Dr Muriel Newman nzcpr.com At Labour’s annual conference last weekend, COVID-19 dominated Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s speech: “Our strong health response now gives us an economic head start, the ability to move from responding to Covid-19, to recovering and rebuilding… So today my ask of you is
Dr Oliver Hartwich nzinitiative.org.nz The Green Party has declared its wealth tax will be a red line in any coalition negotiations. And because Labour knows this, the larger party left the door wide open. Rather than ruling out the Greens’ plans, both the Prime Minister and the Minister
I have just watched TVNZ ONE News on Monday night where, among other things, they reported gleefully on the fact that a number of businesses may be up for prosecution for claiming the wage subsidy when they didn’t need it. They behave as if every business owner is a
David Law Research Fellow nzinitiative.org.nz The Green Party’s “Poverty Action Plan” is all about tackling poverty, although the outcomes may differ from what the party expects. While it is meant to help struggling New Zealanders, the plan will instead disincentivise work, saving, investment in education and skills,
The little woman running this country appears to be still obsessed with control. Even though there are countries that are happy to accept Kiwis with tourist dollars to spend, her advice is not to go. Stay and spend those dollars in your own backyard, she says. In one way encouraging
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
Gerhard Sundborn covidplanb.co.nz The Cook Islands is almost as much a part of New Zealand as the North or South Island. Like Niue and Tokelau, all Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship. The Cooks is home to 17,500 people of whom about 2,500 (15%) are either
Councils are licking their lips over a lolly scramble of free government money for “shovel-ready” projects. Of course, there is no such thing as free money, so alarm bells should start ringing for any rational observer. We need to take a closer look at this before we, the taxpayers, are
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
Cathy Buckle cathybuckle.co.zw Cathy Buckle and her well-known blog, Letters from Zimbabwe, featuring eye witness accounts of daily life in Zimbabwe, has been running since February 2000. It is sent to subscribers around the world and is regularly featured by a number of international print and broadcast media
Some people, it seems, are smarting from ‘white guilt’ and looking ahead in hope – of course through pink-lensed spectacles – to a chardonnay-infused, post-colonial future. One such anonymous person, considerably younger than me I must admit, wrote an open letter to his or her old private school via The Telegraph recently
Ananish Chaudhuri Simon Thornley Michael Jackson covidplanb.co.nz The recent fiasco that allowed people to leave quarantine without testing, risking the spread of COVID-19, highlights how nebulous the government’s claim of total elimination always was. The government, in projecting thousands of deaths that never eventuated, has continued with
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
