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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

Nicky Hager to give this year’s

Bruce Jesson Lecture

This year’s Bruce Jesson Lecture will focus on New Zealand’s need for investigative journalism – by someone once described as “New Zealand’s leading investigative journalist”.

Nicky Hager, who will present the lecture at Auckland University on 31 October, has been a fulltime writer for more than 20 years and is the sole New Zealand member of the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

His first book, Secret Power (1996), exposed New Zealand’s role in the international surveillance network Echelon.

Seeds of Distrust, on how Helen Clark’s Government covered up the contamination of corn crops by genetically modified seeds, created a political storm when it came out just before the 2002 election.

The Hollow Men (2006), detailing thousands of internal emails and meetings in the National Party before the 2005 election, precipitated Don Brash’s resignation as National leader. 

His latest book, Other People’s Wars (2011), uses leaked military and intelligence documents and interviews with key players to reveal the true extent of New Zealand’s involvement in the US-led “War on Terror”.

Hager’s Jesson lecture, “Investigative journalism in the age of media meltdown: from National Party Headquarters to Afghanistan”, will look at “why New Zealand needs investigative journalism, how it is done, and what it will take to have more of it”.

“I am keen to use the opportunity of this lecture to talk widely about the state of politics in New Zealand today, bringing together ideas that have been underlying and running through what I've been writing about New Zealand and politics for years,” he says.

“My belief is that we don't talk enough about why things are like they are and a Bruce Jesson lecture is an ideal opportunity for this.”

“I will then look at the role and potential of investigative journalism, in the context of considering what is needed to improve politics in this country.” 

The annual Bruce Jesson Lecture is organised by the Bruce Jesson Foundation in memory of Bruce Jesson (1944-99), another great investigative journalist who, like Hager, worked mainly as an independent writer without any regular wage or salary for most of his life.

The lecture will be at Auckland University’s Maidment Theatre at 6.30pm on Wednesday 31 October. Admission by donation, bar open from 5.30pm. More details: www.brucejesson.com