New research out of NZIER, and released under the Official Information Act, says the sugar tax won't work. The findings mirror what we concluded in our 2016 report, The Health of the State. Read more
Wellington (30 January 2018): “We welcome the government’s focus on tracking the number of children in persistent poverty and hardship. However, setting multiple arbitrary targets for reducing child hardship is easier than actually helping people extricate themselves from their predicaments,” said Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
On his regular Radio New Zealand Nights chat, Eric Crampton talks through the findings of his latest report Recipe for Disaster. Read more
Wellington (25 January 2018): New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake or major disaster. That is a central finding of a research report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground, launched by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Our new report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground says New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake. Authors Bryce Wilkinson and Eric Crampton have reviewed the policy response to the Canterbury earthquakes. Read more
On Newstalk ZB, Eric Crampton discusses our latest report, Recipe for disaster. He says New Zealand still hasn't fixed the policy problems that slowed Christchurch's rebuild and remains under-prepared for another big quake. Read more
Eric Crampton features on 1News discussing his new report, Recipe for Disaster, and the lessons that the government can learn from the response to the Christchurch earthquakes.
Read Recipe for Disaster here: http://bit.ly/2ncQJGz Read more
Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative is concerned that sugar tax advocates are misleading the public by pretending to punish manufacturers rather than consumers. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, policy analyst Jenesa Jeram says there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Read more
Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative's Sam Warburton says that Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers’ Union has overlooked bigger problems in transport funding in his claim that the National Land Transport Fund be limited only to roads. “Apart from the contribution public transport can make to alleviating congestion, what Mr Williams’ argument misses is that much National Land Transport Fund expenditure is matched almost dollar-for-dollar by ratepayers,” said Warburton. Read more
The call for a sugar tax has been strengthened by a new study of New Zealand's soft drinks which shows they contain more sugar than in other countries. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, Jenesa Jeram discusses on Newstalk ZB there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Read more
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) admitted errors in its report on the economic benefits of hosting the America's Cup in Auckland. Its initial cost-to-benefit ratio estimate was between 1.8 and 1.2, meaning benefits would outweigh cost by between 80 and 20 percent. Read more
Wellington (21 December 2017): The New Zealand Initiative welcomes today’s correction by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to its previous estimates of the economic benefits of hosting the America’s Cup. On 22 November 2017, MBIE released the results of its cost-benefit analysis. Read more
The government has launched a new $22.5 million plan to keep motorists safer on rural highways. Sam Warburton speaks with Mike Hosking about this plan. Read more
Mike Hosking interviews Bryce Wilkinson about Treasury’s Living Standards Framework. It's part of a Government plan to show how many children have been lifted out of poverty in next May's budget. Read more
The coalition Government says about 384,000 families will be better off by $75 a week under its families package. It's estimated 88,000 children's lives will be turned around by the flagship policy which will cost $5.5 billion over the next five years. Read more