Bryce Wilkinson discusses on TVNZ Breakfast his new report on KiwiBuild – the government programme to deliver 100,000 down-sized homes in 10 years. He explains why this policy is a waste of time and money and why it is not going to achieve worthwhile objectives. Read more
Executive SummaryRelative to income, dwelling prices in New Zealand are among the highest in the OECD. This is New Zealand’s housing affordability problem in a nutshell. Read more
Wellington (22 January 2019): Decisive government action to free up the supply of land for housing and to reduce construction costs across the board is the only viable remedy for New Zealand’s housing affordability problem. KiwiBuild – the government programme to build or deliver 100,000 homes in 10 years – is a massive distraction from fixing the housing problem, according to a new research report, KiwiBuild: Twyford’s Tar Baby, released today by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Bryce Wilkinson discusses with Karyn Hay on Radio New Zealand the findings in his new report on KiwiBuild. He explains why the policy fails against all the objectives set for it. Read more
With Jacinda Ardern meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss trade agreements, Dr Oliver Hartwich speaks to Newstalk ZB and says this is an important chance to discuss our post-Brexit trading relationship and a good opportunity to remind the Brits that there are other countries who would like to trade with Britain.
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The Tomorrow's Schools Independent Taskforce sees competition and self-governance as bad, collaboration and ministry management as good. It is seductive stuff, if a little Orwellian. Read more
Insights 48/December 21: Time to un-Grinch Insights 47/December 14: Centralism attacks Tomorrow’s Schools | Data driving education | Our inner animal Insights 46/December 7: Super model needs face-lift | Let us help | Final frontier of self-determination Insights 45/November 30: Having your housing cake | Vapers in the cold | War of Gondorean aggression Insights 44/November 23: Survive the conversation | Foreign investor farce | Destroy the town to save it Insights 43/November 16: Financial innovation beats Kiwibuild | Identity politics | One-Trillion Trees Insights 42/November 9: Towards Trump 2020 | Education under the x-ray | Better horses Insights 41/November 2: KiwiBuild lottery | Setting the question | Tricks and treats Insights 40/October 26: No case for waka jumping | Campaign finance reform | Thinking time for adults Insights 39/October 19: Why Good News Matters | Freshwater Progress | Politician of the Year Insights 38/October 12: Be Worried (About the Right Things) | An Effective ETS | Len Lye Lessons Insights 37/October 5: NZ First’s values | On virtue signalling and virtue | Schrödinger’s Canadians Insights 36/September 28: Sisyphean Labours | Showing Up Is Half The Battle | Frugalist Revolution Insights 35/September 21: Government Waste is a Taxing Matter | NCEA Review | Crazy Rich Ministries Insights 34/September 14: Dissecting the 21st century’s Great Untruths | The Acid Test | My safe space Insights 33/September 7: Can’t get no satisfaction | Politics close to the people | Give me the route Insights 32/August 31: The lucky country | Government’s fitness for purpose | Market is a harsh mistress Insights 31/August 24: Pseudo-productivity | Teach children cost-benefit analysis | Burger economy Insights 30/August 17: Bridges’ right to travel | Suffering from the Dagg Effect? | In praise of tax as love Insights 29/August 10: Freely Speaking | The other French revolution | Chief Burger Officer Insights 28/August 3: Treasury and opportunity costs | Is it 2008 again? Read more
Wellington is starting to empty, the morning commute is getting shorter, and the capital is finally feeling like summer – all signs that Christmas is not far away. And so it is the time of the year to thank you, our readers, for your interest in the Initiative’s work. Read more
New Zealand workers on the minimum wage are set for a significant pay rise. The Government has announced it will increase the minimum wage to $17.70 an hour on April 1, with further increases to take it to $20 by 2021. Read more
It’s hard to make young people care about New Zealand Superannuation. I should know. Read more
After the tumultuous years of the Euro crisis (2010–15), Europe seemed to have returned to more normal conditions. Gone were the riots in Athens, the stock market rollercoasters and the immediate threat of monetary union collapse. Read more
Meet Jim. Jim first started paying taxes when he was 12 years old and picked up a lawn mowing job. Read more
Few countries centralise government power as much as New Zealand. In most areas of public life, Wellington calls the shots, makes the rules, and holds the purse strings. Read more
New Zealand is world leading in many aspects, most notably for Sir Edmund Hillary’s triumph on Mt Everest, Ernest Rutherford’s breakthrough in nuclear physics, and women’s suffrage. We can also be proud of leading the world in integrated data, a process that combines data from different sources and displays results in a unified view to users. Read more
We have to take the flower by the thorns and cut the animalism out of our everyday language. That is the message this week from PETA, or the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Read more