We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how Labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homesover 10 years 2,025 built (2.0%) Fund the planting of one billion treesover 10 years 41.4 million trees funded […]
Labour’s final report card
Labour’s final report card
18 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
16 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: regressive left
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to first suspend Darleen Tana from her small business […]
Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
The Ghahraman Conflict
15 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, media bias
What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on the case in Stuff in 2016 and another story about them […]
The Ghahraman Conflict
NZ should go further than Australia
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in international economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free trade, tariffs
New Zealand sensibly got rid of most tariffs years ago. We should go further than Australia plans to do and abolish the rest: The Taxpayers’ Union is renewing its calls to abolish all tariffs following reports that Australia plans to unilaterally abolish nearly 500 of its tariffs. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “With the stroke […]
NZ should go further than Australia
What media bias looks like
11 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: marriage and divorce
Lindsay Mitchell writes – When news media took a pummelling last week at both TVNZ and TV3, a number of critics said part of the reason ratings are poor is the public don’t trust them. The public believe that the media is biased. The print media is similarly suspect. An article in Stuff on Sunday […]
What media bias looks like
Reading deal – rare media bouquet
11 Mar 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, market efficiency, movies, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm, urban economics Tags: Wellington
Both Matt Nippert of the NZ Herald and Tom Hunt of The Post deserve a bouquet for their analyses of the truly remarkable deal between the Wellington City Council (WCC) and the troubled American Cinema company Reading. For this who don’t know, Reading owns a large (more than 14, 000 square metres or 1.4 hectares) […]
Reading deal – rare media bouquet
TV layoffs not a threat to democracy
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: media bias
A few weeks ago I joined some contemporaries by abandoning the near sixty year habit of watching nightly TV news. I dropped it because I felt it did not give me real information that I had not acquired from other media sources, including some I pay for – The Economist, the NZ Herald, The Atlantic […]
TV layoffs not a threat to democracy
Tama Potaka brings te reo into play in Parliament while avoiding giving guarantees about numbers of homeless
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, urban economics Tags: homelessness
************************* The biographical notes about Tama Potaka on the National Party website suggest he should be able to eloquently answer a Parliamentary question. He has had a diverse career across legal, public service, education, advisory, tribes, investment, charities and enterprise. He was the chief executive of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki prior to entering politics. He […]
Tama Potaka brings te reo into play in Parliament while avoiding giving guarantees about numbers of homeless
The tohunga suppression myth that won’t die
08 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, cranks, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Graham Adams writes — Jonathan Swift’s observation in 1710 that “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it” seems entirely apt for last week’s parliamentary debate on disestablishing the Māori Health Authority. No fewer than three MPs — MPs Cushla Tangaere-Manuel (Labour), Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (Te Pāti Māori), and Steve Abel (Greens) — referred to […]
The tohunga suppression myth that won’t die
Even Lowerer Hutt
07 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
One annoying thing about writing a Saturday column for the Stuff papers is never knowing whether a piece will show up in print.I’d thought this one was a banger. I’ll be talking about related issues tomorrow night as part of a panel for A City for People. 🟨🟪 Our speaker line up has dropped! 🟪🟨Join us on…
Even Lowerer Hutt
CHRIS TROTTER: For the self-loathing Left, charity definitely does not begin at home
06 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: British politics, free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Chris Trotter writes – GEORGE GALLOWAY’S STUNNING VICTORY in Rochdale, Britain, has provoked a sharp response from leftists whose primary analytical focus remains socio-economic. Galloway turned the by-election into a referendum on the two main British political parties’ stance on the war in Gaza. Successfully exploiting the fact that 30 percent of the Rochdale electorate […]
CHRIS TROTTER: For the self-loathing Left, charity definitely does not begin at home
DON BRASH: PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH FROM THE NEW GOVERNMENT SO FAR
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: land supply, zoning
Last week, Housing Minister Chris Bishop gave perhaps the most important speech by the new Government since the election. In a speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, he said he wanted the ratio of house prices to median household income to more than halve to between 3 and 5 over the next 10…
DON BRASH: PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH FROM THE NEW GOVERNMENT SO FAR
ELLIOT IKILEI: Why I am joining Hobson’s Pledge
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
We thought some good news wouldn’t go amiss. The following content speaks for itself. Just a quick note to introduce myself as the newest member of the Hobson’s Pledge team. A quick bit about myself: I am a husband, dad, and proud New Zealander. I have ancestors from Niue, England, and Tonga, and I hail…
ELLIOT IKILEI: Why I am joining Hobson’s Pledge
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
The Housing Theory of Everything has one of those wonderful self-explanatory titles. A good title matters. The recent and thorough essay explains how the anglosphere’s unnecessarily expensive housing affects, well, everything. Or at least almost everything.Zoning makes it too hard to build houses where people want to build. Urban containment policies block new subdivisions, so…
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
PETER WILLIAMS: RIP Newshub
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle Tags: media bias
Could anything have saved it? The real surprise is not that Newshub is going under but that it’s lasted this long. TV 3 started broadcasting in November 1989, almost 35 years ago. It was a different era. There was no Sky, no digital platforms and the new kid on the block was going head to head…
PETER WILLIAMS: RIP Newshub
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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