Peter Williams: Democracy always - please

All votes must be of equal value

Some politicians just don’t get the concept of democracy.

That every New Zealander, citizen and resident, gets to cast a vote of equal value in central and local government elections has to be the cornerstone of a modern New Zealand.

Yet two recent incidents make it very clear that there remain people in leadership positions who don’t trust the people to make the “right” decisions.

Eric Crampton: The stakes are too high for this much stupidity

The New Zealand Economics Association annual meetings are a great way of keeping abreast of what the country’s economists are working on.

And sometimes they’re downright depressing.

At last week’s meetings, Auckland University of Technology’s Professor Rhema Vaithianathan’s keynote explained what she’s been up to over the past decade.

Her team has been helping American child protection services to do a better job protecting kids.