OPINION

In Hayek’s Bastards, the distinguished historian Dame Anne Salmond takes issue with Act’s Regulatory Standards Bill, which she sees as the attempt of a fringe party to impose its ideologies and which she thinks would “elevate individual rights and private property above all other considerations in law-making” and thus undermine democracy. Salmond presents the bill as a result, not of the normal processes of democracy, but of a global conspiracy of ‘neo-liberal’ think tanks tracing their lineage to 20th-century thinkers such as Friedrich von Hayek. Read more

Regular Stuff columnist Damien Grant is a great friend of The New Zealand Initiative. In fact, he’s a member. Read more

Growing up, I always loved flipping through my dad’s catalogues showcasing sample slabs of stone benchtops. Like many other tradespeople, my dad has taken pride in helping people design beautiful kitchens. Read more

Prime Minister Luxon’s State of the Nation speech has already orchestrated an immediate response. The naysayers have identified the possibility of success as a threat to our national way of life. Read more

Has the Supreme Court once again stepped outside its lane? A recent ruling about who controls our coastlines suggests our highest court is trying to reshape laws made by Parliament, rather than just apply them. Read more

It’s fair to say that economists like competition. It’s also fair to say that, when politicians start talking about competition, economists ought to get a little bit nervous. Read more

“There’s always a reason to say no, but if we keep saying no, we’ll keep going nowhere.” With these words in his ‘State of the Nation’ speech last week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon diagnosed a critical barrier to New Zealand’s economic growth: a culture of negativity and excessive caution. Only a few days later, his government provided the perfect test case for Luxon’s diagnosis. Read more

If you’re reading this in print with your morning coffee, you’re probably not among the terminally online. For those who are among the terminally online, always hooked into what’s going on on Twitter and elsewhere, there’s probably no need to explain the vibes, or the shift in vibes. Read more

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation speech yesterday presents a clear shift towards economic growth. While familiar aspirational rhetoric featured prominently, his initiatives deserve support. Read more

How should politicians respond if public hospitals decided to stop treating injuries and illnesses? A version of this scenario is playing out in higher education across the English-speaking world. Read more

New Zealand, we love you. We love you Aussies. Read more

Misinformation about the pending Regulatory Standards Bill is rife. Currently, there is no Bill, only a departmental discussion document. Read more

Democracy rarely dies suddenly. It often erodes slowly as previously unthinkable developments become normalised, one bit at a time. Read more

When Newsroom’s editor Jonathan Milne invited me to write one of two special pieces for the summer break, I faced quite the conundrum. My options were to review a work of non-fiction or write a column about hope and optimism for 2025. Read more

David Harvey’s thoughtful critique in Law News of my report for The New Zealand Initiative, Who Makes the Law? Reining in the Supreme Court,[i] highlights the importance of addressing judicial overreach.[ii] The retired District Court judge agrees with the report’s conclusions that recent Supreme Court decisions raise legitimate concerns. Read more