The American evidence is that they frequently do not. For over a century there was a separate Department of Labour, which was amalgamated into that vast miscellaneous department, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Today there is no Minister of Labour, while the portfolios of workplace relations and safety and of immigration are held…
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At the 2026 election, unemployment is likely to be higher and inflation lower than it was in 2023. It was headline news that the unemployment rate, at 5.6 percent of the labour force, rose in the June Quarter to its highest level since March 2015. In fact it has been creeping up over the last…
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The 2026 World Happiness Report challenges us to think differently about economics and about New Zealand. The New Zealand media reported the latest World Happiness Report with the single headline that New Zealand ranked 11th. It deserved more attention for there is much to be learned from the report and the 14 earlier ones. The…
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Monopsonies – dominant purchasers – need to be restrained as much as monopolies – dominant sellers. That is what pay equity is about. This column is not about you-know-who. There are many other political bullies offshore; sometimes there are local ones, as when a politician attacks a group which cannot defend itself or a cabinet…
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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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She may have progressed our understanding of women in the economy but that has not resolved all the issues. A woman who was once chief executive of New Zealand’s biggest company said ‘It is true that a large percentage of the [women’s pay] gap is unexplained and that’s where the issue comes about; could it…
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1 Summary 1.1 This short paper sets out a scheme for reducing the shock of lost income from redundancy. 2 Preliminaries: Dealing with a Private Market Failure 2.1 This proposal arises because the private market has not been able to provide adequate income protection for those who become unemployed from redundancy. In particular…
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Migration patterns provide further evidence that wellbeing is not simply measured by income. New Zealand’s GDP per person is about 20 percent lower than Australia’s. Some think that the difference arises because our economic policies have been inferior. They then leaps to arguing for new policies based on ideology rather than evidence. Frequently those policies…
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I was asked to make a short contribution at the function on 18 December 2019 for Bill who is retiring from director of policy at the NZCTU. He will continue to work on labour issues part-time.
Answering that question proves to be challenging. This preliminary assessment suggests the economic benefits to incumbent New Zealanders may not be great. During the Vogel boom, say between 1871 and 1881, the population of New Zealand doubled, as did real GDP (as best as we can measure). That means per capita GDP was much the…
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Do residential care workers deserve the big pay increase they are getting? The recent historic pay equity deal for aged and residential care workers raises a tricky clash between quite different accounts of how the economy should work. Many people think that workers should be paid at a rate that reflects their social worth; others…
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A recent government report projects huge increases in employment but at least 72 percent of those jobs are to go to immigrants. I was a bit startled by a report recently released by the Ministry of Business Industry and Employment which forecast an extra 480,000 jobs over the next ten years. Those with a memory will recall…
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Free movement of labour is often described as one of the four fundamental economic freedoms. Putting it into practice is somewhat more difficult. To make the intentions of this column clear, I am generally in favour of migration. I am a descendant of immigrants and live in a country in which virtually everyone admits to…
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How come we tolerated such appalling working conditions for so long? (And a tick for crusading journalism.) Charles Dickens would be appalled. So would Fredrick Engels who wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England, as would New Zealand’s Sweating Commission of 1890. Even Simon Legree, the slave owner in Harriet Beecher’s Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, would…
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We should focus more on introducing and adapting the world’s innovations using a skilled workforce. Pundit: 17 November, 2014 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies; Our so called ‘innovation policy’, which is at the heart of the government’s growth strategy – insofar as it has one – seems to be fundamentally flawed….
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Comments for Concluding Session of NIDEA University of Waikato, February 2-3, 2012. Keywords: Labour Studies; Political Economy & History; To begin with congratulating the organisers of conference, who have produced one of those stimulating events which will be long remembered by the professions as the foundation for a major debate. But I would also like…
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Prelude to Arbitration in Three Movements: Ulster, South Australia, New Zealand: 1890-1894 by W. J. Gardner (2009) 174pp. (Available from W. J. Gardner, Box 5634, Papanui, Christchurch 8542, $NZ30) Published in Labour History Project, Newsletter 49 July 2010, p.25-27. Keywords: Labour Studies; Political Economy & History; The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, passed in 1894,…
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Presentation to an EPMU seminar, 29 April, 2010 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Labour Studies; Twenty years ago the Engineering Union commissioned me to think about the alternative to Rogernomics. According to the last prime minister, Helen Clark, my report Open Growth was influential on the last Labour Government’s economic strategy, although it was not totally…
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This was a note I prepared following a discussion on some troubling statistics. 1 March, 2010. Keywords: Labour Studies; Statistics; Suppose you did exactly the same job for the whole of your life. How do you think your wages would increase the same as inflation, or faster? I cant be sure of the answer for…
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Contribution to a panel which is a part of the launch of the Australia-New Zealand Connections Research Centre (ANZRC), University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Friday 10 October 2008. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Labour Studies; Political Economy & History; The Trans-Tasman labour market is over two hundred years old – perhaps since the first convict…
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