Lindsay Mitchell

 According to the British Adam Smith Institute: It is a truth universally acknowledged that the UK is in something of a housing crisis. Home...

Stuff is writing a series called 'The Whole Truth' running up to the election. It aims to fact-check campaign claims, party policie...

NZ's  GDP fell by 12.2% in the June Quarter. Here are some other country comparisons: (Click on source for interactive image) The yello...

Have you noticed that Labour no longer has a Tax Policy - only a Revenue Policy? Grant Robertson uses the term constantly. Now I see the Gre...

Forecasts of Jobseeker and Emergency benefit numbers over the next few years are very fluid. According to today's PREFU : "The numb...

I've become a huge golf fan. Because I started playing.  A close childhood friend came from Australia to celebrate our sixtieth birthday...

Good discussion from Damien Grant, a committed libertarian. I must be getting intellectually lazy because I want someone to convince me whi...

 According to RNZ today: Under Labour's welfare plan, the training incentive allowance for higher skilled courses would be reinstated, ...

Working age benefit receipt has nudged up to 12.1%. At the height of the GFC it reached 12.4% In the week to September 4 a further 1,702 pe...

 I've spoken out against benefit dependence for a couple of decades. It's not personal. I have no bone to pick with individuals. My ...

  Since becoming Children's Commissioner, Andrew Becroft's strong left leanings have become increasingly apparent. In this interview...

 A just-released MSD paper examines the family structure of Maori children. Two data sources were used, Census and Growing Up in NZ.  First...

 Despite considerable variation between groups Parliament is the least trusted institution regardless. Is that directly related to low voter...

 Someone mentioned to me that the government were going to cut benefits. "They're cutting our incomes!" What?? Turns out they ...

News flash. New Zealand's  fertility rate has fallen to just 1.69, the lowest in a century. We hovered around replacement rate - better...

Paid Parental Leave (PPL) is quite a recent development. In the 1990s you could take unpaid leave up to a year, the circumstances in which m...

 Right now, not really. At $226 million that's roughly what it will cost each taxpayer (courtesy of my matchbox calculations of 3m payer...

 A Horizon poll says the decision is split 49.5% vs 49.5%. I am somewhat ashamed to say I am still vacillating. The age group I fall in exa...

 Yesterday I posted about the unsustainable practice of housing people in emergency housing, namely motels, holiday parks, backpackers, etc...

Had a collosal melt-down today losing access to my artist blog . For some reason the address it was linked to has disapeared (it was a Windo...