Anyone who has tried to teach their parents how to use a new technology must have empathised with Uber New Zealand general manager Richard Menzies last week. Appearing before Parliament’s Transport Committee, Menzies was trying to make the case that outdated taxi regulations need not apply to Uber. Read more
Reincarnation is a tricky concept, not least because it requires we accept the idea that those experiencing terrible ordeals must have committed even more horrid deeds to deserve their fate. But, if this logic is accepted, then the people working in local government must have done some truly awful, terrible, horrendous things in a previous life. Read more
It’s pretty good being a working woman in New Zealand, which has one of the lowest gender pay gaps in the OECD. Gender disparities in many occupations have been closing. Read more
Like everyone else in Wellington, our family woke early that Monday morning to earthquakes. We had been through it before, in Christchurch, and I did not like it. Read more
Some opportunities you know you’d really regret passing over. And so I found myself on Saturday in a hot tub full of milk with Canterbury law lecturer David Round, Christchurch activist artist Sam Mahon, and chef-in-training Camila Nieuwlands. Read more
Local government is ready to sit down and talk with central government about improving the sector’s performance, provided policymakers in the Beehive come to the table as a partner, not as a parent. That was the theme that emerged from the launch of our latest report, The Local Manifesto: Restoring local government accountability, which took place in Wellington on Monday. Read more
I almost did not read The Herald’s exclusive ‘classroom shake-up’ coverage last week. Quake stories were getting me down. Read more
If we want councils to be open, accountable and democratic, we have to overhaul the laws the govern the sector, writes Jason Krupp Local government in Zealand is broken and dying, only it is dying so slowly that you’d hardly notice it unless you are looking, and it is a problem. That most of you probably read this without batting an eye is testament to just how broken the sector is. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative is conducting research on the way fisheries are managed. This research will culminate in policy recommendations to help debate how best to improve New Zealanders’ recreational fishing experience. Read more
“Regulation above all else” is exactly what ridesharing wunderkind Uber must feel as it faces up to select committee hearings in Wellington this month. Despite promises of a new regulatory framework that recognises the role of global technology in improving safety and consumer protection, the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Transport have fallen well short. Read more
It was an odd sense of déjà vu this week as someone who lived in Christchurch until recently. The earthquake was hugely destructive and distressing for many. Read more
The government ran roughshod over property rights in the Christchurch rebuild. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s report urging the government to include property rights in the Bill of Rights now seems especially timely. Read more
Once upon a time, in a previous life it now seems, I wrote a doctoral thesis on the law and economics of advertising regulation. One of the fun facts I still remember is a paradox in people’s attitudes towards advertising. Read more
The highly clichéd pop psychology definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. If we accept this meaning, then local government in New Zealand is just plain nuts, cuckoo, cray cray, whacko and doolally. Read more
According to most commentators, the election of Donald J. Trump signifies the end of the West, the end of the international post-War framework, or at least the end of the United States. Read more