New Zealand’s productivity track record is failing us. That was the key message delivered by the Productivity Commission’s new report, Productivity by the numbers: 2019. Read more
Economists, or at least economists of a policy-bent, like to distinguish between outputs and outcomes. Focusing on the former comes too easily at the expense of the latter, especially in the case of KiwiBuild and the Government’s overall housing supply agenda. Read more
The government has largely put the KiwiBuild and capital gains tax fiascos behind it. Next headed for the cold storage might be the recommendations of its Fair Pay Agreement working group. Read more
At its heart, Kiwibuild was a promise to end the housing crisis. The set of reforms Minister Twyford is overseeing can fulfil that promise, if he has the chance to see them through. Read more
“Nothing good happens after 3 am,” Auckland’s top-ranking police officer once said. “Facts tend to be overanalysed,” his Wellingtonian counterpart claimed. Read more
English is not my native language – not that you can tell by my German name or accent. I did learn the language, but the journey was most unusual. Read more
Denmark last Wednesday elected a Social Democrat-led government – so what else is new? Along with its Scandinavian neighbour Sweden, Denmark is the quintessential social democracy. Read more
If the Canterbury earthquakes taught us anything, it’s that the immediate response to a disaster is a very different thing from the rebuilding that has to follow. Disaster response is about triage, the good-enough, and avoiding substantial further harm. Read more
Winston Peters’ comments on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre were candid. Where Western politicians have turned not upsetting China over its human rights record into an art form, the Foreign Minister left diplomatic niceties behind. Read more
New Zealand has to slow down. At least, that was the overall message from the NZ Transport Agency’s Mega Maps data released this week. Read more
Readers of the NBR may have seen my column last week, “The great Brexit delusion”. For reasons that may not appear obvious, I comment in the column on proposals from the British government to curb the number of calories in restaurant meals and takeaway food. Read more
Remember former finance minister Steven Joyce’s claim that Labour’s fiscal plan for its 2017 general election campaign had an $11.7 billion “hole”? Back then, Labour intended to spend $572 billion in the five years to 2021-22. Read more
It used to be the case that the question of firing of public sector chiefs never even came up. Senior civil servants would themselves tender their resignations for catastrophic failures, and Ministers could accept or reject those resignations as appropriate. Read more
“With a little ingenuity, it is possible to devise methods of charging for the use of the city streets that are capable of adjusting the charge in close conformity with variations in costs and traffic conditions,” wrote William Vickrey, Nobel Laureate and the father of road pricing theory, in 1963. Little did he know that it would take more than 50 years for the technology to catch up to his vision. Read more
Through his review of NCEA, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has demonstrated how successful consultations can be. The six Big Opportunities presented last year by the Ministerial Advisory Group were a mixed bag. Read more
