David Farrar: Of course GP wait times will skyrocket under Labour

The Post reports:

Labour’s Dr Ayesha Verrall is adamant that her fees-free GP policy will not overwhelm clinics, despite featuring no commitment to fund the training of more doctors.

The policy has faced sustained criticism from Health Minister Simeon Brown, who says the free visits would increase demand on GP clinics without any plan to increase the number of doctors.

Lindsay Mitchell: Prison population levels off

Labour's policy was to drive down the prison population. And they have.

But since March 2022 the population has levelled off. 2022 looks different to 2020 and 2021.

A change in policy? Time for a cup of tea? Something has changed.

Roger Partridge: Why Labour's Industrial Relations Plan Will Hurt Workers

Judging by the length of Labour’s manifesto proposals for workplace relations reform, you might think New Zealand’s labour markets were not working well for workers.

If re-elected, Labour will persist with plans of former Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Ian Lees-Galloway to introduce compulsory industry-wide collective bargaining (dubbed ‘Fair Pay Agreements’). This reform will fundamentally change relations between firms and their employees.

This month, New Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Andrew Little also promised Labour would press ahead with its plans to lift the minimum wage to $20 an hour next year. In the same announcement, Little said Labour would double statutory sick leave entitlements from five days to ten.

Barry Soper: Labour should know tax decisions will be out of their hands

Read their lips: there'll be no new taxes, other than for the wealthy, under the second term of a Labour led Government.

That's simple to say but hard to do. As genuine as the sentiment may be, Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson know that it's a decision that almost certainly won't be entirely theirs to make.

Tax issues dogged Labour before the last election and after it. Shell shocked by Winston Peters' appointment of them, they shelved the captain's call made by Ardern for a capital gains tax in her first term as Prime Minister.

Lindsay Mitchell: Increased cash hand-outs reduce incentive to work

Seems obvious to you and I, but a fact that the Left has long resisted. Their response is always to indignantly insist, "...people want to work."

But MSD doesn't necessarily agree. At least the actuarial arm which produces an annual Benefit System Performance Report.

Below is a graph tracking exit rates among Jobseeker-Work Ready (JS/WR) beneficiaries. The associated commentary notes that recent exit rates are lower than during the GFC!

But notice also the bold type sentence below the graph. Paying those JS beneficiaries with children MORE has reduced their exits off welfare.

Gerry Eckhoff: Opportunity cost of Water

A report by Global Water Resources Group projects that by 2030, annual global fresh water needs will reach 6.9 trillion cubic metres – 64% more than currently existing reliable supply. The implications for further global and domestic conflict are obvious as interest groups vie for influence and control. 

In NZ, evidence suggests that variation of rainfall from year to year and not scarcity of water is the real problem. Despite this obvious reality being easily overcome by water storage - nothing is now to be done - by Government decree.  The Labour led collective (Government) decided to do away with the ineptly named “irrigation fund” in favour of other expenditure. There will be a massive future cost associated with that decision. Economists call it the opportunity cost – in this case - of fresh water.