This wonderful mashup of polling booth results in Wellington and Google maps by the wellingtonista and some excellent statistics released today by the State Services Commission on staff numbers and salaries make for some interesting reading.Have a good look through these statistics. They show a few things.

First, this report should have been publicised last Friday, not a week after the election.

Second, it shows the Labour-led government’s line that public servant numbers were increasing at the coal face rather than in the office blocks of Wellington was simply wrong.

Numbers at the front line in the core public service, which includes social, health and education workers and contact centre workers, actually fell by 29 to 10,034 in the last year, while numbers of administrative, policy advice, HR, legal, managerial and support staff rose 1628 to 35,900.

So it’s not too surprising which way those

Those shocked by Act’s strong showing in the weekend’s election and its likely influence in any National-Act-United Future government should look off the beaten path for the policies Act is likely to push for.

The first assumption after any such result is that Act would want to restart privatisations, slash government spending, drastically reform health and education delivery, and generally turn back the clock on Labour’s policies through 1999 to 2008.

I think that’s unlikely. Firstly, John Key really is a centrist and also wants to be re-elected. Secondly, Act are a bit more subtle these days and like doing things that are likely to stick (i.e. past the next election).

One of these more subtle and more sustainable policies is a Taxpayers’ Rights Bill. Act leader Rodney Hide pushed this quite hard during the election campaign, not that many people noticed. Most voters didn’t get beyond the yellow jacket and flat taxes.

The

Due to Electoral Act requirements, we won’t be publishing comments of a political nature submitted between 12am and 7pm on Saturday, November 8. The blogs will be back to normal after polls close at 7pm.

Michael Hill’s relatively subdued mood at today’s annual meeting was a realistic reflection of the state of the retail sector. Sales are depressed and most companies are hoping for, rather than forecasting, a good Christmas period.

Hill told shareholders - rather tongue in cheek - that he is optimistic about the next few months because he expected individuals to stop buying yachts and purchase jewellery instead.

Figures in the following table show that the listed retail sector is depressed, particularly as far as the New Zealand operations of NZX listed companies are concerned.

On Monday Briscoe reported that group sales for the quarter ended 26 October were down 11.2% compared with the same period in the previous year, with Homeware sales off 10.2% and Rebel Sports 13.3%. Managing Director Rod Duke said August and September were poor but October was a bit

The Government’s financial accounts for the three months ended 30 September were better than expected from an operating point of view. However the post-election government, whether it is National or Labour-led, won’t have a lot of money to play with.

The Governments actual OBEGAL (operating balance before investment gains and losses) was $891 million for the three months ended September compared with a forecast surplus of $424 million for the same period. This also compares with an actual surplus of $1,522 million for the corresponding period last year.

   An OBEGAL deficit of $64 million is forecast for the June 2009 year compared with an actual surplus of $5,637 million for the June 2008 year and a surplus of $5,860 million for the twelve months ended June 2007.

The basic problem is that social welfare (which includes national superannuation), health and

I love Wellington. Really, I do. It’s where I met my lovely wife and where I’d live if I had a pure, unimpeded choice. Great people. Amazing landscape. Compact city. Great arts. Wonderful cafes such as my favourite, Midnight Espresso on Cuba St. It’s got it all. In fact, it’s got too much.

Wellington has become utterly dominated and powered by the most rapacious government in the history of New Zealand. This is not something I’m saying lightly or for the first time, although this is the most direct I’ve been.

Wellington has become a living, wheezing symbol of an economy where an all-consuming government is gobbling up resources and dragging down productivity in such a way as to transfer wealth and income from private employees and businesses to government employees while kneecapping economic growth.

This current government is eating the economy and it needs to be stopped

The partial sale of a number of Government owned commercial assets would be a better way for the Crown to raise new funds instead of directing the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to invest a higher percentage of its money in the domestic economy.

As at June 30 the New Zealand Government had total assets of $200.8 billion of which $14.8 billion was represented by the Super Fund. Thus only $12 billion or 6% of the total Crown’s assets were held offshore because most of the non-Super Fund investments are in the New Zealand.

The Super Fund was established to help partly fund the country’s escalating national superannuation bill. It also gives the Government the opportunity to diversify its asset base, particularly from a geographical point of view.

In addition offshore investments generate overseas earnings. These have a positive impact on the country’s bourgeoning balance of payments or current account deficit.

The preferred

Here’s a picture of a crucial period in our history.  

The nation is at an unfortunate but not completely unusual political and economic crossroads. New Zealand is having a financial crisis at the same time as an election campaign. Big decisions that affect all New Zealanders for a long time will have to be made in the heat and smoke of an election campaign while it is unclear exactly who is in charge.

The protagonists are a Prime Minister who has ruled the machinery of government with a velvet gloved fist for nine years and a popular newcomer who is widely expected to win. The Prime Minister’s attacks on the newcomer have become vituperative and personal. The Prime Minister has successfully bullied and corralled the ruling party and the mandarins in the bureaucracy into accepting the Prime Minister’s views. The Prime Minister appears to be personally driving economic and financial policy.

We continue to have a very cautious outlook for the global economy and global financial markets.

While the prospect of a complete meltdown of the global financial system has diminished the global economic outlook remains poor.

The reality is that the unwinding of high consumer leverage will take time.

Savings rates need to increase to offset wealth destruction from housing and financial markets.

Moreover, confidence is likely to remain weak and rising unemployment will impact negatively on economic growth.

Asia is not immune from a global slowdown although strong fiscal positions may allow governments to provide some stimulus and falling inflation should also help.

China has eased policy but still faces the reality of lower growth rates.

The European outlook has also weakened considerably.

On the plus side, compared to the US, Europe has room to reduce interest rates as inflation falls and its equity valuations appear more reasonable.

Poor global growth should lead to lower inflation and interest

I argued for bank deposit insurance scheme bank in March and at the beginning of last week. But I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t encouraged the politicians to get busy because this deposit guarantee scheme dumped on us is an unholy and dangerous mess.

I realise things had to be done in a hurry because Australia was about to announce its own deposit guarantee scheme and all hell was breaking loose on global markets, but the scheme proposed by Prime Minister Helen Clark in her re-election campaign launch on Sunday is a dogs breakfast. It  must be cleaned up before it putrifies into something so ugly and painful it could:

* Kill the stock market stone dead.

* Trigger a massive shift of cash from managed equity funds and corporate bonds to banks.

* Unleash a new generation of toxic finance companies.

* Vastly increase the cost of government borrowing.

* Mean deposit rates are all the same, or to be regulated to the same level, regardless of