"... NZ's Labour and Green parties will need to break out of their cautious mindset and actually fight for transformative change. That means making our next political battles about the “big guys” – the profiteering banks, the supermarket duopoly, the housing speculators – and about delivering tangible gains to the public. It means having the courage to propose taxing wealth, curbing corporate excess, and rebuilding a fairer economy ..."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-the-nz-left-need

(1/2)

"In effect, NZ First today provides a nationalist, reactionary outlet for public anger that leaves corporate power structures unthreatened. It is easier to inflame passions over language, ethnicity, and gender policies than to take on billionaire donors or tighten the screws on corporate monopolies. The culture war is not a separate front; it is the smokescreen that enables the real work of rewarding their allies to proceed with minimal scrutiny."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-will-nz-first

"Ironically, the very parties that should be fixing New Zealand’s rigged markets are hampered by their own ideological blind spots and elite alignments. The result is a government that talks a big game about change, but in practice shrinks from challenging the powerful vested interests behind our dysfunctional economy."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-nationals-crony

Edwards is describing the current coalition parties here, but he could just as easily be describing the 2017 Labour coalition.

"Economist Cameron Bagrie puts it bluntly: after New Zealand’s bold pro-competition reforms of the 1980s, 'it feels like [we have] gone 360 degrees'. Many industries reconsolidated into powerful duopolies, oligopolies and cartels. Bagrie warns that 'Weak competition just inhibits innovation and drives complacency'. And that is exactly what we now face."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-how-crony-capitalism

The myth of "pro-competition reforms" is as persistent as gorse in paddocks and just as unhelpful

"Such poor performance leads MacCulloch to ask a provocative and essential question: how is it possible that these executives are 'so incompetently useless they can’t make a buck even when they have no competition?'. He notes that it is difficult to find another developed country where multiple virtual monopolies are effectively 'run at a loss' in terms of shareholder value ..."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders

(1/2)

#monopolies #MarketFailure

"Auckland University economist Robert MacCulloch has identified the country’s business leaders — particularly those at the helm of large, incumbent firms — as the real drag on New Zealand and the primary “source of our malaise”. His research presents a stunning picture of corporate failure that cannot be blamed on government policy or market headwinds."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders

#RobertMacCulloch

“[Economist Cameron] Bagrie’s central diagnosis is that New Zealand’s form of capitalism has become fundamentally unproductive, addicted to an asset class that creates the illusion of wealth without generating real economic value. As he bluntly puts it, 'You do not get wealthy selling more expensive houses to each other'."

#BryceEdwards, 2025

https://theintegrityinstitute.substack.com/p/integrity-briefing-are-business-leaders

#housing #EconomicDevelopment

"The leader of the party of consumers and taxpayers argued against a measure to increase competition and lower prices because it might upset incumbent capital. In that single statement, the party’s modern priority was laid bare: protecting established businesses now trumps the creation of competitive markets for consumers. The 'consumer' in the party’s name has been forgotten entirely."

#BryceEdwards, 2026

https://archive.is/3POBJ

#NZPolitics #AntiMonopoly #ACT