Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at the Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords.
Oliver holds a master's degree in economics and business administration and a PhD in Law from Bochum University in Germany.
Oliver is available to comment on all of the Initiative’s research areas.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Donald Trump’s second term has given Europe one fight after another. Tariffs, Greenland, Ukraine, and Iran have all had their turn. Read more
The Treasury's pre-election update showed spending up, revenue down and debt rising after three years of a government elected on restraint. Oliver and Damien ask who ends up as finance minister after 7 November, and whether any of them will confront superannuation and interest heading for $44 billion by 2031. Read more
When law firms advise foreign clients on investing in New Zealand, they usually include some version of the same paragraph. It describes the country as a stable democracy with independent courts, secure property rights and predictable politics, and for decades nobody had to think twice before writing it. Read more
Nicky Hager's new book on the Taxpayers' Union has had several of its claims publicly contradicted within days of publication. Oliver and Damien discuss the fallout and what it has already cost the organisation. Read more
Over the past couple of months, we have heard mounting alarm from business leaders about this election campaign. They are asking whether New Zealand still welcomes people willing to invest here. Read more
In two polls taken in the second half of August, One Nation stood five or six points ahead of the Coalition. In a third, it trailed by one. Read more
In this episode, Oliver talks with Eric Crampton, chief economist at the New Zealand Initiative, about his new paper "Breaking up the supermarkets is hard to do... and a bad idea", which finds the promised savings rest on an untested assumption about how Foodstuffs prices its supermarket banners. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich joined Lisa Owen on Checkpoint with RNZ to discuss the open letter signed by more than 50 business leaders, spanning construction, grocery, property, banking, and investment, calling on political parties to uphold private property and contract rights. He argued that proposals to buy back BNZ, split up supermarket chains, break apart electricity "gentailers," and re-regulate retirement villages all share the same flaw: they're designed to poll well with focus groups rather than solve real problems, several of which stem from past government decisions such as pandemic-era money printing, restrictions on oil and gas, and decades of restrictive planning law. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 23 September 2026) – Fifty-one New Zealand business leaders have signed an open letter asking every political party to uphold private property rights and freedom of contract. The signatories include chief executives, chairs and directors of companies in banking, construction, education, energy, farming, finance, fishing, grocery, insurance, manufacturing and property. Read more
Our Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich joined Ryan Bridge on Newstalk ZB to discuss an open letter signed by around 50 business leaders calling on political parties to respect private property rights, freedom of contract, and lawful agreements. Oliver argued that policies like rewriting already-signed retirement village contracts, cancelling lawfully granted mining approvals, and threatening firms with nationalisation (including National's supermarket break-up plan) form a broader pattern of "post-rational politics," where any policy that polls well with focus groups is fair game, regardless of party or merit. Read more
Our Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich joined Ryan Bridge on Ryan Bridge TODAY to discuss the open letter signed by 50 business leaders. It opposes a run of election-year policies from splitting up supermarket chains and threatening to nationalise banks, to rewriting signed mining and retirement village contracts. Read more
To the leaders of New Zealand’s political parties New Zealand needs investment from both here and overseas to build businesses and create jobs. Investors need confidence that the law will protect what they own and the agreements they make. Read more
Two thousand years ago, according to St Luke, Emperor Augustus decreed that all the world should be registered. A carpenter and his pregnant wife walked from Nazareth to Bethlehem to comply. Read more
I do not often write columns that I later come to regret. But I wrote one for Newsroom in January 2022 that turned out to be completely wrong (Russia has won the war without firing a single shot, 25 January 2022). Read more
In this podcast episode, retired Major General John Howard joins Oliver live in a webinar to discuss his new research note "Worth Defending" and why New Zealand needs a stronger, combat-capable Defence Force. Howard, who served forty years and retired only last year, describes what decades of declining capability looked like from the inside, explains why he thinks the $9 billion of new defence money is not enough, and sets out what it would take to rebuild across two or three successive governments. Read more