Ryan Bridge: We all deserve a pay rise

Question: Who wants a pay rise? Who deserves a pay rise? Simple question, easy answer.

Answer: Everybody and most kiwis. By and large we’re hard workers and deserve more.

Teacher, nurses and doctors. By and large, yes. Yes. Yes.

Ryan Bridge: We need economic headroom

I've seen a lot of commentary in the past few days about our government debt position.

We're up over 40% of GDP - that's doubled on pre-Covid.

There are those on the left who say that's too little. We should borrow more. Forget a debt ceiling, borrow more and throw it at the public service and create some jobs - any jobs.

Dennis Wesselbaum: Willis warns of a ‘tight’ budget to come....

Willis warns of a ‘tight’ budget to come, but NZ should be going for productivity, not austerity

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has warned her 2025 “Growth Budget” will be “one of the tightest budgets in a decade”, with plans to reduce spending by billions.

Ele Ludemann: Labour’s legacy, National’s responsibility

Government debt ballooned under Labour, it now amounts to $90,000 for every household in the country.

That’s a lot of money to owe and the interest on it amounts to billions of dollars that are needed for other priorities including education, health and infrastructure.

Point of Order: NZers have high expectations of new government...

.....now let’s see if it can deliver?

The electorate has high expectations of the new government. The question is: can it deliver?

Some might say the signs are not promising. Protestors are already marching in the streets. The new Prime Minister has had little experience of managing very diverse politicians in coalition. The economy he inherits is in bad shape, with little indication inflation is falling yet.

Point of Order: Have the new leaders forgotten the parlous state of the country’s finances?

While National, ACT and NZ First are scrambling over the formation of a new government, their leaders appear to have forgotten the parlous state of the country’s finances and the urgent need to get them back into shape.

Clive Bibby: We need a government that is prepared to say NO!

Listening to the different political parties contest the right to occupy the treasury benches after the election campaign isn’t an exercise that instils confidence in the nation’s ability to extricate itself from the economic and social mess we are in.  

Admittedly, a decent chunk of the debt accumulated over the last three years has been money spent where the government had no choice.

And it is fair to say that the debate surrounding the accumulation of that debt should not be about whether the mostly borrowed money should have been spent but more precisely about how it was spent.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Our debt's not bad, but it is a waste

Did I have a debate on my hands when I got home last night about the country’s debt levels. 

The husband gave me a huge telling off for saying yesterday that the Government had taken on too much debt. 

So I feel like I need to clear this up:

I don’t mind the level of debt New Zealand has. We've heard this a thousand times, but it’s worth saying again- we have very little debt in contrast to other countries in the OECD.

Mike Hosking: Good economic news is masking a mountain of debt

You know how there is a lot of good news about? You know how there is no shortage of stories about our economic bounce back?

Well. That’s because it’s partly true - not totally - but partly.

But one of the biggest reasons is because the bill is not being talked about.

The government debt is now $100 billion -that’s the bill for this. That was at the end of November last year, so it’ll be higher now.

Clive Bibby: Opportunities abound but we need to take advantage of them

The current argument about the need to reduce our core debt to below 30% of GDP before we lose the ability to manage the process within politically
acceptable guidelines is a good indication on who should be in charge of our  recovery.

It is clear that Labour and their mates have no idea about how it might be  achieved and worse still, actually don't want to know about the monster they have created.

I am amazed at the continued announcements of cash available for just about anything you like to name - much of it of doubtful necessity but supported by the usual special interest groups who recognise a gift horse when they see one.

Karl du Fresne: Memo to Bill English - perhaps you could start here

The Government insists that it’s trimming the flab from the public service, yet I keep seeing advertisements for pseudo-jobs such as “Chief Advisor, Maori Development” for the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

It was a wordy, long-winded ad but after reading it I had little idea what the job actually entailed. This is par for the course with executive positions these days, in the private as well as the public sector. The ad was written in impenetrable HR-speak, with liberal use of vague phrases such as “focused strategies and policies” and “building connections throughout New Zealand’s science and innovation systems”.

Mike Butler: Understanding deficits

Standard & Poor's cut the rating on US Government debt from AAA to AA+, mainly because the political impasse on Capitol Hill has indicated that further budget deficit reductions will be difficult to achieve. What does this all mean? Is there an easier way to understand this, and, most importantly, how is New Zealand doing?

The U.S. 2011 Federal Budget annual spending: $3,820,000,000,000 ($3.82-trillion)
Income: $2,170,000,000,000 ($2.17-trillion)
New Debt: $1,650,000,000,000 ($1.65-trillion)
Amount Cut: $38,500,000,000 ($38.5-billion) – about 1% of the total budget.

Frank Newman: The sovereign debt crisis

Greece is a worst nightmare scenario for the international financial system, and may be a sign of worse to come as the financial crisis escalates to sovereign debt markets. First it was Iceland, then Dubai, and now Greece. All three (for different reasons) accumulated mountainous government debt that their economies simply could not sustain. Iceland has been bailed out by Russia, and Dubai by its UAE neighbours. Greece has turned to Germany and the International Monetary Fund and secured a 110 billion euro package that will buy it a few years to bring an economy crippled by the spendthrift policies of socialist self interest back into the harsh realities of a balanced budget.