From 2007 until about two weeks ago, New Zealand’s regulators considered prediction markets as a kind of futures market. Then the Department of Internal Affairs decided they are gambling. Read more
Roger Partridge discussed the Initiative's new report on asset recycling on RNZ, proposing that selling selected state assets — including TVNZ, NZ Post, energy company stakes, Transpower, and Landcorp — could free up around $25 billion for a ring-fenced infrastructure fund. Partridge argued the model, drawn from a successful New South Wales programme, would direct proceeds exclusively to infrastructure priorities vetted by an Independent Infrastructure Commission, and called for public debate to move beyond slogans like "selling the family silver." Listen below. Read more
Roger Partridge discussed the New Zealand Initiative's new report on Newstalk ZB, which argues the government could unlock more than $24 billion by selling or leasing Crown-owned commercial assets such as Kiwibank and Air New Zealand. The report points to New South Wales as a model, where asset recycling raised more than $50 billion for a dedicated infrastructure fund, and Partridge suggested the approach could work alongside the proposed Infrastructure Commission. Read more
Many pre-modern people believed gambling was bad and suppressed it. If you think about it, your life insurer is a bookie betting that you’re not going to die this year. Read more
Cities are shaped by millions of individual decisions. When people choose where to live, work and build, an order emerges from their combined choices – what urbanists call "spontaneous order." It arises from markets and human interactions, not from master plans. Read more
The central Government has a local government problem. Rates have been rising too fast, regional councils are seen as inefficient and unaccountable, and the public wants action. Read more
On 5 February 2026, Donald Trump stood before the National Prayer Breakfast. The room was full of the faithful – pastors, politicians, and conservative leaders who had long believed that America’s renewal required a strong hand. Read more
New Zealand has been trying to fix its resource management system for the better part of three decades. The Resource Management Act has been amended virtually every year since 1991 and reviewed several times during that period. Read more
In this episode, Eric Crampton talks to Nick Clark about New Zealand's long and troubled history with the Resource Management Act — and whether the Government's 744-page replacement really fixes it. They examine the missing property rights protections, the absence of robust cost-benefit analysis, and the fail-safes needed to ensure the new framework delivers better outcomes for New Zealanders. Read more
In August 2025, Dr Oliver Hartwich delivered the inaugural Da Vinci Lecture at the Portfolio Construction Forum Strategies Summit, an essay called Leonardo’s Legacy. That lecture attempted something ambitious – to trace the civilisational architecture that connected the Renaissance humanists to our present moment, and to explain how that structure was failing us. Read more
In this episode, Oliver talks to retired Major General John Howard about escalating US–Iran tensions, what 'phase zero' military build-up signals, and the pathways from diplomacy to potential strikes. With New Zealand holding, as Howard notes, around 14 days of fuel reserves, they explain why disruption in the Strait of Hormuz matters, and why energy security and national resilience deserve far greater urgency. Read more
European integration has always been a tug of war. On one side stand the enthusiasts. Read more
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 This submission on the Department of Internal Affairs’ draft proposal ‘Simplifying Local Government’ is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative). Read more
It is more than two weeks since the catastrophic failure of Wellington’s sewage treatment plant at Moa Point. Massive quantities of raw sewage continue to flow into Cook Strait. Read more
If this is the first you have heard of ‘social justice day,’ do not feel bad. Few people have heard of it, despite it having featured on the United Nations’ calendar for nearly two decades. Read more