New Zealand faces significant challenges in managing growth, delivering infrastructure, and improving the well-being of our communities. Our productivity performance has been dismal. Read more
In New Zealand, one of the most exciting education reforms in the world is quietly getting underway. Erica Stanford, the country’s new Education Minister, is on a mission to overhaul the education system from top to bottom – and she is leaving no stone unturned. Read more
For a few months after last year’s elections, Wellington consultancies seemed to be scrambling to publish reports on city deals. National’s coalition agreement with ACT promised long-term city deals for funding and financing infrastructure but was short on details. Read more
Both the prior Labour government and the current National-led coalition have wanted to deliver more affordable housing. But getting there is like trying to traverse an overgrown forest path. Read more
Imagine two farmers, each with a plot of land. One farmer finds ways to make his land just 1% more productive each year - a bit better irrigation, a new crop rotation strategy, or a slight improvement in fertiliser use. Read more
Under a better Resource Management system, there would be no need for fast-track approval processes. The fast process would simply be the process. Read more
There’s a weird art to commissioned cost-benefit assessments. Even when it seems like a report’s funder really wanted a particular result and even if the final number seems absurd, the report can still be valuable. Read more
When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand's first-world status was at stake. Read more
Once upon a time, it was the role of parliaments to make laws, governments to execute them, and the role of courts to uphold them. Civil Law jurisdictions, such as those in Europe, do not share the Anglosphere’s tradition of judge-made law (known as the ‘Common Law’). Read more
Adam Smith warned that meetings of people of the same trade quickly turn into conspiracies against the public or contrivances to raise prices. He neglected to mention the benefits of meetings of people from vastly different trades. Read more
New Zealand has an obsession with size. Maybe the inferiority complex of a small country makes politicians and policymakers assume bigger must be better. Read more
Last week the Commerce Commission announced its concern with a proposed merger between Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island. Their concern is a decrease in competition in the market. Read more
Good ideas often take time to gain traction. Congestion charging is no exception. Read more
If you are an Australian struggling to afford a home, I have good news from across the ditch: New Zealand is building its way out of its housing crisis. And the solutions being pioneered here also offer a roadmap for solving Australia’s housing woes. Read more
The way the government tries to protect us against earthquake risks, and to protect heritage buildings against change, share a common problem. Government agencies have a very difficult time generating the information necessary for making good decisions in both cases. Read more