Was the row about The Hobbit a historic moment in New Zealand labour relations? It certainly looks like one for anyone attempting to justify a...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: My cup freezeth over
30 Sep, 2:36pm
Suddenly, it's time for John Key's government to start putting the big political ideas away in preparation for the traditional months of inaction before...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Be careful, Gareth
24 Sep, 12:30pm
They were streaming in droves into the Christchurch Convention Centre on Wednesday night this week.
So much so, that it put me in mind of a political...
Earthquake no economic fillip
9 Sep, 7:42pm
Let’s get one thing straight. Earthquakes are not good for the economy.
There’s been some feverish talk about the damage to Christchurch being some...
Hubbard needs to distance himself
31 Aug, 6:29pm
OK, everybody take a deep breath. Underneath all the fog of commentary and arm-waving, a fairly simple thing has happened to South Canterbury Finance today.
Its...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Forget retirement, just save
24 Aug, 6:01pm
Now, the government has an economic story to tell.
By reframing as a national savings issue the sterile debates about superannuation, privatisation,...
When tight is still loose
18 Aug, 7:33pm
One of our mortgages came up for roll-over in the past couple weeks and, after a squizz around www.mortgagerates.co.nz,...
In food they trust us
16 Aug, 5:28pm
Not for the last time, Fonterra has had to deal with a food safety crisis in China. Perhaps for the first time, it has been able to deal with the story...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Is the worst over for Telecom?
5 Aug, 11:24pm
Here's a heretical thought: the great dog of the New Zealand sharemarket, Telecom, may just about be ready to sit up and bark again.
Having plumbed...
Superannuation isn't the problem, it's economic growth
28 Jul, 7:20pm
For as long as I can remember, there's been national angst over what to do about superannuation.
As a 14 or so year-old, I watched Muldoon axe the...
Brownlee's Lament
20 Jul, 7:14pm
Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee cut a lonely figure in the Bellamy’s lunchroom at Parliament this morning.
Chowing down with a couple of staffers...
Fighting over the fruits of Pohokura
14 Jul, 10:23pm
As soured corporate relationships go, it would be hard to go past the 55 year-old partnership between New Zealand-owned oil company Todd Energy and its...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Oops missed the easy targets
23 Jun, 7:00pm
What if, after years of alleged inaction against some of the country's greediest charlatans, the investment watchdogs savaged a poodle or, worse, a lovable...
Smellie Sniffs the Breeze: No free fridge
16 Jun, 7:14pm
So consumers are feeling more chipper, and might start spending again, says the latest Westpac McDermott-Miller survey of consumer confidence.
A...
One of my last predictions for a while
4 Jun, 10:22am
Been getting a few things wrong lately. The latest was a report written on Tuesday afternoon for Thursday publication, punting that NZX would win the...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: How Labour might respond
24 May, 10:32am
Remarkable in the tidal wave of approval for Bill English's second Budget is the irrelevance of the Opposition Labour Party.
Such effective Opposition...
SMELLIE BRIEFLY SNIFFS: An unusually successful Budget
21 May, 10:27am
Teflon Johnny might just have done it again.
Just when he was up to his neck in a Tuhoe cooking pot, the Prime Minister's Budget has changed the political...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Here comes the recovery
17 May, 11:21am
Remember where you heard it first. (Which I admit may not have been here). The recovery is on the way.
Economic, that is. "Texas T," if you're old...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Screw-ups past and present
10 May, 11:39am
There would be few people who could lay claim to being described in the Southland Times as "an abject figure." I am one of them.
When working as the...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: A new big stick
3 May, 10:15am
This week's announcements on securities law reform by Commerce Minister Simon Power are profound for New Zealand capital markets after years of serial...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Lest we forget
26 Apr, 12:20pm
A long time ago, a bloke called Stephen Rowe applied to be a press secretary for Jim Bolger, who was then Prime Minister.
Bolger attended the final...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Grinding on
19 Apr, 10:34am
When was the last time you bought yourself something nice?
Too long ago, according to the latest retail sales statistics.
February's retail sales...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: A simple test for Whanau Ora
12 Apr, 10:23am
Down in Christchurch, for the last 20 years, the Family Help Trust has beavered away creating one of the best early childhood intervention programmes...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Never Saw That Coming
29 Mar, 9:54am
Imagine that, mining a bit of Great Barrier. Imagine that, the Chinese owning our dairy farms.
