Reports & Media

Supreme Court Matters: Revolution by Judicial Decree A Review of Professor Peter Watts KC’s “Ellis v R: A Revolution in Aotearoa New Zealand, Welcome or Not” Revolutions conjure images of violent uprisings, the storming of institutions, and the forcible overthrow of existing orders. But constitutional foundations can be destroyed through more subtle means. Read more

The Netherlands has long been Europe’s model of commercial pragmatism. Its business leaders built their fortunes on free trade, open markets, and meticulous efficiency. Read more

A book currently climbing the German bestseller charts caught my attention recently, not least because its title poses a question that seems at once paradoxical and profound. Jan Loffeld’s Wenn nichts fehlt, wo Gott fehlt (“When nothing is missing where God is missing”) examines a growing phenomenon across Western societies that transcends conventional secularisation. Read more

The way the government went about rolling back 33 pay equity claims lodged under the last government’s Pay Equity legislation was clumsy at best. The changes were made under urgency and applied retrospectively. Read more

Activist organisations have an important place in democracy. Politicians must negotiate public opinion, media narratives and coalition agreements. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative mourns the passing of our esteemed Adjunct Senior Fellow, Emeritus Professor Des Gorman, who died peacefully at home on 2 July 2025, surrounded by his family. Des was a towering figure in New Zealand medicine and a passionate advocate for health reform. Read more

Housing and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop released his Going for Housing Growth discussion document last month, promising a new paradigm for planning in New Zealand. The proposals are the latest waypoint in a reform journey spanning nearly a decade. Read more

Future historians may seek to understand why early 21st century New Zealand struggled to get value from its infrastructure spending. They will need to look no further than Auckland's achievement in speed bump construction and subsequent destruction. Read more

Rotterdam's port moves 460 million tonnes of cargo each year. That is roughly equivalent to shifting the entire population of Earth sixty times over. Read more

It is legal to buy books. Obviously. Read more