Author: Colin James

Creating a behemoth to run tertiary education

At a cabinet committee meeting in February Helen Clark began tapping her fingers on the table, causing Steve Maharey to interrupt his earnest briefing to inquire: “What’s up?”. “Just get on and do it,” said the boss.

That’s the atmosphere in which Maharey is now implementing his Tertiary Education Advisory Commission’s (TEAC) proposals. But has he got the right vehicle? Before Maharey got the cabinet go-ahead, a wary Michael Cullen commissioned a full suite of Treasury reports – rare for him on a social policy issue. read more

We don't set lions on Christians, do we?

Celebrities, confrontation and crime are the three cyphers of media ratings. Politicians have been supplying plenty of the first two and even a flash of the third. Haven’t they done well!

It is a commonplace among the chattering classes and their “commentariat” that the carryings-on of the past two weeks were not a good thing. Fat lot they know about what real people think and want. read more

National reaching for the "values" weapon

Last Wednesday night in Parliament the National party rowdily belaboured all and sundry for wimpishness in the face of a flood of child pornography. No surprises in that — except that it incidentally included the Society for Promotion of Community Standards.

Whatever else one might say of the SPCS, excoriator of nudity and lax morals, it cannot be accused of limp-wristed liberalism. read more

Fixing a fragmented public service

A rumour swept through the public service last week: the three parts of the old Social
Welfare Department were to be put back together. It’s the sort of far-out rumour that is treated as a joke.

It’s not a joke.

The public service could be in for its biggest reshaping since the late-1980s reforms — though ministers emphasise no “big bang” is proposed and cabinet thinking is at a very early stage. read more

The price of ditching a long-held principle

Social democrats once prided themselves on being internationalists. Workers across national borders were presumed to share a common oppression by capitalists. Nationalism was a game played by the ruling classes.

Helen Clark is heir to this tradition. It was a principle that sent Peter Fraser to jail for sedition in World War I. Half a century later the tradition spurred a generation of idealists to champion small countries, from Vietnam to El Salvador, against the United States. Ms Clark was one. read more

When public servants save politicians from themselves.

This summer’s news “silly season” produced a series of shock-horror-probe stories about public servants’ bonuses. The Prime Minister, descending from the Andes, declared these an outrage.

To many public servants, who mostly vote Labour or Alliance, Helen Clark’s outrage was itself an outrage. Their pay scales have been frozen for a decade. How, without bonuses, are executives to keep good staff? read more

Kiwibank's real point is the cost to you

The real point about kiwibank is not Richard Prebble’s grandstanding defence of a liberty that was never seriously threatened. National’s Tony Ryall had it right: the real point is the bank’s opportunity cost to taxpayers.

If $80 million is invested in a bank, that $80 million is not available for the government’s capital programme to build roads, schools, hospitals and suchlike. read more

Jim's bank: The real point is the opportunity cost

Random Thought 22 February 2001

The real point about the Kiwibank is its opportunity cost to taxpayers. If $80 million is invested in yet another bank to an overbanked country that $80 million is not available to fix bad roads or build hospitals or schools.

This point escaped Richard Prebble who argued the $80 million should go instead on education or police services. But that is current spending, not capital spending, and turns up in a different place on the government’s books. read more

Why scotching scandal is a political must

Peter Beattie has shown that scandal need not be the death of a government. The trick is to cauterise it fast.

Who is Peter Beattie? The ebullient, media-savvy Labour Premier of Queensland who in Saturday’s state election survived an election enrolment rorting scandal in his ranks that makes small beer of Phillida Bunkle. read more

One-sided games are just not cricket

I reckon the Black Caps are misunderstood. The record, Sunday excepted, suggests they are on a chivalrous mission to relieve the 1955 team of the ignominy of the world record low international innings — 26.

We also owe them a more general debt: by losing to Zimbabwe-level minnows, the hapless cricketers have reminded us we are a “branch office” country. read more