Now that the world is opening up again, the government finds itself under pressure to follow suit, at least in a limited way. Kiwis are now allowed to travel overseas, with the clear understanding that they will face 14 days quarantine on their return (which presumably will not be funded
The Greens have come out with their financial and taxation policy for the election, and there are few surprises. While I sympathise with their desire to eliminate poverty, this proposal will cost New Zealanders dearly but will, in fact, make only a small difference to those at the bottom of
Jacinda travelled to Queenstown last week to announce $85 million of government funding, aimed at assisting the town’s Town Centre project and also to help fund stage one of Queenstown’s Arterials projects. These projects are not of immediate assistance to the tourism sector, but will be funded partly
It was October 2019. On a sunny spring day in Wellington, Richard, a builder, was doing some work in a house in the suburb of Seatoun. The renovations had been a bit erratic, as the lady of the house had just come back from a trip to the UK and
We watched in disbelief as mobs looted and vandalised in America, attacking and beating people, wrecking their businesses and murdering those that tried to stop them. The catch cry is “Justice for George”, but the police officers who were involved in George Floyd’s murder have already been brought to
So what happens now? Now that we know that a birthday party was held in a quarantine hotel, and the birthday child blew out the candles and pieces of cake were handed out to all party attendees? Now that we know a wedding was held in a quarantine hotel: not
So after all that effort on the part of the ‘Team of 5 Million’, we now have 3 new COVID-19 cases, with two of the cases having done a road trip from Auckland to Wellington, hugged people, attended a funeral and God knows what else. That has already resulted in
While Grant Robertson has no financial or economic background, I thought he was doing a reasonable job as minister of finance. There may, however, be an element of comparison with some of the true dullards in the current cabinet that helped forge that opinion. He is certainly no Bill English,
The prime minister has expressed her anger at the fact that The Warehouse Group is about to lay off 1,080 workers. She is particularly angry because the company accepted the government wage subsidy in March, taking $68 million in government subsidies at that time. This week alone, we have
I read Cameron Slater’s excellent article about the possibility of a National-Green coalition after the election with considerable interest. His angle on the matter was that National voters, upset at the prospect of a post-election deal between National and NZ First should think again, as an even more unpalatable
I really wanted to like Todd Muller. We all know how badly National needs to identify itself, particularly as the party that is a great steward of the economy. Muller started his leadership (ignoring poorly handled issues about hats and a lack of diversity) by naming himself as the champion
Blaming Simon Bridges for his party’s dreadful polling at the end of a global pandemic is as unfair as it is unreasonable, but relentless negative media coverage finally brought about his demise. Jacinda Ardern’s meteoric rise in the polls, an expression of gratitude from the public that COVID-19
I have fared pretty well during Levels 3 and 4, leaving home infrequently, only to make trips to the supermarket where, after one or two teething issues with keeping my distance from other shoppers, I encountered no real problems. Being in lockdown in a town with no reported cases, the
I am still reeling from the numbers in the “Rebuilding Together” budget. It reminds me of Hillary Clinton‘s campaign slogan in 2016, and we all know how that ended up. All I can do is hope fervently that this government ends up the same way – on the scrapheap, with
The government’s small business loan scheme has started this week. Administered by the IRD, it allows small businesses to borrow $10,000, plus $1800 for every employee, up to a maximum of $100,000. Eligibility for the loan scheme is much the same as for the wage subsidy; you
Damien Grant is a liquidator. He drives the ambulance to the bottom of the cliff. His latest piece is an interesting view on the economy from a liquidator’s perspective and his further comments provide food for thought for those who think that National is going down in a screaming
