Geoffrey Miller

New Zealand geopolitical analyst & Arabic/Russian learner

Category: Politics

Politics

Did Douglas give the speech?

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] It has a partisan interest in claiming this, but Labour-aligned blog The Standard says that Sir Roger Douglas didn’t deliver the speech that was put out in his name, because it had been released early by mistake. According to the post, the Herald report on which I also based my own write-up was written only from Douglas’s published remarks and a reporter did not attend the speech. In the scheme of things, the slip-up doesn’t really matter much. But if true, it does reflect somewhat poorly on the Herald as the report should have made this clear, especially...

Politics

Douglas’s Orewa speech

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Having been selected by Don Brash as the “greatest living New Zealander”, Sir Roger Douglas has made his way to the former’s favoured speaker’s corner: the Orewa Rotary Club. He brought with him a “new” tax plan – essentially yet another reworking of the ideas which have circulated since the publication of Unfinished Business in 1993. Reading the report in today’s New Zealand Herald, under the new plan, the first $30,000 of income would be “tax free” in return for paying for one’s own health insurance, retirement and welfare costs. Above the $30,000, a flat tax rate of...

Politics

I hate quoting myself but…

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] After a hectic campaign year in the blogosphere, your correspondent has been busy with other things and is still on a break from regular blogging. In the meantime, I urge you to enjoy the excellent series of posts on ACT’s early history by Dr. Bryce Edwards and indeed other posts on his academically-focused blog, Liberation. I have particularly enjoyed his work on New Zealand First. In a recent post, Dr. Edwards takes a look at the party’s future with the help of a Herald on Sunday article, for which he was interviewed. While this may seem beyond the...

Politics

Back in 2009…

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] It may seem like this blog is dead, but no, it’s just on holiday while politics takes its summer lull. I will be back next year with commentary in some form, albeit at probably a less frenetic pace than this campaign year. A belated Merry Christmas and a punctual Happy New Year to all Douglas to Dancing readers. ~ Geoffrey

Politics

Ultimus inter pares – part II

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Reviews, committees, discussions, aims, aspirations, considerations, concepts, Commissions, working groups, taskforces, briefings, advisory groups… Perhaps you shouldn’t expect too much from an agreement that was patched together in a week. Attention to detail was obviously not a priority for an agreement which thought the formal name for ACT was “The ACT Party” (to be fair, this is listed as an acceptable abbreviation by the Electoral Commission, but the full name is ACT New Zealand). Well, we didn’t get too much. The document reads more like a set of aims for students sitting an NCEA Level 1 exam than...

Politics

Ultimus inter pares – part I

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Minister of Local Government Minister of Regulatory Reform Associate Minister of Commerce + Minister of Consumer Affairs Associate Minister of Defence Associate Minister of Education + Reviews, committees, discussions, aims, aspirations, considerations, concepts, Commissions, working groups, taskforces, briefings – Roger Douglas = A great deal for the National Party. Over the past week ACT has been successfully cornered by a cunning John Key. Overtly, Key has told New Zealand that the reason he wanted to draw in the Maori Party and United Future – even though their participation is technically unnecessary – is to build an “inclusive” government....

Politics

Consumer Affairs for Heather Roy

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Courtesy of the Dominion-Post, we learn that ACT’s deputy leader Heather Roy will be made Minister of Consumer Affairs. The paper asked Consumers’ Insitute head Sue Chetwin for comment and as she used to be a journalist and editor of both major Sunday papers, her insights are certainly worth noting: ACT itself is not strong on consumer issues in terms of country-of-origin labelling and some of the things we’re interested in. But regulations around financial advisers and a lot of that stuff that’s happening now, I think she’d be very good. Chetwin’s view is a balanced one. To...

Politics

Coalition agreements

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] ACT will not be going into formal coalition with National. This is because ACT does not want to risk losing its independence from National and wants to be able to vote against the many aspects of National policy with which it disagrees. Instead, it will gain one or ministers outside Cabinet and negotiate some policy compromises with the National Party. The near-absence of formal coalition agreements from New Zealand politics now seems to have become cemented. The 2005-2008 Progressive Party-Labour coalition may have been the last we will see. But why not have a formal coalition agreement? Germany,...

Politics

Commerce portfolio for Hide?

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] Dene Mackenzie suggests in today’s ODT that Rodney Hide may be made Minister of Commerce to conduct a review of legislation: Mr Hide could become commerce minister, responsible for a review of regulation. He will not be given law and order or energy given Act’s “three strikes and you are out” policy and his call to dump the “dopey emissions trading scam [scheme]”. This could also mean that ACT gets its Regulatory Responsibility Bill passed as one of its contributions to the new government. The Herald reports that ACT is still keen to find a role for Douglas....

Politics

The new world

[text-blocks id=”act-party”] In just four days we gained a US President-elect and an NZ Prime Minister-elect. If Phil Goff succeeds Helen Clark as Labour leader as expected, for the first time since 1993 both of New Zealand’s main parties will be headed by men. And Sir Roger Douglas is back in Parliament. Welcome to the new world. First, let me offer congratulations to ACT for an impressive comeback. And congratulations to the 10 people who correctly predicted in this site’s poll about a month ago that the party would gain a result in the 3-4% band. While ACT’s number of...

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