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Is
our Government too Big?
22 March
08
Muriel Newman
How
big should our government be? To what extent do we want
politicians to decide how we should be living our lives? That,
one hopes, may be an issue in this year’s general election...
More >>>
Some
Concerns about the State of the State in NZ
22 March
08
Graham
Scott
The
years of the
Clark
administration have seen a steady expansion of the influence of
politicians in the economy and society. In this election year
the voters will choose a government partly on what they think
have been the results of this and whether they approve of it in
principle. The list of illustrations is a long one. More >>>
Everyone
Pays
17 February
08
Muriel Newman
Last
week renowned economist and author Thomas Sowell published a
column in which he shed light on the origins of Fascism.
He describes how Fascism’s
industrial policies attracted the
political ‘left’ but public opinion eventually forced them
to back off...
More >>>
Housing
Affordability Crisis
3 February 08
Muriel Newman
Housing
affordability is set to become a key election issue. Ill advised
policies from local and central government are turning the Kiwi
dream of home ownership into a fantasy...
More >>>
Restoring
the Housing Opportunity
2 February 08
Hugh Pavletich
The
2008 4th Edition Demographia International Housing
Affordability Survey released recently, illustrates clearly why so
many young and vulnerable New Zealanders, are being denied the right to
the opportunity of affordable housing.
.... More
>>>
The
Cost of Power
Muriel Newman
8
December 2007
Our
home used to be our castle, but eight years of intrusive
new laws and regulations have put paid to that.
More
>>>
New
Zealand's Energy "Strategy"
Bryan Leyland
8 December 07
I have been
involved in the electricity and energy business in New Zealand
for the last fifty years. From 1992 to 2003, I produced the
only independent review of electricity generation and demand
in New Zealand.
More
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Corrupting
Free Markets
Muriel Newman
29
September 2007
Socialism
has become much more sophisticated in recent times. Socialist
power no longer comes from the barrel of the gun, but from
using populism to “corrupt” free market principles. There
are no better examples than the present introduction of carbon
trading to change the dynamics of the energy industry and the
government’s intrusion into telecommunications. Both rely on
“convincing” an uninformed public that a problem exists
that can only be solved through government regulation. More
>>>
Defiling
the Rank: How Useful are the OECD League Tables?
Bronwyn
Howell
29 September 2007
Using
OECD rankings as either a measure of a country’s performance
or as a target to justify adopting a particular policy has
become popular amongst the member states in recent years.
Policies benchmarked using rankings are simple concepts
to market to voters and appeal to a sense of nationalistic
pride: ‘winning’ is important, but if you can’t win,
then at least you want to be seen to be outranking your
fiercest national rival (e.g. Australia if you are New
Zealand; Sweden if you are Finland; the United States if you
are Canada). More
>>>
Political
Answers to Real Problems
Muriel Newman
16
September 2007
Almost
every day there are calls from one group or another for the
government to “do something” about some critical problem
they have identified. Whether it is immunisation rates that
are said to be too low, air quality standards that campaigners
claim are killing people, or too much computer spam, lobbyists
are convinced that new laws are the panacea to society’s
ills. The problem is that not only do new laws almost never
solve the problem, but they often do far more harm than good.
It seems that the “cure” is often far worse than the
sickness.
More
>>>
Regulating
finance companies Act in Haste, Repent at Leisure
Prof
Glenn Boyle
15 September 2007
The
woes of finance companies have been much in the news
recently. A combination of small and/or undiversified loan
portfolios, impenetrable business models, ructions
emanating from the collapse of the United States sub-prime
mortgage market, and a self-fulfilling loss of confidence
by New Zealand investors in the safety of their money,
have seen nine such companies collapse in the last 18
months. More
>>>
Defending
Free Speech
Muriel Newman
26
August 2007
Every
New Zealander who cares about our democratic right to free
speech should be concerned about the Labour Party’s
dangerous new bill on election financing. As John
Armstrong, a senior political journalist at the Herald
wrote: “Wake up to what Labour is doing with its
shabby, self-serving Electoral Finance Bill. Or let it be
on your conscience that you stood back and watched your
right to free speech being flushed down the drain.”
