Time to bite the bullet

On July 2 I wrote about the government’s proposals for local authority amalgamations. They are intent on pushing through changes even though there is little or no evidence that large local authorities are more efficient…

The Cambridge News in its last few issues has published a full-page advertisement setting out five options for Waikato local government reorganisation. Four of them would see Waipā  joining other Waikato councils to create larger…

In the last few weeks there have been a number of news items about falling house prices in New Zealand. The current downturn in prices has lasted since early 2022, making it one of the…

On May 27 the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee kept its Official Cash Rate unchanged at 2.25 per cent. The committee has six members, three from the Reserve Bank, including governor Anna Breman, and three…

The Prime Minister was reported after his recent trip to Singapore to be looking at the Singapore model to fix our economy. I agree that the Singapore model has been very successful for them. In…

New Zealand’s sovereign credit rating has been in the news lately as two of the three main international credit rating agencies have put New Zealand’s AAA credit rating on what is called ‘negative watch’. They…

We are already seeing one of the negative impacts of the war in the Middle East in the prices of petrol and diesel at our petrol pumps. We don’t yet know if this will turn…

The Reserve Bank will take its next Official Cash Rate decision the day before this column is published but after I wrote it. This will be the second cash rate decision of the Reserve Bank…

The economic news in the last few weeks has been depressing. Earlier in the year the media was full of stories about finally being able to see signs of an economic recovery in New Zealand….

The flow of Kiwis across the Tasman Sea for work has become the subject of frequent media and political comment. The flow is at one of its highest levels and a significant proportion of those…