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
Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger burst back into public life in mid-2018 to lead the government’s Fair Pay Agreement Working Group. The working group’s report was made public on 31 January. Read more
Three unanswered questions hang over the Reserve Bank capital proposals. First, do the benefits of the proposals exceed the costs? Read more
The government’s goal of a highly skilled and innovative workforce and an economy that delivers well-paid, decent jobs and broad-based gains from economic growth and productivity, is a laudable aim. It is what governments should strive for. Read more
Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger came charging back into public sight when the Government released his Fair Pay Agreement Working Group's report in January. The Bolger-led working group recommended the Government introduce a new system for setting wages and other terms and conditions of employment. Read more
Readers of the NBR may have seen my column last week, “The great Brexit delusion”. For reasons that may not appear obvious, I comment in the column on proposals from the British government to curb the number of calories in restaurant meals and takeaway food. Read more
Two years ago The NZ Initiative’s executive director, Oliver Hartwich, and I presented to a full house at the Adam Smith Institute in Westminster. We were in London ahead of a visit to Switzerland with a delegation of New Zealand business leaders. Read more
New Zealand’s Reserve Bank is creating waves on both sides of the Tasman. Just before Christmas, it surprised the banking sector with proposals to almost double banks’ capital ratios. Read more
Read our submission to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand on The Review of the Capital Adequacy Framework for locally incorporated banks: How much capital is enough?
Read more
Few subjects are as dry as prudential regulation. As something that relates to banks, it is not the most obvious topic requiring our attention. Read more
The primary teachers’ union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has called a series of nationwide meetings to decide on industrial action to take place early next month. NZEI proposes primary teachers “work to rule” from 15 May, culminating in a national strike on 29 May. Read more
“Unintended consequences” are outcomes unforeseen by purposeful action, an idea popularised by American sociologist Robert Merton in the twentieth century. Since then, the so-called law of unintended consequences has morphed into a warning: intervening in a complex situation tends to create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes. Read more
There is a lot to like about New Zealand’s labour laws. At 80.9%, our labour market participation rate is among the highest in the world. Read more
Australia’s banking royal commission did not pull any punches in its final report released last month. Most of them were directed at Australia’s financial services sector. Read more
Canadian psychologist Dr Jordan Peterson has a lot to answer for. At least he does according to Auckland Peace Action spokesman Iris Krzyzosiak. Read more
Readers will be familiar with that exasperating feeling of looking for something and not finding it. You know it should be there, but it is missing. Read more