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...
by Bruce Cotterill | Apr 27, 2025 | Uncategorised
The recent antics within a couple of our minor political parties should force us to think about the future of our voting system. The next general election in 2026 will see the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the MMP electoral voting system. MMP stands for...
by Bruce Cotterill | Mar 29, 2025 | Uncategorised
I was reminded this week of the story of Jill Barad. Barad was the rather glamorous chief executive of Mattel Inc in the 1990s who took well-deserved credit for the resurgence of the Barbie brand. But the last few years of her time in the corner office were marred by...
by Bruce Cotterill | Mar 15, 2025 | Uncategorised
It’s early days but the Government’s first infrastructure investment summit appears to have been well received. There was good representation from the investment community, some visible presence from the international investment funds, and a Prime Minister who was “on...
by Bruce Cotterill | Mar 1, 2025 | Uncategorised
We love a good victim don’t we. Show me a victim and I’ll show you an opposition politician preaching concern, a union leader criticising those who caused it, and a media scrum scrambling to tell the story. Our television news teams have become quite expert at...
by Bruce Cotterill | Feb 15, 2025 | Uncategorised
In November 2023 our new Government was sworn in. They comprised a coalition of National, NZ First and Act. National’s campaign had swept that party to power with a promise that they would “get our country back on track”. As we said farewell to what was arguably the...
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