Reports & Media

Roger Partridge talked to Sean Plunket on The Platform about The New Zealand Initiative's report proposing consolidating New Zealand's fragmented public service structure. Partridge outlined a three-step plan to streamline government by reducing ministerial portfolios from 81 to 15-20, creating junior minister roles, and consolidating departments from 43 to around 20, similar to peer nations like Ireland and Norway. Read more

In this episode, Oliver talks to Roger Partridge about his new report "Unscrambling Government," which proposes consolidating New Zealand's extraordinarily complex government structure from 81 ministerial portfolios, 28 ministers, and 43 departments down to a more manageable 15-20 portfolios with corresponding departmental consolidation. They discuss how New Zealand's fragmented ministerial system creates accountability problems, increases fiscal costs, and hampers effective decision-making on critical issues like housing affordability, comparing unfavourably to other small advanced economies that operate with far simpler structures. Read more

Dr Michael Johnston talked to Michael Laws on The Platform about grade inflation at New Zealand universities, explaining how A-grade rates have increased from 22% to 35% since 2006 and pass rates now exceed 90%. Dr Johnston argued that this trend stems from universities' commercial focus on retaining students for fee income, creating pressure to pass students regardless of assignment quality. Read more

Roger Partridge talked to Wallace Chapman on RNZ's "The Panel" about his report "Unscrambling Government" which calls for reducing New Zealand's 81 ministerial portfolios to improve government efficiency. He argued that New Zealand's fragmented structure, with three times as many portfolios as comparable countries like Norway, creates accountability issues and inefficient decision-making compared to more streamlined international models. Read more

Nick Mills discussed The New Zealand Initiative's report on government reform with Rt Hon Chris Hipkins on Newstalk ZB, focusing on our recommendations to reduce the number of government departments and ministerial portfolios. The Leader of the Opposition expressed sympathy for the Initiative's main point about convoluted relationships between departments and ministers, acknowledging merit in their research despite often disagreeing with their reports, and indicated he would consider such restructuring if Labour wins the next election. Read more

Wellington (Tuesday, 2 September 2025) - New Zealand has one of the most complex systems of executive government in the developed world. With 81 ministerial portfolios, 28 ministers and 43 departments, we have three times as many portfolios and nearly twice as many departments as comparable countries. Read more

This webinar launches Unscrambling Government: Less Confusion, More Efficiency, a report by Roger Partridge proposing practical reforms to New Zealand’s fragmented executive of 81 portfolios, 28 ministers, and 43 departments. Hosted by Dr Oliver Hartwich with commentary from Dr Murray Horn (former Treasury Secretary; ex-ANZ CEO), the discussion explores how consolidating portfolios into 15–20 senior ministers supported by junior ministers, and aligning departments to around 20, could restore clarity, speed up decisions, and sharpen accountability—drawing on lessons from Ireland, Norway, Singapore, and Australia’s Hawke-era reforms. Watch below. Read more