Reports & Media

The New Zealand economy has undergone considerable reform in the last decade. Reform of the tax system has been an integral part of this process. Read more

An important pillar of the Alliance’s economic policy is the proposal to replace the goods and services (GST) with a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). This report examines whether FTT should be preferred to GST on efficiency and equity grounds. Read more

Many people in this country have argued that good government is smaller government, and for some of them the recent election may seem to have delivered the ultimate nirvana – truly minimal government. Certainly the financial markets have rallied strongly, and business people have been able to get on with their job of running businesses, free of the risk of immediate political surprises. Read more

The present review should build on the Laking reforms in establishing an efficient regulatory framework that is appropriate for the 21st century. Read more

This submission on the Working Group on CO2 Policy’s June 1996 discussion document Climate Change and CO2 Policy (the Document) is made by the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR), an organisation of chief executives of major New Zealand business firms. The NZBR’s purpose is to contribute to the development of sound public policies that reflect overall New Zealand interests. Read more

There are clearly deep divisions of opinion in New Zealand on the relationship between the courts and the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA). These address both substantive and jurisdictional issues. Read more

This submission first outlines the harmful effects of minimum wages and the considers the reasons advanced in June 1995 by the Department of Labour in favour of increasing the minimum wage. An annex considers studies of the employment impact of the minimum wage in the US and the conflicting conclusions drawn from them. Read more

Health care has become an enormously contentious political and intellectual issue over recent years, both in the United States and else-where in the world. Previously the debate had taken place mainly among technical people - academics and health specialists. Read more

The comments in this submission are based on the view that the key reform objective should be to increase economic efficiency. This is not to ignore other considerations. Read more

This submission is presented in five sections: does the draft plan meet the requirements of the Act?, expenditure and revenue, other issues, the strategic plan, and concluding comment.  Read more

To make sense of the tort system, we need to understand its operation as a system. Like any system, it consists of various parts which are closely interrelated. Read more

From ancient times to the present, information has made the world go round, from the most routine of transactions to the most complex. One critical issue therefore is what legal rules, if any, should govern the creation, dissemination and use of information. Read more

The theme of this paper is comparative liberalisation. My aim is to set within a comparative historical framework the remarkable economic reforms in New Zealand which began with the change of government in July 1984. Read more

This paper considers whether continuing the current direction of economic policy in New Zealand - "down the free-market track" - will be detrimental to social cohesion. The central questions are whether the economic growth process is socially disruptive and whether a reduction in the role of government in redistribution of income would be more likely to weaken or strengthen social cohesion. Read more

On 15 May 1991, parliament enacted the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA). Parts I and II of the ECA abolished all forms of compulsory unionism in New Zealand, and took bold steps toward restoring the common law of contract, property and tort to New Zealand labour markets. Read more