This manifesto draws on the body of research compiled at The New Zealand Initiative over the past decade to bring together a coherent plan to improve our education system, and to restore it to a place of international pre-eminence. New Zealand’s once world-leading school education system is in a state of deep malaise. Read more

A pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) continues both worldwide and in New Zealand. Although estimates are that half the New Zealand population have been infected, more likely almost every citizen has come into contact with the virus in some way. Read more

This submission in response to the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a Wellington-based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. Read more

Central banks, above all, are responsible for overseeing financial stability and controlling inflation. Many central banks, including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), have inadvertently fueled excessive inflation through their responses to Covid-19, resulting in massive losses on taxpayers. Read more

In 2011 the Ministry of Education embarked on a ten-year strategy to rejuvenate New Zealand’s aging classroom estate. Part of this strategy involved establishing large, open plan classrooms, populated by many more children than are found in cellular classrooms. The Ministry conducted no research on the effects of these ‘Modern learning Environments’ on students’ learning prior to compelling schools to adopt them. Read more