MEDIA

Our new report, The Price is Right: The road to a better transport system, by Patrick Carvalho, calls for bipartisan political support for the introduction to congestion pricing. The report argues congestion charging - where road users pay charges based on distance, time, location and vehicle type and weight - can promote funding transparency and accountability while addressing the increasing congestion woes in New Zealand. Read more

Our executive director Dr Oliver Hartwich sits down with Kim Campbell to discuss the work of the Initiative, why it's important and highlights some of the challenges we face. Oliver gives some insights into his childhood in Germany, and his career path to how he ended up in Wellington at the Initiative. Read more

Chief Economist Eric Crampton speaks about the Provincial Growth Fund and the $50 million that has been spent on feasibility studies.

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Abolishing New Zealand’s decile-based school funding system may get rid of the decile stigma of some schools. However, it does nothing to address the underlying issues, says a new research note by think tank The New Zealand Initiative. Read more

Low-decile schools are often viewed as being of lower quality by parents and are disproportionately categorised by ERO in the underperforming category. However, findings from The New Zealand Initiative’s latest report, In Fairness to Our Schools: Better measures for better outcomes, suggests that many low-deciles schools are some of the top-performers in the country. Read more

How do you rate a secondary school's performance? For many parents the decile rating becomes the default measure. Read more

Dr Eric Crampton talks to TVNZ Breakfast about our new report In Fairness to our Schools. He explains the results of our innovative new tool that enables the performance of schools to be properly measured and how it can be used to provide better outcomes for all students in New Zealand. Read more

Dr Eric Crampton talks to Radio New Zealand, The Panel about a Universal Basic Income (UBI) and whether it would work in New Zealand. Listen to the full interview below. Read more

A new report has found that New Zealand spends 5.5% of our national income on schooling - the seventh highest in the OECD. Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton spoke to Mike Hosking and said larger class sizes are not a bad thing - if you have good quality teachers. Read more

The government’s proposal to reform New Zealand’s underachieving vocational education sector is laudable, but there are still concerns that need to be addressed, says a new research note from The New Zealand Initiative. The research note, Hands-on: New suggestions to reform New Zealand's vocational sector, identifies what changes need to be implemented to ensure the vocational education sector is given the same positive level of attention as a university education: Industry training has to become more attractive for students and employers alike in order for it to be seen as a successful career path The roles of different educational institutions in the vocational sector have to be clearly defined to manage expectations, and Existing institutions must be independent and self-reliable so that they look for partners early and don’t count on the government to step in once the business model has proven to be dysfunctional for many years. Read more

UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced that he will close down Parliament until the middle of October. Oliver Hartwich spoke about this move, and what it means for Brexit, on Newstalk ZB. Read more

Eric Crampton spoke to Radio New Zealand about the government's proposal to establish a new, independent office to cost the policies of political parties.

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At the 2019 Building Nations conference, run by Infrastructure New Zealand, Dr Oliver Hartwich discusses how localism could work in New Zealand, and highlights our research on the topic. 

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To reinvigorate nightlife in our cities we need to take a more modern and balanced approach, says a report released today by The New Zealand Initiative. Living after Midnight: For a better night-time environment highlights New Zealand’s antiquated way of restricting life after dark. Read more

To reinvigorate nightlife in our cities we need to take a more modern and balanced approach, says our new report, Living after Midnight: For a better night-time environment. Executive Director Oliver Hartwich spoke to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB to discuss how Amsterdam and Melbourne have come up with pro-active solutions that enable a thriving nightlife, and how we could do the same in New Zealand. Read more