Tēnā koutou katoa. Apologies for the limitations of my voice. It is the consequence of surgery on my larynx. My written submission focuses on two elements of the Treaty Principles Bill which are insufficiently covered in its public discussion. The first is that the bill is bad history. Our understanding of Te Tiriti has evolved,…
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Spinoff 23 January 2025. Even democratically elected dictators try to avoid accountability. Until there is a considerable strengthening of the accountability mechanisms, the parliamentary term should not be extended. A British Lord Chancellor described the British political system as an ‘elected dictatorship’. Even so, it is meant to act in the interests of the people….
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Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest? Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet total was about $118…
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Chapters in Books Not in Narrow Seas (VUP: Ch.8) In Open Seas (Kea Point: Ch.12) Making Aotearoa New Zealand (Forthcoming: Ch.7) Articles ‘Was There A Treaty of Waitangi?: Was it A Social Contract?’ (Archifacts: April 1997, P.21-49) ‘What the Hell Happened At Waitangi?’ (Newsroom 9 May, 2023) Treaty Claims The Maori Broadcasting Claim: A Pakeha…
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Recommendations 1. That Parliament should not proceed with the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. 2. That Parliament endorse the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi as set out by the Court of Appeal in New Zealand Māori Council v Attorney-General (1987) (C.A. 54/87), while acknowledging that the understandings of Te Tiriti o Waitangi…
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While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought Nash was ineffectual’. Even so,…
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It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management. This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up my mind. Certainly Christopher Luxon and…
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This was offered to a media outlet ‘accepted’ but not published. Excerpted from the just published In Open Seas. The Labour Party halved its vote between the 2020 and 2023 elections (while National barely increased voter numbers). The coronial enquiries into the last election are yet to be held, but they will conclude Labour’s loss…
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Brian Easton Published in 2024 by Kea Point ISBN 978-0-473-72573-0 380 pages The book is rich in analyses of policy directions to progress Aotearoa New Zealand. An account of the policy development of the Ardern-Hipkins New Zealand Labour Government (2017-2023) which focuses on its policies in the context of New Zealand’s longer term economic history,…
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The Dangers of Delusions of Grandeur This is a column about MAGA – Make America Great Again. But as a prequel I scroll back sixty years to when I was teaching in England. I have fond memories of the students – bright and personable as they were. But their attitudes to England and the world…
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Notes for a Friend Te Tiriti gave ‘kawanatanga’ (governance) to the Crown but ‘rangatiratanga’ to Iwi (I’ll come to a complication). ‘Sovereignty’ confuses the discussion because it could be either kawanatanga or rangatiratanga – the sovereignty of the state vs the sovereignty of the individual. The governance vision in 1840 was a minimalist state. The…
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Some analysis by a social statistician. A note for myself. On 20 November 2024 around 42,000 people crowded in and around Parliament Grounds nominally protesting against the Treaty Principles Bill after a Hīkoi which came from the North Cape and the Far South. What exactly was going on was more than just a protest against…
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy. We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. The re-election of Donald Trump is…
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Does the Autumn 2024 British budget point to a change in fiscal strategies? Many countries found their fiscal position was unsustainable, following the 2008 Global Financial Crash. Their public spending was well in excess of their public revenue and they had to borrow more heavily than lenders thought prudent. Almost unanimously, such countries tried to…
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Last week’s column mentioned the three 2024 Nobel laureates in economics. The column focused only on the 2012 book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson with little reference to Simon Johnson, although the three have worked closely together for about 30 years. Johnson published last year, with Acemoglu, a 599-page book: Power and Politics: Our…
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This year’s Nobel awards in economics raise critical issues about the future of the world. I was not alone with high hopes when the Soviet Union collapsed. It has been good to see various nations leave the yoke of the Soviet Empire and move towards liberal democracies with thriving economies although sometimes it has been…
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Neville Gibson Reviews In Open Seas NBR Sun, 29 Sep 2024 Surprisingly, little has been forthcoming from the academic world about where and why the Sixth Labour Government went wrong, except for an analysis of the 2023 election. But whenever there’s an intellectual gap, someone must fill it. Brian Easton, a doyen among economists and…
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The background to In Open Seas: How the New Zealand Labour Government Went Wrong:2017-2023 Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, published in 2020, proved more successful than either I or the publisher (VUP, now Te Herenga Waka University Press) expected. I had expected that it would be a sleeper, a steady…
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Comment to Fabian Society at the National Theatre Alive Film of ‘NYE’: 13 September, 2024 You will hear I have some voice limitations. It is the result of successful surgery on my larynx. When I reflect on what happened, I am struck at the quality and the expertise of the healthcare professionals who treated me…
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‘Perspectives of Two Island Nations’, Ann-Marie Schleich (ed), Ch 14, pp.185-194. Singapore and New Zealand have much the same population – a bit over five million people. They are both affluent economies. Because of their resource base and location, they have rather different economic structures. Yet the two small economies work together in international fora….
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