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Reflections on a Life Well Lived: A Tribute to Sir Ron Trotter

17 August 2010, Roger Kerr, Old St Paul's, Wellington

Margaret and the family have asked me to reflect on Sir Ron’s role in business and public affairs and I’m honoured to do so. I loved Ron like a father. So it was with a heavy heart that I sat down to write these notes on Friday.

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Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture 2007 The Economics and Politics of Climate Change: A Cool Look at Global Warming

15 November 2007, Nigel Lawson

This year's Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture was delivered by Nigel Lawson on 15 November. Find the transcript, including questions and answers, here

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Pathways to Prosperity for Indigenous People: The 2010 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

2 November 2010, Noel Pearson

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Opportunities of a Lifetime: Lessons for New Zealand from New, High-Growth Economies - the 2009 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

7 April 2009, Stephen Jennings

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The Economics and Politics of Climate Change - A Cool Look at Global Warming: The 2007 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

15 November 2007, Nigel Lawson

In recent years Nigel Lawson has written extensively on climate change and has argued that policies enhancing the global community's ability to adapt, rather than just those seeking to limit greenhouse gas emissions, are the most affordable and effective response. He has criticised what he identifies as the "religion of eco-fundamentalism" and has instead emphasised the need to focus broadly on solutions that promote social and economic development. In his address Lord Lawson will canvas the problems inherent in the Kyoto Protocol and similar initiatives focused narrowly on the reduction of fossil fuel by-products, and make suggestions for a more sustainable and lower-cost approach to the global warming challenge. Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 to 1989. Earlier he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury and then Secretary of State for Energy in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's first government. He was a key proponent of the Thatcher government's privatisation policy and his years as Chancellor were associated with tax reform, financial deregulation and his opposition to the poll tax.

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The Trotter Times

2 February 2007, New Zealand Business Roundtable

A collection of speeches given by the late Sir Ronald Trotter between 1986 and 2002.

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The Battle of Ideas: The 2006 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

8 August 2006, Peter J Boettke

In An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argued that there was a virtuous circle that led to increased prosperity. The source of economic growth and development was the gains from specialisation and trade realised through the greater division of labour and the expansion of the market economy. The division of labour was limited by the extent of the market. But, as the market expands, the division of labour is refined even further and the gains from specialisation increase productivity further again. There are, in other words, increasing returns to the expansion of the market arena. This Smithian virtuous circle counteracts any tendency toward being caught in the Malthusian trap of subsistence levels of production and represents, instead, the progressive march of modernity.

In the lectures and notebooks that he used in writing his great treatise, Smith summarised his position in the following manner: "Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest form of barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a reasonable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things" (1976a [1776], xl). Smith goes further and argues in the next passage that: "All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical" (ibid).

Evidence from the history of economic development supports Smith - both in terms of the path to successful development and the consequences of steering off that path. But one must unpack the basic institutional infrastructure that serves as the background to Smith's policy prescription. Smith's system of natural liberty (or Hume's of property, contract and consent) consists of a network of complementary institutions that all serve to minimise the threat of predation from both public and private actors.

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The Future of Culture in a Globalised World: The 2005 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

15 December 2005, Tyler Cowen

I sometimes describe my cultural and economic point of view as being that of a cultural optimist; that is, I expect the future in a commercial economy to bring us more choices and more diverse choices.

If we put aside the concerns of the current day and look back at world history, it has been the globalising eras that have brought us cultural diversity. If we look at the nineteenth century, which, for Europe, was a time of free trade when countries and regions were drawn closer by using railroads and faster ships, we see a time of remarkable cultural inventiveness. The biggest deglobalisation the West has suffered was the fall of the Roman Empire. Following that fall, there was indeed a dark age for culture; literature declined and many wonderful statues of antiquity were melted down for their bronze content.

This longer-term perspective is often forgotten when we consider the present day. We find cultural pessimists - both on the left and right wings - concerned that we are headed toward a so-called least common denominator, one-world culture. The vision is that everyone eats at McDonald's, we all wear Reeboks, we are all stuck in a Starbucks somewhere, we all watch banal television shows, and have little else to experience. Even in our modern world this is obviously not true.

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The Role of the State in an era of Globalisation: The 2004 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

15 December 2004, Martin Wolf

Martin Wolf was the guest speaker for the 2004 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture held in Wellington earlier this year.

