Monthly Archives: July 2004

Economics for the Children

This entry was posted in Social Policy on by .

Paper for the AGM of the Auckland Child Poverty Action Group, 19 July, 2004

Keywords: Social Policy;

The government has at last attempted to address child poverty. And not a year too soon, for 2004 is also the 30th anniversary of the major research paper, Poverty in New Zealand which pointed out that poverty was mainly in households with children. That one main fact about poverty in New Zealand, often gets lost behind a myriad of minor facts. The consequence is that attempts to reduce poverty are at best inefficient, and at worst ineffective. That primary fact is that a substantial majority of the poor are children and their parents and we need to target on their needs.

Leadership and Nationbuilding

This entry was posted in Political Economy & History on by .

Revised version of a paper presented at a conference, July 2004.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Introduction

The Nationbuilders described a particular phase in New Zealand’s economic and political history, between 1932 when Gordon Coates became Minister of Finance and the election of the Labour Government in 1984. It follows a group of (mainly) men embarking upon a strategy of developing an independent nation with its own economy and culture but engaging with the rest of the world. The story is told through their biographies, but it could have been told through historical sequence or policy themes, or with more biographies had there been the space.