Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at the Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords.
Oliver holds a master's degree in economics and business administration and a PhD in Law from Bochum University in Germany.
Oliver is available to comment on all of the Initiative’s research areas.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
For months, commentators had one demand of Labour: stop holding your fire and show us some policy. Last week, Labour obliged. Read more
New Zealand spends more on infrastructure than almost any developed country, yet still cannot build the pipes and roads new housing needs. Why? Read more
When the European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates on 11 June, marking its first increase since 2023, the news was unwelcome across the eurozone. It was especially unwelcome in Germany. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Michael Laws on The Platform about Labour's public transport policy. He argued the policy was released without a proper discussion document or modelling, and that its figures on cost, savings and passenger numbers do not stack up. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Wallace Chapman on RNZ's The Panel about the New Zealand Initiative's election recommendation to introduce a lower youth wage, which he argued would tackle high youth unemployment by giving 16 and 17 year olds a path into work and structured training. Dr Hartwich pointed to Central European countries such as Germany and Switzerland, where lower wages are paired with three or four year training programmes leading to a certified qualification, while panellists were divided on whether the idea risked exploiting young workers. Read more
Across the Tasman, anger has propelled Pauline Hanson’s One Nation from a fringe outfit to the most popular party, on 31 percent in a recent poll, ahead of both Labor and the Coalition. Yet Australia’s preferential voting, which redistributes losing candidates’ votes, could still return a Labor government. Read more
At last month’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, New Zealand’s Defence Minister Chris Penk told Bloomberg Television that the country might usefully consider nuclear propulsion, the reactors that drive warships, as something distinct from nuclear weapons. Within two days, his Prime Minister had killed the idea on talkback radio. Read more
When The New Zealand Initiative set out 235 recommendations for the next government last month, the one this paper chose for its headline was the proposal to pay younger workers less. The news sense was sound, because it is the recommendation that sounds least fair. Read more
To most New Zealanders in 2026, slavery sounds like a relic of past centuries and faraway places. Unfortunately, it is not. Read more
When I read last week that Tony Blair had published a 5,600-word essay on everything that ails Britain, every instinct told me not to read it. But I could not help myself and read it anyway. Read more
This week’s Budget confirmed what most New Zealanders already suspected. The government’s finances are tight, the deficit persists, and there is no pot of money waiting to be spent on the country’s problems. Just as well, because government spending never delivers growth or prosperity. Read more
In this episode, Oliver talks with Eric about Budget 2026, which brings the forecast surplus forward a year but rests on a series of lucky breaks, from oil prices falling to fiscal discipline surviving the election and coalition negotiations. They weigh what is driving spending well above 2019 levels, the case for superannuation reform, council incentives to go for growth, the shrinking public service, and why Treasury's tobacco and alcohol excise forecasts keep going wrong. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 28 May 2026) – The New Zealand Initiative welcomes the Going for Housing Growth Incentive Fund announced in Budget 2026. The Initiative has argued for more than a decade that councils need a direct financial stake in enabling new housing. Read more
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative) welcomes the opportunity to submit on the Modern Slavery Bill. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 27 May 2026) – New Zealand can be a much more prosperous country, and the policy choices needed to get us there are well within reach, says The New Zealand Initiative’s Executive Director, Dr Oliver Hartwich. The Initiative today released Prescription for Prosperity 2026, its fourth briefing to an incoming government. Read more