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
‘Hard cases make bad law’ is a common legal adage. It means the more worthy a cause, the more tempting it will be for a court to stretch the law to make it fit. Read more
The New Year always brings the promise of a new beginning. But it also confronts us with last year’s headaches. Read more
The demise of the last Government’s Fair Pay Agreement legislation is a cautionary tale for policymakers. Death and taxes are sometimes called the only certainties. Read more
The country’s education establishment has come out swinging. ‘Destructive,’ ‘weird,’ and ‘radical,’ are how the critics have described the Christopher Luxon-led Coalition Government’s education reform agenda. Read more
After six years of a Labour-led Government, the newly sworn-in Government’s policies were always going to shock its opponents. Despite the centre-left and the centre-right parties all pitching their policies to the median voter, profound philosophical differences divide them. Read more
Real work begins for the new Government Whatever way you look at it, 2023 has been a long slog for the centre-right parties now trying to seal a coalition deal. The election campaign was unusually long. Read more
Last year, respect for the Commerce Commission sank to a new low. The New Zealand Initiative’s 2022 report, Reassessing the Regulators: The Good, the Bad and the Commerce Commission, revealed the Commission had lost the respect of the businesses it is tasked with regulating. Read more
Retirement spending and the size of the public service as two obvious areas for expenditure cuts. Significant savings are available from the reform of retirement income policy. Read more
The debate about inequality is one of the most impassioned in contemporary politics. It touches on core beliefs about justice, rights and the ideal structure of society. Read more
Earlier in the year, this column argued for a public service reset. It was prompted partly by the ballooning size of public sector headcount. Read more
“God’s own country” was how our longest-serving Prime Minister, Richard “King Dick” Seddon described New Zealand. The moniker he popularised for his country also proved enduring – even if by the late 20th century, it had become abbreviated to “Godzone.” Yet, as the 2023 general election approaches, New Zealand feels less blessed than it has in the past. Read more
As the nation prepares to vote on 14 October, the sentiment across New Zealand is one of frustration and concern. Skyrocketing living costs, unaffordable housing, strained healthcare, and a growing educational gap are the voices of a country looking for change. Read more
Election years rarely see the best economic policy ideas. It is easy enough to understand why. Read more
This submission in response to Auckland’s Future Development Strategy is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a Wellington-based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. In combination, our members employ more than 150,000 people. Read more
New Zealand prides itself on being an open trading nation. When it comes to trade in goods and services this claim is certainly true. Read more