BBC Russian

REQUIEM TO ROGERNOMICS

Listener: 10 December, 1990
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
We are likely to argue for decades as to why Rogernomics, the economic policies of the fourth Labour government, failed � and it is unquestionable that they did fail economically.
Of its �big four� objectives, only inflation performance might be said to have improved in six years, and even [...]

A BIG THINK ABOUT THINK BIG

Listener: 17 September, 1990
Keywords: Growth & Innovation;
The disruption in the Middle East has once more raised the question as to whether a group of major projects, collectively called �Think Big�, were in the national interest. There has been no independent and authoritative analysis, for reasons I shall explain shortly, but there are a few [...]

THE MAORI BROADCASTING CLAIM: A Pakeha Economist’s Perspective

Paper presented to the Waitangi Tribuna to assist an inquiry into a claim by the New Zealand Maori Council and Nga Kaiwhakapumau I Te Reo relating to broadcasting (Wai 150), October 1990, at the Waiwhetu Marae.

Keywords: Environment & Resources: Maori; Political Economy & History;

Introduction and Disclaimer

1.1 As the title of this paper emphasises that it is no more than an attempt by a Pakeha economist to write an account of the Maori claim to the radio spectrum and related broadcasting issues.

DISPUTING FIGURES

Listener: 11 June, 1990
Keywords: Statistics;
A Treasury working paper, released under the Official Information Act, appeared to indicate that government expenditure was out of control. It said that between 1984-85 and 1988-89 �net expenditure at 1989/90 prices� had grown from $23,594 million to $27 ,877 million. That is an increase of 18.1 percent, or 4.3 percent [...]

MARKS OF CHANGE

Listener 28 May 1990.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

The University of Sussex in Brighton, England, where I first taught, was deeply committed to the whole of the social sciences. In teaching, research and policy applications the staff believed in the importance of social sciences to social and personal understanding, and their contribution to building a better society. They partly summed this up in the phrase, “We are all marxists now.”

THE GREEN MAORI

Listener 14 May 1990.

Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori; Political Economy & History;

THE PAKEHA asked the Maori, “Do you claim all the airspace?”

“We claim rangatiratanga of all the space between Papa and Rangi,”

“Even that which the Russian sputniks go through?”

“Yes, The Maori recognise no boundaries. Even for the realm of Tangaroa. Perhaps if the Maori had been negotiating the Law of the Sea, the outcome would have been different.”

The Pakeha looked at the Maori with amazement, concluding if I judge his expression right, that the rangatira � despite his American PhD � was not quite with it. The claim over expanses over which the Maori had no statutory authority and no means of policing seemed ludicrous.

The very same week the New Zealand Government signed an international declaration which prohibited driftnet fishing in waters well outside our 320km limit and far beyond any realm our navy could plausibly police, Yet no one, Pakeha or Maori, concluded the agreement was ludicrous or the Prime Minister who sponsored it � and also has an American doctorate � was not quite with it.

AFTER THE PARTY WAS OVER

Listener:� 30 April, 1990
Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy and History;
(When I was teaching political studies in the late 1990s, I found students who did not know who Rob Muldoon or David Lange were. Younger readers may need to know Geoffrey Palmer was Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister during Labour�s privatisation program; Richard Prebble [...]

FOR WHOM THE TREATY TOLLS

Listener 5 February, 1990.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori; Political Economy & History;<

Across the bay from the great Waitangi Marae is the picturesque town of Russell. A hundred and fIfty years ago Kororareka, as it was then, housed “the scum of the Pacific”: ruffians, rogues, and ratbags from Europe, prone to drunkenness, violence and turmoil. If Thomas Hobbes had been at the .signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, he would have looked at the unrest across the water and given a knowing smile.

Brian Easton