In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 classic, Victor Frankenstein claims to have created his monster for the betterment of humankind. Of course, Frankenstein’s undertaking proved more arrogant conceit than utopian undertaking. Read more
Wellington (5 August 2016): Public policy think tank The New Zealand Initiative will be hosting Henry Olsen, America’s top election analyst, in Auckland on 15 – 16 August. Described as “the smartest commentator on American politics and elections out there” (Robert P. Read more
In politics, the good enough is the best you can usually hope for. On most policy questions, the best is irrelevant. Read more
Forget housing affordability, if you want to quickly divide a room into two antagonistic camps ask whether New Zealand should increase its refugee quota. Those in favour of opening the doors are likely to say that New Zealand’s new pledge to accept 1,000 refugees a year is not enough. Read more
By the time you read this a bottle of champagne and bouquet of seasonal blooms will have landed on Conservation Minister Maggie Barry’s desk. It is the least the Initiative could do for someone who has made our lives so easy. Read more
Where to for recreational fishing as commercial industry targets double the exports? There is a saying, 'If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing poles.' Well, perhaps we should first concentrate on the shortage of fish. Read more
Stephen Jennings’s recent speech to a New Zealand Initiative audience (NBR, July 22) was a wake-up call to Kiwis. It had discordant and harmonious notes. Read more
Former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson once quipped that a week is a long time in politics, so you can be forgiven if you’ve forgotten about National’s latest fix to the housing crisis: a $1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund. Launched at the party’s conference, the fund would allow debt-constrained councils to borrow on an off-the-books basis to put in the infrastructure necessary for housing development. Read more
As a crude rule of thumb, presenting at a conference is always easier when you are telling the audience something it wants to hear. That was the case when I launched The Local Benchmark: When Smaller is Better at the annual Local Government New Zealand conference on Monday. Read more
Today the average Auckland house would put close to a $1million dent in your pocket. Meanwhile a competent teacher’s salary increases yearly and is capped at the seventh year at the mid $70,000 mark. Read more
I have a confession to make…I may be an illegal alien in Wellington. I never got official permission to move here. Read more
That is the question that policymakers in New Zealand have been pondering for over 170 years. It is not a simple question to answer. Read more
With government about to table legislation that would allow greater amalgamation of local authorities in New Zealand, this report examines how other countries have embraced the diversity of local government to enhance their economic competitiveness. Local government plays a vital role in national productivity. Read more
Wellington (25 July 2016): The people of the larger Wellington area were right to vote against amalgamation and avoid the expensive tangle of red tape. We are seeing Auckland struggling to be efficient and address issues effectively and in a timely way. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative's latest report, The Local Benchmark: When smaller is better asks the question, "What is the right size for local government?". The report looks at the cities of Manchester and Montreal and their respective approaches to devolved decision-making, and also analyses the Swiss and Dutch local governance systems. Read more