Get over it. Imagine being Barack Obama today - praised...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: It's Only Natural
22 Mar, 11:25am
Like deluge from a dirty drain, a whole pile of news landed on the dairy sector at the end of last week.
No sooner had the Clean Streams Accord annual...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Down in the Lab
8 Mar, 9:24am
As a bouncy young Minister in 1992, Simon Upton dismembered the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and created the Crown Research Institutes,...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Intimate Disclosures
1 Mar, 1:16pm
It was a week for divulging secrets. Phil Heatley: - Basically, I have a confusing wallet. I'm not a details person. I've got really no idea which...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Rage Against the Filipino
22 Feb, 12:54pm
The most important story of last week was from Telecom.
With XT knocked again by failures, the company has lost a huge chunk of customer trust this...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Honeymoon over, game on
15 Feb, 12:37pm
If I was John Key, I'd be rarked up too with Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard raining on my parade by saying the most New Zealand could expect was "crumbs...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Foreshore, seabed ... aaagh!
8 Feb, 11:41am
Early reports from the hui of Maori and national leaders at Waitangi suggest a typically turbulent exchange, piqued this year by signs of how the John...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: The Irrelevance of Europe
21 Jan, 11:22am
It used to irk me, as a post-Rogernomics tourist in the 1980's, to fetch up in two-bit towns in France to find a gleaming and elaborate branch of the Paris...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Can John Key be a "Level 5" leader?
11 Jan, 11:47am
Coming as he does from a corporate background, it's a fair bet that Prime Minister John Key has come across more than the occasional management and leadership...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Taking our Pineapple Lumps at Copenhagen
21 Dec, 2:38pm
Watching the Copenhagen climate change summit from Wellington brings to mind the Pineapple Lumps ad where the Kiwi turns up late, hits the button, and...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Unseen Innovations
11 Dec, 4:35pm
This week, the New Zealand Institute accused New Zealanders of not caring about the country's "innovation eco-system," even though innovation is the key...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: The trouble with lists
4 Dec, 12:36pm
Back in the day as a junior press secretary for Finance Minister Roger Douglas, it was my duty, along with other beady-eyed enthusiasts, to work long nights...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: A crap deal for Maori
30 Nov, 3:57pm
Everywhere the Government is being flayed by its supporters for doing some sweetheart deal with "bloody Maoris" over the emissions trading scheme.
As...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Oil Fever Follows Excess Wind
23 Nov, 3:41pm
What an irony it would be if, after nine years of a government pushing uneconomic investment in wind power, it was followed by an equally uncommercial...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: 'Reserve Bank Unstable'
16 Nov, 1:23pm
As a cub reporter on the Manukau Courier back in 1983, it was my duty to report the monthly deliberations of the Papatoetoe City Council.
It was election...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Central planning
10 Nov, 2:16pm
When everyone from Rodney Hide to the Listener start asking "where's the plan, John?" is there something for Prime Minister John Key to worry about?
Quite...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: An inconvenient treasury
30 Oct, 4:59pm
Treasury Secretary John Whitehead looked a bit coy this week when journalists asked him whether any of the bombshells dropped in his department's latest...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Notice of Meeting
19 Oct, 2:01pm
Your trusty Wellington correspondent turned up to the Solid Energy “annual general meeting” in the Ilott Theatre at the Wellington Town Hall last week,...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Don't cry for me, Structured Finance
12 Oct, 10:11am
Of all the crocodile tears that could ever be shed, the Steve Irwin Grand-Daddies are those shed by taxpayers who push the law to screw the Revenue, and...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE - Ghosts of Thinking Big
28 Sep, 12:29pm
After a hiatus of almost 30 years, big energy is back.
Big energy and big minerals. It's tempting to call it Think Big, but that would send the wrong...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: A stinky climate deal
18 Sep, 5:51pm
No matter whether you're up or downwind of it, this week's political bargain on the Emissions Trading Scheme looks, sounds and smells like a dog.
In...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Downwind from the cowshed
14 Sep, 2:46pm
For a bunch of blokes who are meant to be rough, tough, and taciturn in a man's man sort of way, farmers come on surprisingly like a pack of sooks when...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: A new angle on the NZ economy
7 Sep, 4:40pm
Being a traditional sort, it pleased me no end to see the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research do two quite old-fashioned things last week.
