Roger Partridge is chairman and a co-founder of The New Zealand Initiative and is a senior member of its research team. He is a regular commentator in the media on public policy and constitutional law. He led law firm Bell Gully as executive chairman from 2007 to 2014, after 16 years as a commercial litigation partner. He is an honorary fellow of the Legal Research Foundation, a charitable foundation associated with the University of Auckland and was its executive director from 2001 to 2009. He is a member of the editorial board of the New Zealand Law Review and was a member of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society, the governing body of the legal profession in New Zealand, from 2011 to 2015. He is a former chartered member of the Institute of Directors, a member of the University of Auckland Business School advisory board, and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
According to Long’s Axiom, an elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. The saying is a corollary to the old gag about a camel being a horse designed by a committee. Read more
This month events at either end of the country highlighted a fundamental failure afflicting New Zealand’s biggest pre-Covid export earner: tourism. On 10 March, Auckland Council heard submissions on when it should reintroduce its Accommodation Provider Targeted Rate (APTR), which is uses to fund Auckland events and destination marketing. Read more
Eighteen months ago, the Government announced a curriculum change making it compulsory for all schools to teach “key aspects” of New Zealand history. The Ministry of Education was tasked with creating a new curriculum to “span the full range of New Zealanders’ experiences… with contemporary issues directly linked to major events of the past.” Asking the Ministry of Education to draft a compulsory New Zealand History curriculum for school children was always fraught with risk. Read more
No one should doubt the importance of a sound understanding of mathematics in the future workplace. A recent study by the National Maths and Science Initiative found that 16 of the 30 fastest-growing occupations in the United States require substantial mathematics or science understanding. Read more
In this Quick Take podcast, Roger Partridge outlines the core arguments from his Herald column on Australia’s success against Covid-19 and why setting up a trans-Tasman bubble should now be a government priority. If you would like to listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
The sounds of cricket on the radio are already wafting over campgrounds around the country. Who would wish to spend the holidays anywhere else in the world? Read more
All too often, today’s flavour of the month is tomorrow’s failure. This truism appears to be playing out in education. Read more
Voters rewarded the Coalition Government for saving lives as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world. Now the new Government must save livelihoods. Read more
Read our submission, written by Dr Bryce Wilkinson to Treasury and the Reserve Bank. This submission is in response to the third round of consultation on Phase 2 of the review of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act. Read more
Last week the Initiative took aim at those presiding over the country’s education system. For nearly two decades Kiwi students have suffered a steady decline in performance. Read more
The rise of automation, artificial intelligence and pressures from developing economies are threatening low-skilled and unskilled jobs. Never has the need for school leavers to be well-educated been more important than today. Read more
New Zealand looks to have won its second battle against Covid-19. The country should brace itself for another round of self-congratulatory backslapping. Read more
Judging by the length of Labour’s manifesto proposals for workplace relations reform, you might think New Zealand’s labour markets were not working well for workers. If re-elected, Labour will persist with plans of former Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Ian Lees-Galloway to introduce compulsory industry-wide collective bargaining (dubbed ‘Fair Pay Agreements’). Read more
On August 8, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government would consider loosening New Zealand’s border controls and strict visa regime. Ardern said the Government is “keen to get local businesses more access to essential skilled workers to help grow the economy and create opportunities for resident Kiwis.” The Government is right to be concerned about this issue. Read more
In mid-April, German sewerage experts were allowed through New Zealand’s tightly controlled border with the country still locked down at Alert Level 4. At the time, Wellington ratepayers were paying nearly $100,000 a day to ferry wastewater by truck from the city's Moa Point treatment plant to a landfill. Read more