37 Documents released under the OIA reveal a Ministry of Health deeply skeptical about sugar taxes. The internal advice within the Ministry highlighted the same problems with sugar taxes as we mentioned in our 2016 report The Health of the State. Read more
Wellington (1 March 2018): Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal a Ministry of Health deeply sceptical about sugar taxes. In October 2017, the Initiative requested all advice provided by the Ministry to then Minister Jonathan Coleman regarding sugar taxes, as well as internal briefing documents and correspondence. Read more
The Government's flagship policy to deliver low-cost homes to first time buyers could be a fail on the affordability front, according to its own ministry officials. Documents released under the Official Information Act reveal KiwiBuild apartments and houses to be priced up to $600,000 in Auckland could still be well out of reach of their target market. Read more
Wellington (23 February 2018): The New Zealand Initiative welcomes the government’s willingness to make necessary changes at the Earthquake Commission. Today, Chair of the EQC Board, Sir Maarten Wevers, announced his resignation. Read more
Celine Dion's two Auckland shows have sold out, thanks to ticket scalpers. General release tickets went on sale midday Monday and sold out hours later, with tickets appearing on resale sites immediately at double the price. Read more
Wellington (2 February 2018): A review of sugar taxes commissioned from NZIER by the Ministry of Health, released this week under the Official Information Act, finds that sugar taxes are unlikely to improve health outcomes. The report finds that: “No study based on actual experience with sugar taxes has identified an impact on health outcomes.” “Studies using sound methods report reductions in [sugar] intake that are likely too small to generate health benefits and could easily be cancelled out by substitution of other sources of sugar or calories.” Earlier studies significantly overestimate the effect of sugar taxes on sugar consumption due to “fundamental methodological flaws,” and these estimates have contaminated later modelling trying to assess the health benefits of sugar taxes. Read more
New research out of NZIER, and released under the Official Information Act, says the sugar tax won't work. The findings mirror what we concluded in our 2016 report, The Health of the State. Read more
Wellington (30 January 2018): “We welcome the government’s focus on tracking the number of children in persistent poverty and hardship. However, setting multiple arbitrary targets for reducing child hardship is easier than actually helping people extricate themselves from their predicaments,” said Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
On his regular Radio New Zealand Nights chat, Eric Crampton talks through the findings of his latest report Recipe for Disaster. Read more
Wellington (25 January 2018): New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake or major disaster. That is a central finding of a research report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground, launched by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Our new report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground says New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake. Authors Bryce Wilkinson and Eric Crampton have reviewed the policy response to the Canterbury earthquakes. Read more
On Newstalk ZB, Eric Crampton discusses our latest report, Recipe for disaster. He says New Zealand still hasn't fixed the policy problems that slowed Christchurch's rebuild and remains under-prepared for another big quake. Read more
Eric Crampton features on 1News discussing his new report, Recipe for Disaster, and the lessons that the government can learn from the response to the Christchurch earthquakes.
Read Recipe for Disaster here: http://bit.ly/2ncQJGz Read more
Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative is concerned that sugar tax advocates are misleading the public by pretending to punish manufacturers rather than consumers. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, policy analyst Jenesa Jeram says there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Read more