Reports & Media

Partisanship is a powerful and deadly drug. Canada is the latest in a too-lengthy list of places badly in need of rehab. Read more

The government is hyping Budget 2019 as a world-leading “Wellbeing Budget”. The December 2018 Budget Policy Statement proclaims the government’s key focus on improving the wellbeing and living standards of New Zealanders. Read more

Benjamin Franklyn is famously credited with writing “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. That may be true, but a cynic might retort that at least death does not get worse every time governments look for extra funding. Read more

Australia’s banking royal commission did not pull any punches in its final report released last month. Most of them were directed at Australia’s financial services sector. Read more

British Prime Minister Theresa May masters the art of political flexibility. Over the past three years, she has held a variety of views on many Brexit issues. Read more

In the mid‐1980s, New Zealand was forced into a major economic restructuring. Those adjustments were particularly significant for the traded goods sector, since export subsidies and import barriers were largely eliminated. Read more

“Few ways are guaranteed to make yourself unpopular in New Zealand: try claiming that pavlova was an Australian invention; hating the All Blacks; or maybe expressing sympathy for local government.” This is the opening paragraph in our new publication #localismNZ: Bringing power to the people. We launched it yesterday at a joint symposium with Local Government New Zealand. Read more

The jury is out for the released Tax Working Group’s “Future of Tax” Report, with the government promising to deliver its verdict in April. Unfortunately, a careful reading of the 200-page document already shows a missed opportunity to address New Zealand’s biggest elephant in the room: slow productivity growth. Read more

Scroll down your news feed, what do you see? Trump’s latest dumb tweet, an update on the crisis in Venezuela, maybe something on Brexit? Read more

The Tax Working Group’s proposed capital gains tax would constitute one of the most penal regimes in the world if implemented. A comprehensive CGT regime would also tarnish the simplicity and competitiveness of New Zealand’s internationally praised tax system. Read more

Comparing schools is complex at best – and a nightmare at worst. Every school has a different cohort of students, each with their own unique background. Read more