Peter Dunne: Vested interests and good public policy

Too often, an apparent concern for good public policy is really a cover for the protection of vested interests. In a small and intimate society like New Zealand this can make it difficult for governments to reach the best decisions on critical issues.

There is no intrinsic wrong in groups promoting their vested interests when issues of public policy are being considered, provided those interests are clearly identified. However, we are often too polite a society to do so. And so, the vested interests become – by default – a more significant part of the story than they deserve to be.

Cam Slater: Labour, Where 58% Failure Is Fine by Them

Labour and the teachers’ unions are angry and upset because they don’t like the Government’s numbers on the number of kids failing at mathematics, preferring their numbers which still show 58% of year-eight kids are failing.

You have really got to laugh at the effrontery of Labour. They are ‘angry’ that the government is moving to change the mathematics curriculum because: