designed for release in 18 months internationally. I’m also doing some work on a more engineering level project for release mid next year – also internationally. In both cases I’ve started within the last few months. This is when these types of projects get done. In my areas, there are quite a few projects starting up. The only thing that is noticeable is the intensified competition for job positions. That is because of the people getting released from corporates or coming back home. Happens every time at the start of a decent recession. But the number of export based projects seems to be rising as per usual.

      What gets decreased in a recession are the projects designed largely to increasing efficiencies in a tight resource/labour market – in the local economy. So you usually get a substantial chop in internal projects in corporates. Corporates don’t do much innovation in NZ on their product lines and businesses. They tend to pickup ideas and products from offshore. The smaller companies will cheerfully suck up their freed development resources into their own innovative projects within 6 months. Most of those companies are largely privately held and fund development on the basis of future needs, not what the current economy looks like locally.

      What fails during recessions are smaller businesses that fail to innovate on their processes and products. Typically they concentrate too much on cost-cutting and not enough on where they want to be in 5 years. Anyone that innovates their systems and products will out-perform them both during and especially after a recession.

      The problem is that the farming sector is full of small operators with limited abilities to do R&D on a level that is required to cause innovative change for the whole industry. Even the Fonterra’s have limited abilities to do basic research into other uses for their primary feedstock, but do the engineering level stuff, typically inassociation with the government funded people. Basic agricultural research is largely done by government funding in NZ. We are a world leader in our farming techniques in a large part because of that funding. You don’t stop it just because of a recession, you increase it, same as all of the other economies will be doing. To otherwise is commercial suicide a decade or so out, which in this case would also mean economic suicide as well. That is why the FFF was set up when we were heading into a recession to provide that level of continuity for the research for those export-led industries.

      It wasn’t a mistake – it was sensible planning. But I guess that doctors don’t run export based businesses?

  4. Chris G 4

    Didn’t you know? Righties dont like science. Its a big scary thing run by socialist universities.

  5. notreallyalawyer 5

    farmers cry poverty, complain about Auckland, win sympathy from the left.

    Aucklanders complain about traffic congestion and poor local governance, win sympathy from the right.

    was that Alice that just wipped by chasing a rabbit?

    • lprent 5.1

      It is one of those sad quirks of NZ politics. The right typically ignores agriculture now that MMP has removed those marginal electorates for electoral bribery. There are more voters in Auckland to bribe with white-elephants (like the super-city fiasco or motorways of limited utility – they just fill up).

      However, the left does support farmers – and historically always has done. Without them we don’t make sufficient exports. They just don’t do it stupidly by pandering to the lowest common denominator – that is left to the right. Just look at ACT.

  6. Lew 6

    Tom,

    I see you’re an economist. I’m likely out of my depth.

    it seems like you’re making two claims.
    First is that farmers were incapable or unwilling to invest in RnD, and because we rely on their exports we should do so for them. … The second is the more plausible one that there RnD spending is sometimes a public good.

    You make my argument a bit more elegantly than I did, but you perhaps miss the distinction of `blue sky’ research being that without direct and immediate tangible benefits to a specific sector. Absent those benefits, few in the private sector will fund such research; and yet it does (when conducted properly, etc) have benefits. Taking the CSIRO again as an example, since it’s what I know: most of their research agenda is to do with the environmental pressures of modern industry and life – into climate change and its effects on everything, weather and crops and crop ecologies; land and water usage; precision agriculture and efficient resource management; alternative energy; disaster preparedness, and so on. Much of this research would not survive in isolation; unless undertaken in a wider research ecology, with easy reference to other parallel projects, such research would likely fail and be abandoned as worthless. Nevertheless, this agenda has profound implications for everyone – not just farmers, miners or whatever, but those trying to outrun bushfires, minimise water usage or deploy electric cars.

    I think that markets are generally pretty good, but I don’t accept the assertion that anything the markets deem unworthy of funding is by definition worthless. That’s the role of government in research – to fill the gaps which markets can’t or won’t fill, and to ensure cooperation between different projects with a common goal in mind.

    L

    [FOURTH time lucky?]

    • Well, I’m studying economics, I don’t know if that is quite the same thing!

      I agree that markets don’t always produce efficient outcomes, I think that has been pretty well established recently! What I am saying is that we if are to justify intervention like this we need a very careful explanation as to why it is necessary. Otherwise it’s very easy to fall in to the trap of designing society how you personally want it to look, rather than how the majority of society wants it, as reflected in their consumption decisions. That’s what I mean when I say that we should look at why farmers aren’t investing in RnD as much as we think they should – seeing as they bear the majority of the benefit from it.

      The options are that they simply don’t know what’s good for them (which I don’t believe), that there are benefits to others (externalities) which will lead them to under-invest as they would all the cost but not all the benefit, or that, and this is what I was getting at, we are overrating the importance of this spending.