Firstly,...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Our best friends, the Aussies
21 Aug, 5:27pm
New Zealanders living in Australia are so commonplace that Aussies generally only notice them to mock their vowels. This is very annoying to those Kiwis,...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Crushed by the rolling maul
17 Aug, 2:10pm
What a big week. It seems no time at all ago that bored political journalists were accusing Prime Minister John Key of running out of steam. It is now...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Trust is king
7 Aug, 5:41pm
If you're looking for detailed signs of the Key Government's emerging economic agenda, scratch beneath the surface of this week's Capital Markets Development...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Thoughts on productivity
3 Aug, 11:56am
I've got a productivity idea to add to the 50 point productivity plan for New Zealand released recently by Business New Zealand: don't waffle.
The danger...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Bill English and the Snapper card
27 Jul, 10:24am
Anyone who takes a bus in Wellington knows about Snapper cards - the little red credit card lookalikes that make a voice blurt: "Please Don't Forget to...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: A whiff of the Pyongyangs
17 Jul, 4:02pm
Things may be grim, but for a brief, double-take moment during John Key's speech on the economy this week, it looked as if the Prime Minister might see...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Where have all the farmers gone?
10 Jul, 5:39pm
It's not every Monday evening you end up watching a bloke knit for an hour.
That was my vista at the first of the Government's public consultation meetings...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE : Little Green Dollars
3 Jul, 5:22pm
One time about six years ago, while working as a PR consultant for Fonterra, I visited the Mexican headquarters of New Zealand Milk. This was not to be...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Tackling imbalances
26 Jun, 3:40pm
As if we didn't already know, the first half of 2009 is turning out to be a real stinker.
Today's...
Smellie Sniffs the Breeze: A Powerful Tangle
21 Jun, 9:34pm
Getting your head around the electricity takes about two years. That's what I found anyway.
In some ways, the power companies are very simple businesses...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: Rodney Rampant
12 Jun, 2:14pm
I once did a bit of work for a city council. They were scrambling to work out just what to put in their Long Term Community Council Plan (LTCCP) and for...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE - Burning Issues
5 Jun, 1:33pm
That unpopular phoenix, capital gains tax, was back on the agenda this week.
This time, it was John Whitehead, the Treasury Secretary, who put his...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE - The new rules of Haier purchase
1 Jun, 8:03pm
So you thought the most important thing this week in the economy was the Budget. I beg to differ.
The most important thing was the purchase by the...
Productivity, vision take back seat as English delivers debt-control budget
28 May, 5:07pm
I think I need some new pills. Last year's Budget from Labour's Michael Cullen was all about tax cuts. It looked like the Budget Bill English would like...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: The Power of Being Unloved
22 May, 1:54pm
First, a disclosure. Between 2003 and 2006, I was chief propagandist for Contact Energy.
So anything I say about this week's electricity "revelations"...
SMELLIE SNIFFS THE BREEZE: True Colours
15 May, 3:23pm
Here's a radical thought for saving 22,000 jobs. I didn't think of it myself, the NZIER snuck it into their latest report on just what a tough Budget...
Are you scared yet?
4 May, 10:06am
Up in the Press Gallery for Parliamentary Questions yesterday, someone was asking Finance Minister Bill English a patsy about the dreadful state of the...
In praise of Aussie at ANZAC
25 Apr, 10:24am
Don't get me wrong. I'm a fifth generation New Zealander who could have left but didn't. Globalisation's great, but so is home.
But I really like...
Bill's biggest Budget bugbear
17 Apr, 5:33pm
Of all the big numbers floating around these days, the one that worries Finance Minister Bill English most is government debt.
Actually, that's not...
Bye bye Aunty Helen
14 Apr, 10:28am
I first encountered Helen Clark in 1981. She was my political studies tutor at Auckland University.
She gave me a D for a very poorly written polemic,...
What's another trillion?
6 Apr, 12:05pm
If the G-20 was going to create another trillion dollars, I wanted to know how.
With the aid only of an Internet, I decided to find out.
Here, in simplistic...
Confirmation from HQ
30 Mar, 9:27am
Remember where you read it first: "New Zealand is in a better position than most advanced countries to face the global storm, given its sound macroeconomic...
Earth to Key: Don't Forget Process
13 Mar, 2:23pm
I went to a select committee hearing for the first time in years this week.
Freshly re-accredited to the Press Gallery, I returned to a once-favourite...
