This is edition 2025/91 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Welcome back. It's 2025 and 20 years since I started writing about politics and anything else that took my fancy. Thank to my VIP members for making this site what it is today. In July we will be having a 20th birthday celebration. Stay tuned for more announcements.
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. Sound and Fury
Chris Trotter
- 💼 The perennial problem with budgets is the political noise surrounding them.
- 📰 Government and media vie to shape public expectations.
- 🗣️ Interest groups join the cacophonous budget conversation.
- 🤔 Citizens grow frustrated wondering about the budget's fairness and effectiveness.
- 📊 The budget's primary purpose is parliamentary approval for government spending.
- 💸 Economic decisions hinge on maintaining state operations and funding new obligations.
- 📉 Economic decline reduces state revenues, forcing borrowing to meet obligations.
- 🏛️ Idealized "Citizen Assemblies" could offer rational economic decisions free from partisan pressures.
- 🇺🇸 Historical examples like the Great Depression show the consequences of conventional economic wisdom.
- 🪓 Calls for severe state expenditure cuts reminiscent of past economic failures persist today.
- 🎯 Minister Nicola Willis's budget balanced state spending reductions with essential obligations.
- 🏥 Health care costs for an aging population pose a future fiscal challenge.
- 📈 Adjusting NZ Superannuation eligibility age could mitigate future health expenditure spikes.
- 💰 Pay Equity adjustments played a crucial role in avoiding severe austerity measures.
- 📉 Political realities often influence budget decisions despite fiscal imperatives.
