Paul is a Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, supporting our general advocacy and also working on resource management, environmental, land use and general economic policy.
Paul brings nearly 20 years of policy and advocacy experience across government, Parliament and sector groups. He joins us after serving as General Manager Policy and Advocacy at Federated Farmers, where he led a national policy team working across national, regional and district council policy.
Paul was Director of Policy and Research in the Leader of the Opposition’s Office and held senior policy roles at DairyNZ, Fonterra and the Ministry for Primary Industries. He served on the Government’s Expert Advisory Group on resource management reform and represented New Zealand in international climate negotiations over the period the Paris Agreement was negotiated and adopted.
New Zealand has faced many crises. Few have inspired such quiet resolve as the campaign to save our most productive soils from houses. Read more
In this episode, Dr Eric Crampton talks to Nick Clark and new senior fellow Paul Melville about the two new acts replacing the Resource Management Act and what the new system gets right, including standardised zoning and a new Urban Land Market Officer. They also weigh up how much has been left for ministers to decide later, and where the acts could still end up in court. Read more
This election, the standout issue is the cost of living. It’s all the focus groups want to talk about. Read more