Green Leader Dr Russel Norman impressed members of the Law and Economics Association in his debate with Dr Jason Potts (University of Queensland) on the utility of Happiness Indexes as opposed to GDP at this evening's LEANZ AGM.  Jason Potts was worried that all measure, like GDP were simply politicians' levers and excuses for attempting to do things that ultimately could only be done "from the bottom up" by individuals.

Russel surprised many with the sophistication of his presentation and the deftness and comfort with which he dealt with questions and the challenge from Dr Potts. His crisp dismissal of National's UFB  spend up, as "faith-based infastructure policy" drew appreciative chuckles.  As I've noted before, Russel has the ability to carry the Greens to a constructive engagement with economics that New Zealand has not seen before.