November 27th, 2008
Senior Ministers are becoming increasingly concerned at the drift between Canberra and Wellington over major policy as the Rudd Govt charts its own course without bothering to consult. This has already been most evident in coordination over the response to the global economic crisis.
At the weekend the Aust press reported how Rudd, in a […]
November 27th, 2008
John Walley, chief of the Manufacturers and Exporters Assn, has cause to wail about short-term spending and bank bailout plans dominating the election campaign, and how this has shifted attention from the local problems underpinning our economy. Decisions on where to locate or whether to start an economic activity still rely on long-term prospects as […]
November 27th, 2008
The precipitous plunge in the NZ dollar, as carry trades desert the Anzac currencies, has tilted the economy back in favour of the export sector. The Kiwi is down by a third against the peak of US82c, and 40% against the yen. But exporters are concerned the long-awaited re-balancing of the currency may not bring […]
November 13th, 2008
One of the first tasks John Key is setting his new Ministers is a line-by-line review of Govt spending. This will be entrusted to a razor gang whose aim will to get a bigger bang for the buck, and eliminate wasteful programmes. The Govt will also be seeking to lift the performance of state enterprises […]
November 13th, 2008
There wouldn’t be much room for Sir Roger Douglas’ ideas in the new Cabinet, if it remains committed to a centrist path, even if the ACT MP and architect of Rogernomics hadn’t been ruled out of considerations before the election. Special pleadings from business lobbies were squashed while he was introducing his reforms in the […]
November 13th, 2008
John Key will establish a Ministry, with teams of Ministers clustered in related portfolios. Example: Bill English as Finance Minister will also be Minister for Infrastructure, round which will be clustered Telecommunications and Transport, (likely to go to newcomer and list MP Steven Joyce and Northcote’s Jonathan Coleman with David Bennett as an Associate). Round […]
November 6th, 2008
Winston Peters: Harder to kill than Rasputin, but his number looks up. Often truculently silly (eg the helicopter business). So no win, or No, Win.
The Maori Party: Looks like hanging onto its four seats but may not add any more. They’ve done OK, but not as well as they were expected to.
The Greens: […]
November 6th, 2008
The Maori Party which initially had high hopes of making a clean sweep of the seven Maori electorates, is now finding the contest much tougher, as Labour backed by trade union activists pushes back against inroads into a traditional base. Polling in the electorates (admittedly with relatively small samples) has shown a swing back to […]
November 6th, 2008
The Clark Govt has made our economy less vulnerable to the global slowdown by improving its finances over the past nine years (at the expense of tax cuts only just introduced). Tables in a report from Britain’s Institute of Fiscal Studies show NZ slipped into recession with much less public-sector debt than when the Nats […]
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