The Treasury's pre-election update showed spending up, revenue down and debt rising after three years of a government elected on restraint. Oliver and Damien ask who ends up as finance minister after 7 November, and whether any of them will confront superannuation and interest heading for $44 billion by 2031. Read more

Nicky Hager's new book on the Taxpayers' Union has had several of its claims publicly contradicted within days of publication. Oliver and Damien discuss the fallout and what it has already cost the organisation. Read more

In this episode, Oliver talks with Eric Crampton, chief economist at the New Zealand Initiative, about his new paper "Breaking up the supermarkets is hard to do... and a bad idea", which finds the promised savings rest on an untested assumption about how Foodstuffs prices its supermarket banners. Read more

Dr Oliver Hartwich joined Lisa Owen on Checkpoint with RNZ to discuss the open letter signed by more than 50 business leaders, spanning construction, grocery, property, banking, and investment, calling on political parties to uphold private property and contract rights. He argued that proposals to buy back BNZ, split up supermarket chains, break apart electricity "gentailers," and re-regulate retirement villages all share the same flaw: they're designed to poll well with focus groups rather than solve real problems, several of which stem from past government decisions such as pandemic-era money printing, restrictions on oil and gas, and decades of restrictive planning law. Read more

Wellington (Wednesday, 23 September 2026) – Fifty-one New Zealand business leaders have signed an open letter asking every political party to uphold private property rights and freedom of contract. The signatories include chief executives, chairs and directors of companies in banking, construction, education, energy, farming, finance, fishing, grocery, insurance, manufacturing and property. Read more

Our Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich joined Ryan Bridge on Newstalk ZB to discuss an open letter signed by around 50 business leaders calling on political parties to respect private property rights, freedom of contract, and lawful agreements. Oliver argued that policies like rewriting already-signed retirement village contracts, cancelling lawfully granted mining approvals, and threatening firms with nationalisation (including National's supermarket break-up plan) form a broader pattern of "post-rational politics," where any policy that polls well with focus groups is fair game, regardless of party or merit. Read more

In this podcast episode, retired Major General John Howard joins Oliver live in a webinar to discuss his new research note "Worth Defending" and why New Zealand needs a stronger, combat-capable Defence Force. Howard, who served forty years and retired only last year, describes what decades of declining capability looked like from the inside, explains why he thinks the $9 billion of new defence money is not enough, and sets out what it would take to rebuild across two or three successive governments. Read more

Why does New Zealand need a defence force at all when no one is going to attack us? In this New Zealand Initiative webinar, retired Major General John Howard launches his research note Worth Defending, which argues that a credible, combat-capable Defence Force is not discretionary spending but the foundation on which the country's security, sovereignty and economic prosperity rest. Read more