      I don’t know enough about the agricultural sector to comment about the third option on its own. But I was trying to show that the first two claims seemed shakier than they might first appear, so we should seriously consider the third for that reason.

      Like you I also see benefit in Government funding ‘blue skies’ research programs. To what degree it should fund programs that for the most part just increase private profit is, I think, a slightly different question.

      • lprent 6.1.1

        The reason why is that farmers are a lot of small individual businesses who are competing with each other. There are limited agribusinesses in NZ and they typically are too small to do much innovation – even the larger coops. Most of their innovation tends to the marketing side rather than the basic research and focused on the competitors rather than growing the whole industry. Thats how businesses operate.

        For the sake of NZ economy which receives the primary benefit of the export income generated from agriculture, the government gets heavily involved in the basic research for optimizing agriculture for our production and for delivering better types of product to our overseas markets.

        It is a system that has worked extremely well since refrigeration, and steadily built up our knowledge base in farming. That benefited farmers, sure. But it benefited the country even more.

        • Tom Mathews 6.1.1.1

          I’m not sure if you mean to include it as a ‘larger coop’, but Fonterra is a multibillion dollar corporation, I am pretty sure they can afford research.

          I also think that’s a pretty good example of how the farmers themselves can solve this sort of problem and make themselves more competitive. If your dream model is a whole lot of independent farmers running the same latest tech which the Government supplies them then I can see why you would want to subsidise them though.

          Also, I think it’s a pretty big claim to say that society benefits more from the imports than the people that directly profit off them. Certainly there’s a trickle-down, but I highly doubt that it would be bigger than the cost of the subsidy. Certainly nothing I’ve read here has make me think that.

          • SPC 6.1.1.1.1

            It really depends on how effective the R and D funding partnership is and how effective the taxation of profits is.

            If the private sector is puting up some of the money (15% tax credit – most of it) or half of it in public private partnerships then I would disagree (the rewards of an investment which generate future revenues to government operate over a longer time frame than for a company).

            Quite apart from this – land and water (and Kyoto) research results in efficiencies to the benefit of the economy as much to the various industries.

      • SPC 6.1.2

        Historically the model has been private farmers marketing collectively. They co-operated there.

        The farm sectors ability to finance of R and D is based on having the collective surplus income to do so – but our farming model places upward pressure on land values (any farm income improvement is matched by a rising cost of land). The established farmer benefits from this only when they retire (thus their income is stored in land value and not utilised in R and D funding). The new farmer barely survives the first downturn in prices (and only then if the bank is prepared to finance them through it until the land values recover with the next price upturn). Because the circumstance of farmers is so different, it is hard for such as Fonterra to formulate a way to develop capital reserves for such as R and D. Farmers naturally want to retain control of their co-operative vehicle but they have to committ to finding a way to set aside income in the good years to develop capital reserves.

        A Fast Forward partnership with government might just have been one way.

        Now we will have to consider a CGT on farm properties – so those leaving the industry finance the raising of the governments share of the partnership along with those still farming (in tough times there are new ways).

      • Lew 6.1.3

        What I’m driving at has recently been put more clearly than I could, by Barack Obama:

        As Vannevar Bush, who served as scientific advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, famously said: “Basic scientific research is scientific capital.”
        The fact is an investigation into a particular physical, chemical, or biological process might not pay off for a year, or a decade, or at all. And when it does, the rewards are often broadly shared, enjoyed by those who bore its costs but also by those who did not.
        And that’s why the private sector generally under-invests in basic science, and why the public sector must invest in this kind of research — because while the risks may be large, so are the rewards for our economy and our society.

        That approach got results in the USA in the middle of the last century, and it still is in Australia now; why wouldn’t it here?

        L

  7. Farmers who voted for National must be wondering what they were smoking at the time. Instead of “their” government, they got ACT and market forces.

    • Nick C 7.1

      Or we could accept the other explanation: Farmers were acting rationally on polling day and quite like the market forces. After all they make their living by selling their produce on the market, and the majority of stuff government does (i.e. indirect/direct taxes, regulations, trade barriers) harms them.

      Theres another thing you guys should consider. Given that Farmers are (as a generalisation) wealthy, and farmers are the primary benefactor from the fast foward fund isnt this really just welfare for the rich that you are promoting?

      • SPC 7.1.1

        Are farmers wealthy?

        Some years they do not make a profit and are reliant on loans from the bank for their income.

        If they survive farming for a few decades they become rich, the same way a houseowner becomes rich paying off a mortgage as the value of the property rises (*10 for a farm).

        The problem with becoming wealthy in this way is that they are struggling to pay the farm mortgage and reinvest to maintain the performance of the farm itself and thus cannot easily also finance such things as R and D.

        It is innovation through R and D which will addvalue to our economy.

  8. Akldnut 8

    However NACT prefers to invest in lower-yielding infrastructural investments like the Waterview connection, the Auckland super-city, and the farcical Fibre-to-the-home project. None are likely to yield as much to the economy as investment in agricultural research.

