If this is the first you have heard of ‘social justice day,’ do not feel bad. Few people have heard of it, despite it having featured on the United Nations’ calendar for nearly two decades. Read more
Few policies manage to unite the left, the right and the Taxpayers' Union in opposition. The Government's billion-dollar LNG import terminal in Taranaki managed it inside 24 hours. Read more
The furore over immigration settings in the trade deal with India provides an excellent reminder about a basic policy principle. You’ll have a hard time getting a policy right if you’ve misdiagnosed the problem. Read more
Ask anyone in Australia’s competition law community what transformed the economy, and you will hear a familiar story. Australia was once a cartelised, complacent place where businesses divided up markets and consumers paid the price. Read more
The coalition agreements that formed the government promised an important change to the Commerce Act. The Commerce Commission has always been able to take on traditional cartel arrangements: secret agreements where businesses divvy up a market, restrict output, and raise prices. Read more
The Resource Management Act 1991 was an act of economic self-sabotage. Over three decades it inflated house prices by imposing what economists call a regulatory tax: the share of prices created by planning restrictions alone. Read more
I have spent more than two decades involved in education research and policy, focusing on New Zealand’s school system. Yet even I struggle to understand my primary-aged daughters’ school reports. Read more
Samuel Colt invented the revolver and a slogan to go with it. “God created men, Col. Read more
New Zealanders once took pride in being a resilient “do-it-yourself” (DIY) people. Working city fathers, like mine, would spend much of their weekends working on their houses, gardens, fruit trees or sheds. Read more
Hungary is a landlocked nation of ten million people with an economy smaller than New Zealand’s. It has no significant military, no permanent seat on the Security Council and no history of shaping international affairs. Read more
Turn on the news and you will hear endless references to the Crown: “Crown obligations,” “Crown land,” “Crown Treaty settlements.” Politicians make decisions “on behalf of the Crown.” Courts issue rulings about what “the Crown” must do. Yet ask Kiwis what this “Crown” actually is, and many will give blank stares. Read more
For the first time since the Second World War, New Zealand is being asked to make major economic decisions under direct threat from an ally. New Zealand is negotiating a minerals deal with the United States. Read more
Auckland is deciding where the next generation of homes will go. Plan Change 120 is a proposal to rewrite the city’s planning rules. Read more
Education Minister Erica Stanford stands accused of compressing a generation of reform into two years. Her programme is “radical,” “ideological,” and risks turning children into guinea pigs. Read more
At the World Economic Forum last month, Mark Carney delivered a speech that should make every middle power pay attention. The former central banker, now Canada’s Prime Minister, argued that the rules-based international order is fading. Read more