Simon Bridges was never likely to be National’s next Prime Minister, but he had scrapped his way to within inches of a campaign. Then came a plague and he hadn’t built any political immunity
Read MoreAnd I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof (unless they want to go to a strip club, ‘cause that is OK).
Read MoreToday’s Budget 2020 was nothing like the one Finance Minister Grant Robertson was expecting to give two months ago. It’s a life-support budget, which in any normal year would guarantee an election loss, but instead could help shore up a Labour win
Read MoreAs we come out of lockdown. so does the economic freeze ray holding our economy in place wear off. Budget 2020 will be all about finding ways to minimise the brutal economic damage that is only just beginning
Read MoreI wrote this note to sort out my ideas on the significance of a covid-19 vaccine for the return to economic ‘normalcy’. I am sharing it but expect readers to recognise there are judgements in areas for which I have no expertise.
Read MoreOne way of examining the government’s actions in response to COVID-19 – by no means the most important way, but still of moment – is through a legal lens. Where are we at with that examination?
Read MoreThe email from the 9th floor telling ministers to ‘dismiss’ interview requests about thousands of pages of Covid-19 related decisions wasn’t just bad for government transparency, it was politically stupid
Read MoreIt is too easy to stick to conventional thinking when we are in a totally new economic environment. Thinking about distributional issues allows us to think deeper.
Read MoreHow the little country that could somehow did it again
Read MoreIsolation and PPE in 1918
I have been asked what my book, Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, out this month, says about the Covid Crisis. The short answer is nothing ... and everything.
Read MoreIt may be some time before we can truly count the cost of the Covid-19 decisions. But whatever approach we take and whatever new normal we build, there will be a cost
Read MoreThe Ministry of Health proposed closing New Zealand’s borders to returning New Zealand citizens. It really shouldn’t have done that.
Read MoreAn uncertain attempt to explain what is going on in the economy. If you confidently know the answers to any of these questions, you have not been following closely enough.
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New Zealand media were in trouble before Covid-19. But in a matter of weeks the situation has become much worse. Getting the media through the crisis will not be enough. Change is required.
Read MoreAfrican communities in countries such as Sweden as being hard hit by Covid-19, in part due to cultural traditions. The government would do well to reach out to ethnic communities here to minimise risks here
Read MoreWhile we cannot eliminate the impending unemployment; we have to flatten the curve.
Read MoreNew Zealanders are due to elect a Government in September. Will it be the way the Covid-19 crisis was handled or the creation of a new normal that will determine who wins?
Read MoreThe outcome will be Level Three or Level Four, but the decision itself is not a simple binary. The government has to balance many factors, not least the public’s state of mind
Read MoreA short, sharp curtailment of freedom might be better than a protracted, dull one.
Read MoreI kind of miss the days when Matthew Hooton was the designated bogeyman.
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