New Zealanders are an irascible lot when it comes to recreational fishing. Around 50,000 people have made submissions opposing options for tightening recreational snapper fishing limits. Read more

The National-led government is introducing changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) and fears are being expressed that they will favour economic development ‘at the expense of the environment’. The Prime Minister implicitly acknowledged this fear last weekend when he referred to the need to strike the right ‘balance between our environmental responsibilities and our economic opportunities’. Read more

On July 25, a Dominion Post article (Consent proposals upset rural residents) asserted that, under a proposed district plan, rural landowners might face new requirements if their property includes dominant dune ridge lines, outstanding landscapes, amenity landscapes or ecological and geological sites. Owners in possession of such land may now require a resource consent to work on farm fences, culverts and farm tracks. Read more

On 25 July, a Dominion Post article (Consent proposals upset rural residents) asserted that, under a proposed district plan, rural landowners might face new requirements if their property includes dominant dune ridge lines, outstanding landscapes, amenity landscapes or ecological and geological sites. Owners in possession of such land may now require a resource consent to work on farm fences, culverts and farm tracks. Read more

By now, householders must be used to being exhorted by politicians, economists, and international agencies to save more. Yet, some policies encourage them to borrow in order to save or invest. Read more

The 2025 Taskforce’s 2009 report put New Zealand’s income gap with Australia (2008) at 35%. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) latest statistics for real GDP per capita show that the income gap with Australia increased to just under 41% in 2011. Read more

This week, The New Zealand Initiative released its first report: New Zealand’s Global Links: Foreign Ownership and the Status of New Zealand’s Net International Investments. The report contains 84 tables of statistical information relating to New Zealand’s inwards and outwards investments, and is accompanied by a spreadsheet on the website. Read more

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Governments, worldwide, control the issuance of domestic money. That monopoly position creates the problem of determining how much money to print. Read more

I had the occasion last week to browse through the Proposed District Plan of a certain local authority in New Zealand in order to see how it assessed the costs and benefits to the community of its multitudinous restrictive provisions. The Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) requires local authorities to “take into account the benefits and costs of policies, rules, or other methods” it puts into such plans. Read more

Governments use the minimum wage to keep workers with the least skills or work experience out of work, albeit as an undesired consequence rather than a direct intent. School-leavers have the least work experience – in addition, the lack of basic standards of literacy and numeracy is an enormous handicap for 10% to 20% of school-leavers. Read more

World share markets rose markedly on Monday this week: the US S&P 500 (by 2%), London FTSE (by 2.4%), Paris CAC (by 2.9%), Tokyo Nikkei (by 1.4%), and the Hong Kong Hang Seng (by 0.5%). Europe saw the biggest daily gain in 10 weeks, but from the lowest levels for months. Read more

George Mason University’s Mercatus Center is a top public policy think tank based in Virginia near Washington, DC. Some of its 2012 publications might be of interest to readers of Insights: a 28-page blueprint for regulatory reform in the United States (the blueprint could be easily applied to New Zealand). Read more