    You missed a big “Egg” that they’re throwing at us – The Jonkey (bike) Trail

  9. sally 9

    On a much more serious note: stop using f*cking comic sans.

    • Maynard J 9.1

      Did you go to see ‘Helvetica’ at the Film Festival last year? Bet you did 🙂

  10. Chris 10

    I’m by no means an economist. However, given events of the past twenty years or so I am developing a healthy disdain for economics as a means to ‘explain’ the world. I prefer to dip into Constanza’s works dealing with ecological economics, and support Adbuster’s campaign for real-world economics, not so called classic economics.

    From my perspective, the Fed Farmers aside from techinical industrial publications/knowledge sharing, are good at whining and not much else. It would be unrealistic to expect them to ‘invest’ in RnD, and I don’t expect that suddenly they will see the light and set up an institute. The more ‘rational’ (and productive) behaviour is to whine their way to the government doing it all for them. It’s not called corporate welfare for nothing.

    I was comfortable having the last Govt set up the Fast Forward Fund. Doing so would mitigate the invetiable whining when farmers suddenly realise they need to innovate or die in the face of competition from other quarters. In this sense, the Fund was an insurance, and I’m happy to pay that insurance.

      • inpassing 10.1.1

        Would this relate to the unmentioned ‘externality’ of global/local environment..?

        Tom wrote of them as “benefits” to one or other party or interest, whereas broad care for the global environment has taken a battering of disregard through the era of deregulated financial economic emphasis.

        Deliberately costed out, as it were, we might well ask of the supposed wisdom in financial wizardry… might well ask well howse about getting back to the benchmark ground of human sustainability.

        I’d guess that in this sense the recession’s less is (planetarily) more. And may well continue for as long as it takes to get our priorities both right and correct.

  11. notreallyalawyer 11

    If you step away from the self-serving false dichotomy (Labour friend of farmers, National enemy of farmers – and black is white), which is merely about partisan politics, the central issue is the govt has limited resources in the peresnt economic climate.

    Everyone recognises the importance of Ag research – the problem is that increasing spending there takes money away form other areas. Other industries are entitled to research money, and there’s very good reasons for us to diversify away from primary produce, and new mothers should have the opportunity to spend time in hospital with their babies – that’s an investment in the future as well.

    But feel free to fall for the farmers Us vs Aucklanders framing. You might not have noticed but they’ve been trying that on for a while now.

    • SPC 11.1

      Its not, an either or, there was Labour’s 15% tax credit available for all (which National will probably do way with in the budget) – compared to Oz now at 40%.

      We do not spend enough on R and D and this is vital to the economic growth which affords our spending.

  12. coge 12

    Subsidising R&D, as in the euphemistic fast forward fund, is positively 1970’s styled Muldoonist politics. The fact is returns on such schemes are utterly unmeasurable. There is a good chance such returns (if they were measurable) over time would be less than the grant. The fund does simply not conform to basic modern economic principles.

    Since the seventies the world has become a lot smaller, it’s no longer necessary to do all such R&D in ones backyard shed so to speak. It was pure political expediency from the former Labour govt. Back your academics, & make it appear you are doing farmers a big favour.

    • SPC 12.1

      You seem to confuse picking winners of Think Big/artifical subsidy/industry protection with tax credits for R and D or public funding of R and D (it’s hard to identify any country in the OECD or developing world with lower R and D than us – public and private sector – and we wonder why we are falling backwards).

      As for the primary sector, it is a world leader, it’s not an uncompetitive sector being propped up. This is about adding value to product through technological innovation to grow the economy.

      If we do not so the R and D those who do will just buy up raw material and add value to it to their own profit – leaving us as low cost low return providers of the raw material. This will mean our resource sector will not grow as a share of the world economy as the technology advances and we will become relatively impoverished (as is already happening).

  13. Bill 13

    It seems to me that the profit motive act as a massive disincentive when it comes to privately funded ‘blue sky’ R&D. The only time R&D is undertaken without one eye fixed firmly on future profit is when it is funded from the public purse and even then, unintentional marketable by-products of the process are elevated and privatised.

    Private industry exists to make money and make money fast.So, the crux of the matter is not how much public money goes into it. Nor how much private money goes into it. The real issue would seem to be how to effect good R&D that takes account of all potential negative consequences (environmental, social etc) instead of those factors being over ridden by motives of potential profit and associated costs externalised.

    The fact that R&D is seen as a cost to be externalised in the same way as negative consequences of production is a secondary issue and one that can never be satisfactorily resolved as long as it takes place within a market environment that is inimical to any R&D that does not satisfy narrow market imperatives.

    If we ask whether we want substantive R&D guided by a number of principles or want it to be guided merely by its potential to generate profit for private institutions, then if the latter is the case the debate will bounce endlessly to and fro because the question becomes necessarily limited to one of funding.

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  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    7 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    8 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    9 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    11 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    12 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    12 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    12 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    13 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    14 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    16 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    12 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
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