The Prime Minister and Finance Minister are keeping tax cuts on the agenda, despite not knowing the cost of last week's earthquakes. Economist Bryce Wilkinson from the New Zealand Initiative says tax cuts must be able to be fund. Read more
Local government plays an important role in New Zealand and is often overlooked. When things like roading, water and recycling services are working well, we barely even notice them. Read more
Wellington (21 November 2016): It is time to put the government back into local government and limit central government’s interference in what councils should be doing. Let councils get on with the job, says The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Research Fellow and author of The Local Manifesto, Jason Krupp, discusses some of the key findings from the final report in our series on local government. The key findings from this report provide a practical means of making local government more accountable and transparent to communities. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative is conducting research on the way fisheries are managed. This research will culminate in policy recommendations to help debate how best to improve New Zealanders’ recreational fishing experience. Read more
To launch our latest local government report, The Local Manifesto: restoring local government accountability, we held a panel discussion in Wellington on Monday 21 November. Our panelists were Lianne Dalziel, Mayor of Christchurch, Kevin Lavery, CEO of Wellington City Council and Jason Krupp, report author and Research Fellow at the Initiative. Read more
“Regulation above all else” is exactly what ridesharing wunderkind Uber must feel as it faces up to select committee hearings in Wellington this month. Despite promises of a new regulatory framework that recognises the role of global technology in improving safety and consumer protection, the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Transport have fallen well short. Read more
It was an odd sense of déjà vu this week as someone who lived in Christchurch until recently. The earthquake was hugely destructive and distressing for many. Read more
The government ran roughshod over property rights in the Christchurch rebuild. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s report urging the government to include property rights in the Bill of Rights now seems especially timely. Read more
Once upon a time, in a previous life it now seems, I wrote a doctoral thesis on the law and economics of advertising regulation. One of the fun facts I still remember is a paradox in people’s attitudes towards advertising. Read more
Pacific Halibut are a prized species in the North Pacific region. In recent years they have faced more stringent size and daily limits. Read more
The highly clichéd pop psychology definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. If we accept this meaning, then local government in New Zealand is just plain nuts, cuckoo, cray cray, whacko and doolally. Read more
According to most commentators, the election of Donald J. Trump signifies the end of the West, the end of the international post-War framework, or at least the end of the United States. Read more
As Game of Thrones fans will remember, while it’s tempting to see chaos as a pit, chaos can also be a ladder. As the latest season of America’s Game of Thrones reached a climax more shocking than the Red Wedding, New Zealand should look to potential opportunities. Read more
The issue of what to do with the 74,000 young New Zealanders who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs) is a tricky one. Labour correctly pointed out in its conference how difficult and despairing it can be for young people in this situation and what a waste this represents to society. Read more