Clive Bibby: Our future in the Hands of Amateurs

This column is not meant to be an attack on the integrity of those in charge of regional business - simply an attempt at drawing attention to the inadequate responses by Council to our real needs.

Here on the East Coast, we lurch from one damaging climate event to the next yet the response from Council appears to be one of an ambulance parked up at the bottom of the cliff.

Greg Clydesdale: Captured Ministers and the Government’s Economic Goals

When Helen Clark came to power, she stated that she intended to raise the New Zealand economy to the top half of OECD.  When she came to power, New Zealand was ranked 19th. Not only did we fail to advance but NZ actually went backwards.  By the time she had left, we had fallen to 22nd.  

National have come to power with similar ambitious targets, but can we have faith in the ministers and bureaucrats behind their policy?  To give you an example of the bureaucrat’s ability to deliver innovation and economic growth, I will refer to a policy from the previous government.