Wellington (Wednesday, 17 June 2026) – New Zealand cannot build enough houses because councils cannot afford the pipes and roads that new suburbs need. That is the conclusion of a new report by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Michael Laws on The Platform about Labour's public transport policy. He argued the policy was released without a proper discussion document or modelling, and that its figures on cost, savings and passenger numbers do not stack up. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Wallace Chapman on RNZ's The Panel about the New Zealand Initiative's election recommendation to introduce a lower youth wage, which he argued would tackle high youth unemployment by giving 16 and 17 year olds a path into work and structured training. Dr Hartwich pointed to Central European countries such as Germany and Switzerland, where lower wages are paired with three or four year training programmes leading to a certified qualification, while panellists were divided on whether the idea risked exploiting young workers. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 28 May 2026) – The New Zealand Initiative welcomes the Going for Housing Growth Incentive Fund announced in Budget 2026. The Initiative has argued for more than a decade that councils need a direct financial stake in enabling new housing. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 27 May 2026) – New Zealand can be a much more prosperous country, and the policy choices needed to get us there are well within reach, says The New Zealand Initiative’s Executive Director, Dr Oliver Hartwich. The Initiative today released Prescription for Prosperity 2026, its fourth briefing to an incoming government. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 21 May 2026) – Housing targets have long been a political football. They are also an emotional political subject. Read more
Dr Benno Blaschke talked to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB about his research note Beyond Targets, arguing that housing targets alone are insufficient without addressing the planning rules and zoning that create artificial scarcity. Dr Blaschke proposed an independent expert panel, likening it to a financial adviser for cities, to help councils get the urban economics right rather than leaving housing affordability to political decision-making. Read more
Dr Benno Blaschke talked to Jesse Mulligan on RNZ Afternoons about his new report Beyond Targets, which argues that New Zealand's "predict and provide" approach to housing planning locks projections into rigid regulation that fails to respond to real market demand. Dr Blaschke proposes a more flexible system with an independent accountability function, similar to the Reserve Bank's role with interest rates, that monitors price signals and adjusts zoning to ensure housing is provided where people actually want to live. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 7 May 2026) – The New Zealand Initiative today publishes a satirical novella. The book is called The Martian Audit. Read more
Dr Michael Johnston talked to Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB about the Initiative's report calling for vocational and industry-led subjects to be part of the new post-NCEA qualification from 2029, directing more students towards apprenticeships and the trades rather than defaulting to university. Dr Johnston said schools will need to partner with tertiary institutions and employers to deliver these subjects, and suggested that trade skills may prove more durable than many white-collar professions as AI reshapes the workforce. Read more
Wellington (Tuesday, 28 April 2026) - A heavy diesel mechanic earns roughly the same as a policy analyst, qualifies in the same time and graduates with little or no debt. Yet most New Zealanders still regard university as superior to industry training and our school qualifications system has quietly reinforced that bias for decades. Read more
Newstalk ZB's news bulletin reported on the Initiative's report questioning why New Zealand still treats university as the gold standard when a tradie can earn as much as a policy analyst. Dr Michael Johnston said industry-led subjects must be designed with schools and students in mind, not just the industry, and that schools will need additional resources to teach them well. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 23 April 2026) - The Government’s 2025 Defence Capability Plan commits $12 billion over four years, including $9 billion of new spending. But without institutional reform, new money risks being absorbed into a system too slow and fragmented to deliver modern capability, a new report from The New Zealand Initiative warns. Read more
New Zealand's defence investment is landing the same way it always has: slowly, bureaucratically, and after the need has already been declared. In this webinar, retired Major General John Howard presents his new report God Defend New Zealand, which argues the country must move from an industrial-age acquisition model to one that operates at the speed of technological change. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Peter Williams on Taxpayer Talk about his paper arguing New Zealand's public service system is fundamentally broken, with the Public Service Commissioner, not elected ministers, controlling the appointment of department chief executives and shaping their career incentives. Drawing on Germany's model of ministerial responsibility and contrasting it with the American and Australian systems, Dr Hartwich proposed a transition toward giving ministers direct control over their departments while maintaining safeguards such as qualification requirements and a duty to object to unlawful orders. Read more