Forum Archive Index - October 2000

["Ian Andrews" <iandrews@ihug.co.nz>]

When I saw the 'photo of the crowds mobbing the Belgrade Parliament, for a moment I got my hopes up that it may be the Beehive.  Alas, not...

We can't blame the messenger, no matter how outrageously paid. Brash is only telling us that we have become grossly inefficient - inflation is simply the measure of inefficiency in a country's economy.

MMP seems to me to be the proximate cause, allowing into Parliament & decision-making dozens of people of all political descriptions, for whom efficiency is a meaningless concept.The rot has only accelerated this year.

60 MP's now only have to convince party bosses they will toe the line - they don't need to convince any voters they are in touch with reality.

The outcome of MMP has been an explosion in the size of the public sector - to such an extent that the transfer of resources to Wellington in the last 2 1/2 years has been sufficient to fuel a property boom there while the rest of the country languishes.

Yes, I know efficiency isn't everything, but it isn't nothing either...