Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government aren't fixing our economic mess

We knew the Government books were going to be bad, but not this bad. 

No way we’re getting to the surplus we expected in 2028. That is now so far away it’s not even in Treasury’s forecast period anymore. 

It’s some time, who knows when, in the 2030's. 

Wendy Geus: Govt back down on veto roundly ignored by media

Wendy Geus: Dr Reti uncovers explosive Government backdown on Māori health veto & Andrew Little misleads the House and press gallery look the other way

On the Wednesday before Easter Dr Reti sneaked a question to Andrew Little at the end of one of his Government’s patsy questions in the House:

"Is the Māori veto still in place in the health restructure"?

Taken by surprise, Little actually answered the question but went on the attack:

"No and it never was".

At times it seems like I am the only person paying attention.

Don Brash: For how much longer will our kids stick around?

In a great many ways, New Zealand is an enormously attractive country to live in. We have a temperate climate, largely free of extremes of either heat or cold. We have magnificent mountains, and beautiful and uncrowded beaches. We produce enough food to feed ourselves many times over. In a water-short world, we have more fresh water, per person, than all but two countries in the world. We have abundant open spaces, with just five million people spread across an area larger than the United Kingdom. We have a robust democracy, with never the slightest suggestion that either the armed forces or a mob might try to overturn an election result.

But abstracting altogether from the immediate issues relating to the pandemic and the health and economic consequences of that, there are four major issues which threaten our future – five if we include climate change, but I don’t propose to discuss that given that nothing we do in New Zealand will have any measurable effect on the global climate. All of the other four issues are within our own ability to resolve if only we have the political will to do so.