We do not yet know how the courts will rule on whether Wellington City Council can force its contractors to pay their employees a minimum of $18.55 an hour. But I think we can come to a verdict on the policy's economic merits, and I do not think council would much like it. Read more

It’s easier to seek forgiveness than permission. And it might be more effective as well. Read more

Labour’s Phil Twyford has been talking a lot of good sense on housing supply, but I am having a hard time making sense of his policies on foreign buyers. So far, the good outweighs the bad. Read more

It’s easier to seek forgiveness than permission. And it might be more effective as well. Read more

I hate self-inflicted wounds. New Zealand’s use of public data, or lack thereof, counts. Read more

Will the coming flag referendum pick the right flag? It looks like we might never know. Read more

Living longer is good. But a lot of things are good. Read more

Trialling policy reform in regions that are keen to see the benefits could solve rather a few of the country’s policy problems. New Zealand has one of the world’s more centralised forms of government. Only about nine cents of every dollar of government expenditure is spent at the local level. Read more

Since the third position here at Insights is usually reserved for a light-hearted take on the events of the day, let me play devil’s advocate, taking the opposite side to two of Oliver’s recent arguments. Oliver is almost certainly correct, and if the Initiative has a position on anything, it is his. Read more

If there is one overarching theme in the Department of Internal Affairs’ report on loopy regulations, released this week, it is that our regulations have become so complicated that nobody really knows what the rules are any more. The Rules Reduction Taskforce set out last year to collect examples of “loopy” regulations in need of updating. Read more