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The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) has made all kinds of waves in the media recently, but the least expected has to be the news that Auckland Council spent two and half hours debating the free trade agreement. The result of the meeting was that the council’s Regional Strategy and Policy Committee kicked for touch by requesting that the final text of the agreement be released before a firmer position was taken on the trade deal. Read more

The saying that if your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail seems particularly apt when describing central government’s approach to local government reform. Staring some pretty daunting challenges in the face, like the wave of infrastructure that needs to be refreshed off an ageing ratepayer base over the next 30 years, central government’s preferred solution so far has been to amalgamate councils into bigger structures. Read more

Dr Oliver Hartwich from The New Zealand Initiative explains that, while they might make homeowners feel richer, high home prices are not a cause for celebration. It’s time to remember what a home’s true function is and why unaffordability is problematic. Read more

At The New Zealand Initiative researchers are exposed to a wide array of interesting information from various sources. Some of this relates research, others just fit into areas of interest. Read more

Do older Australians hate younger Australians? This is a question that some were left pondering after attending a recent presentation by John Daley of the Grattan Institute on the urbanisation challenge facing Australian cities. Read more

One of the most commonly held views on cities you will hear is that urban centres need to be carefully designed by town planning regulators in order to be efficient. That is to say, that without trained professionals telling private developers what to build and where, cities will descend into chaos. Read more

I don't think there has ever been a better time to pull out Homer Simpson's term "crisitunity". As everyone knows, the Chinese character for crisis combines danger with opportunity - hence crisitunity. Read more

This week, Local Government New Zealand launched a funding reform pitch at central government, broadly making a case that if you want the national economy to grow, you need to fund the enablers of that growth better. This is certainly not the first such pitch that the local government sector has made to officials in Wellington on the matter. Read more