More
>>>
Regulating
Freedom of Speech
Bernard Robertson
26 August 07
The
so-called Electoral Finance Bill is really about participation
in election activity by people who are not professional
politicians. It says that politics is for politicians and that
you and I, who are not self-promoting climbers of the greasy
pole, have no business interfering. The policy agenda should
be determined by the political parties and not by the public
and so should the way those policies are marketed. More
>>>
The
Politics of Law Making
Muriel Newman
11
August 2007
It
is the trait of governments that don’t know what to do about
a difficult problem to simply pass a law. They do this knowing
that the law will not work, but at least they will be seen to
be doing something. The difficulty is that not only does such
knee-jerk legislation rarely solve the problem it invariably
creates serious unintended consequences. More
>>>
The
Blame Game
Muriel Newman
17
June 2007
A
year ago I reviewed a Labour Party communication strategy
paper: “This paper is about Labour taking greater charge of
the language of debate and discussion in New Zealand. It is
called re-framing and it means gaining (or regaining) the use of concepts
and phrases that spark public and media interest”
More
>>>
Nanny
State
Lindsay Perigo
17 June 07
I can't be sure, but it may
well have been me who introduced the term "Nanny
State" into the New Zealand vernacular, on my
Politically Incorrect Show on Radio Pacific. Certainly I
used it regularly there, and observed it creep into common
usage thereafter, as did the related term,
"Helengrad." In any event, the expression is
well and truly out there now, and that's as good a thing
as its referent is bad. Nanny State is vicious, anti-human
… and, as we speak, relentlessly advancing.
More
>>>
Know it
all Politicians
Muriel Newman
27
May 2007
The
latest Police prosecution figures show that there has been
an alarming rise in the number of people drinking and
driving. This is despite many millions of dollars of
taxpayers’ money spent on drink-driving campaigns. More
>>>
The Road to Stagnation
Richard Epstein
12 March 07
It is a regrettable truth about political discourse that
no bad lesson ever gets unlearned.
The climate of political opinion in the
United States, and probably in much of New Zealand, offers
somber confirmation of that melancholy truth.
At issue in both nations, and everywhere else
around the world, is a struggle two models of economic
organization. One
is market driven. The
other is corporatist. More
>>>
Busybody
politicians, get off our backs
John Stossel
6 September 2006 View
>>>
Freedom Under Attack
Muriel Newman
22 April
07
It was Thomas
Jefferson who said: “The price of freedom is eternal
vigilance”. These words are as valid today as when they
were first uttered over two hundred years ago, as the
natural inclination of government is to extend its own
power and control at the expense of the freedom and
liberty of citizens.
More >>>
A Questionable Policy
Muriel Newman
8 April
07
Last week NZ Post announced it will be
increasing the price of stamps: on June 1st,
the cost of stamps for standard domestic letters will rise
from 45 cents to 50 cents and fastpost stamps will
increase from 90 cents to $1. Accordingly to the mail
chief, Peter Fenton, while the company has absorbed a
number of business cost increases over the last three
years, wages and other employment expenses - which make up
around 40 per cent of the cost of mail delivery - must now
be passed onto the customer. More >>>
Regulatory Zeal
Muriel Newman
11 Mar
07
I recently
received the following email from a Newman Weekly
subscriber:
"I've just returned from
our local pet shop to buy a replacement mouse for my 12
year old. $4.95. I had to fill out a form accepting a list
of conditions informing me of my responsibilities as a
mouse owner.
The 12 year old wasn't allowed to sign, as you had to be
over 16 or 18.
If the pet shop was a Government agency I am sure that
they would have rangers driving around checking on the
comfort of mice and claiming that they need more resources
as there are still mice out there suffering." More >>>
An Inconvenient Reality
Muriel Newman
3 Dec
06
Trying out new things is a normal part
of everyday life. Whether it’s a new recipe, a quicker
way to get home, or a different system of tracking emails
in the office, if the initiatives work and produce
positive benefits, they are continued, but if they
don’t, they are rejected. More >>>
A Licence for Parents
Muriel Newman
23 September
06
The
whole country continues to wait anxiously for news that
the killer of Chris and Cru Kahui, the twins brutally
murdered in July, has been arrested. More >>>
Political
Correctness
Dr Wayne Mapp
25 Feb 06
School around New Zealand are holding team sports events
but are refusing to allow scores to be kept, in case the
children are unable to cope with defeat. What kind of
lesson do the teachers think they are giving that children
can't think; that games are not about lessons for life?
The children are certainly smart enough to keep the scores
anyway, as one youngster was overheard telling her father,
“There is no score, but we won by three goals.” More
>>>
The PC Agenda
Muriel Newman
5 Nov 05
Political correctness is rarely out of the news these
days.
Whether it’s stories about Josie Bullock being
sacked by the Department of Corrections for refusing to
give up her front row seat during a graduation ceremony,
the on-going debate over whether fireworks should be
banned, or the announcement by the National Party that
they have finally recognised political correctness as an
issue of public concern by appointing a ‘PC
eradicator’, we are constantly being bombarded with PC
headlines. More >>>
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