Category: Otago Daily Times

Here are two views on government science spending from last week. Struan Little, Treasury deputy secretary, dynamic economy: “Public investment in science yields benefits only when its output is applied in the economy. It is all about growth.” Wayne Mapp, Minister of Research, Science and Technology: “We are going to have to make the same sort of investment as our comparator countries.” read more

How does a small country do economic nationalism when the big fellas are waging currency wars? That’s a question from the Labour party conference. It comes in several parts.

The conference was in a markedly good mood.

That was in part because delegates could believe that, just conceivably, Labour might be able to do a Len Brown in the 2011 election. Brown’s win came in part by rousing out voters in lower socioeconomic areas, say his campaign manager and now political adviser, Labour up-and-comer Conor Roberts (30), and his offsider, Kate Sutton (29), an aspirant for Labour’s Te Atatu nomination. read more

You would expect the head of the Department of Conservation (DoC) to be a bit greener than a National-led cabinet. But what about the next Labour-led government?

Al Morrison won the Green party’s endorsement for this sentence in a speech at Lincoln University on Thursday: “We (humans) are degrading ecosystems and destroying species to a point where the services that nature provides, that we rely on for our sustenance and that determine our prosperity, are being run down and out.” read more

Saturday’s big deal is not who will get to be mayors and councillors. It is the possible cascade into a wider reorganisation which Auckland’s remake might trigger.

Put together the big Auckland region, a rival collective of main-city mayors, the Environmental Protection Authority, the mooted “national land and water commission”, growing collaboration among councils and Rodney Hide’s first-principles review next year. You have the makings of a potential local government reorganisation to match that of 1989 when the number of subnational government bodies fell from more than 600 to 88, now 85. read more

So the “recovery” stalled in the June quarter, the figures said. Or did they? And does it matter, given the half-billion-dollar stimulus coming on Friday via the first part of the tax switch?

First, the figures are not gospel. The underlying economic performance might be a bit higher or lower than Statistics New Zealand’s 0.2 per cent. There are often special factors: Canterbury’s earthquake and Southland’s big freeze will weigh on this quarter’s figure. Drought aftermath hung over the June quarter. read more

Here’s how Labour could in theory win next year. It’s mostly to do with ACT and in particular Rodney Hide.

First, the spectre of 2002: Labour looked a shoo-in, so some who were National-leaning but not heavily committed and wanted to put a brake on Helen Clark went to New Zealand First and United Future; National’s vote fell. read more

What’s wrong with burning the Koran? It’s only a book. What’s wrong with what Maurice Williamson said about getting stoned and adultery and Christians and Muslims? It was only a joke. Actually, it’s not so simple.

One argument against burning the Koran is fear. United States President Barack Obama’s fear was that Pastor Terry Jones’s stunt to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of Muslim anarchists’ September 11 attacks would boost Taleban and Al Qaeda recruitment and put Americans more at risk. read more

Two big earthquakes close to the same magnitude. One, in Haiti, killed around a quarter of a million people. The other, close to Christchurch, killed no one. That’s a price of inequality.

Humans can’t stop earthquakes. But humans can mitigate them with building regulations and other measures. Since the 1931 Napier earthquake governments here have progressively tightened building regulations so people are much less likely to be killed — though some buildings apparently don’t yet conform, judging by Christchurch’s wall collapses. read more

Going to vote in your council elections? Or do you think it doesn’t much matter who gets in? If so, join the majority. Representative democracy’s grip is loosening. That bothers some public-spirited people. Should it?

Representative democracy substitutes for direct democracy — voting on issues by referendum or, in a small electorate, in a “town hall” meeting — and participatory democracy through meetings and “consultation”. read more

Here’s a thought for Julia Gillard: if Australia had MMP she would have a majority, with the Greens (on initial figures). But the Greens’ 11 per cent vote share in the government-legitimising House of Representatives got only one seat.

Here’s a thought for Tony Abbott (wrongly declared “mad” by Australia’s myopic mainstream media): aside from their environmentalism, Greens mainly lean more left than Labor on international, social and economic issues. So: problems in the Senate for an Abbott government. read more