Economy

October 2011

The political parties now have most of their employment relations policies out. These policies have great importance for New Zealand’s wage levels, and already there are the predictable allegations by business that Labour’s policies will lead to unaffordable wage demands. Yet it is inescapable that National’s policies which weaken collective bargaining will mean lower wages. This commentary shows that higher wages are affordable, even with current economic output and growth rates. And of course wages could be higher yet, if productivity increased faster – and the results of that were fairly shared with wage and salary earners.

The Minister of Finance has again taken up the line that after-tax wages have risen more than inflation during their period in office.  We have previously pointed out the weakness of this analysis. Here is an update.

This is a brief report on some of the Budget highlights. There has not yet been an opportunity to analyse all aspects of the Budget so this report does not attempt to provide a full commentary. You will see that funding increases are often stated as over 4 years and we also need to factor in demographic changes as well as an inflation adjustment before we can assess real increases.

March 2011

It’s common sense isn’t it? In hard times like these, just as you and I have to cut our spending to balance our budgets, so must the government. The government is just like any household or firm. It must urgently reduce its debt and return to a budget surplus.