August 27th, 2009
NZ will mount its heaviest political presence in years at the opening of the UN General Assembly next month. John Key will lead the delegation and give NZ’s address. Foreign Minister Murray McCully will be there for a meeting of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers as well as attending a CMAG meeting on Fiji, while Tim Groser […]
August 27th, 2009
The first of the RNZAF’s newly upgraded P-3K2 Orion aircraft has made its initial test flight at contractor L-3 Integrated Systems’ facility in Greenville, Texas. Defence Minister Wayne Mapp says the flight is an important milestone in a complex project. The refurbished Orion is now among NZ’s most advanced defence capabilities. Mapp confirms for the […]
August 27th, 2009
Financial markets and media organisations around the world, including here at home, were quick this week to seize on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s prognosis for a US-led recovery. At a Fed conference in Wyoming, Bernanke was bullish about the effect US Govt policy actions in recent months have had in helping stabilise a number […]
August 27th, 2009
The row over Maori seats on Auckland’s super-city council, as some media saw it, signalled the imminent break-up of the National-led coalition. Opposition leader Phil Goff says Tau Henare’s dismissal of ACT leader Rodney Hide as a “buffoon” indicated tensions within National. But anyone who imagined Cabinet would depart from its April decision there would […]
August 20th, 2009
Rakon chairman Bryan Mogridge’s complaint last Friday about the volatility of the NZ dollar was not, on balance, particularly helpful to the wider currency debate. It was still a timely reminder to policy-makers countering the vagaries of currency fluctuation will not happen by developing back-of-the-envelope proposals. Mogridge accurately noted because the USD (in which many […]
August 20th, 2009
The Govt is struggling to get all its climate change objectives into a row. The forestry sector could ease pressures on NZ’s greenhouse gas liabilities if it gets the right incentives but is in an uproar over proposals to put a cap on the value of carbon credits and to limit trading to the domestic […]
August 20th, 2009
The Cabinet strategy Committee this week reviewed the first draft of the proposed defence white paper, in time for Defence Minister Wayne Mapp to give a broad outline of its thinking to a joint meeting of Cabinet Ministers to be held, appropriately, at the Naval Heritage Centre on Garden Island in Sydney on Friday. The […]
August 13th, 2009
The Aust Govt is forging ahead with plans for a R&D tax credit while its NZ counterpart dithers over how to progress a similar agenda here. Aust is proposing the introduction of a 45% refundable tax credit for firms turning over less than $20m a year, effective from the 2010-2011 tax year. It is equivalent […]
August 13th, 2009
Economists say NZ is moving towards recovery and a better “feel-good factor” has developed. But the Govt is worried by unemployment rising faster than expected. It may continue rising well into next year. The Govt sees the economy as lopsided, with almost no net jobs created in the tradeables sector for the past 10 years. […]
August 6th, 2009
The media made much of the package of Govt assistance for young unemployed people announced at the National’s annual conference. But when it came to Bill English, they tended to be more interested in what taxpayers were doing for him than in what he was doing for taxpayers. Pity. His speech fleshed out the gist […]
August 6th, 2009
Aust and NZ are determined to achieve better co-ordination in the delivery of assistance to the Pacific. This is because, as Foreign Murray McCully contended in a speech ahead of this week’s Pacific Island Forum, regional organisations are making too little progress. He noted while the regional institutions rake in hundreds of millions of […]
August 6th, 2009
John Key has shown a dazzling talent as a political tactician. This, to some commentators, explains why he commands 51% support as preferred PM in the latest Colmar-Brunton poll, despite the country being in the longest and deepest recession since the 1930s. Key has been admired variously as a risk-taker, a perpetual optimist, and even […]
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