The Budget wasn’t boring – it was a failure of a Government’s responsibility to New Zealanders. Its focus was on balancing the books and reducing debt. That is not what Governments are elected for: it is a means to an end, not an end in itself, and there are many ways to manage the government’s… Read more »
Read more...Economic Bulletin
What’s Going to Be in The Budget
The Government’s Budget for 2016 is on 26 May. What’s likely to be in it, and what should be? The ‘Operating Allowance’ for new operational spending will again be just $1 billion. Usually $300-400 million is allowed for Health, though more is clearly necessary. The Government will want to make some big announcements about the… Read more »
Read more...Are Small Businesses Less Safe?
On 4 April, the workplace health and safety legislation comes into force. It contains many significant steps for the better. But we were very disappointed that the right of working people to participate in protecting and improving their own health and safety was weakened in many ways. One way was to allow employers with fewer… Read more »
Read more...The International Economy: Risks and Opportunities
International agencies and many commentators including the Minister of Finance in his “state of the economy” speech last week, have been writing about the growing dangers in the international economy. This commentary looks at those dangers, the potential effect on New Zealand, and what policies are needed to put us in a good condition to… Read more »
Read more...TPPA: The Economic Case
The Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be signed by the trade ministers of 12 countries in Auckland on 4 February. So this is a good time to look at the economic evaluations of the agreement. Politicians and lobbyists use these to find large-sounding numbers to throw around. Turn on the garbage filter you use when… Read more »
Read more...Unemployment is Still Too High
Unemployment is rising again. It never got below 5.6 percent under this Government despite strong economic growth rates. Just as in the 1990s, it seems that around 6 percent unemployment is the best we can expect from National even though we can do a lot better. Paradoxically, at least until the September quarter, employment had… Read more »
Read more...The Budget and what it could do to raise wages
One of the most significant aspects of the Budget on 21 May will be what has been described as radical changes to funding of public services. For example, yesterday Bill English announced a voucher system for funding people with disabilities. Other ingredients will include applying wider use of the “investment approach”, currently being trialled for… Read more »
Read more...The wage gap with Australia: no improvement
Remember back in the 2008 election, the National Party set itself a target of wage parity with Australia by 2025? I looked at it two years ago when Bill English was talking about the wage gap as an advantage which would attract businesses to New Zealand. With Australia now not doing as well economically as… Read more »
Read more...The union landscape
Where are New Zealand unions strongest and where are they weakest? While we often focus on the fall in overall union density (the proportion of wage and salary earners who are union members), underlying that is a very uneven spread of union membership. It’s important to understand this ‘landscape’ of unionism in New Zealand if… Read more »
Read more...The year ahead: unusual times
We’re in unusual times. The economy is growing strongly yet deflation (falling prices) is on the cards. There are still serious problems in other developed economies which are creating great hardship for working people and could bite us through falling demand for New Zealand exports – but also contribute to falling prices. Employment in New… Read more »
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