Author: Colin James

Trickling down the knowledge wave

Been bowled over by the knowledge wave lately? You know, the one that was making big surf in August? Probably not. But there is a quiet swell.

The hype of the conference co-chaired by Auckland University vice-chancellor John Hood and Prime Minister Helen Clark in August has faded and the slogan has also dropped from public view. But there are some initiatives that directly result from conference recommendations and others to which it added impetus. The slogan has provided a low-level unifying theme. read more

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Speech by Colin James to the Polytechnics Association conference, 2 November 2001

Here we are in “knowledge city” in the decade in which we are supposed to become the “knowledge society”, catch the “knowledge wave” to the “knowledge economy” and thereby fashion the “knowledge nation”. It’s a fad in our sorts of countries. And it’s your business. read more

An attractive fellow — but a leader?

Back in the bad old Bolger days, the big boys of international pharmaceuticals heavied a hayseed Health Minister on the government’s impudent purchasing practices. They even enlisted the United States Ambassador.

All they got was a polite hearing.

Around the same time a young minister was repeatedly white-anted by a dissenting associate minister to whom he was harnessed in coalition. He told his Prime Minister either the tormentor went or he did. The Prime Minister said it might be he who went and not the associate. He stood his ground and won. read more

Maybe it's time to be unreasonable

One of my favourite small companies is Learning Media. A CROC (Crown-owned company), it is no crock. Jim Anderton could cite it in his anti-privatisation speeches.

Learning Media was once a departmental supplier of classroom fodder. Rogergnomes turned the bureaucrats into a company and told them to find ways of making money. And they have: revenue doubled (to $24 million) and profits quadrupled (to $2.7 million) in the past five years, with exports now at 40% of sales. read more

An ethnic accident

Colin James’s paper to Stout Centre/IPS conference on Australia-New Zealand, 27 October 2001

This is the tabloid slot. After two days of erudition, a journalist — and did not Professor Mackay admonish us on Thursday evening that nothing disturbs the “enduring stability” of the Australasian relationship except the “popular” press? I stray into discord at my peril. read more

Now for a battle of political generations

We now have a battle of political generations. That is what Bill English’s leisurely accession to the National party leadership spells.

Helen Clark is, in political terms, a child of the 1960s and early 1970s. English is politically a child of the 1990s. The next four years will be a contest between their different ways of viewing the world. read more

Two countries diverging

Australia is dispatching troops, planes and ships for George Bush’s war. This country has offered the SAS, fullstop. Yet again the two nations are diverging, a now familiar fact in a relationship of critical importance to business.

There is another familiar fact: apart from to companies with business or subsidiaries here, New Zealand doesn’t seriously matter to Australia, except when things go wrong. read more

GM: a choice demanding more than a majority

The government is about to make one of the most critical decisions of its first term — maybe its whole life. It will decide policy on genetic modification (GM). Whichever way it jumps, there will be no way back to where we are now for a long time, perhaps eternity.

The cabinet will make this critical decision amidst a frenzy of lobbying and propaganda from GM’s opponents (who call it genetic engineering, which sounds more sinister) and proponents, some of whom have had the Prime Minister’s ear in recent weeks. read more

The government after 2002

Speech to Importers Institute conference, 11 October 2001

It’s tempting in the light of this week’s coup activity to start with the small picture whither Bill English and the National party. But actually Bill is a good reason to start with the big picture, for reasons I will explain later. read more

The end of the yellow brick road

Jenny Shipley is gutsy. She showed that in a losing campaign in 1999. She showed it again on Monday night, conceding defeat to Bill English’s promoters. Can English match that gutsiness?

He will need to. He is now head to head with a hardened campaigner in Helen Clark, pragmatic to her back teeth when the public opinion chips are down. See how quickly she read the mood on troops for America. See how she wrapped herself in the flag over Air New Zealand. read more