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  • Should the Reserve Bank target unemployment as well as inflation? Will the new government abolish the dual mandate?

    nonaBack in 1989 – near the end of the fourth Labour government – the inflation-busting Reserve Bank Act was passed. Labour has shifted well away from the Rogernomics of that decade, and in 2021 Grant Robertson added maximum sustainable employment to the bank’s mandate - with the support of coalition partner NZ First.

    Read more: Should the Reserve Bank target unemployment as well as inflation? Will the new government abolish...

  • The next three years – the job ahead for Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori

    The Fabians had a session on Nov 14th reflecting on the elections. Our panel of Simon Wilson, Senior Writer at NZ Herald, Bridie Witton, Stuff Press Gallery Reporter and Ollie Neas, freelance writer used the election results as a springboard to target some of the key issues for Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori as they head into opposition.

    Coverage can be found here

  • Rob Campbell on Pae Ora Health Reforms

    Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Pae Ora health reforms with you.

    Since I was sacked by the Health Minister I have taken time to reflect on the experience and to make a considered assessment of what I learned in the process. My intention tonight is to share that with you, making the assumption that we share common ground in wanting to have an effective, efficient, excellent and equitable public health service.

    If anyone does not want that, I don’t really have anything useful to share with you.

    Read more: Rob Campbell on Pae Ora Health Reforms

  • Interview transcript: Ambassador Wang Xiaolong with NZ Fabian Society

    Hello, my name is Mike Smith, from the New Zealand Fabian Society. It's my great pleasure today to interview Ambassador Wang Xiaolong from the People's Republic of China to talk with us about China's values. I heard Ambassador Wang speak at a meeting convened by the Institute of International RelationsNZIIA last year and in the course of that meeting, he addressed the question of China's values and said, "China's choice for values, social system and path to modernity is made by our own people, based on our own history, culture and realities. All these choices have proven to be suitable and effective to solve China's problems and meet the needs of the Chinese people".

    Read more: Interview transcript: Ambassador Wang Xiaolong with NZ Fabian Society

On Tuesday 16th April in Wellington Dr Geoff Bertram presented a very interesting paper on "Asset Values and Regulation." He argues that during the last decade "excess monopoly profits grabbed by deregulated electricity networks, gas pipeline owners, airports, and ports were crystallised as revaluations of their fixed assets."

He explains his conclusion in some detail, including the various models used to establish asset value in the corporatisation and sale of the assets led to capture of excess profits. Discussing regulation of natural monopoly providing an essential service, he argues the regulator's first task is to set a value for the Regulatory Asset Base, on which prices can be set. He discusses the options and the history, and the implications for consumer prices. He demonstrates the sharp rise in gentailer asset value and concludes that as of 2012 the revaluations totalled over $10 billion, which is not justified by competitive edge or special advantages, but is entirely due to the ability to capitalise excess profits secured from price-gouging, mainly of residential but also small industrial and commercial customers.

Two other presentations from Dr Bertram cover some of the same issues and can be found under his name in the resources section of the website.

An earlier presentation by Peter Harris, Dick Werry and Jim Turner examined the difference in costs over a ten-year period between the water and electricity networks in the Wellington region. The water network remained in public hands and the electricity network was privatised. The costs of the water network rose 17% over the ten years 1999-2010; the costs of the electricity network rose 295%! The authors conclude the electricity rise was largely to service the grossly inflated capital value.

These presentations are all available in the Resources section of the website.