In 2013, Scottish teacher Tom Bennett realised that his training had not well prepared him for the classroom. He had not even been taught basic classroom management skills. Read more
A German economist writing satire about New Zealand sounds like the opening line of a bad joke. The joke gets longer when you learn the plot: two Martian auditors land in the Wairarapa expecting humanity at its best, are promptly fined for parking without consent, and proceed on a reluctant tiki tour of the country in the company of a Wellington bureaucrat named Ben, who has quietly decided his career is over and he may as well help them. Read more
Any minister of finance would find this month’s Budget a challenge. The problem is chronic deficit spending. Read more
Something happened in law schools in the closing decades of the twentieth century. It did not make the headlines. Read more
Russian power has always sat on a contradiction. The country can put satellites into orbit and tanks across borders, but it cannot build a normal economy. Read more
Is it better to be a policy analyst or a plumber? In the minds of many New Zealanders, university degrees carry greater status than industry qualifications. Read more
It is hard to convince anyone they need to change when they think nothing is broken. The story of the emperor’s new clothes captures it. Read more
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans know the dangers of having a sense of proportion. Appreciating our own insignificance relative to the infinity of creation is fatal. Read more
Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan in 1651, amid the wreckage of the English Civil War. We know him for his defence of the state: without a sovereign authority to impose order, human life reverts to a “war of every man against every man”, where existence is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Read more
Each year, more than a quarter of New Zealand’s school leavers enrol at university. But around one in five new university students leave within their first year of study, without completing a degree. Read more
From mid-2020 through 2022, New Zealand women helped test whether vaccinating pregnant women against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) could protect their newborns. It worked. Read more
New Zealand’s university leaders seem restless. In recent months, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury and Auckland Universities have all advertised for new Vice Chancellors (VCs). Read more
The Government's 2025 Defence Capability Plan allocates $12 billion over the next four years—the biggest outlay in generations and long overdue. The challenge is that the defence acquisition machinery was built for a slower, steadier world and has not been rebuilt for this one. Read more
Every year, respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, sends over a thousand infants to hospital. Six years ago, Kiwis volunteered to be part of a large international study testing whether vaccinating pregnant women for RSV would protect their newborns. Read more
On Tuesday morning, President Trump told CNBC he did not want to extend the ceasefire with Iran. Yet on Tuesday afternoon, he extended it. Read more