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Rory Horner, University of Manchester The biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, known as “big pharma”, are American and European. The top five are Pfizer (US), Roche, Novartis (both Swiss), Merck (US) and GlaxoSmithKline (UK). Yet these companies – and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole – rely on global supply chains. And China and India play key roles in …

Ilan Noy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, disaster recovery plans are almost always framed with aspirational plans to “build back better”. It’s a fine sentiment – we all want to build better societies and economies. But, as the Cheshire Cat tells Alice when she is lost, where we ought to …

Jun Du, Aston University; Agelos Delis, Aston University; Mustapha Douch, Aston University, and Oleksandr Shepotylo, Aston University The COVID-19 pandemic is now expected to trigger the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Many argue it could unravel globalisation altogether. Globalisation relies on complex links – global value chains (GVCs) – that connect producers across multiple countries. These producers often …

Tahu Kukutai, University of Waikato; Helen Moewaka Barnes, Massey University; Tim McCreanor, Massey University, and Tracey Mcintosh As schools and businesses reopen and attention shifts to the longer-term repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that Māori be involved in decision making more equitably than has so far happened. The failure to include Māori in strategy discussions throughout the …

Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the New Zealand electorate. The two most successful politicians of the …

Eyes Wide Open The China Business Summit was jointly presented by NZ INC. and Auckland Business Chamber. The Summit was held on Monday May 14, 2018 at The CORDIS Hotel, Auckland. The fourth iteration of this essential summit explored and tackled the big issues as the ties between New Zealand and China became deeper than ever before. The Summit attracted …

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato Reaction to the New Zealand government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown has ranged from high praise to criticism that its actions were illegal and its management chaotic. Partly in response to the concerns, and to put the continued containment of the disease on a firmer legal footing, the COVID-19 Public Health Response …

Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity Australia New Zealanders finally have access to the Government’s new tracing app to help people monitor their movements as lockdown continues to ease. As businesses can now open, the NZ COVID Tracer app allows people to keep a register of the places they visit. This “digital diary” can be used to contact people if it finds they …

Victoria Plekhanova, Massey University The New Zealand government’s recently announced NZ$50 million subsidy package to support local media was necessary and urgent – even if it came too late to save the Bauer magazine titles from closing. But the injection of government cash did not address the underlying cause of the decline of New Zealand’s media, which predates the COVID-19 …

Kris Gledhill, Auckland University of Technology As New Zealand approaches the end of its strictest lockdown period, a debate has begun about whether it was legal in the first place. This is important because people are being prosecuted for breaching the lockdown. Naturally, lawyers are getting involved, so things are going to get technical. Some lawyers tend to speak in …