Reports & Media

You already know about Schrödinger’s Cat: the imaginary cat trapped in a box with a device that may, or may not, have already killed the cat. The cat is then simultaneously dead and alive, from the position of someone outside of the box. Read more

The past fortnight has seen more local news stories about scary sea-level rise and earthquake building risks. It seems these days the public is being constantly urged by scientists, engineers and others to take costly action to reduce the potential for loss from natural disasters. Read more

The September election is still a few months away but politicians, pollsters and pundits are already speculating on the outcome. Of course, forecasts are difficult, particularly about the future. Read more

“Too often, past governments have judged success only by what they spent, rather than what difference that spending made to people’s lives. Yet changing lives is the whole point.” Prime Minister Bill English did not shy away from acknowledging past government failures in his pre-Budget speech last week. Read more

The Commerce Commission is nothing if not clever. While it kept everyone busy watching for its rulings on media mergers, it quietly cornered the market on competition policy conferences. Read more

I may risk creating the impression that I enjoy judicial euphemisms. For the past few years, police have been getting stroppy about alcohol licences. This was most obvious when Parliament had to legislate around police obstructionism to allow bars to stay open to screen the Rugby World Cup in 2015. Read more

Nobody yet knows the new pay equity regime’s administrative cost. But we have a pretty good estimate of the costs of the pay equity settlement for the aged care sector: about two billion dollars. Read more

The former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was known for saying it would be a mistake to keep the “true facts” from the public. Basically, we hope our political leaders and their advisors will follow Churchill’s advice. Read more

It is a distraction that National could do without this election year. Instead of battling the opposition, they are facing Eminem’s lawyers in the High Court. Read more

It is too easy to take prices for granted – in part because nobody invented them. If somebody had invented prices as a way of making sure that goods, services, capital and workers wind up, for the most part, getting to the places where they are most needed, that hero would have commemorative statues everywhere. Read more

Businesses that fail as badly as government does would go bankrupt. But when government screws up, it gets more power instead. Read more

Treating symptoms without diagnosing the disease can provide temporary relief but is not the best way to find the cure in the long run. So it is with medicine, as it is with policy. Read more