Politically Naive Dealers Could Cause Frenzy and Hysteria in the Financial Markets
Listener: 29 June, 1996.
Keywords: Business & Finance;
There is a real danger the financial dealers in our money markets will precipitate a serious financial crisis. Not all dealers, of course. The culprits are those who are comment in an uninformed and hysterical manner on political issues who are causing the increased market uncertainty. As I write they are frenzied about the possibility that Winston Peters may become prime minister, drawing parallels with Rob Muldoon.
Emphasis on Finance and Waiting Lists Helps Obscure the Real Problems in the Health System
Listener: 15 June, 1996.
Keywords: Health;
Bill English, just appointed Minister of Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs) commented “when we ask people what they mean by health reforms they say waiting lists. If we can limit the debate to waiting lists then we have essentially won the argument about the health reforms.” The minister seems to have meant that if the government can avoid having to defend its structural changes – such as the top heavy administration and requiring each CHE to be run for profit, then the government could pour money in to reduce waiting lists, and obtain political kudos.
Towards Welfare that Works in New Zealand by David Green.
First published in New Zealand Books Issue 23, June 1996, as “The Bankruptcy of the New Fundamentalism”. Republished in Under Review: A Selection from New Zealand Books 1991-1996 (ed Lauris Edmond, Harry Ricketts & Bill Sewell) p.179-184.
Keywords: Social Policy;
In Making a Difference, Ruth Richardson says that she was “more likely than Jim [Bolger] to talk about the [1991] benefit cuts in moralistic terms.” Leaving aside the fragging of her prime minister, which seems to be one of the main purposes of her auto-hagiography, there is an interest in what the ex-minister of finance meant by “moralistic terms”. I think she means, for Richardson finds it easier to claim the high ground than to climb it, that dependency on the state is wrong, although the fog descends as we try to unravel what she thinks is right. In practice she was not so much on a hilltop, but on a wharf surrounded by people struggling in the water almost afloat by state owned lifebuoys. Her strategy is to withdraw the public buoyancy. She seems delighted to see a handful of the survivors learning to swim, while the sinking rest are ignored. This morality, which costs the moralist nothing, is complicated by policies which make it more difficult to climb onto the wharf: fearsomely high effective marginal tax rates on the poor (which the moralist’s policies raised), and rising unemployment (for there were 10 percent more unemployed when she left office than when she began it, plus higher disguised unemployment).
The Government’s Plans for Our Future Are Well-meant, But Contain Some Glaring Omissions.
Listener: 1 June 1996.
Keywords: Governance;
At the foot of this column are the government’s “Strategic Result Areas”. They may not seem important to the public, but they are certainly prominent in the mind of the government advisers, who are likely to pop the acronym SRA into their conversations. SRAs aim to “bring a more coherent strategic approach to managing government”, and “build an understanding of what the Government intends to accomplish, and how it plans to go about using its agencies.” They set out “the contribution that the public sector will make to achieving the Government’s strategic vision for New Zealand.” Practically a public servant concerned with a policy development checks to see whether a proposal is within the SRAs. If not, the government is likely to look unfavourably on the policy. No wonder officials anxiously discuss SRAs.
