by Bruce Cotterill | Sep 15, 2025 | Uncategorised
I’ve spent the last week travelling. A good old-fashioned road trip, to be exact. We’ve been driving from Queensland’s Noosa to Port Douglas, along the aptly named Bruce Highway. About 1900km over five days. It got me thinking about our roads. Our roads fell apart on...
by Bruce Cotterill | Sep 1, 2025 | Uncategorised
I sometimes wonder if our politicians put themselves in the headlines without thinking things through. This week the supermarket industry has been back in the spotlight. Our Finance Minister is making it her business to keep it there as she attempts to deal with the...
by Bruce Cotterill | Aug 16, 2025 | Uncategorised
In Sebastian Junger’s excellent portrayal of the sinking of the fishing boat, the Andrea Gail, the author outlined what he termed “The Perfect Storm”. The phrase was used to describe a unique weather event whereby a high-pressure system, a low-pressure system and a...
by Bruce Cotterill | Aug 2, 2025 | Uncategorised
It seems that we’re going batty over butter. In case you’ve missed it, it’s the price of the stuff that has everyone’s attention. That price has rocketed upwards over the past 12 months as global demand for our product influences the price point at home. Pricing is a...
by Bruce Cotterill | Jul 19, 2025 | Uncategorised
Labour MP Camilla Belich has lodged a member’s bill asking for another commissioner, this time to monitor our use of slave labour. Her proposal implies that there are too many cases of slave labour here, but also notes that our imports have a high content of slave...
by Bruce Cotterill | Jul 6, 2025 | Uncategorised
The great American economist Milton Friedman was fond of saying that “the real tax on American people is what the Government spends”. Change the name of the country and the message rings true. While the Prime Minister has been on the road, ”growing the economy”, the...
by Bruce Cotterill | Jun 21, 2025 | Uncategorised
It’s 18 months since the new Government was sworn in. The mess they inherited has been well documented, so too has their less-than-rapid impact on solving the problems we have. We’re an impatient bunch, and it feels like they’re taking their time. When we look at many...
by Bruce Cotterill | Jun 7, 2025 | Uncategorised
Last week, I managed to get myself caught up in a lively conversation with a couple of mates. It wasn’t heated. But it was one of those discussions that no one was going to win And then there was the debate after the Budget. The same word kept popping up. Apparently...
by Bruce Cotterill | May 24, 2025 | Uncategorised
The C-word is now in Hansard. For those of you who are unaware, Hansard is the official record of the New Zealand Parliament. It records a transcript of all debates, and is essentially a near-verbatim written record of everything said by Members of Parliament (MPs)...
by Bruce Cotterill | May 10, 2025 | Uncategorised
Do you remember the Super City? That gigantic failure of local government policy that saw Auckland’s suburbs surrender their decision-making and their character to the bureaucrats downtown? By the time our local body elections roll around later this year, it will be...
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