Public Forums

The University of Auckland has won the Auckland semi-final of The New Zealand Initiative’s Next Generation Debates. They prevailed against a team from the University of Canterbury on the moot This House believes that New Zealand should lower its current migrant intake. Read more

To promote our policy recommendations on recreational fisheries management, The New Zealand Initiative organised a series of public consultation meetings. Randall Bess travelled to five locations in the South Island and nine in the North Island to gather feedback on his recommendations for improving recreational fisheries in New Zealand. Read more

Parents want good schools and good teachers for their children, and most educators want to pass their knowledge to their students. The New Zealand Initiative’s analyses discovered that too many students leave school unqualified, and many others languish in low performing schools. Read more

Proponents of regulations and taxes on products increasingly justify interventions as “nudges” – intended to prod consumers to take better decisions. But do consumers really need government to nudge them? Read more

Local government plays an important role, one that is often overlooked. When things like roading and recycling work well, they are barely noticed. Read more

"In a connected world no man is an island and neither is his country” Economies and workforces are now globalised with wealth generation determined by the connectivity of national infrastructures, industrial investment and workforce adaptability. Unfortunately, history gives us little guidance to our future as we have never before enjoyed such technological riches or endured the accelerating rates of change! Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle over the moot: This house believes New Zealand should accommodate 60,000 refugees per year. We have panellists Hon Paul Goldsmith, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (National) and Denise Roche, Spokesperson for Immigration, Pacific Peoples, and Ethnic Affairs (Green Party)

Date: Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Time: 5.30 PM - 8.00 PM
Location: City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square, 101 Wakefield St, Wellington Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle over the moot: This house would ban religious symbols in public. We have panellists Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy and former TV journalist Lindsay Perigo. Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle it out with the moot: This house would reduce household inequality by banning those with university degrees from marrying each other. We will have panellists Head of Research of The New Zealand Initiative Dr Eric Crampton and Senior Economist at Infometrics Matt Nolan. Read more

On Thursday 14 July, the Initiative hosted Stephen Jennings for a dinner lecture. Jennings, the Taranaki-born economist and investor, has spent the past 24 years outside New Zealand. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative welcomes you to a panel discussion on the rise of ‘lifestyle regulations’. While we may be used to policies that address the negative outcomes of smoking, we now see policies aimed at what you eat and drink too. Read more

Canadian and New Zealand responses to last October’s refugee crisis could not have been more different. Kiwis who wanted to help Syrian refugees did admirable work in preparing for those refugees that New Zealand did accept. Read more

The European Union has been in crisis for many years. Simultaneous sovereign debt, banking and monetary crises have tested the European institutions to the limit. Read more

In today’s economy, regulations are ubiquitous. Successive governments have bequeathed us a legacy of thousands of pages of legislation and regulations which, in theory, every company manager and director should know. Read more

Changing national laws can be cumbersome. Finding central government solutions to local problems can be impossible. Read more