Reports & Media

This week, the Government moved to reassert Parliament’s authority over the courts. Two years ago, in Smith versus Fonterra, the Supreme Court revived a climate change claim the Court of Appeal had unanimously struck out. Read more

There’s always been a tension in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. The Act’s object has two parts. Read more

A bar in a rough neighbourhood has a few viable options. It can have a strict doorman checking every patron to make sure they suit the vibe the bar is trying to create. Read more

Treasury projects public health spending will rise from 7.1 to 10 per cent of GDP by 2065. Over the same period, the ratio of working-age taxpayers to superannuitants will halve. Read more

A German economist writing satire about New Zealand sounds like the opening line of a bad joke. The joke gets longer when you learn the plot: two Martian auditors land in the Wairarapa expecting humanity at its best, are promptly fined for parking without consent, and proceed on a reluctant tiki tour of the country in the company of a Wellington bureaucrat named Ben, who has quietly decided his career is over and he may as well help them. Read more

In 2013, Scottish teacher Tom Bennett realised that his training had not well prepared him for the classroom. He had not even been taught basic classroom management skills. Read more

Something happened in law schools in the closing decades of the twentieth century. It did not make the headlines. Read more

Any minister of finance would find this month’s Budget a challenge. The problem is chronic deficit spending. Read more

Russian power has always sat on a contradiction. The country can put satellites into orbit and tanks across borders, but it cannot build a normal economy. Read more

It is hard to convince anyone they need to change when they think nothing is broken. The story of the emperor’s new clothes captures it. Read more