A terrible spectre haunts New Zealand. Cash transactions come with no guarantee that they are not part of a money-laundering scheme. Read more
If you wanted to launder money, iPredict would hardly be your best choice. It would be unlikely to even make anyone's Top-20 list – or at least the Top-20 list of anyone sane. Read more
Last week the cat was set amongst the pigeons after the Herald ran a story saying that Auckland Council was trying to raise the urban density limits in the green leafy suburbs that surround the inner city without public consultation. Squawks of alarm were immediately heard from Auckland 2040, a community group dedicated to protecting the character of the city’s residential neighbourhoods. Read more
There is a great deal of debate on the causes and solutions of the housing crisis but little disagreement that the problems we face are enormous: The number of new homes consented dropped from a record 39,800 in 1973 to a little over 24,700 last year. Over the same period, New Zealand's population grew by 50 per cent. Read more
Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and their gun-slinging, bank-robbing outlaws once ruled the lawless western frontier. With only rudimentary government to manage civil society, life in the Wild West was nasty and brutish. Read more
Bankers are overpaid, bonus payments are useless and there is an inflation of fancy job titles in banking. That was the essence of a speech recently delivered at Frankfurt’s Goethe University. Read more
Most of the time, I look at policy in Canada and despair at how much worse things are back home. But the past few months have reminded me that Canada gets a couple of things right that New Zealand simply hasn’t managed to figure out yet. Read more
Last week’s town hall meeting in Khandallah on Wellington City Council’s proposed medium-density re-zoning was an eye-opener. I have been exceptionally frustrated by town planners’ inability to zone enough housing to meet the demands of a growing population. Read more
Over the last four months as part of our education research project I have visited a number of schools around New Zealand and I was struck by two things. The first: despite some of these schools being labelled as under-performing, the vibrant corridors were packed with eager young children with real potential. Read more
As it turns out, a side of bacon with your breakfast could prove a deadly gamble with your health. You may as well take up smoking, sunbathe excessively, or inhale asbestos. Read more
Most of the time, I look at policy in Canada and despair at how much worse things are back home. But the past few months have reminded me that Canada gets a couple of things right that New Zealand simply hasn’t managed to figure out yet. Read more
In the cut and thrust of politics it was no surprise that Environment Minister Nick Smith denounced the Labour Party’s new housing policy. After all, while it is the opposition’s job to oppose government policies, it is just as much the incumbent’s job to shoot down ideas coming from across the house. Read more
The late Ronald Reagan mastered the art of condensing complex issues into witty statements: “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. Read more
We do not yet know how the courts will rule on whether Wellington City Council can force its contractors to pay their employees a minimum of $18.55 an hour. But I think we can come to a verdict on the policy's economic merits, and I do not think council would much like it. Read more
What do societies gain from migration? What are the social, political and cultural effects of an increasingly mobile global workforce? Read more