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The Real State of the World: The 2003 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

8 October 2003, Bjorn Lomborg

Economics has been called the dismal science. But, in modern times at least, it has tended to be environmentalists rather than economists who have put forward a dismal view of the world. Beginning with a sceptical view of his work, I discovered that the late American economist Julian Simon was right. As the first chapter of my book says, things are getting better. Simon emphasised what became a crucial message of The Skeptical Environmentalist: mythmaking prevents us from using our judgment wisely. We will panic and fail to prioritise if we believe that the world is falling apart. If people worry too much about the small problems, they will not worry enough about the big ones. There is only one pot of money, and it must be spent wisely. We need to concentrate on the facts. The myths about the environment have convinced many people that we are headed in the wrong direction. I believed them before I wrote The Skeptical Environmentalist. Then I realised that these myths were like holding a gun to our heads, stopping us from being able to prioritise. The analogy is with a street criminal pointing a gun at you and demanding your money. You would not pause and wonder whether you would prefer to buy a new toaster; you would simply hand over the money.

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America and its Allies: Growing Together or Growing Apart? The 2002 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

12 August 2002, Dr Francis Fukuyama

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Reinventing Public Education in America: The 2001 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

19 December 2001, Benno C Schmidt Jnr

Introduction

I have come half-way around the world but I feel very much at home, with people who share not only a common language, but so much of my inherited experience. We are the descendents of the common law, of Magna Carta, of David Hume and John Locke. We share the same constitutional foundations. We believe in individual equality, dignity before the law and in freedom of speech and religion. We believe in limited, democratic government. We think the state should enhance individual liberty and opportunity, rather than the reverse. We believe in a government of laws, not of might.

There are periods in any nation's history when the question of who are its friends is put to the test. Since September 11, it has been such a time in America. I am here as an ordinary American citizen, without official role, but I know I speak for my country in saying that the United States will never forget who stood beside it on the ridges at Tora Bora.

When I read about your SAS forces in Afghanistan I cannot say I was surprised, because the resolve of New Zealanders in defending freedom is well known. But, it drove home the point that though a long distance in geographic terms separates our countries, there is no separation in basic ideas about freedom, human rights and the rule of law.

It is a privilege to be invited to your beautiful country to present the seventh Sir Ronald Trotter lecture. A lecture honouring one whose career has been as distinguished and far-reaching as Sir Ronald's puts a heavy burden of persuasion on any speaker, even without the recordof the Trotter lecturers who have gone before. The quality of each speaker's contribution has already given this series great lustre in the global marketplace of ideas about public policy. It is therefore somewhat daunting to stand in their footsteps this evening. However, I am confident of one thing: the subject of my talk is one of the most critical issues of public policy in the constitution of every free society.

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The Struggle for a Free Economy and Society in Russia: The 2000 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

25 October 2000, Yegor Gaidar

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Ideas About Labour Markets: the Last 100 Years and the Twenty-first Century: The 1999 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

21 September 1999, Judith Sloan

There is no summary available for this publication.

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The Modern Mask of Socialism: The 1998 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

1 December 1998, Antonio Martino

There is no summary available for this publication.

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Business, Ethics and the Modern Economy: The 1997 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

4 November 1997, Norman Barry

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The Quest for Cosmic Justice: The 1996 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

1 December 1996, Thomas Sowell

There is no summary available for this publication.

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The Role of the State in Education: The 1995 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture

1 December 1995, Richard A Epstein

There is no summary available for this publication.

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Aboriginal Leader Noel Pearson to Deliver Business Roundtable Lecture

28 October 2010, New Zealand Business Roundtable

The 15th annual New Zealand Business Roundtable Sir Ronald Trotter lecture will be delivered by Noel Pearson at a dinner at The Auckland War Memorial Museum on 2 November 2010. A lawyer and the founder of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, Noel Pearson has devoted his life to solving problems of education, welfare and employment in Aboriginal communities (see below).

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Tributes Flow For Business Roundtable Founding Chairman

11 August 2010, New Zealand Business Roundtable

Business Roundtable Chairman Rob McLeod and Executive Director Roger Kerr today paid tribute to the organisation’s founding chairman and business icon Sir Ronald Ramsey Trotter, who died peacefully at his Kapiti Coast home last night after a long illness.