Wellington (23 January 2014): The New Zealand Initiative has welcomed the introduction of a four new tiers of teaching positions as a huge step toward lifting the educational performance of New Zealand’s schools. The think tank has long been a strong advocate for such a policy, which was announced by Prime Minister John Key today as part of his State of the Nation address. Read more
Wellington (9 Dec 2013): To lift students’ academic achievement, New Zealand needs to take heed of how countries with high performing education systems have turned teaching into a profession. That is the message of the think tank’s latest report Around the World: The Evolution of Teaching as a Profession, a comparative study that examines how Singapore, Germany, Finland, England, Canada and Australia are focusing on teachers to deliver better educational outcomes. Read more
Wellington (4 December 2013): New Zealand’s sudden drop in the international education rankings is a clear signal that the country needs to lift teacher quality if wants students to be able to participate in the modern workplace, said The NewZealand Initiative. Compared to the 2009 results, 15 year olds saw their overall ranking in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) fall across the board, dropping from 7th to 13th in reading, 13th to 23rd in mathematics, and 7th to 18th in science. Read more
Wellington (18 November 2013): The government needs to urgently restructure financial incentives for local councils, shift the burden of water infrastructure costs, and create competition in planning if it wants to deliver affordable homes, according to The New Zealand Initiative’s third housing report. The report, Free to Build: Restoring New Zealand’s Housing Affordability, is the third in a series which explores how the housing market has lost its affordability since the 1970s, and how other countries have maintained stable house prices over the same period. Read more
Wellington (7 October 2013): While national standards, charter schools, and class sizes have dominated the education debate, research by The New Zealand Initiative shows teacher quality is the most important in-school factor influencing student achievement. But as the World Class Education? Read more
Wellington (2 October 2013): If the developed world is looking to put more power in the hands of people at a local government level, why is New Zealand headed in the other direction? According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 30 per cent of member state public spending is controlled by local government on average, but in New Zealand that figure stands at 11 per cent. Read more
Wellington (12 September 2013): Would-be home owners don’t have to resign themselves to ever increasing house prices according to the latest research from the New Zealand Initiative, which found three overseas markets who are getting it right. In brief, the research found: In Germany and Switzerland, where the right to build is entrenched and local government funding is linked to population growth, house prices were stable but high; In Texas, where projects outside of zoned municipal areas are run by private developers, house prices had been maintained at a low level for an extended period; and Britain’s planning system, which shares many attributes with New Zealand, has delivered housing shortages, steep house price inflation, and smaller, more urban dwellings. Read more
Wellington (4 September 2013): New Zealand has outperformed Australia on the latest Global Competitiveness Index for the first time, according to an annual report compiled by the World Economic Forum. New Zealand climbed five places from last year to come in at 18th on the overall ranking of global competitiveness, while Australia slipped one place to drop out of the top 20 for the first time with a score of 21. Read more
Wellington (20 August 2013): NZ Universities thrash-out skilled emigration debate The Next Generation Grand Final Debate: Fresh Perspectives on the Big Social Issues Special Guest Panellist: Hon Hekia Parata, Minister of Education Skilled, under 30, and thinking of heading overseas - does that make you an asset or a liability to New Zealand Inc.? That’s what we’ll find out when Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Auckland go head-to-head in the finals of the annual The Next Generation Debates: Fresh Perspectives on Big Social Issues, to be held in Wellington on Thursday night. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative is bringing Nick Cater to New Zealand to launch his book The Lucky Culture on 15 July in Wellington, 16 July in Auckland and 17 July in Christchurch. The Lucky Culture and the rise of an Australian ruling class, published by Harper Collins, is a bold and provocative book about Australia’s national identity and how it is threatened by the rise of an aspiring ruling class. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative is launching the first in a series of reports on housing affordability, co-authored by former local government minister Hon Dr Michael Bassett and Luke Malpass. Priced Out – How New Zealand Lost Its Housing Affordability looks at long-term trends in housing regulation and social circumstances as well as the changing roles of local and central governments. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative Executive Director, Dr Oliver Hartwich, discusses Budget 2013 on TVNZ's Q+A with Susan Wood. Read more
Public policy think tank, The New Zealand Initiative, launches its first report on New Zealand’s international debt position and foreign direct investment regimes. The report, New Zealand's Global Links: Foreign Ownership and the Status of New Zealand's Net International Investment, provides a one-stop-shop for statistics on New Zealand’s investment patterns. Read more
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard will be the keynote speaker at the The New Zealand Initiative’s annual retreat dinner in Auckland on 21 March. Mr Howard will speak about ‘Trans-Tasman Relations in the Pacific Century.’ “My talk will focus on some of the joint opportunities and challenges before Australia and New Zealand in a regional economy dominated by the continued development of China and many other Asian economies,” says Mr Howard Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative, says John Howard’s talk will be educational, inspiring, and enlightening. Read more