In this age of ‘post-truth politics’ (which, by the way, must be one of the greatest tautologies of all time) I guess all truths can be relative. North Korea is magnificent because Gareth Morgan told us so. Read more
The train-wreck was utterly predictable but we should still look back to see how it happened, how bad it was, and how we can keep it from happening again. This week, The New Zealand Initiative released its decade-on retrospective look at the government’s interest-free student loan policy. Read more
As you read this, our teachers’ unions are preparing for war. For the first time in history they are planning meetings of 60,000 teachers, nationwide, during school hours. Read more
A lot of people have done well out of the past decade of interest-free student loans. But that hardly means the policy is what is right for the country. Read more
The world premiere of a new film on New Zealand’s post 1984 economic reforms will screen in the Academy Cinema (below the Auckland Public Library) on Thursday 25 August at 6pm. This film was made by Americans for an international audience. Read more
If there is one country Prime Minister John Key seems to be as fond of as New Zealand, it is Switzerland. He has talked about making this “the Switzerland of the South Pacific,” although admittedly that was before the release of the Panama Papers. Read more
This week, Newshub released a new opinion poll showing a large majority of New Zealanders demand curbs to immigration. Three in five voters said so. Read more
The easiest way to catch a fish is to visit the local New World store. Commercial fishing can deliver seafood far more cost effectively than the average recreational fisher. Read more
Minister Simon Bridges has killed a few of my favourite things. By not granting tiny, low-risk iPredict an exemption from Anti Money Laundering regulations designed for the big banks, he helped to strangle it. Read more
Last week most of the country, or at the very least a third of it, heaved a high sigh of relief when the Independent Hearings Panel released its quite sensible recommendations on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP). The sigh was justifiable to some degree considering just how crazy the outcome could have been given the precursors. Read more
In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 classic, Victor Frankenstein claims to have created his monster for the betterment of humankind. Of course, Frankenstein’s undertaking proved more arrogant conceit than utopian undertaking. Read more
In politics, the good enough is the best you can usually hope for. On most policy questions, the best is irrelevant. Read more
Forget housing affordability, if you want to quickly divide a room into two antagonistic camps ask whether New Zealand should increase its refugee quota. Those in favour of opening the doors are likely to say that New Zealand’s new pledge to accept 1,000 refugees a year is not enough. Read more
By the time you read this a bottle of champagne and bouquet of seasonal blooms will have landed on Conservation Minister Maggie Barry’s desk. It is the least the Initiative could do for someone who has made our lives so easy. Read more
Where to for recreational fishing as commercial industry targets double the exports? There is a saying, 'If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing poles.' Well, perhaps we should first concentrate on the shortage of fish. Read more