Alert readers may have noticed an apparent contradiction in my last two columns on ‘carbon-footprints’. The first column opened with: “Government has floated a proposal that all buildings be assessed for their carbon footprint before issuing a building consent. This...
Owen McShane
Irresistible Forces Meet an Immovable Object?
Government has floated a proposal that all buildings be assessed for their carbon footprint before issuing a building consent. This is yet another half-baked scheme which will make housing even less affordable without delivering any measurable benefit. No one knows...
The Good News
Smart Growth has always been a policy in search of justification. It started out as a means of pricing blacks and Hispanics out of white enclaves in the US. It worked then, and still does, but proved “inappropriate”. Then Smart Growthwould “save” productive rural land...
Does Auckland have a Death Wish?
The Grinding Costs of Kyoto A group of us working on a paper will attempt to assess the present costs of our Kyoto commitments and from that work out what New Zealanders are being asked to accept as the “cost of carbon”. Most people talk of carbon costs of $5 – $40...
Featured News
How to Turn Free Citizens Into Compliant Serfs
Free citizens have minds of their own and want to pursue their lives as they see fit. This is inconvenient for the elites, who wish to be in charge of everyone’s lives so that they can show their superiority and gain benefit for themselves and their friends. So the...
Demographia International Housing Affordability – 2023 Edition Released
Demographia International Housing Affordability rates middle-income housing affordability in 94 major housing markets in eight nations: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. This edition covers the third...
Halle-Neustadt – the “Sustainable City”
A chilling look at the “sustainable city” Halle-Neustadt, is a bedroom community built between 1964 and 1990 for about 100,000 people on the outskirts of the manufacturing city of Halle, in East Germany.
Select Committee to consider Housing Affordability
Commerce Select Committee to hold an enquiry into Housing Affordability
Alternatives to Smart Growth
In recent times we need to ask why Smart Growth carried the day for so long
The New Zealand Resource Management Act
For many centuries, the Anglo-American tradition has emphasized the fiduciary duty of all those who manage other people’s assets and affairs, such as trustees and directors. This fiduciary duty imposes a higher duty of care on such people, than on the ordinary person....
Climate Change Contradictions and Inconsistencies
Few people realize the conflict of interests held by the prominent proponents of man-made climate change.
Yes – We Will Feel Better if We are Taxed More. It’s True!
We all feel bad. We all feel sad. We all have those “need-to-be-taxed-more” blues. This is the remarkable conclusion being drawn from British economist Richard Layard’s recent book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. We are being told that although wealth has...
Living with Proportional Voting
New Zealand reformed its electoral system, and wishes it hadn’t.
Learn to Love Peak Oil
Owen McShane shows how markets will deal with the panic of “peak oil”
Why it’s Bad Luck to be a Lucky Country
Australia is “the lucky country”. Mineral rich Australians bask in the glow of their God-given place in the sun. Whenever the Australian economy has been in deep strife with a dreadful current account and a collapsing currency.