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NZCPR CAMPAIGNS
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Dr. Don Brash
In recent months, we’ve all been treated to a steady diet of sermons from those who would have us believe that the international financial crisis is all the result of the banking industry being “free and unregulated”. The former Vice Chancellor of Waikato University, Bryan Gould, is one who has made this accusation, and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has generalized the accusation by a broad attack on what he terms “neo-liberalism”. Others have demonstrated how weak Kevin Rudd’s position is, so let me focus on the kind of arguments which Bryan Gould makes.
Last month, New Zealand passed a milestone – happy or unhappy depending on your point of view. Last month marked the 10th anniversary of MMP in New Zealand. I still get asked at public meetings: “When are we going to get the MMP referendum we were promised?” And I try to convince the questioner that there never was any promise to hold another referendum on MMP.
Twelve months ago, I gave a major speech to the Orewa Rotary Club about the National Party’s commitment to welfare reform. I noted that 30 years ago the number of working-aged adults on a benefit in New Zealand was fewer than 40,000, whereas in 2005 the figure was over 300,000, despite the economic buoyancy induced by some of the strongest export prices in a generation.
