The closing of the tabs:
- By 2030, Canada's carbon tax and carbon dividend combo might have households seeing a net loss, rather than net gains, because high carbon prices are by then expected to reduce economic growth and household incomes. Of course, it would be even worse without the dividend.
- An excellent visualisation of Wellington Council's proposed budget. So you can see that they're planning on spending $4.8m on the Khandallah swimming pool upgrade, as compared to $17.4m on wastewater network renewals. Spending on the library and on Town Hall are very large relative to spend on the wastewater pipes that keep failing. And they're expecting to spend about $10m more on running the new expensive convention centre than they'll receive in revenues from it.
- Kate MacNamara goes through the government's spend on the Three Waters programme.
- Didn't get a chance to submit on the Therapeutic Products Act. It really doesn't look good. Right now, doctors can prescribe medicines that aren't approved in NZ and patients can privately import them. Looks like that will end. Getting a "Must approve if two other countries have approved" rule will really matter if this goes ahead.
