In a stunning display of temporal gymnastics, Labour leader Chris Hipkins has unveiled a novel explanation for New Zealand’s maths education crisis. He’s blaming it on a policy that Labour scrapped over six years ago. Read more
Imagine a New Zealand where every major company is neatly divided between the North and South Islands. You would fill up at BP North Island or BP South Island, shop at The Warehouse North Island or The Warehouse South Island and get your mobile service from Spark North Island or Spark South Island. Read more
Last week’s prisoner exchange between Russia, Belarus and several Western nations offered a stark glimpse into the workings of modern autocracies. As such, it serves as a timely backdrop to Anne Applebaum’s new book, Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, which examines the collaborative efforts of authoritarian regimes to undermine liberal democracy globally. Read more
Erica Stanford has had a lot on her plate in her first year as a Minister. In her education portfolio, she has set a cracking pace, with work well underway on a knowledge-rich curriculum for primary and secondary schooling. Read more
For some time now free speech advocates in this country have been enviously following the passage of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act through the UK Parliament. The act gave teeth to the freedom of speech provisions in the 1986 Education Act by allowing students and academics whose free speech rights had been trampled on to seek redress though the courts, and also established a new ‘Free Speech Czar’ for English universities. Read more
As Marx once said, “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them... well, I have others.” Of course, this quote was from Groucho, not Karl. Read more
Last week I received my rates invoice from Christchurch City Council. To my dismay, I learnt that my rates for the city council and regional council combined have increased by 11%. Read more
New Zealand’s government sacked the entire board of Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) last week, replacing it with a sole commissioner. The move marked more than just another shake-up in the country’s beleaguered health system. Read more
In 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin argued that the “Tragedy of the Commons” is commonplace. If you wanted to deliberately engineer a commons problem, the management of the Conservation Estate would make for a pretty decent guidebook. Read more
It’s hard not to marvel at Silicon Valley’s technological innovations. But I’m dumbfounded by the social science experiment they’ve been working on. Read more
The record net migration loss of 60,100 New Zealand citizens in the year to May 2024 is an orange warning light for New Zealand. But fears that it represents a worrying brain drain are statistically premature. Read more
New Zealand’s most recent Public Services Commissioner announced his retirement in September 2023. He retired in February 2024. Read more
Health New Zealand has been quite economical lately. I don’t mean ‘economical’ in the fiscal sense, of course. Read more
In a dramatic move this week, the government replaced the board of Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) with a commissioner. Dramatic but not much of a surprise. Read more
In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, all eyes were on the Republican National Convention. While Trump’s formal nomination as the GOP’s presidential candidate was a foregone conclusion, his choice of running mate raised eyebrows: JD Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy. Read more