Category: Speeches, Papers & Briefings

Colin James’s speech at Unisys Technology Forum, Queenstown, 6 May 2008

I start with a quotation on trust from the American political philosopher Francis Fukuyama in his 1995 book on the topic. “Economic activity represents a crucial part of social life and is knit together by a wide variety of norms, rules, moral obligations and other habits that together shape the society. A nation’s wellbeing, as well as its ability to compete [economically], is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.” (1) In short, trust is critical to commerce. read more

Colin James’s paper at the Dominion Day centenary symposium, 26 September 2007

The year 7 is a year for anniversaries and centenaries. Since we are talking of colonies and independence today, I note that 2007 is the quatercentenary of the founding of Jamestown in what is now Virginia, the first thrust by the English to steal North America from the Indians. It is the 60th anniversary of the retreat by the English from India and coincidentally of New Zealand’s adoption of the Statute of Westminster which certified this country as an independent state. It is also the centenary of the founding of professional rugby league in this country and the twentieth anniversary of the stockmarket crash when New Zealanders learnt (though have since forgotten) that risky finance is indeed risky — just as Americans have failed to learn the lessons of the banking Panic of 1907. read more

Colin James speech to the Water and Wastes Association Conference, Rotorua, 18 September 2007

We are a people of few words. How do I know that? Because we are about to have our second monosyllabic election in succession: Brash v Clark in 2005; Key v Clark in 2008. All you have to remember is not to put an e on Clark and an s on Key. read more

Paper by Colin James at Political Studies Association conference, 30 August 2007

Independence is a state of mind. By definition, it is a positive state of mind. And in a small, outlier society such as this one, it is also by necessity an outward-looking state of mind.

So formal independence is not independence. New Zealand dawdled to formal independence through Dominion Day to adoption of the Statute of Westminster 60 years ago but even then remained British at heart. Actual independence is only about 30 years old. read more

Colin James’s paper to the Victoria University political studies department and Stout Centre conference on “The Bolger Years”, 28 April 2007

I owe the title to Margaret Clark’s quotation from the Bible last night (though of course I am quoting not from the Bible but from Keats’ biblical allusion in Ode to a Nightingale). My reference and Margaret’s recognise that to those of “the Bolger years” the Christian cultural heritage — I emphasise cultural heritage — was a widely understood shorthand and, of course, Jim and Joan Bolger are practising Catholics. I realised a decade or more ago that I could not expect biblical allusions in my columns to be generally understood. Under-40s, not having been taught in school that dimension of our cultural heritage, have no automatic link to a value-system which in large part identified this society for most of its post-1840 history. The loss of that cultural identifier meshes with Wyatt Creech’s point yesterday that already the 1990s have the ring of ancient history. read more

Colin James paper to Legal Research Foundation conference, Whose Law is it anyway? Harmonising Australian and New Zealand Business Laws Legal Research Foundation, Wellington 9 March 2007

Australia and New Zealand are family, heirs to British liberties and institutions. That enables us to do things together with little fuss. But we are also in important ways foreign. That gives us different perspectives and leads us to do things differently. read more

Colin James’s speech in the Te Papa Waitangi Day series, 8 February 2007

Thirty-five years ago, when Pat Hohepa and Ranginui Walker first inducted me into some of the mysteries of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Treaty was a rat-gnawed relic of no legal, moral or political effect, a footnote in history. The British exiles who ran this place had appropriated elements of Maori custom and culture to make a small differentiating marker and had welcomed Maori into the British mainstream. But most Maori were parked in a social and ethnic underclass along with Pacific islanders. read more

Colin James’s notes for comments to Australasian Study of Parliament Group seminar, 5 December 2006

1. The precursor: the decline of the Nat/Lab major party vote

1951…. 99.8% (the third election it had been above 99%)

1972…. 89.9%

1981…. 77.8%

1987…. 92.0%

1993…. 69.7% after betrayals by both major parties read more

Colin James’s paper to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Global Forces conference 26-27 September 2006

My brief is to give a New Zealand perspective on Australia’s strategic role (1) so what I will say is my perspective not the New Zealand perspective, in the sense either of an interpretation of the official government perspective or of the country’s collective perspective — though, of course, my perspective is very much informed and coloured by both. read more

Sensible Sovereignty or Niggling Nationalism?

Colin James’s paper to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs Major Foreign Policy Issues Seminar, Wellington, 21 February 2006

New Zealanders of a certain age need no reminding of Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell’s infamous order on 1 February 1981 to brother Trevor to bowl underarm to ensure New Zealand batsman Brian McKechnie could not hit a 6 off the last ball to draw a one-day cricket match. read more