The intensive care bed shortage and why that limits our Covid options
What the Government really said yesterday was that over the next 12 months, it will tentatively take on more risk as it begins to...
Employers embarrass Government and the Nats
With unemployment figures yesterday reaching a new low, employers are calling for an amnesty for Pacific Island overstayers. The move will embarrass both the Government...
How Delta changes everything
As the Government plans a major media event next week to unveil its getting-back-to-normal Covid strategy, it is also redefining how to handle an...
Why Ardern and Woods need Tiwai Point to close
Contact and Meridian Energy’s announcement yesterday that they are proceeding with a plan to use the power Meridian currently supplies to the Tiwai Point...
How Megan Woods wants to change science
The Government’s big shake-up of the science sector will see the Crown Research Institutes “co-locate” on University campuses. With that will come a restructuring of...
A nice problem to have – for some
New Zealand's longest-serving economics think tank says the current labour shortage is the worst it has ever observed. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research...
Muslim butcher shortage causes meat industry crisis
The New Zealand Meat Industry is so short of workers it is likely to have to cut production this coming season. Meat is the country's...
So now the economy is booming when can we open the border?
Yesterday’s boom GDP figures appear to have caught much of official Wellington by surprise. Only hours before the 1.6 per cent for the March quarter...
Woods’ big plan to restructure the Crown Research Institutes
The Government is planning a major shakeup of the research sector in New Zealand, which is likely to impact Crown Research Institutes and Universities. Science...
A Labour of love
The Budget yesterday was unashamedly political. In many ways it was a Labour of love; certainly for the party's own faithful. The invocation of Ruth...
Bringing home the bacon
This, as former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating might have said, was a budget that brought home the bacon. It was a relentlessly political document...
New Zealand at centre of British trade row
New Zealand lamb is at the centre of a growing political crisis in Britain as farmers mount a last-ditch attempt to limit meat exports...
Government too busy to let Robertson do much
The Government has run out of bureaucratic capacity to undertake any more substantial reforms. Finance Minister Grant Robertson conceded this yesterday and suggested it would...
Major immigration speech falls flat
The Government’s promised “setting the scene” speech on immigration last night offered little that was new. Despite that, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi’s office had invited...
An end to large scale immigration
The Government is sending more signals indicating that it is planning for a big cutback to Immigration. It would appear that the era of large...
