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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

It is very likely that another 2008 financial crash will occur very soon, according to Dr Robert Howell. In a presentation to the Fabian Society Dr Howell outlined the evidence, including overseas experts such as Ben Bernanke, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, that the causes of the 2008 crash have not been significantly addressed. The ‘too-big-to-fail’ issue has not been dealt with. The expectation that financial institutions can privatise gains and socialise losses encourages excessive private sector risk-taking and can be ruinous for public finances. 

The financial and banking system continues to be unstable due to the accumulation of debt. Dr Howell described the evidence by such authorities as Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, that the role of private banking in money creation, and the fractional banking system, needs changing.  Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.  He is widely considered to be one of the world’s most influential writers on economics and regarded as “staggeringly well connected” within elite financial elite circles.  

Dr Howell stated that Wolf’s critique of the current economic model that underlines the international trading system demands serious attention. The cost to the funding of public services in particular is excessive. Dr Howell took as an example the cost of interest to the Auckland City Rail scheme to show that changing the privatisation of the money system could reduce interest costs by one sixth.

Dr Howell also looked at the world’s ecological footprint that is running at 150% above the capacity of the Earth to support human life. The current system is predicated on a growth economy and this cannot continue without major ecological and financial collapse.

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