Articles in ‘Opinion’

The recently announced 2021 Budget was an opportunity missed. With vaccination programmes underway and many countries progressively opening their borders, it’s time to reset and better position our economy for growth. This Budget should have delivered a pathway back to prosperity and to reduce the debt burden on future generations, but instead of supporting businesses to create jobs and lift wages, Labour placed a priority on significantly…

On the 20th April Panuku Development and Auckland Transport rolled out an ‘exciting temporary trial’ on King Street with a focus on making it safer for people to walk around Pukekohe. · The idea? Make King Street one way. · Chaos ensued. · Drivers felt less safe when they were suddenly unable to access King Street from the main Manukau Road roundabout and the general response to the idea was anything but excited. Poor signage and a lack of…

Last month, I wrote about the way in which radicals are working to reinterpret the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi, often arguing that the Treaty of Waitangi (in English) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (in te reo) are two quite different documents, and that there is no way that Maori chiefs would have surrendered sovereignty in 1840. Given the speeches made by Maori chiefs on 5 February 1840, and at the conference of chiefs at Kohimarama in 1860,…

The RBNZ laid out the path for policy, including OCR rate hikes from mid-2022. Interest rates, including mortgage rates, have bottomed (all going well). · We have pulled forward our forecast OCR hikes to commence from May’22. New Zealand’s monetary policy stance sticks out compared to the RBA, and most other central banks. · There is significant upside risk to Kiwi interest rates and the Kiwi dollar. We are wary of mortgage related fixing in…

The number of people outside keeps growing. Where there had once been a harmless handful, there is now a good-sized crowd. And they keep coming. More and more of them. You can hear car doors slamming, footsteps, the soft murmur of exchanged greetings. These people can’t quite believe what they’ve been told, so they’ve come to see for themselves if the story is true. It was unavoidable: this growing chorus of disquiet. The moment Nanaia Mahuta…

A bombshell ruling from the High Court opens the door to tribal control of New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed. It represents a major setback for those who believe the country’s coastline and Territorial Sea should be owned by no-one and protected by the Crown for the benefit of all. The Edwards case is the first of some 200 Marine and Coastal Area Act applications for customary interest currently before the High Court. Collectively these…

The month of May is action-packed with the Government’s Budget (May 20) and the RBNZ’s Monetary Policy Statement (May 26). And this week, we get the RBNZ’s semi-annual Financial Stability Report (FSR). Unfortunately, even before its release, the FSR has lost some of its allure. We learnt last week in the media the RBNZ will not include a response to the Minister of Finance on DTI and interest only lending restrictions. The RBNZ is likely to…

There she goes, New Zealand’s Wonder Woman, striking a model’s pose on the cover of yet another women’s magazine, Thrive, dedicated to the wellness mantras Ardern herself spouts. Its subtitle – ‘Care’ – tells us ‘How Jacinda looks after herself (and us)’, the article gushing about the cup of tea Clarke Gayford, the father of her daughter, brings her every morning; how he makes her breakfast if she is in a rush; sends her nice little texts and…

Auckland Council obviously doesn’t bother to look back on past mistakes by previous versions of the original Auckland City Council. They should take the time to read Graham WA Bush’s “Advance In Order” written in 1991, with a council committee overview under Cath Tizard, the then Mayor of Auckland City. This book covered the events and history time line from 1971 to 1989. Further valuable information is also available from Graham Bush’s earlier…

A couple of issues back, I wrote about the way in which the Government had passed legislation under urgency to prevent ratepayers having any right to demand a referendum before local authorities establish Maori wards, as a previous Labour Government had explicitly legislated for. I want to discuss this issue a bit further because I’ve had some people say to me that the Treaty gave Maori New Zealanders a constitutional preference, a special…