Gary Judd KC: Inflation - the struggle for simplicity

Why the Reserve Bank must distinguish monetary inflation from supply shocks

This morning I heard Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Bridges describing the dire state of the Auckland economy. He put part of the blame on the Reserve Bank’s signal that interest rates may need to rise in response to increasing prices. His point was that the immediate cause of the latest price pressure was not excessive domestic demand, but a spike in fuel prices caused by disruption to Middle East oil supplies.

Dan Brunskill: The Coalition Government promises an economic growth plan within weeks.....

The Coalition Government promises an economic growth plan within weeks, but can it deliver results?

It is awkward for a Government, elected to get the economy back on track, to have spent its first full year in office watching output shrink almost $2 billion in inflation adjusted prices.

2024 was a year of recession by any definition of the word, although a more useful definition would show the New Zealand economy has been in a recession since September 2022.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Bridges Burned - Former Minister's need for speed exposed

In a shocking turn of events that has rocked the nation to its core, it has been revealed that Simon Bridges, the former minister and newly appointed chairman of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), received a speeding ticket in 2018.

This earth-shattering news has sent shockwaves through the country, leaving citizens wondering whether the very fabric of our society is falling apart.

Capitalist: Sometimes You Have to Face Reality

Recently I celebrated my birthday; a certain milestone was reached and, despite my aversion to ever spending money if it can be avoided, decided to splash out and host a party attended by various lifelong friends.

Eliora: Never Too Late to Say, ‘Thank You’

Simon Bridges was right over the target, but the majority preferred Ardern’s tyrannical reign.

Bridges’ post on social media garnered 18,000 reactions online: 3,000 likes, and almost 15,000 reacting with either laughter or anger emoticons as of the morning of 22 April 2020. They weren’t just Labour supporters. Surprisingly, some indicated they were National Party supporters and praised Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s kind leadership during a period of uncertainty.

Hang on a minute. Surely National people would have stuck up for their leader. He had a responsibility in a democracy to hold the Ardern Government to account when she began to make extreme decisions that had huge ramifications for everybody. Ardern’s heavy-handed rules had never before been imposed on Kiwis living in the country or abroad.

Mike Hosking: New Zealand's tall poppy syndrome as worse as ever

Depressing, and yet encouraging as well.

Lani Fogelberg, a young entrepreneur, serves it up the way it is in the Herald on Saturday. It's a must-read, if you missed it.

Depressing because it’s a realistic take on the country as it currently sits. But encouraging because we are seeing, at long last, an increasing series of people speak out on the way we are being led and why we are where we are.

Fogelberg talks of the celebration of the Lotto winner and yet the dissection of the person who grafted for their two million but is suddenly a tall poppy. Free money is good, money worked for is to be taxed and you are to be brought down.

Bryce Edwards: How long until National wants Simon Bridges back?

Could it be a case of not appreciating what you’ve got until it’s gone? The National Party lost Simon Bridges last week, which has reinforced the notion that the party still has some serious deficits of talent and diversity.

The major factor in Bridges’ decision to leave was his failed bid to regain the party leadership. He was rolled as leader in 2020, and in 2021 he was again rebuffed by his colleagues, in favour of Christopher Luxon. Yet Bridges will be missed, and it’s an understatement to say that National is the poorer for losing him.

He was a talented leader – possibly their best out of the last four or five. He was also an incredibly valuable frontbench politician for the party. Without him there, the chances of National winning power in 2023 have been reduced.

Ani O'Brien: Time to end decades of continuity

This week Simon Bridges walked away from politics - well from the parliamentary kind anyway. He will, in my opinion, be the one who got away. The one with all the makings of an excellent Prime Minister, but for whom luck was simply not on his side.

The chaos of the Muller coup that dethroned Bridges from National Party leadership, despite the party polling higher than the Government, is ultimately responsible for depriving New Zealand of an intelligent Māori Prime Minister who saw power as the means to achieve his vision for a better New Zealand rather than power for power’s sake.

In his valedictory speech this week, Simon Bridges sent a clear message to the colleagues he leaves behind:

"You were elected for your values, principles, character, and judgments, and to be bold in pursuit of them."

Karl du Fresne: Simon Bridges' parting shot at the press gallery

I’ve never known quite what to make of Simon Bridges; he always struck me as a bit of a political shape-shifter. But I was pleased that he gave political reporters a serve in his valedictory.

