Good point on a lack of records kept by ministers, but that is not what is defined as corruption, but sloppiness. Lots of knee jerk trashing of Labour here. Especially the supposed “ethical lapses” over the Covid response- the “billions of dollars that they spent on infrastructure and Covid era economy-saving efforts”. In reality, we had a fast-moving target of a pandemic due to an unknown disease. Some sort of leniency should be given to quick-acting and somewhat authoritarian behavior during such a crisis (even the notorious left libertarian Noam Chomsky was clear on this).
And although not 100% perfect we came through with the best output in the developed world in the data that counts...saving lives https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality.
Regarding the spending and the economy, New York Times economist Paul Krugman wrote “America did much more to stimulate recovery with government spending” that resulted in a much stronger economic recovery than much of the developed world. NZ initially came through Covid very well. The OECD writin g “The New Zealand economy recovered quickly from the COVID-19 shock thanks to effective virus containment, measures to protect jobs and incomes and highly expansionary macroeconomic policies but is now overheating and house prices have soared.” (Thanks in part to being the only developed nation without a capital gains/land/wealth tax.)
When supply chain inflation kicked in last year we did slightly worse due to a recession by our main trading partner, China, and a collapsing dollar making imports expensive. (It had nothing to do with “excessive spending”, but due in large part to a lack of regulations. Many nations that spend more with far more regulations on items such as energy and rent such as Spain or Denmark had lower inflation.)
And yes some ministers could have done a better job. But their petty ’scandals” wer mostly political... for example Michael Wood’s conflict of interst with a few thousdand daolars of Airport shares paled next to National’s Key who owned 100,000 Tranz Rail shares and owning shares in a vineyard while the Government is considering liquor law reform yet got a slap on the wrist. ...or the NZ$100,000 donation paid into a National Party electorate bank account.
Or how about the illegal election signs by national...or legal corruption of the donations to ACT and National of over 12 million dollars for the election vs just over one million for Labour?
Great article Bryce. I am hoping that our new PM will have a better idea of what integrity is cos he is a Christian. Whereas our last PM couldnt even say what a woman was, and seemed way too woke to have good judgement. I just remember Chris Hipkins endorsing the riot that attacked Posie Parker when she visited NZ.
Good point on a lack of records kept by ministers, but that is not what is defined as corruption, but sloppiness. Lots of knee jerk trashing of Labour here. Especially the supposed “ethical lapses” over the Covid response- the “billions of dollars that they spent on infrastructure and Covid era economy-saving efforts”. In reality, we had a fast-moving target of a pandemic due to an unknown disease. Some sort of leniency should be given to quick-acting and somewhat authoritarian behavior during such a crisis (even the notorious left libertarian Noam Chomsky was clear on this).
And although not 100% perfect we came through with the best output in the developed world in the data that counts...saving lives https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality.
Regarding the spending and the economy, New York Times economist Paul Krugman wrote “America did much more to stimulate recovery with government spending” that resulted in a much stronger economic recovery than much of the developed world. NZ initially came through Covid very well. The OECD writin g “The New Zealand economy recovered quickly from the COVID-19 shock thanks to effective virus containment, measures to protect jobs and incomes and highly expansionary macroeconomic policies but is now overheating and house prices have soared.” (Thanks in part to being the only developed nation without a capital gains/land/wealth tax.)
When supply chain inflation kicked in last year we did slightly worse due to a recession by our main trading partner, China, and a collapsing dollar making imports expensive. (It had nothing to do with “excessive spending”, but due in large part to a lack of regulations. Many nations that spend more with far more regulations on items such as energy and rent such as Spain or Denmark had lower inflation.)
And yes some ministers could have done a better job. But their petty ’scandals” wer mostly political... for example Michael Wood’s conflict of interst with a few thousdand daolars of Airport shares paled next to National’s Key who owned 100,000 Tranz Rail shares and owning shares in a vineyard while the Government is considering liquor law reform yet got a slap on the wrist. ...or the NZ$100,000 donation paid into a National Party electorate bank account.
Or how about the illegal election signs by national...or legal corruption of the donations to ACT and National of over 12 million dollars for the election vs just over one million for Labour?
Great article Bryce. I am hoping that our new PM will have a better idea of what integrity is cos he is a Christian. Whereas our last PM couldnt even say what a woman was, and seemed way too woke to have good judgement. I just remember Chris Hipkins endorsing the riot that attacked Posie Parker when she visited NZ.