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In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the tyrannical state develops an artificial language called Newspeak to align thought and action with the ideology of the Party. Its aim is to entrench the tyranny of the Party by making other modes of thought impossible. Read more
Thomas Hobbes told us the State is necessary to protect us. The war of all against all that would ensue without a State to protect us from each other would be worse than even a terrible despot. Read more
A motto I live by is to hope for the best but expect the worst. As such, I was disappointed but not surprised to hear immigration minister Michael Woodhouse announce this week that the government is getting tougher on immigration policy. Read more
Perched in the high vantage of a think tank it is easy to spot a politician who by accident stumbles on a major problem in our society simply by opining on one or other of the issues of the day. Most recently it was the turn of ACT Party Leader David Seymour to perform this accidental but vital service to society. Read more
When you are running out of ideas on how to spoil a party, just invite a German. That must have been the idea when Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler asked me to speak at the Auckland launch of their book, Constitution of Aotearoa New Zealand. Read more
There are ominous rumblings of another European banking crisis this evening. Germany's biggest commercial bank, