Monthly Archives: May 1997

Team Spirit: Has MMP Ended the Dominance Of Cabinet?

This entry was posted in Governance, Listener on 31st May 1997 by Brian Easton.

Listener: 31 May, 1997.

Keywords: Governance;

The view which blames all our current political and government difficulties on MMP cannot be correct. MMP is a method for electing members of parliament. How they behave is a result of the arrangements within Parliament House, not who gets elected. We may not even be able to blame MMP for coalition government. National won only 30 of the 65 electorate seats. Even increasing that by 2 to allow for the Wellington seats from which it tactically retreated, National would still have won less that half the electorate seats. So probably under a FPP election National would still have formed a coalition government with New Zealand First which won 6 electorate seats.

Regarding Henry:

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on 17th May 1997 by Brian Easton.

The Absolutely First-Rate Refugee who was the Maker of the Modern Treasury.

Listener 17 May, 1997.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Henry Lang (1919-1997)

The refugees who fled the tyranny of Central Europe in the 1930s benefited New Zealand’s cultural, intellectual, and government life far in proportion to their small numbers. Examples range from architect Ernst Plishke to his stepson Heinrich Lang, who became Secretary of the Treasury, and contributed much else besides.

Accounting for a Difference: How Should We Judge Jeff Chapman?

This entry was posted in Governance, Listener on 3rd May 1997 by Brian Easton.

Listener May 3, 1997.

Keywords: Governance

In 1978 the then Auditor General, Fred Shailes, publicly complained about the antiquated state of the nation’s public sector accounting. A younger man in the Audit Office, Jeff Chapman, seized the initiative by persuading the Society of Accountants to establish a committee to develop new standards for accounting in central and local government. …