OPINION

What happens when elected officials cannot understand the issues well enough to make good decisions? Local councillors often receive hundreds of pages of complex reports just days before critical votes, covering financial modelling, engineering specifications and legal implications. Read more

At midnight last night, submissions closed on the Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 2). The bill would introduce new measures to protect academic freedom, which is defined in the Education and Training Act as ‘the freedom of academic staff and students, within the law, to question and test received wisdom, to put forward new ideas, and to state controversial or unpopular opinions.’ These measures are sorely needed. Read more

Few ideas haunt economic debate as relentlessly as “trickle-down.” Perhaps it’s the appeal of attacking something that no one has ever argued. The theory supposedly claims that making the rich richer benefits everyone as wealth “trickles down.” It sounds plausible and feels unfair – making it the perfect villain. Read more

Picture this scenario: It is a Friday afternoon. A councillor receives a 600-page agenda for Tuesday's meeting. Read more

In two weeks, we will take a delegation of New Zealand Initiative members to the Netherlands. We had hoped to study Dutch excellence in infrastructure, technology and regulatory reform. Read more

In November 2023, Ayaan Hirsi Ali stunned many of her long-time admirers by announcing her conversion to Christianity. “We can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools,” she explained. Read more

It is hard to feel sorry for Harvard University. For two years running, Harvard has come at the bottom of the free speech rankings according to the Foundation Individual Rights and Expression. Read more

Governments have many roles, but some are of fundamental importance. A vital role is to secure citizens in their persons and possessions. Read more

We can learn a lot from newspapers’ Letters to the Editor pages. This week, I had a column in the Stuff newspapers on the Initiative’s proposed fast-track for new supermarkets. Read more

The United States has the world’s best universities. At least for now. Read more

New Zealand’s economy has a chronic capital problem – and it is getting worse. Over the last 50 years, New Zealand has become one of the most undercapitalised economies in the developed world. Read more

Later this month, our organisation, The New Zealand Initiative, will take a large delegation of top New Zealand business leaders to the Netherlands. It is not a trade mission but an ideas exploration. Read more

There’s an old joke about economists walking past a $20 note on the sidewalk. One says to the other, “If that note were real, someone would have picked it up already.” It could be that the $20 note was a photocopied counterfeit with advertising on the other side. Read more

New Zealanders’ frustration with grocery costs is understandable. When household budgets stretch thin, the instinctive response is to assertively tackle the issue. Read more

It is no secret that the government is struggling to balance the country’s books. Yet, in last week’s budget, nearly $2.5 billion was found for new educational initiatives. Read more