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In times of war, parts of the every-day rulebook for liberal democracies must be suspended. To protect personal and economic freedoms, in wartime governments must temporarily curb some of them. Read more
Wellington 23 March 2020 - BusinessNZ and The New Zealand Initiative are encouraging the Government to go further with its economic support package, saying the support package announced last week was the right first step and was greatly appreciated but needed to go further. The New Zealand Initiative’s Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich and BusinessNZ’s CEO Kirk Hope noted the Australian Government’s move yesterday, launching a second amount of support and signaling that more was coming. Read more
Oliver Hartwich talks to Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB about the Government's Covid-19 economic support package. He argues it is a good first step, but more work needs to be done. Read more
No one doubts the economic costs of lost jobs and income from Covid-19 will be substantial in the short run. But what can we know about the likely magnitude of those costs? Read more
Fiscal responsibility matters. Being careful guardians of the public purse during good times provides flexibility for dealing with nightmare scenarios. Read more
New Zealand’s ‘upset-no-one’, content-free National Curriculum is hurting our children’s education. To identify what knowledge should be every child’s entitlement, the Ministry of Education must be willing to have some difficult conversations. Read more
At our Initiative staff meetings over the past two months, Covid-19 already dominated our discussions. Startling as they are, we are not surprised by the events of the past days. Read more
Many international institutions will be considering the economic consequences of Covid-19 and what to do about it. For three years, I worked in the Economics Department of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and contributed to the production of its Economic Outlook – a publication looking at the growth prospects and policy challenges of member countries. Read more
Plenty of first-world countries have been hit with Coronavirus cases and failed to stamp it out effectively. However, Singapore has once again shined as an example of clever public policy. Read more
In wartime, it’s often hard to know exactly what is going on. Good communication is critical but it’s hard for governments – or anyone else – to make good decisions in the absence of information. Read more