In comments addressed to the press gallery, but which you may not see reported, Bridges said:

I love you all, and Claire Trevett [New Zealand Herald] you're my favourite, although your story this last weekend certainly tested that favouritism. But I do despair how narrow the viewpoints are here, as opposed to in the UK, the United States, and even Australia. More viewpoints are tolerated, actually encouraged, in their deeper media environments. Our press gallery can hunt as a pack — OK, then there's Barry [Soper] — but basically, as a pack. And I say to you, if every one of you has the same basic position on a complex matter, you are probably all engaged in group thinking, quite probably wrong. Go spend some time in the provinces or one of our bigger cities that's not this one to recalibrate, and get a fresh view.

And then this: While I'm on my friends in the press gallery, your most important job is to hold the powerful to account, and let me give you a clue: it's the Government that has the power.

Clive Bibby: Where to from here?

The latest nationwide political poll is beginning to show what we here in the provinces have known for some time - the tide is going out for Jacinda and her mob of sycophantic ‘partners in crime’. And it is unlikely that this trend will be arrested in time to save their precious necks at the next election.

All good news for those of us who have been demonised for having the temerity to speak out against what has been the most radical reformist government since the first years of Michael Joseph Savage’s transformational Labour Government in the 1930s.

That fact that the governments who have occupied the treasury benches in the 80 plus intervening years have all made some attempt to govern in the best interests of the majority (with varying degrees of success) and generally been rewarded for doing so, suggests that kiwis are a tolerant lot who tend to forgive minor indiscretions - but there are limits.

It has always been and, thank God, always will be about Trust.

Kate Hawkesby: Surprising to see Simon Bridges leave politics

 

I must admit I haven’t actually read his book, but I am reliably informed that Simon Bridges said in it that he was staying in politics despite getting dumped as leader, to fight the good fight.  

Hence his announcement that he’s now quitting parliament, surprised me. Why now? Surely with a government on the ropes, a promising new opposition leader and potentially a bright future as a senior player within the National Party, there was good reason to stay. 

But I guess he worked out that long term, any return to leadership is now out. 

He says there’s no precipitating reason, that he just felt it was time. 

Bryce Edwards: Behind Simon Bridges’ shock departure, and what comes next

Last week’s shock 1News opinion poll was the final indication, if Bridges needed it, that his chances of eventually taking back the leadership and becoming PM were slim to none. Any feeling that it was worth waiting around to see if Luxon might stumble over the next couple of years could be put to bed.

Bridges says he had been thinking of departing for some time, beginning with the coup against him prior to the 2020 election, when Todd Muller was installed with the help of Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis.

Despite that setback, Bridges managed to stay energised and clearly wanted to regain the top position. After all, prior to Covid hitting, National was on 46 per cent in the polls in an election year and he had been on track to become New Zealand’s first Māori prime minister.

Point of Order: Poll-jumpy ministers are stung by Luxon’s tax-cut speech but can’t cover up the pressures of rising costs

National Party leader Christopher Luxon came under attack from his political opponents this week — and from some elements in the mainstream media — for proposing tax cuts to ease the pressure of what he dubbed a “cost-of-living-crisis”.

Luxon outlined his plan in his state-of-the-nation address on Sunday.

The speech might not have made an impact with the public as sharp as he would have liked, but it clearly hit a tender spot in the government. Both PM Jacinda Ardern and her deputy, Grant Robertson, came armed to Parliament on Tuesday to demolish the Luxon case.

Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup - Simon Bridges and National go populist

Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? 

Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the National Party leaders’ political positioning and tactics in recent months that suggests he’s decided to go down a more rightwing-populist path in the search for power. 

Bob Edlin: What Bridges can learn from Australia

Just  as  Australians  are  absorbing the   lessons  of  Scott Morrison’s  “miraculous” return from the electoral dead, New  Zealanders  are  being told by  a prominent   Wellington  economist  Ganesh Nana  he  fears  the   Ardern government  is  about  to  back down  from “meaningful economic  reform”.

Yet across  the Tasman   it  was  the  “ambitious”   economic reforms proposed   by   Federal  Labor  leader  Bill  Shorten   which delivered the crushing  blow   of   losing  what the pundits   called the  “unloseable” election.

Labour  in   NZ   is  probably   congratulating  itself  that  it  has   dropped  a  broad  capital   gains tax   not  just  from  its current  programme  but  for the future.For it  is clear  many  Australian  voters  rejected   Shorten’s  plan for  a   giant  tax grab across  the   economic spectrum   and  allowed   Scott Morrison to  play  mercilessly  the  line  “the  Bill  you  can’t  afford”.

Mike Butler: Tribute to language petitioner

When Tauranga woman Robin Bishop heard, about two years ago, that English had no official status, she contacted Tauranga MP Simon Bridges, who confirmed that to be true.

She found that its status is based on the fact that most people customarily speak it. The Maori language was declared official in 1987, and sign language in 2006.