Paul Walker • Jan 15, 2018 •
In March 2016, Chancellor George Osborne announced a ‘sugar levy’ on manufacturers of soft drinks. Intended to begin in April 2018, the plan is for a two-tier tax with one rate set for drinks containing more The IEA in London has released a short paper, The Sugar Levy: A Briefing, on … Read More
Eric Crampton • May 30, 2017 •
So Labour and National are scrapping over whether National’s increased or decreased the health budget. There’s no question that health budgets are well up since National took office, whether in per capita terms, real terms, nominal terms, or real per capita terms. Population’s up about 10% since 2008; health budgets in CPI-adjusted terms are up about 29% since 2008. So … Read More
Donal Curtin • May 28, 2017 •
The government made a decent effort in the Budget to boost the spend on infrastructure, as it showed in this graph, taken from the ‘Capital at a Glance’ document handed out yesterday as part of the Budget material. But if you thought that we will have an extra $32.5 billion worth of shiny new infrastructure in four … Read More
John Pickering • Aug 26, 2014 •
It’s World Science Week. So, where are we in the science world? One measure showing our commitment to science is our expenditure on R&D. If we compare ourselves to the other OECD countries, we see that we are right at the bottom of the pile at 1.27% of GDP and have recently been overtaken by Hungary. … Continue reading → … Read More
Public Health Expert • May 21, 2014 •
[Editor note, Blakely and Wilson: This is an invited blog by Professor Elaine Rush, in which she overviews the recent Budget from a child health perspective, and then lays out the case and evidence for Project Energize]. Professor Elaine Rush, … Continue reading → … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • May 16, 2014 •
This week has seen budget announcements from both Australia and New Zealand and it is a story of opposites when it comes to science funding. The fabulous Keith Ng (@keith_ng) has produced a great dynamic infographic if you want to see where New Zealand is going to be spending it’s money and how this … Read More
John Pickering • May 15, 2014 •
Alas, not in New Zealand, but close … our Australian counterparts in medical research appear on the face of it to have scored big in what appears otherwise to be a grim Australian budget. An AUD$20bn medical research “future fund” is to be established. This effectively means that by 2022-3 there will be twice the … Continue reading → … Read More
Peter Griffin • May 15, 2014 •
News on and reaction to Budget 2014 will be featured here this afternoon, as our Sciblogs and Science Media Centre experts and contributors offer their take on the state of the Government’s finances and its funding priorities. Follow the Storify our feed to get the latest updates in one place… Live updates on Storify below… [View the … Read More
John Pickering • Sep 30, 2013 •
Dear District Health Board Candidates Soon I and thousands like me will cast our votes to choose our District Health Boards. Given the huge budgets of DHBs and the huge potential to influence health outcomes I want more information from you than a couple of paragraphs I received with the voting packs. Below are two … Continue reading → … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 18, 2012 •
National has announced that petrol excise will increase for the coming three years. Some of my Twitter stream has been suggesting they're doing this to patch up the budget rather than to cover roading expenses. Can't it do both? The most recent year-e... Read More