Only the officials at Inland Revenue know why they commissioned a poll on Kiwis’ attitudes to tax that included questions about the respondents’ general political orientation. Releasing the polling data should be part of fixing any perceived problems. Read more
“When equality is given to unequal things, the resultant will be unequal,” Plato once said. Read more
Lime scooters are Satan’s own vehicle. If you ride one, you will lose control, scrape your knees, maybe even break a leg. God forbid someone die on a Lime scooter. At least that’s what the worry-warts want you to believe. Read more
New Zealand gets a lot of things right that the rest of the world gets wrong. Read more
Some would say politics stinks. Others…would say that too. Read more
Anybody even remotely connected with housing, housing research, the building industry – or with the ability to fog a mirror by breathing on it – had to know it was near-impossible for the government to meet its KiwiBuild promises on its 10-year schedule. Read more
Readers will be familiar with that exasperating feeling of looking for something and not finding it. You know it should be there, but it is missing. Read more
Taxpayer guarantees for bank deposits are a can of worms. There should be a strong presumption against them. Read more
In a world where we can hardly buy anything without a disclaimer stamped on it, it is surprising that articles about Brexit still come without a health warning. Read more
During her tour of Europe last month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wrote a piece in the Financial Times. As it was published behind the London newspaper’s paywall, most New Zealanders probably missed it (though a copy is available on the Beehive’s website). That is a shame because the opinion piece offers a concise insight into her Government’s philosophy. Commentators such as Michael Reddell and Rodney Hide criticised the Prime Minister’s piece. Read more
Tidying guru Marie Kondo advises her followers to hold or hug everyday items and ask yourself: “Does this item spark joy?” So I picked up a plastic bag and clutched it to my chest. I first felt joy, and then an overwhelming grief. The moment I had been dreading had arrived: my household had reached the last of our plastic bags. As my tears splashed off the plastic folds, I reflected on the injustice of the impending plastic bag ban. Read more
Jake is a 16-year-old student with NCEA level 1 who has just left school. His friends and family tell him “more education is always better; graduates earn more on average than non-graduates”. Jake is sick of school, but he is being pressured by his family to gain level 2 and 3 through tertiary study. He does not know whom to believe, or what to do next. Read more
The Reserve Bank is an unusual entity. It has a board that is not a board, and a governor who is also a chief executive. Read more
Rather than rising since the 1980s, income inequality in New Zealand rose in the late 1980s and early 1990s, then flattened out. Some of that increase was real, but some of it was complicated – as explained late last year. Read more
Everything has its season. The slow January news period brings Oxfam’s annual condemnation of wealth inequality and calls for redistribution. And every January, economists go through their figures to show that, once again, Oxfam has played fast and loose with the numbers. Oxfam combined Credit Suisse data on the decline in wealth for New Zealand’s least wealthy with Forbes data on the only two Kiwis who made it onto the Forbes list of billionaires. Read more