Having an enrolment date is not depriving anyone of a vote

• David Farrar writes – 

Radio NZ report:

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer.

“Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If they’re saying they’ll stop that happening they’re basically saying that thousands of people won’t have their vote counted.

Perhaps house prices don’t always go up

• Don Brash writes – 

There was a rather revealing headline in the Herald on Sunday today (12 May). It read

“One in 8 Auckland homes on market were bought during boom, may now sell for loss”.

The first line of text noted that “New data shows one in every eight Auckland homes going on sale is at risk of selling for a loss or minimal profit”.

Can’t read, can’t write, can’t comprehend – and won’t think…?

• Mike Grimshaw writes – 

At a time when universities are understandably nervous regarding the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG) and the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) it may seem strange – or even fool-hardy – to state that there are long-standing issues in the tertiary sector that need correction.

I understand that speaking of these, at this current time, will open me up to accusations of being a government stooge or fifth-columnist within the tertiary sector. So be it. I am in fact speaking up because I believe the UAG & SSAG are yet another example of governmental reform being focused on the easy targets and not being prepared to deal with the bigger questions.

Time for some perspective

• Lindsay Mitchell writes – 

A lack of perspective can make something quite large or important seem small or irrelevant.

Against a backdrop of high-profile, negative statistics it is easy to overlook the positive.

For instance, the fact that 64 percent of Maori are employed is rarely reported. For context, the employment rate for all New Zealanders is 68.4%. The difference isn’t vast.

Do we need a population census?

‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ Goethe

 

• Brian Easton writes – 

I was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. We take SNZ for granted. Had it been drawn to their attention, many users would have been astonished.

This is not just true for economists, but as the conference showed, it is true for social issues as well across a wider group of professions and thinkers.

Welcome to the current welfare mess

• Michael Bassett writes –

I’m not sure that it’s much comfort to anyone to know that the post-Covid surge in violent crimes, gang activity, ram raids, random shootings, thuggery and stabbings is occurring in other countries as well as New Zealand. These days, wagging school, out-of-control welfare and low-grade parenting by some seem to be fairly universal problems. 

We shouldn’t be surprised. It was the late 1960s and 1970s when the so-called civilised world developed a craze for easy welfare. Unmarried women who casually produced a child discovered they could be paid to stay at home to bring up their child, and that when having another one they were awarded a pay rise.

A shovel-ready autopsy

• Oliver Hartwich writes – 

Cast your mind back to mid-December. A new Prime Minister had just been sworn in, the new Government started its 100-day programme, and Christmas was only days away.

Amid all the haste, a report landed that would have deserved our attention.

I am talking about the Auditor-General’s damning exposé on the previous government’s “Shovel-Ready” and New Zealand Upgrade infrastructure programmes.

No, the govt will not be cutting back on every budget – and the Defence vote is among those to be given a funding boost

Buzz from the Beehive

Reporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure.

“These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s capital spend each year,” Professor David Capie said.

Capie is the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University.

The Treasury and productivity

• Michael Reddell writes – 

Late last week The Treasury released a new 40 page report on “The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections” (productivity forecasts and projections that is, rather than any possible fiscal implications – the latter will, I guess, be articulated in the Budget documents).

In short, if (as it has) productivity growth has slowed down a lot, then it makes sense not to rely on optimistic assumptions about rebounds in productivity growth based on not much more than hopeful thinking. Fortunately, “wouldn’t it be nice if productivity were to grow faster” does not seem to be The Treasury’s style.

The Controller and Auditor-General’s role

• Peter Dunne writes – 

I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure.

According to the legislation, the role of the Controller and Auditor-General is to make sure that public sector organisations are spending public resources well and making good decisions.  That is as it should be and consistent with what might be expected of good audit practice.