Wellington, 7 October 2020 - If the major political parties were taking climate change seriously, they would rely on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) not add wasteful targets, says The New Zealand Initiative chief economist Dr Eric Crampton. Today, the Labour party unveiled its promise to mandate zero-emission buses by 2025 and to ban some new coal-fired boilers. Read more
Anybody who watches house prices in Wellington will realise there is a mismatch between demand for homes and supply. Wellington City’s Draft Spatial Plan attempts to address this and the fact that over the next 30 years an extra 80.000 will move to Wellington. Read more
Jacinda Ardern’s staff ran into a problem after she declared New Zealand free of the coronavirus in June. It was impossible to keep the prime minister on schedule, they griped, because she was constantly mobbed by supporters. Read more
The Labour Party is promising to bring forward its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation by five years to 2030. Matt Burgess is the author of our research report Switched On! Read more
Wellington, 11 September 2020 – The Government’s commitment to 100% renewable electricity by 2030 goes against the advice of its own independent experts, says the New Zealand Initiative. In April 2019, the Government’s Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) found the 100% renewables policy will: raise the price of electricity by 14% for households and 39% for industry effectively raise emissions by preventing greater emissions reductions elsewhere hit low-income households hardest, and make blackouts up to 100 times more likely. Read more
Wellington, 9 September 2020 – Almost a third of Kiwi voters do not know which political parties are in Parliament and less than half understand how a party can get there, according to a new study. With elections just around the corner, new research by The New Zealand initiative reveals just 69% of Kiwis can name all five political parties in Parliament today. Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Duncan Garner on The AM Show about our survey that shows a shocking lack of civics knowledge amongst New Zealanders. He says it is hard to vote well if you don't know the basics. Read more
How much of what Kiwi voters should know about democracy do they really know? Our Chief Economist Eric Crampton discusses the results of our new report on the state of civic knowledge in New Zealand on TVNZ Breakfast. Read more
Wellington, 9 September 2020 – If Labour’s goal is to get debt back under control then it would make more sense to prune back spending, such as on superannuation, says David Law, senior research fellow at The New Zealand Initiative. Today, Labour finance minister Grant Robertson announced a lift in the top tax percentage from 33% to 39% for anyone earning over $180,000. Read more
Our new report Democracy in the Dark shows that almost a third of New Zealanders cannot name the political parties currently in parliament. Less than half of the one thousand people surveyed understood how New Zealand's political system MMP, works. Read more
In our report Democracy in the Dark, we argue that New Zealanders might need to brush up on their civics homework before the upcoming election in October. Chief Editor Nathan Smith joins Radio NZ's The Panel to discuss the report's findings. Read more
Wellington, 3 September 2020 – A chokepoint at the border is blocking entry of critical workers and suffocating the economy, according to a new paper from The New Zealand Initiative. New Zealand’s small size means both the public and private sectors often need international experts with niche skills. Read more
On Newstalk ZB, Mike Hosking reviews Roger Partridge's latest NZ Herald article "The inconvenient questions over NZ's virus setback" and explains why it is important to read it.
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Wellington, 10 August 2020 - State-integrated schools are the best value for money compared with private and state schools, according to a new report by The New Zealand Initiative. Many parents want their kids to go to private schools. Read more
State-integrated schools offer best value for money compared to their private and public counterparts and on average students at state-integrated schools are likely to gain university entry qualifications. While the average student at a state school has a 30.5% chance of gaining UE, those at state-integrated schools had a 38.8% chance. Read more