News Worthy - 20 April 2007 - No. 106
new-zealand-national-party
Fri Apr 20 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
News Worthy - 20 April 2007 - No. 106
Friday, 20 April 2007, 10:41 am
Column: New Zealand National Party
News Worthy
20 April 2007 - No. 106
A coherent economic agenda
The Government waxes eloquently on its plan of "economic transformation". That phrase in New Zealand political terms has its origin in comments by the Prime Minister at the start of the present Parliamentary term.
On Wednesday "the Independent Financial Review" published comment to the effect that business was in despair of the inability of both major parties to provide the policies needed to deliver to New Zealand a coherent economic agenda.
Not so for National. A very substantial programme is underway to present to the public an agenda for economic development that will produce significant measurable gains.
Simply by way of example in the last five days the Caucus Economic Development Team has been to the following places:
* Auckland
* Napier
* Hamilton
* Wellington
* Christchurch
Those visits have focused on Economic Development agencies, successful exporters, regional and territorial authorities, incubators and startups, tertiary institutes and a commercialisation of research seminar.
Meanwhile we await the much leaked budget announcements of 17 May which rather than provide economic transformation will lead to gaming of the system.
NZ Phones Among Most Expensive In OECD
A report just released by the Commerce Commission shows telephone services in New Zealand are among the most expensive in the OECD.
The Commission has used a model developed by the OECD which has a series of standard "consumption baskets" reflecting different telecommunications end-user profiles.
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The statistics show that generally New Zealand telephone services are among the top five most expensive in the OECD.
One of the benchmarks established by the Commission shows there were 640,000 broadband connections as at 31 December 2006. Of fixed line broadband connections, Telecom held the lion's share directly at 76 percent but many of the remaining connections came from Telecom wholesaling the service to another retailer.
Housing New Zealand Lets Tenant Debt Soar
Regional breakdowns of the debts owed by tenants to Housing New Zealand, including money owed for back rent, and money owed for damage and vandalism have just been released.
Nationwide, total debt (back rent and damage) is up from $3.65 million at end of last financial year to $4.37 million today.
That's a 20% increase in eight months.
In Auckland the total debt is up 8% to $2.5 million, in Christchurch it's up 15% and in Wellington it's up by 25% to $760,000.
Fifteen per cent of Housing NZ tenants are in debt to their landlord. Of those 9,514 in debt, 6,311 are on a repayment scheme.
With more than 11,000 families on the waiting list, tenants who deliberately damage taxpayer-owned state houses should not be expected to enjoy the privilege of state housing.
Failed New Year's resolutions The NZ Institute of Economic Research in its March update published an interesting article on failed New Year's resolutions.
Included in the article was comment to the effect that in 2006 New Zealanders were surveyed on their favourite New year's resolution. The survey conducted by research company AC Nielsen found that 37% of New Zealanders were making New Year's resolutions. Among those making resolutions, 71% planned to exercise more, 49% wanted to achieve a better work/life balance, 29% to spend more time with family.
So exercising more is by far the favourite New Year's resolution in New Zealand (higher than the global average of 62% and the seventh highest in the world), and gyms are never as full as they are in mid-January. But, as the year progresses, do the good intentions and resolutions last? Dr Carolyn Mills, a US psychologist now working in New Zealand says that exercising more is also among the top failed resolutions.
Political Quote of the Week
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you
plant." Robert Louis Stevenson - writer
ENDS
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