Guest Author • Jun 02, 2021 •
Nicola Gaston, University of Auckland New Zealand’s government has been praised for listening to scientists as it continues to pursue its COVID-19 elimination strategy. But it’s difficult to find any signs of significant investment in science in the recent budget — or in fact previous budgets. It was with a sense of déjà vu I scrolled through … Read More
Guest Author • May 08, 2020 •
Ilan Noy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington With New Zealand’s May 14 budget expected to chart the way out of the economic crisis, Finance Minister Grant Robertson should be looking to the past as well as the future. Finance ministers elsewhere are facing similar decisions, many even more constrained than New Zealand’s. But the common claim that … Read More
Guest Author • May 17, 2018 •
Grant Duncan, Massey University; Christoph Schumacher, Massey University; Martin Berka, Massey University, and Nicolette Sheridan, Massey University Finance minister Grant Robertson had to achieve two contradictory aims when he announced the budget today: correct “nine years of neglect”, especially in health and education, and also produce a surplus and pay off … Read More
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