New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has just issued his government’s plan for the final quarter of 2024. If that sounds more like a corporate earnings call than political leadership, you would not be far off the mark. Read more
1.1 This submission to the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) on the 2024 ACC Levy Consultation is made by The New Zealand Initiative (The Initiative), a Wellington-based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. In combination, our members employ more than 150,000 people. Read more
On Newstalk ZB, Mike Hosking discussed Dr Eric Crampton's latest Newsroom column about proposed legislation in New Zealand that would force mediation between big tech companies and local media, potentially leading to financial compensation for news content. The column highlights Google's threat to drop services in response, and references similar experiences in Canada, suggesting the legislation may not achieve its intended goals and could have negative consequences. Read more
New Zealand moves inexorably from the ‘faff around’ to the ‘find out’ phase of the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill process. On Friday, Google’s New Zealand blog noted that if the bill becomes law, Google would be “forced to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News, or Discover surfaces in New Zealand and discontinue our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers.” Google described the Bill as setting a ‘link tax’. Read more
Stephanie Martin talked to Rhema discussing the University of Auckland's overwhelmingly rejected freedom of expression and academic freedom policy, which was four years in the making. The policy was criticised for potentially inhibiting rather than protecting academic freedom, with concerns raised about its focus on subjective concepts like "well-being" that could restrict open discourse and debate in university settings. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton talked to Sean Plunket on The Platform discussing the challenges facing New Zealand's media landscape, including TVNZ's financial woes and Google's threat to stop linking to local news sites in response to proposed legislation. He expresses concern about the potential impact on public access to information and civic knowledge, while also noting that democracy has continued to function despite recent changes in the media sector. Read more
They say you can’t beat Wellington on a good day but in one important respect, ‘they’ are wrong. Christchurch will have Wellington beat, hands-down, unless Christchurch Council manages to screw this up. Read more
In this episode, Michael talks to Rachel Cooper, a Resource Teacher for Learning and Behaviour, about the complex challenges facing New Zealand's education system. The conversation covers a wide range of interconnected issues, from classroom behaviour and learning difficulties to teacher training, school governance, and the impact of societal changes on education, while also exploring potential solutions to improve the quality of education and support for students. Read more
Every three years, Inland Revenue undertakes a long-term insights briefing on the tax system. This year’s could spark a shift away from tedious and fruitless discussions of Capital Gains Taxes. Read more
The Finance Minister this week announced a crackdown on public servants working from home. The push comes as part of a wider focus on productivity and efficiency-increasing measures from the government. Read more
There are reliable links between being bullied at school, poor attendance and poor academic achievement. New Zealand has serious problems with all three. Read more
The Government is determined to give local government a shake-up, with stern tellings-off about getting ‘back-to-basics’ and reforms to refocus councils on core services and efficiency. One of its ideas is that mayors could be given access to independent staff advice, separate from their chief executives and council staff. Read more
On his show on Newstalk ZB, John Macdonald talks about Nick Clark's latest opinion piece in the NZ Herald analysing the potential impacts of giving mayors more power in New Zealand's local government, considering both possible benefits and drawbacks of such a change. Listen below. Read more
For decades after World War II, Austria was a model of political stability to the point of boredom. The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) dominated the political landscape. Read more
Policies and regulations, most of the time, are a bit of a mess. Even if policies made sense when first conceived, sludge accumulates over time. Read more