The housing supply shortage is worse than expected. That makes it even more important that government focuses on the key barriers to getting more houses built. Read more
Imagine buying a house, or choosing a spouse without knowing anything about them. You wouldn’t do it. Read more
When I was a lad, Treasury was a home for bean counters. Many a fine public servant did an accounting degree part-time at evening classes at Vic. Read more
For cynics, it would be easy to denounce the government’s provincial growth programme as a slush fund. However, I am not cynical about the government’s intentions. Read more
New Zealand is blessed with substantial rainfall. But, the pressure of population and agriculture is pushing some catchments to their limits. Read more
Sunday's "Save our charter schools march" was a moving experience. It wasn't just the hundreds of people who turned up in torrential rain to protest. Read more
Almost a century ago, the great sociologist Max Weber defined the ideal politician in his lecture Politics as a Vocation. As Bill English just announced his retirement from politics, we may well measure his record by Weberian standards. Read more
New Zealand exports about 95 percent of its dairy production. The receipts make it a major overseas earner. Read more
Week 1- After years of campaigning, I knew it was only a matter of time before our government ramped up its efforts tackling child obesity. Like my counterparts in Chile, I will be offering the government my technical expertise to crack down on junk food advertising to children. Read more
In the 1940s, a different Lipson (that one an English political scientist) famously remarked that if Wellington or Auckland harbours were ever to have a statue akin to that in New York, it would assuredly be a statue of Equality. The ideal of a fair-go runs deep in the New Zealand psyche, and rightly so. Read more
I love Perpetual Guardian's experiment with a four-day work-week, but that does not mean I think it will work. The great thing about flexible labour markets is that it does not matter whether I think it will work, whether you think it will work, or whether the labour regulators at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) think it will work. Read more
The Global Financial Crisis now seems such a distant memory, it is easy to think of it as an historical episode. But this week’s stock market troubles are a timely reminder that the world economy is not in a healthy state. Read more
New Zealand school principals should add to their skills repertoire: ‘Magician’. In the week leading to the first day of school, leaders were reaching into their hats of creative tricks to fill vacancies. Read more
This week saw a nation divided. While there were no protests in the streets, snarky comments were rife. Read more
James Shaw’s State of the Planet speech called for a new economic model – sustainability economics – to meet environmental and equity challenges ahead. While his call comes from the left, it reminded me of earlier criticisms of mainstream economics from the right. Read more