Trevor endorses ACT policy

A fascinating valedictory speech by Trevor Mallard. He said:

Our select committees used to lead the world, but I think they’ve become rubber stamps for Governments. Members form the legislative branch and they should take responsibility for legislation. Reform isn’t hard. They should sit more. Recesses used to be called select committee weeks. Submitters were heard—half an hour or an hour, if they had something really important to say. Committee membership should be based the same way as questions—based on the number of non-executive members the Party has, similarly to chairs.

This is in fact ACT policy, and one I also support 100%. It would make a huge difference to how select committee operates.

Submitters to committees need to know that their submissions will be treated on their merits by committees, not vetoed by a political adviser in a Minister’s office, who is often breaching privilege by merely being in position of the committee material. Ministers should trust the process. Let the committees do their work, and if, in the end, they don’t like the result, then they can change the bill at the committee stage of the House. The Government has the power to pass legislation here; it should trust the select committees to try and improve it.

Agree strongly.

And now for a left-field suggestion. I’ve long been concerned that the Reserve Bank only has one instrument—other than printing money—to wind up or cool down the economy. With so many mortgages being fixed, the cash rate tool has become a bit like using a hammer to fine-tune an EV. The results are both slow and unpredictable.

An extra tool for the Reserve Bank could be to give them discretion over, say, the last 2 percent of individuals’ KiwiSaver contributions. They could increase or decrease net pay almost immediately and, in that way, boost or tighten the economy. It would have a much more immediate effect than interest rates. Most of us would prefer to see a bit more of our incomes go into KiwiSaver than go to banks through increased mortgage rates.

I’ve seen this idea before and quite like it for the reasons Trevor outlines. It has drawbacks, but so does hiking up interest rates.

Also some other interesting parts:

Two-year-old Beth sighted Sir Robert and called out “Daddy! Daddy! There’s ‘Piggy’ Muldoon!” His response: “Ha, ha, ha! What’s your name, little girl?” Later in Copperfields, he pointed at me and said in his stage whisper, “Who’s that one McKinnon?” “That’s Mallard, Prime Minister; he beat Minogue.” “Oh, good on him. We’d better send him a bottle of whisky, hadn’t we?” Like many Muldoon promises, delivery never ensued.

Heh.

Annette went into Cabinet just before the Lange resignation. At the time, two-thirds of the Labour caucus wanted Lange to be leader, and two-thirds wanted Douglas to be finance Minister, so about a third really believed in fairies.

Could be worse – Roger as PM and David as Finance!