The September election is still a few months away but politicians, pollsters and pundits are already speculating on the outcome. Of course, forecasts are difficult, particularly about the future. Read more
“Too often, past governments have judged success only by what they spent, rather than what difference that spending made to people’s lives. Yet changing lives is the whole point.” Prime Minister Bill English did not shy away from acknowledging past government failures in his pre-Budget speech last week. Read more
The Commerce Commission is nothing if not clever. While it kept everyone busy watching for its rulings on media mergers, it quietly cornered the market on competition policy conferences. Read more
I may risk creating the impression that I enjoy judicial euphemisms. For the past few years, police have been getting stroppy about alcohol licences. This was most obvious when Parliament had to legislate around police obstructionism to allow bars to stay open to screen the Rugby World Cup in 2015. Read more
Nobody yet knows the new pay equity regime’s administrative cost. But we have a pretty good estimate of the costs of the pay equity settlement for the aged care sector: about two billion dollars. Read more
The former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was known for saying it would be a mistake to keep the “true facts” from the public. Basically, we hope our political leaders and their advisors will follow Churchill’s advice. Read more
It is a distraction that National could do without this election year. Instead of battling the opposition, they are facing Eminem’s lawyers in the High Court. Read more
It is too easy to take prices for granted – in part because nobody invented them. If somebody had invented prices as a way of making sure that goods, services, capital and workers wind up, for the most part, getting to the places where they are most needed, that hero would have commemorative statues everywhere. Read more
Businesses that fail as badly as government does would go bankrupt. But when government screws up, it gets more power instead. Read more
Treating symptoms without diagnosing the disease can provide temporary relief but is not the best way to find the cure in the long run. So it is with medicine, as it is with policy. Read more
It has been two weeks since I started work in New Zealand, at the Initiative. Starting a new job in a new country, there are a few things to get used to. Read more
Putting a line in the water is one of the more popular New Zealand pastimes. But here’s a harsh truth. Read more
A weighty package from the Cato Institute, the US think tank, landed on my desk shortly before Easter. It contained an impressive 300-page tome called The Human Freedom Index 2016. Read more
Former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is famous for his reference to known-knowns, known-unknowns and unknown-unknowns. In other words, there are things we know we know, things we know we don’t know, and things we don’t know we don’t know. Read more
One of the joys of working at the Initiative is writing for the weekly Insights newsletter. As a think tanker it allows you to pick from a veritable smorgasbord of worthy topics and opine on them (hopefully in an insightful manner). Read more