Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Rain still falling in hard-hit Napier, Covid-19 vaccine news comes with a catch, and government’s books in a better shape than expected. It’s still raining heavily in Napier, and the flooding damage has got worse in the last 24 hours. As Stuff reports, hundreds of houses experienced a … Read more
The government’s extraordinary measures to halt Covid-19 and support the economy have had extraordinary public support. Tony Burton argues that the hard choices about who pays for it will be far less popular. I have lived with a skeleton since the lockdown. It’s white and shiny and takes up half the space in my living … Read more
A range of scenarios has been released by Treasury, modelling the potential impact of Covid-19 on the economy. How bad could the damage be? Here’s a cheat sheet. What is the starting point for these scenarios? Treasury has looked at several different scenarios for how lockdown measures to fight Covid-19 will affect the economy, and … Read more
A monument to Winston Peters and Think Big projects would both boost the economy, but Argentina learned the hard way they can also impoverish a nation, writes Tony Burton. Everyone who loves New Zealand should visit Argentina. There are more similarities than you might think – large areas of wild natural beauty combined with agricultural … Read more
When random attacks are only a moment’s inattention away, government officials learn to watch their step when committing anything to the written record, writes Tony Burton. My guess is that even those who follow politics will struggle to remember the kerfuffle when a 2011 Official Information Act (OIA) request found an email ‘from Treasury’ that … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Makhlouf departs with questions hanging in the air, emissions still not moving the right way, and ministerial roles in housing reshuffled. A few months ago, you’d probably be forgiven for not knowing the name Gabriel Makhlouf. Until yesterday, he was the secretary of Treasury – an … Read more
Public service chief executives are now more interested in making their mark than providing government ministers with decent advice – and it’s having disastrous consequences, a former senior Treasury official writes. Sometimes on a Tuesday morning you may hear a low, vaguely rhythmic rumble coming from a Treasury meeting room. A handful of its middle-aged … Read more
Just because Budget 2019 was technically accessible doesn’t mean it was legally fair game for National, writes AUT law professor Kris Gledhill. It is, of course, still theft if there is inadequate security in the shop to guard against shoplifters; or if someone takes something from a roadside stall with an honesty box and doesn’t put … Read more
What is a beltway issue? In the Treasury data breach story, as so often, it seems to be a byword for ‘a political event which is embarrassing for the party that I like’, writes Danyl Mclauchlan Since last week’s release of the budget and the subsequent media feeding frenzy about the so-called Treasury hack – … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Recommended changes to dairy industry finally announced, signs of life in teacher negotiations, and flu vaccines are running short. Yesterday was a mixed day for Fonterra, with the government announcing significant changes to dairy regulation will be introduced. Farmers Weekly reports the dairy cooperative, which takes about 80% … Read more
Treasury has been haemorrhaging talented economists for years and the budget leaks were just the tip of the iceberg for a department in crisis, writes Eric Crampton of The New Zealand Initiative. If the Canterbury earthquakes taught us anything, it’s that the immediate response to a disaster is a very different thing from the rebuilding that … Read more
The process by which information from the Treasury website was extracted has been the subject of much speculation, and a lot of confusion, writes Alexander Stronach in a post that has exploded since originally being published at The Understatesman The Treasury data breach has been a shitshow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bigger disconnect between … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. Eid Mubarak to all. In today’s edition: Digital services tax takes shape, Corrections makes unexpected money out of prison canteens, and infant formula industry takes hit on China moves. We’re getting a much better idea of what the digital services tax is going to look like, after the release … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Govt gives and takes with first Wellbeing Budget, Treasury Secretary under immense pressure, and dozens of kākāpō sick from fungus. The question was asked in yesterday’s Bulletin – what does this government value enough to put real money towards? In the end, the Budget that was delivered wasn’t … Read more
Grant Robertson should apologise, and the Treasury secretary should offer his resignation, writes Danyl Mclauchlan Information Technology, or IT is not an ancient discipline, like politics or the law, but it has its own traditions and the most hallowed tradition of all, held sacred by engineers and other technical specialists the world over is to … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: What to watch for on Budget day, education minister gets brutal heckling from teachers, and Wellington mayor throws support behind trackless trams. “Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” So goes the quote often attributed to former … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Treasury calls in police after claims their system was hacked, protesters against coal get mayoral support, and massive teacher strike today. Last night, political journalism twitter was nothing but a steady stream of shocked emojis. And the reason for that was a series of dramatic developments in … Read more
Good morning, and welcome back to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: More revealed on funding cuts disability advocates say are happening by stealth, dire warnings in environment report, and could National go for Māori seat? More light has emerged on a rumoured squeeze on funding for the disability sector.It comes from documents revealed to the NZ Herald, … Read more