Transtasman Political Letter – 27 April Digest

27th April 2006

David Parker rises like a Phoenix from the ashes
... The nation ponders what will be in a crucial budget
... Did NZ and Australia go into the Solomons again without any road map on the future?
... Phil Goff got a warm welcome from Donald Rumsfeld in Washington: isn’t that a mixed blessing these days?
... And the Reserve Bank ponders whether a soaring petrol price is inflationary or just a de facto fiscal tightening.

Out Of The Sin-Bin: Parker Looks For Fresh Start

David Parker, sin-binned last month on accusations he had knowingly filed false company returns, has been cleared of wrong-doing, and the referee, in this case the PM, is waving him back on to the field.

Budget To Come: Boring Or Positive?

The nation is in a slightly querulous mood: more than half of Wellington region businesses expect the economy to get worse in the next six months, according to one survey and in the National Bank’s survey a net 32% of respondents expect business conditions to deteriorate over the coming year (though this was an improvement on the previous survey).

Stability Returns, But Solomons Road Map Is Needed

NZ’s armed forces are heavily stretched by the latest deployment to the Solomons. On top of this there is the prospect of a call for assistance from East Timor.

Washington Talk Fest Fails To Impress

The principle conclusion drawn by key players on either side of the US-NZ brain storming session in Washington DC, is it produced no concrete immediate results but did contribute to a better understanding among the leading players.

CAPITAL TALK

Heather Roy is to be in the army for six weeks, and Rodney Hide is learning to trip the light fantastic. This means the entire ACT Caucus is under training and MPs are wondering how effective it’s going to be when Parliament’s new session starts on Tuesday

Play Of The Week: The Plot? I Had It Here A Minute Ago...

Weird scenes. Weird weird scenes in the becalmed world of the nation’s capital. ACT’s two MPs do a reversal of traditional roles – the male one goes dancing, the female one joins the army.

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