Bill Rowling (1927-1995) cared about the simple important things – like people.
Listener: 9 December, 1995.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
It is just twenty years – twenty turbulent years – since the Third Labour Government was thrown out of office in what was then the largest election swing. And so began almost nine years of the rule of Robert Muldoon.
Evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal Claims to the Eastern Bay of Plenty Region (WAI 146) October 1995.
Keywords: Maori; Political Economy & History;
1. Introduction
1.1 My name is Brian Henry Easton. My profession is an economist and social statistician. In my 30 odd professional years I have held positions at the University of Sussex, the University of Canterbury, the University of Melbourne, and the NZ. Institute of Economic Research (which at one stage I directed). I currently hold various academic positions at the University of Auckland, Massey University, Otago University, and the Research Project on Economic Planning. I have written and edited 27 books and monographs, and over 200 published articles on a wide variety of economic and social issues. (Some of my many relevant publications are mentioned in references in this submission.) Over the last nine years I have worked as an independent consultant, and appeared before the Tribunal on other occasions including WAI 26/150, 45, 153, and 413.
1.2 I have been asked by Counsel for the Ngati Awa to assist the Waitangi Tribunal by providing expert opinion on the economic and social impact on the Ngati Awa of the Raupatu (confiscation) of their lands.
This is a revised version of the paper presented to the Stout Research Centre Wednesday Seminar, 9 August, 1995. Other versions are ‘Piggy in the Middle’ Metro August 1996, p.82-7, and ‘Muldoon, Robert’ in R. Robinson & N. Wattie (eds) The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature, Auckland, p.384-5.
Keywords: Literature and Culture; Political Economy & History;
Bill Pearson’s 1952 Landfall essay “Fretful Sleepers: A Sketch of New Zealand Behaviour and its Implications for the Artist” argues:
“No people is easier for governing. Though `Hitler’ and `dictator’ are common as terms of abuse (usually applied to a foreman who puts production before sociability) there is a lurking respect for the dictator because he has all the authority and gets things done. When the Upper House went no one cared. It was only workers of the big unions, and the watersiders themselves, who were concerned at Mr Holland’s emergency regulations, and a few intellectuals. Fascism has long been a danger potential in New Zealand. Of course fascism does not just occur: it is a deliberate strategy used by money-makers threatened with social discontent. But in countries nominally democratic, fascists have first to prepare the ground. In New Zealand the ground is already prepared for these conditions: a docile sleepy electorate, veneration of war-heros, a willingness to persecute those who don’t conform, gullibility in the face of headlines and radio peptalks.” (p.3-4) [1]
Seminar presentation at the NZIER, 2 August, 1995.
Keywords: Distributional Economics; Maori; Political Economy & History; Social Policy;
The seminar is the result of an invitation by the director of the NZIER, John Yeabsley, to describe some of my work with the Maori, especially in terms of the challenges I have experienced as a research economist and social statistician. The material presented here is primarily that which is on public record. Some confidential work is omitted. However while it is of interest and has been challenging, the work broadly covers the same areas as are in my public record. Some very small projects are also omitted.
Is Modesty the Best Policy for a Politician?
Listener: 1 April, 1995.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
“It is not true that only the unfeeling cynic, the vain, the brash, and the vulgar can succeed in politics.”
The 1994 Hocken Annual Lecture, University of Otago, 6 October, 1994, published by the Hocken Library, 1996.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Introduction
As the first economist to be invited to present a Hocken lecture, I take it my task is to argue that the economy is integral to understanding history. It is a challenge I accept willingly, for in recent years the study of New Zealand history has usually ignored economic forces.
Archifacts October 1993, p.32-43.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;
When invited to give an outsider’s, or even user’s, view of the role of business history in the wider intellectual community, I responded with some diffidence. When pressed I agreed to give a personal account, from someone who has been working in economics and related social sciences for a number of years, and who is not without a sympathy to history.
Paper to be presented to the Waitangi Tribunal to assist an inquiry into various Maori claims concerning geothermal resources (Wai 153). September 1993?
Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori; Political Economy & History;
1. Introduction and Disclaimer
1.1 As the title emphasises, this paper is no more than an attempt by a Pakeha economist to canvas some issues associated with the Maori claim to geothermal resources.
