Continued fiscal stimulus in an overheated economy directly undermined the Reserve Bank\u2019s efforts to control prices. The cost-of-living crisis was not simply imported; it was amplified at home.<\/p>\n
Monetary policy failures compounded the damage. The large-scale asset purchase programme and delayed Official Cash Rate tightening overstimulated the economy, inflated asset prices, then reversed abruptly. These failures are no longer disputed \u2013 the Reserve Bank itself has acknowledged governance and judgment errors.<\/p>\n
Despite record public spending, productivity growth flatlined. OECD and Treasury data showed New Zealand was falling further behind comparable economies. Long-term living standards depend on productivity, yet Labour left office with weaker fundamentals than it inherited.<\/p>\n
Business confidence remained persistently low, reflecting regulatory uncertainty, tax-signalling and the absence of a coherent private-sector growth strategy. <\/p>\n
Infrastructure spending surged, but Auditor-General reports documented delays, cost overruns and cancellations, with little to show for the billions allocated.<\/p>\n
The issue is not whether Labour faced global shocks \u2013 it did. The issue is why those documented domestic policy failures are so often omitted from the analysis.<\/p>\n
Mark Young, Northcote Point.<\/p>\n
Time to stand alone?<\/p>\n
An excellent piece by Bruce Cotterill on Saturday. It is time for us to stand alone and forget the idea that the US would come to our aid if we needed it. The US would never have done this, ever, unless it suited it.<\/p>\n
The US certainly doesn\u2019t care about us now, because we have nothing it regards as important \u2013 so let\u2019s just get on with it and endeavour to be \u201cfriends\u201d with all countries.<\/p>\n
You never know, it may work! New Zealand has some of the best diplomats in the world \u2013 so use them to secure our place in the world.<\/p>\n
Marg Jack, Royal Oak.<\/p>\n
Another loss to NZ Rugby<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby is getting hammered from all directions.<\/p>\n
The loss of Sir Wayne Smith overseas is a terrible blow that New Zealand can\u2019t afford in the present climate.<\/p>\n
New Zealand is losing rugby talent left right and centre. The main culprit is Aussie rugby league, whose talent scouts are signing up young players while they are still at school by promising them a bright future.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be honest: the game of rugby league appeals to our young Pasifika youth, as it is fast-moving and non-stop.<\/p>\n
New Zealand is the main supplier of players and coaches to the world and they are passing on our knowledge to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
The almighty dollar is killing us as we haven\u2019t got the financial resources to retain all the fringe players. Just look at the money Japanese rugby can throw around.<\/p>\n
The future is looking bleak.<\/p>\n
Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure issues<\/p>\n
Once again, weather events have exposed our infrastructure weaknesses. In the 20th century, our technological expertise was far inferior to other world infrastructure that has functioned for thousands of years without crumbling. As with this recent event: running our roads in a gorge is just not practical.<\/p>\n
The Manawat\u016b gorge repair is a recent example. The fix is outstanding. <\/p>\n
Infrastructure upgrades through to the next millennium need to be designed with a 100-year lifespan, and beyond, and be at the forefront of road design.<\/p>\n
John Ford, Taradale.<\/p>\n
Name suppression<\/p>\n
Seeing that yet another \u201cprominent businessman\u201d has gained name suppression after being found guilty of possessing images of child abuse, I wonder how much longer your courts will allow prominent sportsmen and businessmen (never women) to avoid the consequences of their crimes?<\/p>\n
Such people should be named and put on the sex offenders\u2019 register, if only to protect other women and children. Or does the Kiwi judicial system not regard them as worthy of protection?<\/p>\n
Ian Pashby, Montsenelle, France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Continued fiscal stimulus in an overheated economy directly undermined the Reserve Bank\u2019s efforts to control prices. The cost-of-living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7800,10668,49738,1437,6721,29546,111,43,139,69,72231,33398],"class_list":["post-251297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-body","tag-economic","tag-evidence","tag-global","tag-labour","tag-letters","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shocks","tag-worsened"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}