Wellington is a confusing place. In 2017, the Government wanted to plant One Billion Trees and set a lot of costly policies to achieve it. Read more
As the 2022 French election reaches fever point, Wallace Chapman talks to Oliver Hartwich about why this particular election is so significant.
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A few years ago, the Prime Minister visiting foreign countries would have barely been news. However, after two years of borders closed because of Covid, Jacinda Ardern’s trip to Singapore and Japan is more than just noteworthy. Read more
At the general election in 2023, New Zealand will mark 30 years and ten elections since it adopted the Mixed-Member Proportional Representation (MMP) electoral system. A criticism of MMP is that the party list system allows party hierarchies essentially to appoint their apparatchiks to parliament. Read more
They may not know it, but unsuspecting Kiwis will soon be protected from unregistered log traders and forestry advisers. What a relief that should be. Read more
This submission is in response to the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry for Primary Industry’s Discussion Document Managing exotic afforestation incentives. The Document proposes not awarding carbon credits through the ETS for permanent exotic forestry planting, despite the carbon sequestered in such forests, because of other perceived problems resulting from exotic forestry planting. Read more
This government is teaching us many things. One is that it and its supporters have no quarrel with governments that steam-roll radical reforms through parliament. Read more
Ben Craven interviews Dr Michael Johnston about his recent presentation at The New Zealand Initiative Members’ Retreat. The pair discuss the disturbing trends of cancel culture and the erosion of academic freedom. Read more
As Putin’s soldiers fight in eastern Ukraine, he is also involved in a battle much further west. Tragically, that western battle may even go his way. Read more
Governments like scapegoats. A good scapegoat can take the blame for something that is a government’s fault. Read more
Oliver Hartwich talks to Alex Sundakov from Castalia Advisors about his experiences in both countries, how the Soviet era cast a long shadow over their national identities, and why there might be some small positive to come out of the terrible conflict in Ukraine. Mr Sundakov was previously the International Monetary Fund’s resident representative to Ukraine and maintains strong connections to the country. Read more
For decades, newspapers’ business model was simple. Classified ads paid most of the bills. Read more
Is a van driver who delivers shopping ordered online a member of the transport industry or the retail industry? Either way, why would you want to know? Read more
Are the days of large news outlets now in the past? If so, what does that mean for our shared experiences and understanding of what is and isn’t news? Read more
Five hundred and twenty-five days. This is how long the Reserve Bank of Australia had kept its interest rate steady when Australian opposition leader Anthony Albanese was asked about it by a journalist on the campaign trail. Read more