Listener: 12 September, 1992 Keywords: Political Economy & History; I treasure the Tom Scott cartoon which shows the boiler room of the economy, jam-packed with pipes under great pressure, full of leaking joints, bandages, holes and bulges, and with interest rates bursting away. In the middle of this chaos is a small balding gnome, Robert…
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Australia-New Zealand: Aspects of a Relationship, Proceedings of the Stout Research Centre, Eighth Annual Conference, Stout Research Centre, 1991, 14pp
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History;
The three most important characteristics for property – “position, position, position” – are not so important in international economics, as the close economic link between the United Kingdom and New Zealand for almost a century indicates. Similarly that Australia is New Zealand’s nearest neighbour does not closely link the two economies.
Listener: 10 December, 1990 Keywords: Political Economy & History; We are likely to argue for decades as to why Rogernomics, the economic policies of the fourth Labour government, failed – and it is unquestionable that they did fail economically. Of its ‘big four’ objectives, only inflation performance might be said to have improved in six…
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Paper presented to the Waitangi Tribuna to assist an inquiry into a claim by the New Zealand Maori Council and Nga Kaiwhakapumau I Te Reo relating to broadcasting (Wai 150), October 1990, at the Waiwhetu Marae.
Keywords: Environment & Resources: Maori; Political Economy & History;
Introduction and Disclaimer
1.1 As the title of this paper emphasises that it is no more than an attempt by a Pakeha economist to write an account of the Maori claim to the radio spectrum and related broadcasting issues.
Listener 14 May 1990.
Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori; Political Economy & History;
THE PAKEHA asked the Maori, “Do you claim all the airspace?”
“We claim rangatiratanga of all the space between Papa and Rangi,”
“Even that which the Russian sputniks go through?”
“Yes, The Maori recognise no boundaries. Even for the realm of Tangaroa. Perhaps if the Maori had been negotiating the Law of the Sea, the outcome would have been different.”
The Pakeha looked at the Maori with amazement, concluding if I judge his expression right, that the rangatira – despite his American PhD – was not quite with it. The claim over expanses over which the Maori had no statutory authority and no means of policing seemed ludicrous.
The very same week the New Zealand Government signed an international declaration which prohibited driftnet fishing in waters well outside our 320km limit and far beyond any realm our navy could plausibly police, Yet no one, Pakeha or Maori, concluded the agreement was ludicrous or the Prime Minister who sponsored it – and also has an American doctorate – was not quite with it.
Listener: 30 April, 1990 Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy and History; (When I was teaching political studies in the late 1990s, I found students who did not know who Rob Muldoon or David Lange were. Younger readers may need to know Geoffrey Palmer was Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister during Labour’s privatisation program;…
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Listener 5 February, 1990.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori; Political Economy & History;< Across the bay from the great Waitangi Marae is the picturesque town of Russell. A hundred and fIfty years ago Kororareka, as it was then, housed “the scum of the Pacific”: ruffians, rogues, and ratbags from Europe, prone to drunkenness, violence and turmoil. If Thomas Hobbes had been at the .signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, he would have looked at the unrest across the water and given a knowing smile.
Listener: 17 December, 1988 Keywords: Literature and Culture; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; I was unable to attend the entire Mansfield centenary conference but I did get to the opening lecture, a brilliant inaugural address by Vincent O’Sullivan, professor of English at Victoria University. Mansfield’s status as a New Zealander has always been…
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Listener: 24 January, 1987 Keywords: Political Economy & History; Easton, come out in front of the class! Yes, sir. What have you done to the school playground? What have I done, sir? Yes, the playground is a total mess. Look at it! There are closed factories all around, bankrupt farms, and thousands of unemployed workers….
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Listener: 25 October, 1986 Keywords: Political Economy & History; The N.Z. Institute of Economic Research is a rather special part of the economics profession but until recently I felt unable to write about it, because between 1981 and earlier this year I was its director. However, now the ties are cut with my retirement, and…
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Listener: 16 November, 1985 Keywords: Political Economy & History; What determines the comparative growth performances of different economies? Some will tell you that it is the amount of labour and capital together, perhaps, with the technologies that are used. Mancur Olson provides a quite different explanation in his The Rise and Fall of Nations: Economic…
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Listener: 23 January, 1982 Keywords: Political Economy & History; In his valedictory speech, the outgoing director of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, Kerry McDonald, argued that our economists should be more mvolved in the public debate on economic policy. While such sentiments are eminently appropriate in a democracy there are practical problems. For…
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