Reports & Media

Do you remember Jacques Santer? If you do, it is probably because Monsieur Santer was the first President of the European Commission to resign from office. Read more

It was both distressing and inspiring. In 2015, while I was a part of a small delegation to a small rural school in Northland, I met a student with an intriguing story. Read more

This week, the Climate Change Commission told the government it should take control of the economy to lower emissions. The Commission’s advice, part of its draft emissions budgets to 2035, was based on doubts that New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will be enough. Read more

Call me a tragic but even in my spare time, I am thinking about politics. Thus, over the summer holidays, I stumbled across a new computer game: Democracy 4. Read more

If the goal of emissions policies is to cut emissions for the smallest loss of our prosperity, then the Climate Change Commission delivered a fiasco this week. Alongside its emissions budgets, the Commission has written the first draft of a plan for how New Zealand will lower its emissions over the next 15 years. Read more

It was always possible for a lot of cars to be built in New Zealand. It never made any particular sense, but it was within the realm of the physically possible. Read more

Every time I read another excitable media article about New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, I am reminded of an old quip: ‘Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.’ That was Publius Cornelius Tacitus (AD 58-120). Were this Roman intellectual and historian alive today, he would make a great New York Times columnist. Read more

This week, Stuff’s Thomas Coughlan uncovered an extraordinary story of last-minute heroics by officials who demanded good practice on an important decision. As Cabinet prepared to make its final decision on the proposed Auckland light rail project in February 2020, Treasury intervened. Read more

Everyone knows that the status quo with respect to housing is “unsustainable”. The Prime Minister now seems to recognise the need for fundamental change and the opposition has recently offered to work with the government to find non-partisan solutions. Read more