“There’s a hole in your budget, dear Labour, dear Labour, there’s a hole in your budget, dear Labour, a hole.” It is a pity that Finance Minister Steven Joyce did not sing his Monday press conference. It would have been an appropriate start to a week of political theatre. Read more
In 1936 the much-quoted US journalist HL Mencken wrote“government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods”. So here we are in 2017, preparing to vote in yet another government spending auction of someone else’s money. Read more
We just don’t know how lucky we are to live in New Zealand. In Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, John Watson decided that the world had gone mad when he found instructions on the side of a packet of toothpicks. Read more
A country is going to the polls. The economy is doing well. Read more
Ending child poverty is the entire reason Jacinda Ardern got into politics. When Ardern announced in Monday's debate that she would march in the streets to end homelessness, it wasn't a political platitude. Read more
Research Fellow Sam Warburton answers on Newshub the question: Is there an $11.7b hole in Labour's fiscal plan? Read more
Everything in moderation. In the constantly-changing world of pop-health stories it is hard to know whether that axiom remains good health advice. Read more
Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton’s essay, The Outside of the Asylum is a lighthearted take and it makes a serious point. Regardless of election year shenanigans, New Zealand gets a lot of things right that other countries screw up. Read more
This year’s election campaign has been just a little bit crazy. But New Zealand remains the world’s last sane place, says The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Imagine if no one had to pay for anything. Wouldn’t that be nice? Read more
Quidquid agis prudenter agas et respice finem. Whatever you do, do it wisely and consider the end, a famous Latin proverb reminds us. Read more
To get the right answers you have to ask the right questions. If you do not, chances are you will not discover everything you need to know. Read more
The thing I miss least about being in academia is the administration. I don’t mean faculty governance – it is important that academics be involved in that lest everything be taken over by the administrators. Read more
What does the future hold for recreational fishing? That is the central question that will be asked at a series of upcoming public meetings in the North Island, hosted by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
You read it here first folks: we are one election bribe away from paying couples to procreate. Forget what you might have heard about personal responsibility and that you shouldn't have children you can't afford. Read more