In October 1922, a young journalist and agitator from the hard right marched to Rome to seize political power. This month, a 45-year-old former journalist with far-right leanings is also running for office in Italy. Read more
In 2011 the Ministry of Education embarked on a ten-year strategy to rejuvenate New Zealand’s aging classroom estate. Part of this strategy involved establishing large, open plan classrooms, populated by many more children than are found in cellular classrooms. The Ministry conducted no research on the effects of these ‘Modern learning Environments’ on students’ learning prior to compelling schools to adopt them. Read more
Wellington (Tuesday, 20 September 2022) – Ideology rather than evidence is the basis for the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) ‘Modern Leaning Environments’, research by think tank The New Zealand Initiative reveals. The fact that a government ministry could not produce data to support its policy for mass conversion of New Zealand’s classrooms to Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs), is the main finding of the Initiative’s new report, No Evidence, No Evaluation, No Exit – Lessons from the 'Modern Learning Environments' experiment. Read more
As a bit of police theatre, it was outstanding. Police responded to a complaint about a home in Wanaka flying an allegedly racist red flag with an ominous black insignia inscribed within a white circle. Read more
The monetary and fiscal policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for the inflation we are currently experiencing. In the debate about what drives inflation and who is to blame, one important element has not received the attention it deserves: the coordination between monetary and fiscal policy. Read more
After driving through rough terrain for a long time, you finally realise you have been going in the wrong direction all along. So, what will you do: speed up, slow down, or turn around? Read more
Entrepreneurship is highly rated. My son’s school even renamed their NCEA Level 1 economics paper “Entrepreneurial economics” and their accounting paper “Entrepreneurial finance.” But entrepreneurship remains underrated. Read more
Michael Johnston talked to leadership coach Kate Morton of Transformation Space about leadership in organisations and self-leadership as an antidote to anxiety. They also discussed the implications of Kate’s work for addressing rising levels of anxiety in teenagers and your people. Read more
The next incoming government will need to do its policy thinking beforehand if it is to tackle the current policy mess effectively. It will face serious problems in housing, health, education, social welfare, and environmental and planning laws, just to mention the biggest areas. Read more
Michael Johnston recently gave the annual Hudson lecture at the Wellington branch of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. He talked about what science is, and what we can do to better in science education. Read more
In 2020, my report, Pharmac: The right prescription? for the New Zealand Initiative found much to compliment in Pharmac’s pursuit of its statutory duty to obtain the best reasonably achievable health outcomes for eligible people from pharmaceuticals within the subsidy budget. Read more
Among the problems leading to the Government’s proposed Three Waters reforms were councils loading up their balance sheets with dubious debt. So it seems odd that the Government plans on loading up the balance sheets of amalgamated water service entities with dubious debt. Read more
This supplementary submission in response to the Emissions Reduction Plan is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a Wellington-based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. It should be read in conjunction with our initial submission of 27 June 2022. Read more
We mourn the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign was extraordinary. Read more
The Free Speech Union recently published a report grading each of New Zealand’s eight universities on its record of upholding academic freedom. But why should anyone outside universities care? Read more
