Labour finally announced some election policies this week: a new public holiday, a cap on bank fees and a new top rate of income tax. It is easy to point out what all these measures have in common. Read more
On the first day of election bribes, Jacinda gave to me: a holiday on Matariki. On the second day of election bribes, Judith gave to me: two four-lane highways and a holiday on Matariki. Read more
Back in April, the Government promised $50 million to support a flagging media sector. It’s hard to make a buck online, but the real problem was getting people to pay attention to news. Read more
Are Kiwis taking their civics for granted? American columnist H.L. Read more
Wellington, 9 September 2020 – Almost a third of Kiwi voters do not know which political parties are in Parliament and less than half understand how a party can get there, according to a new study. With elections just around the corner, new research by The New Zealand initiative reveals just 69% of Kiwis can name all five political parties in Parliament today. Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Duncan Garner on The AM Show about our survey that shows a shocking lack of civics knowledge amongst New Zealanders. He says it is hard to vote well if you don't know the basics. Read more
How much of what Kiwi voters should know about democracy do they really know? Our Chief Economist Eric Crampton discusses the results of our new report on the state of civic knowledge in New Zealand on TVNZ Breakfast. Read more
Our new report Democracy in the Dark shows that almost a third of New Zealanders cannot name the political parties currently in parliament. Less than half of the one thousand people surveyed understood how New Zealand's political system MMP, works. Read more
Wellington, 9 September 2020 – If Labour’s goal is to get debt back under control then it would make more sense to prune back spending, such as on superannuation, says David Law, senior research fellow at The New Zealand Initiative. Today, Labour finance minister Grant Robertson announced a lift in the top tax percentage from 33% to 39% for anyone earning over $180,000. Read more
Last week’s UNICEF report on child wellbeing gets one big thing very right. Important parts of government policy are failing children. Read more
In our report Democracy in the Dark, we argue that New Zealanders might need to brush up on their civics homework before the upcoming election in October. Chief Editor Nathan Smith joins Radio NZ's The Panel to discuss the report's findings. Read more
When you think of Sweden, does Abba come to mind? What about meatballs or furniture stores? Read more
It wasn’t that long after the Christchurch earthquakes that the calls for rent control came. The earthquakes had destroyed thousands and thousands of homes. Read more
Politicians like shovelling out money for shovel-ready projects. But let’s call a spade a spade: When push comes to shovel, it does not matter if projects are ready. Read more
Some countries have clear advantages during a pandemic. For instance, New Zealand is surrounded by a thousand-kilometre moat. Read more