Roger Partridge is chairman and a co-founder of The New Zealand Initiative and is a senior member of its research team. He led law firm Bell Gully as executive chairman from 2007 to 2014, after 16 years as a commercial litigation partner. Roger was executive director of the Legal Research Foundation, a charitable foundation associated with the University of Auckland, from 2001 to 2009, and was a member of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society, the governing body of the legal profession in New Zealand, from 2011 to 2015. He is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors, a member of the University of Auckland Business School advisory board, a member of the editorial board of the New Zealand Law Review and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
The Government has long promised an inquiry into banking competition. With the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee (FEC) about to begin its work, that time has finally come. Read more
1.1 This submission in response to the Finance and Expenditure Committee (FEC) Inquiry into Banking Competition (the Inquiry)1 is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. In combination, our members employ more than 150,000 people. Read more
The gig economy is driving a revolution in work, but our laws sometimes seem stuck in reverse. This week, Parliament finally took the wheel. Read more
Misguided good intentions paved the way for this winter’s energy crisis. Fortunately, the country has avoided blackouts. Read more
Access to primary healthcare is as critical to a government's survival as keeping the lights on. Yet a quarter of a million Kiwis cannot even register with a local GP. Read more
In a stunning display of temporal gymnastics, Labour leader Chris Hipkins has unveiled a novel explanation for New Zealand’s maths education crisis. He’s blaming it on a policy that Labour scrapped over six years ago. Read more
With New Zealand’s economy becalmed, a fresh wind is blowing in from across the Tasman. The Albanese government’s decision to cap international student numbers has created a potential $2.5 billion-a-year opportunity for New Zealand. Read more
When lightning strikes thrice, it is time to take notice. The Commerce Commission is only partway through its latest market study – this time into personal banking services. Read more
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law. Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum. Read more
Roger Partridge talks to Sean Plunket on The Platform about New Zealand's ambition problem, the subject of his latest article in the NZ Herald. Watch below. Read more
Roger Partridge was interviewed on the RNZ podcast The Detail by Tom Kitchin about the increase in public servants. Listen below. Read more
When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand's first-world status was at stake. Read more
2023 was a great year for the Initiative. Have a look through our annual report to see what we achieved and what others are saying about what we do. Read more
My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. Read more
Last month’s Legal Research Foundation conference commemorating the Supreme Court’s 20th anniversary could mark a turning point for New Zealand’s highest court. Or at least it should if the Supreme Court justices were listening. Read more