How to make the Greens sustainable

The issue for the Greens is sustainability — of the human race and of ecosystems, of course, but also of themselves.

Co-leader Russel Norman’s answer is to get bigger. His “realistic target” is to get over 10 per cent in the next election. To make the point he wore a bland suit, with pale green tie, to deliver his formal speech at the conference on Sunday. That was so what he wore would not obscure his message. read more

The long and short of government

In the United States some are blaming President Barack Obama for not fixing the BP oil spill. Few of those, it seems from the commentary, stop to ask whether they would have welcomed higher petrol prices if he had imposed tough, expensive regulatory checks on drilling. Few ask if he can do what the engineers cannot. read more

Two sea-changes from China

China’s climate change ambassador, Yu Qingtai, is visiting right now. Two weeks back Climate Change Negotiations Minister Tim Groser was in Beijing, personally invited to a select meeting of a handful of large developing-economy countries. What’s going on?

What’s going are two sea-changes. In that context Thursday’s budget will be mainly a pre-sea-change affair. read more

Business as usual? A lesson from Korea

There is an assumption behind the government’s preparations for next week’s budget: that business as usual is on the way back. That is a risky assumption.

Sure, the unemployment rate fell. But the survey is “volatile” and unemployment benefit numbers fell only slightly. Far more important was the turmoil on the world’s “debt” markets. read more

Lobbying for centrism: is that what business wants?

The big business lobby against mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) is backing John Key’s preferred alternative, supplementary member (SM), in Simon Power’s cumbersome double referendum on the voting system. That effectively inters the pre-1996 first-past-the-post (FPP) system, the one the lobby really prefers. read more

Who belongs here and how deeply?

The issue at the heart of John Key’s all-and-nothing sign-up to the United Nations declaration on indigenous rights is who belongs here and how deeply they belong.

That is important because if too many people in a country feel they don’t belong, the economy and society — not to mention the politics — will be suboptimal or worse. read more

The people factor in the Anzac deal

Australia is just too attractive. Refugees aim for the big island. Other migrants pour in — 7 million in all since 1945. Half a million Australians were born in New Zealand. That’s stitching a new meaning on to Anzac.

An Australian Treasury report last year projected the population to climb by three-fifths to 35.9 million in 2050 from 22.3 million now. Just to keep up — to stay one-fifth the size — we would have to grow to around 7.1 million from 4.4 million now. Statistics New Zealand’s median 2050 projection is 5.6 million (a rise of a bit over a quarter). read more

The aura of the new whanau focus

It was an inauspicious week to launch whanau ora: a week when it was revealed public funds going to a Maori health provider had gone missing.

When Tariana Turia was Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector in Helen Clark’s government she ran into flak over where some money went. Labour chief whip Tim Barnett was put in to monitor the processes. read more

An Easter message on some things thought sinful

Climate change challenges come in many forms, quite apart from that of making sense or nonsense of the numbers. Here is another: genetic modification.

New Zealand has adopted as official policy a quasi-religious ban on genetic modification (GM). There is a similar quasi-religious ban on nuclear power. This post-Easter week a big international meeting in Wellington will — at least by inference — raise the GM one. read more