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
It’s too easy to take things for granted. In Monty Python’s classic Life of Brian, John Cleese’s Reg asked what the hated Romans had ever done for the people of Judea – and was rather annoyed to hear a long list of things like medicine, sanitation, education, wine, irrigation and more. Read more
Lyndon Johnson once said of his unrelenting critics that if he walked on the Potomac, headlines would criticise him for not being able to swim. I was reminded of this when I read Oxfam New Zealand’s comments surrounding the release of the latest Oxfam report “Reward Work, not Wealth”. Read more
In recent years, the housing rental market has become New Zealand’s newest national sport. Complete with arm-chair critics and commentators. Read more
The north London suburb of Wembley may be the home of English football. But until a few years ago, that was probably its only claim to fame. Read more
On February 3, the timer counting down Labour’s first hundred days will pop. There’s been a lot of urgency about pushing through important parts of Labour’s election manifesto before that hundred-day timer runs out. Read more
I am delighted for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. There is surely no more enriching experience than parenthood. Read more
Earthquake-prone New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next earthquake or major disaster. That is the central finding of The New Zealand Initiative’s research report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground. Read more
What’s the difference between Oxfam and the Tinder dating app? One concerns itself with issues of equality and fairness across swathes of the world’s population; the other is a charitable organisation set up in Oxford by the Quakers in 1942. Read more
The last time I wrote for Interest about the road toll was in October. At the time, Police were predicting 60 further deaths for 2017. Read more
To say the new Minister of Fisheries, Stuart Nash, inherited some fisheries management problems is an understatement. The Ministry for Primary Industries and its predecessors have failed to grapple with the misreporting of commercial catch, discarding of unwanted bycatch and the high grading of targeted catch. Read more
Recreational fishing in New Zealand’s marine waters is one of the few remaining free-of-charge public goods available to everyone. However, managing fisheries is not costless. Read more
Watching the first weeks of the new Parliament, it is difficult not to get confused. On the one hand, we see a government that stumbles its way through the parliamentary machinery. Read more