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Economy

Turning Cities Into Ghost Towns

Turning Cities Into Ghost Towns

Dr Oliver Hartwich nzinitiative.org.nz Walking around central Wellington, more shops are boarded up. On Lambton Quay, two bank branches recently disappeared. Just as the two Burger Kings on Lambton Quay and Courtney Place. Walking down Featherston St, there are empty shops every 40 or 50 metres. Reports from

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Taiwan Shows How to Make Elimination Affordable

Taiwan Shows How to Make Elimination Affordable

Press Release: ACT Party “An interview with Taiwanese Digital Minister Audrey Tang shows the way to making elimination of COVID-19 affordable through a Wellbeing Approach,” says ACT Leader David Seymour “ACT has been saying for months that New Zealand should look to Taiwan’s approach to managing COVID-19. I have

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Easing Border Pains

Easing Border Pains

Roger Partridge nzinitiative.org.nz In mid-April, German sewerage experts were allowed through New Zealand’s tightly controlled border with the country still locked down at Alert Level 4. At the time, Wellington ratepayers were paying nearly $100,000 a day to ferry wastewater by truck from the city’s

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National Works to Support Southland Jobs

National Works to Support Southland Jobs

Judith Collins National Party Leader national.org.nz A National Government will facilitate negotiations between Rio Tinto, power companies and Transpower to achieve a more cost-competitive environment to keep the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter open. New Zealand is losing thousands of jobs every week due to the largest economic crisis

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Bullshit Jobs Are Our Biggest Growth Industry

Bullshit Jobs Are Our Biggest Growth Industry

The bureaucratic class is an incestuous beast whose gluttony is never satisfied. We’ve all seen it in action: a company “restructures” and “downsizes” and, by some strange miracle, coalface workers are either laid off or expected to do more and more work with less and less people, but the

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This COVID Farce Must End

This COVID Farce Must End

If the Prime Minister has any political nous at all she will end this current COVID farce and let everyone get on with a normal life as many appear to be doing anyway. Phil Goff is telling us that we must stay local. If Phil liked to take a drive

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Staggering Number of Households Are In Mortgage Arrears

Staggering Number of Households Are In Mortgage Arrears

I can’t help feeling that the economic tsunami (to misquote Chris Hipkins) is swirling around below the surface just waiting to erupt sometime soon, but it just hasn’t quite got there yet. Whether or not it will finally show itself before the election is anyone’s guess. That

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COVID-19 Costs & Benefits – Revisited

COVID-19 Costs & Benefits – Revisited

Dr Bryce Wilkinson nzinitiative.org.nz For those who care about New Zealanders’ wellbeing, the central issue is if the benefits of any given level of lockdown plausibly exceed the costs. About four months ago, I calculated it might be worth sacrificing 6.1% of one year of New Zealand’

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Bluescope: More Kiwi Jobs to Go

Bluescope: More Kiwi Jobs to Go

Long after Jacinda Ardern and her on-again, off-again lockdowns are consigned to the dustbin of electoral history, New Zealanders will be paying off the debt of her policies. But, that is, as we say in Australia, on the never-never. Which means that something has been bought on credit, with little-to-no

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We’re Printing Money

We’re Printing Money

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union In the nearly seven years I’ve been running the Taxpayers’ Union, it’s fair to say the last few weeks have been the strangest. We totally rewrote our election campaign strategy following COVID the first time. We scrapped the election “Bribe-O-Meter”

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