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
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
Roger Partridge was interviewed on the RNZ podcast The Detail by Tom Kitchin about the increase in public servants. Listen below. 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
Oliver and Michael talk about Germany's dual education system with Rachel Simpson, Manager for Education, Skills and Immigration at Business NZ. Recently, Michael and Rachel were on a business delegation to Germany to find out about their dual education system first-hand. 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
1.1 This submission on the Fast-Track Approvals Bill is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a Wellington-based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. In combination, our members employ more than 150,000 people. Read more
Mike Hosking talks in-depth on Newstalk ZB about Dr Oliver Hartwich's recent Newsroom column about judicial overreach in the Swiss climate case and the blurring lines between lawmakers and law enforcers. Listen below. Read more
In this episode, Eric and Nick talk to Peter Nunns and Graham Campbell from New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga. They discuss council debt and infrastructure funding and financing. 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
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
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
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
In this episode, Michael talks to Holly Gooch and Izzy Bremner, from The Hyphen Project, about what it might be like for people who are perhaps not considered the "norm" in our large school system. They talk about The Hyphen Project, which is a talent incubator for 16-19 year olds who are talented, neurodivergent and have not gotten on well with the mainstream education system. Read more