Reviews of ‘In Open Seas’
Neville Gibson ‘Will Labour’s failure condemn the future, book questions’, NBR, 29 Sep 2024.
Category Archives: Political Economy & History
A Culture of Wokeness
This was offered to a media outlet but they chose another piece. Based on the Epilogue of ‘In Open Seas’. Because New Zealand is very centralised, its central government has considerable influence over the public discussion. Thus, a change of government, as happened in 2023, may change greatly the tone and even direction of cultural…
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Can We Ignore the Environment?
Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed: An Untold History is a compelling account of the interaction between humans and the environment. We would be unwise to ignore it. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Oxford professor of history Peter Frankopan was initially widely admired. But critics point out that the book exaggerated…
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Where is the Left Going?
Paper to NZ Fabian Society, 26 February, Wellington. The New Zealand Fabian Society has posted my paper Transforming New Zealand: Why Has the Left Failed?, which is a follow-on from my just published book, In Open Seas: How the New Zealand Labour Government Went Wrong: 2017-2023. The paper points out that the Left no longer…
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TRANSFORMING NEW ZEALAND: Why is the Left Failing?
Fabian Society Website Writing contemporary history is challenging. New evidence appears; events move on; it is hard to provide thoughtful reflections about events close to the writing. The last chapters of my economic history of Aotearoa New Zealand, Not in Stormy Seas, are no exception. I tried to avoid providing a conclusion in Chapter 55…
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THE EVOLVING LABOUR MARKET
AIRAANZ 2025 Conference, 3 February 2025. It is perhaps extraordinary that the Ardern-Hipkins Labour Government, which said it wanted to be ‘transformational’, did not establish a Ministry of Labour. In 2012 the Key-English National Government had merged the century-old Department of Labour into the newly established mega-agency, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MoBIE)….
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Oral Submission to Justice Select Committee: Treaty Principles Bill
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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Why we’re not ready to extend the parliamentary term
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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A Bully of Billionaires
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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Publications of Brian Easton Relating to Te Tiriti O Waitangi and Treaty Claims
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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Submission to Parliament by Brian Easton on the PRINCIPLES OF THE TREATY OF WAITANGI BILL
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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Quality Ministers
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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The Wing Parties’ Economic Policies.
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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Why Does Policy Failure Dominate New Zealand Government?
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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IN OPEN SEAS: How the New Zealand Labour Government Went Wrong: 2017-2023
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 Meaning of MAGA
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 on Governance and Te Tiriti
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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What Was the Hīkoi Against the Treaty Principles Bill About?
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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We Are Not Listening
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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The End of Austerianism?
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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