Category: Pre-ODT Columns

What do Australian apple growers and United States dairy farmers have in common? They are welfare dependants, cosseted by governments against taking responsibility for making their way in the world. Paula Bennett could offer some self-improving advice.

They also have in common pliant politicians. The United States Congress fears New Zealand’s cows. Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott fear our apple growers. Australia will appeal the World Trade Organisation’s ruling that there are no legal grounds for special biosecurity measures against New Zealand apples. read more

Simon Power wants to reclaim the justice system for the people. He has made a start. He reckons it will take him another two to three years.

He will outline his next steps in a speech to the law profession and academics at Otago University this month (postponed from Wednesday because the funeral of Lieutenant Tim O’Donnell, a constituent, is that day). The law industry is unlikely to rush to congratulate him. read more

So we’re not catching up with Australia or we are catching up. Take your pick and find some numbers and a timeframe to fit, as Phil Goff and John Key did last week.

But which numbers?

Is it GDP per capita — gross domestic product (GDP, or total output) divided by population? If so, which GDP? Australia averages three different GDPs (production, income and expenditure) for its commonly used figure. New Zealand uses production only for its commonly used figure. read more

Elections are looming. That will have many at today’s local government conference a bit on edge. But there is much more in the wind.

Not since Michael Bassett slashed the number of local bodies from more than 600 to 88 (now 85) in 1989 has there been so much uncertainty over councils’ futures: super-Auckland, changes at ground level and in the groundrules — and now, a drive by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide to settle councils’ “proper constitutional status”. read more

One of the busiest ministers is Nick Smith. This is not just because he is reorienting ACC and large chunks of environment policy but because he goes at it with great energy and, officials attest, in command of stupefying detail.

Last week Smith fined up the last of the 2009 ACC reform legislation’s major changes: discounts for safe employers and penalties for unsafe ones — up to 50 per cent each way for big employers and up to 10 per cent for small ones. read more

John Key will be lionised this weekend at the National party conference, with reason. Will he be lionised this time three years hence?

Key was the third phase of National’s recovery of self-respect, delivering it back to power after Jenny Shipley’s 1998 divorce from a costly coalition with Winston Peters and Don Brash’s rescue from the 2002 nadir with the race card, personal attack advertising and large tax-cut promises. read more

John Key is off the South Korea, China and Vietnam. A couple of days in each place, with business and research interests in tow, including a day at the Shanghai expo where half a million people go each day. It highlights east Asia’s importance. But has he grasped the breadth of that importance? read more

History has a way of veering off track. Kevin Rudd’s “historic” first speech to Parliament by a foreign leader billed for tomorrow will not be history after all. Julia Gillard has rescheduled history. Will she also reschedule the Rudd trans-Tasman agenda?

Lying in behind this question is another, particularly on Australia’s side: might Gillard and John Key want in time to take that agenda to a new level? read more

Which would you rather have: prices going up or prices going down? Be careful how you answer. Bill English and Alan Bollard are listening.

There is much talk in Europe and the United States of deflation if governments act too soon to reduce or reverse their fiscal stimuluses by cutting spending and/or raising taxes, even though many are on a road to seriously high debt. read more

The problem with lines in the sand is wind. The lines blow away. But politicians famously bend in the breeze. They can just redraw new lines.

John Key has been drawing lines in the sand on concessions to the Maori party and to iwi. He will not vest Urewera National Park in Tuhoe, no matter how the long the transition. He will not open up the foreshore to a full Treaty of Waitangi re-examination and privatised bits will not be part of the public domain. He put (initially) disabling qualifications on Pita Sharples’ signature on the indigenous rights declaration. Whanau ora gets limited funding for now. read more