Author: Colin James

Wanted: more motivated scientists

Science Minister Pete Hodgson will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Crown research institutes (CRIs) this evening (Monday) with stern words from his ministry about the “fragility” of the research system ringing in his ears.

The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (MoRST) wants “new processes to create a more motivated and focused research community”, which it broadly hints is low in morale. For a government that has made “innovation” central to its economic programme, these words have a special urgency — and they come after three years in office. read more

The Treasury gets the intervention message

Unpublished NZ Herald article by Colin James

Get used to it: the 1990s have gone. That is Treasury Secretary Alan Bollard’s parting shot as he heads for the Reserve Bank. Now the Treasury backs “proactive” government intervention in the economy.

Being “open for business”, relying on market signals and a level playing field, is no longer enough, the Treasury said in its traditional post-election briefing to the re-elected government. read more

How sustainable is the idea of sustainability?

Helen Clark is in her element this week: summiting with “world leaders”, this time in Johannesburg to save the world’s poor and the environment by way of “sustainable development”. This is social democracy on a very grand scale.

Clark is in interesting company: protesters against that paramount evil, “globalisation”, who now bedevil every conference of “world leaders”. Their thesis is that rich countries and their corporations are enslaving the world and wrecking the environment through free trade. read more

What odds on a long-running Clark?

MPs are slowly getting the hang of managing MMP. Another couple of Parliaments and they may be there.

What has held them up — those in the two old parties at least — is that they have been responding to the incentives of the old system. In making her unspoken but nevertheless unmistakable bid for a majority, Clark displayed that mentality. read more

Now the left's turn to worry about welfare

One of the government’s biggest tests this term in its quest to establish a durable majority will be welfare.

In the 1999 Speech from the Throne Helen Clark aimed to “correct” what she felt were the excesses of 15 years of reforms by free-marketeers and reducers of the state.

Today’s Speech from the Throne is a more challenging exercise — or should be. read more

Two million voters in search of a rationale: The campaign, factors and issues

Draft paper by Colin James to the Victoria University post-election conference, 23 August 2002

“They haven’t settled down yet.” So said Barrie Leay, the National party secretary, at the 1978 election, which decimated the National government’s huge 1975 majority and slashed its vote by 9% to below Labour’s. Ditto for the 2002 election. read more

Bringing back the family — this election's legacy

Bring back Jenny Shipley. Not to bounce Bill English; there is enough juice in that stew. To tell us about “the family”.

The most abiding picture I have from the 1999 campaign was of Shipley resting her head on husband Burton’s shoulder on a bus ride at the end of a day on the West Coast. It was not showy or tokenist or despairing. It was homely. read more

Big prize: huge management task

Here are some numbers United Future and Labour might usefully take on board.

Some 40 per cent of United Future and ACT voters told the post-election NZ Herald DigiPoll they found it difficult to work out whom to vote for. The average for all those questioned was 24 per cent.

That a quarter of all voters found it difficult to decide their vote casts interesting light on MMP. It is also a worry for National, which shed votes in the campaign, many probably to ACT and United Future. Around 36 per cent of voters for those two parties said they made up their mind on election day or the day before. read more

Is history beginning again?

A small, slight figure scurries through the sunrise at the sprawling Queensland resort hotel, Mamiya 6×7 camera and gear in hand and over shoulder, seeking out images of a foreign country. He is Francis Fukuyama and he is also an accomplished cabinetmaker.

But he is better known for his construction of very big ideas and for his picture of a world at the “end of history” — not the end of events but the endpoint of the contest of ideas with the victory of liberal democracy and market capitalism, Europe’s great invention. read more