John Bishop

A study of how New Zealand's research and tertiary institutions are handling the commercialisation of scientific and technological innovation has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of the current system.

The study concluded that the wide variety of approaches and different levels of expertise found in the various universities and Crown Research Institutes raised transaction costs for companies trying to commercialise the innovations developed by universities and research institutes.

The findings of the study by academics Mark Ahn, Brendan Gray, Alan Collier, and Rebecca Bednarek from Victoria and  Otago Universities was presented to a small business conference in Wellington recently.

The government's 2025 taskforce appointed to work out how to close the income gap with Australia has an interesting political composition.

It's headed by Dr Don Brash, the former leader of the National Party, who, when he was in Parliament was described by then ACT Party leader Richard Prebble as "ACT's ninth MP", because his views on economic and social policy were so close to ACT's positions.

The taskforce also includes Dr Bryce Wilkinson, an economist who has served with the Treasury and with investment advisors CS First Boston. He has worked closely with the Business Roundtable over the last few years.  He has also been active in the ACT party and has previously chaired the party's policy council.

Pacific Blue is offering the prospect of flights to many more destinations in Australia provided governments pick up the cost of border control and security services at airports which do not currently have those services available.

Services between Wellington and Canberra are a hot prospect for the carrier, which says it is evolving from a low cost leisure airline to competing with traditional carriers for the business market.

Pacific Blue's Commercial General Manager, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, told a Wellington business audience that liberalization of travel rules on the Tasman will lower airfares but won't necessarily open up more destinations.  The mater is currently being studied by the Australian and New Zealand governments.

Bill English says there's no silver bullet to rescue the New Zealand economy and put it on the road to recover. Perhaps he's right. But there are plenty of people who think they have "the plan" which if only people would follow it, would result in miraculous amounts of prosperity for all.

Roger Douglas as a Minister in the Labour government, and then in ACT, was forever sketching plans on a whiteboard to show that the paths to prosperity and electoral success were simple.

Zealous thinkers believe that if only others believed what they "know to be true" then nirvana would be achieved in their lifetimes, and probably within the term of the then current government.