Everyone is familiar with the idea of keeping up with the Joneses. It comes from an early 20th century American comic strip featuring the social-climbing McGinis family and their struggle to keep up with their more affluent neighbours, the Joneses. Read more
When assessing John Key’s legacy, context is critical. Key came into office in late 2008 in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Read more
New Zealand has had a pretty decent eight years under John Key. The rest of the world’s descent into madness accelerated sharply, and New Zealand’s has looked better by comparison. Read more
I leaned at the bench, feeling exhausted. Looking around, I could tell they were all feeling much the same. Read more
2016 has delivered some immense political shocks, raising the question just why are our politicians and institutions, and everything we once trusted, now so on the nose? To analyse this and to offer some expert forecast, Phillip Adams is joined by Greg Sheridan from the Australian, Laura Tingle from the Australian Financial Review, Dr Oliver Hartwich from the think tank The New Zealand Initiative and Beatrix Campbell, British journalist, author and playwright. Read more
By any measure, this year was not short of political surprises, from Brexit to Donald Trump. Yet neither was as shocking as John Key’s resignation as New Zealand Prime Minister yesterday. Read more
From ‘that’ NCEA maths exam that left students in tears, the confusion around exams during last month’s earthquake, to the seclusion of special needs students, it seems the education sector rarely gets a break. And it looks like that will not change anytime soon with the latest news in education. Read more
There are growing concerns tonight about the economic implications of Italy's referendum result for the European Union. The win of the "no" vote is another example of a populist victory sweeping western politics. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talks to Mitch Harris on RadioLive about whether Europe could fall apart before Brexit.
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Following the death of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, US public opinion guru Frank Luntz provided some good advice on Twitter: “If you praise Fidel Castro, don’t expect anyone to take your criticism of Donald Trump seriously.” If only Frank Luntz had more Twitter followers. Though proverbs remind us not to speak ill of the dead, there is no need to wax lyrical about them either. Read more
Anyone who has tried to teach their parents how to use a new technology must have empathised with Uber New Zealand general manager Richard Menzies last week. Appearing before Parliament’s Transport Committee, Menzies was trying to make the case that outdated taxi regulations need not apply to Uber. Read more
Reincarnation is a tricky concept, not least because it requires we accept the idea that those experiencing terrible ordeals must have committed even more horrid deeds to deserve their fate. But, if this logic is accepted, then the people working in local government must have done some truly awful, terrible, horrendous things in a previous life. Read more
While in Victoria, British Columbia, our Research Fellow, Dr Randall Bess, visited Archipelago Marine Research, a world leader in at-sea and dockside observer programmes and electronic monitoring (EM) technology for commercial fisheries. Dr Bess met with Howard McElderry, Vice President, who provided this message for New Zealanders: Read more
It’s pretty good being a working woman in New Zealand, which has one of the lowest gender pay gaps in the OECD. Gender disparities in many occupations have been closing. Read more
Wellington (1 December 2016): The New Zealand Initiative is delighted that Chris Bishop’s bill compensating live organ donors passed its third reading yesterday. Dr Eric Crampton, Head of Research with the Initiative, said “This bill will help overcome substantial financial barriers that prevent a lot of people from donating organs. Read more