CoveragePost
September 9, 2019
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – What sort of topsy-turvy political world have we arrived at? This week, the Government continued to defend its fiscally conservative approach, in direct opposition to economists who suggest more spending is warranted. Even Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the private sector, and National appear to be open to much greater ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Shouldn’t the Government be spending more?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/09/09/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-shouldnt-the-government-be-spending-more/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Shouldn’t the Government be spending more?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
September 2, 2019
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The Prime Minister currently gets paid $460K – about nine times the average wage. Other politicians receive less, but still magnitudes more than the average working citizen. So, are politicians paid too much, or do we need high pay to attract quality representation? The debate about politician pay has ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Lifting the MP pay freeze – how much are politicians worth?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/09/02/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-lifting-the-mp-pay-freeze-how-much-are-politicians-worth/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Lifting the MP pay freeze – how much are politicians worth?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
August 22, 2019
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The 2018 census has had such a low compliance rate, that it really acted as a large convenience sample (therefore a biased sample) of the New Zealand population. (See my Census Survey from March 2018.) Despite the assurances we are getting, many researchers will have little confidence in its population tallies ... <a title="Keith Rankin’s Chart of the Month – Auckland and New Zealand’s Population Dynamics" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/08/22/keith-rankins-chat-of-the-month-auckland-and-new-zealands-population-dynamics/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin’s Chart of the Month – Auckland and New Zealand’s Population Dynamics">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 30, 2019
Interest rates, though headline‑rousing when it comes to mortgages, are an arcane and deeply mysterious component of economic life. The received wisdom is that they represent the ‘time‑value of money’, and therefore should always be positive. Low interest rates are supposed to indicate a high willingness to postpone consumer pleasures. Interest income is also understood ... <a title="Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis: G7 Rates of Interest, Inflation and Unemployment" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/07/30/keith-rankins-chart-analysis-g7-rates-of-interest-inflation-and-unemployment/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis: G7 Rates of Interest, Inflation and Unemployment">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 12, 2019
Is this part of the Labour-led Government’s long-promised “nuclear-free moment”, alluded to by Jacinda Ardern when she promised radical action on climate change? The announcement this week of a proposed “feebate” which will make more environmentally-friendly cars cheaper while making the gas-guzzlers more expensive is one of the long-awaited plans for how New Zealand will ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Will the Government’s nudge make our cars greener?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/07/12/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-will-the-governments-nudge-make-our-cars-greener/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Will the Government’s nudge make our cars greener?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 9, 2019
There’s increasing doubt about how transformational the Labour-led Government is turning out to be. In all sorts of public policy areas the new administration is struggling to make the changes and produce the outcomes it promised. Perhaps expectations are too high? Maybe voters and commentators are too impatient? Or, could it be that the political ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: How to achieve transformational change in politics" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/07/09/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-how-to-achieve-transformational-change-in-politics/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: How to achieve transformational change in politics">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 5, 2019
Call it “state housing”, “social housing” or this Government’s preference, “public housing” – it’s the accommodation solution that continues to be overlooked and neglected by both Labour and National governments. Sure, the current government might talk a lot about “public housing” and they might be building more state houses than the previous government, but it’s ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Is it time for a programme of mass state house building?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/07/05/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-is-it-time-for-a-programme-of-mass-state-house-building/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Is it time for a programme of mass state house building?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 2, 2019
The public’s trust in the competency and integrity of the public service is an essential element of any democracy. If citizens think that those running government departments are foolish, dishonest, or dodgy, then the whole system can start to fall apart. We see the results of such distrust in plenty of other countries. Here in ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Lack of accountability over Treasury’s bogus hacking claim" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/07/02/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-lack-of-accountability-over-treasurys-bogus-hacking-claim/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Lack of accountability over Treasury’s bogus hacking claim">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
June 28, 2019
Yesterday the Prime Minister sent a clear message to voters: the Government has not given up on fixing the housing crisis. It was communicated via the sacking of the Housing Minister, and a serious re-organisation of the housing portfolio so that a team of five ministers now share responsibility for fixing what is becoming an ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The Government suggests it hasn’t given up on the housing crisis (yet)" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/06/28/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-the-government-suggests-it-hasnt-given-up-on-the-housing-crisis-yet/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: The Government suggests it hasn’t given up on the housing crisis (yet)">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
June 19, 2019
The sudden departure of ANZ CEO David Hisco this week has been sold as the bank having high standards of accountability. The intention is obviously to reassure the public, customers, shareholders, regulators and the politicians that all is well, and the local board of ANZ has everything under control. But not everyone’s convinced. And there ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Dodgy banks under scrutiny" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/06/19/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-dodgy-banks-under-scrutiny/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Dodgy banks under scrutiny">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
June 18, 2019
Shock, horror! An extremely wealthy CEO has been using chauffeur services, and the bank that he runs has been paying for it. Furthermore, that bank has been paying for the storage of his wine in Australia because they re-located him to New Zealand to be the CEO of their local operations here. For the full ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Banking elites get a taste of the Zeitgeist" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/06/18/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-banking-elites-get-a-taste-of-the-zeitgeist/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Banking elites get a taste of the Zeitgeist">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
June 6, 2019
Should we really care about the “Budget hack” that has been consuming a lot of politicians and political commentators over the last week? Is this really, as John Key used to say about scandals involving his own Government, one of “the things that matter”? I made the case yesterday in my column, The Budget ‘hack’ scandal ... <a title="Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Who cares about the “Budget hack”?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2019/06/06/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-who-cares-about-the-budget-hack/" aria-label="Read more about Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Who cares about the “Budget hack”?">Read more</a>
