Equipping today’s students with the skills needed for tomorrow’s jobs is perhaps the 21st century’s greatest challenge. But how confident are we that our tertiary education sector can innovate to meet the future needs of students? Read more
The public is constantly told income inequality is rising and the government should do something. A recent NZ Listener article asserted inequality had risen faster “in recent years” than in almost any other developed country. Read more
Later this week the official results of the local body elections will be released, but even before the first vote was cast many were predicting who the biggest loser would be: local democracy. It looks like that prediction is paying off. Read more
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the tyrannical state develops an artificial language called Newspeak to align thought and action with the ideology of the Party. Its aim is to entrench the tyranny of the Party by making other modes of thought impossible. Read more
Thomas Hobbes told us the State is necessary to protect us. The war of all against all that would ensue without a State to protect us from each other would be worse than even a terrible despot. Read more
A motto I live by is to hope for the best but expect the worst. As such, I was disappointed but not surprised to hear immigration minister Michael Woodhouse announce this week that the government is getting tougher on immigration policy. Read more
The future is uncertain but that technology’s role will become more important is as safe a prediction as any. This was the key message in a talk by renowned futurologist Peter Cochrane to the Initiative this week. Read more
There is a fishing saying, ‘When in doubt, exaggerate.’ At least that is what comes to mind when the fishing industry repeatedly refers to the quota management system (QMS) as world leading. In some respects, the QMS may well have maintained world leading status after 30 years, but certainly not with respect to holding commercial fishers accountable for their catches. Read more
Given the Government has set targets for pretty much everything else – from eradicating stoats to eradicating smokers, a target for reducing child poverty doesn’t seem too much of a stretch, right? John Key received quite a bit of flak this week for refusing to agree to a poverty reduction target, arguing that there are many different ways of measuring poverty, and it is difficult to pick just one. Read more
Perched in the high vantage of a think tank it is easy to spot a politician who by accident stumbles on a major problem in our society simply by opining on one or other of the issues of the day. Most recently it was the turn of ACT Party Leader David Seymour to perform this accidental but vital service to society. Read more
With the domestic sale of electronic cigarettes set for legalisation, the Ministry of Health is deciding on regulations to govern where, how and to whom they’re sold. The NZ Initiative’s Jenesa Jeram makes the argument for a light hand. Read more
When you are running out of ideas on how to spoil a party, just invite a German. That must have been the idea when Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler asked me to speak at the Auckland launch of their book, Constitution of Aotearoa New Zealand. Read more
Next week New Zealanders will elect their local government representatives for the next three years. This is an important democratic right, and yet three in five New Zealanders will probably choose to do just about anything but vote. Read more
Having attended a couple of conferences in Miami last week, it was time to fly back to New Zealand on Monday night (US Eastern Standard Time). The in-flight entertainment on our domestic flight to LA was excellent: we had live TV, and the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was on. Read more
While most would say Clinton emerged the more composed and polished candidate in the United States presidential debate, it would appear Trump won at least one important battle. More people were talking about him on Twitter. Read more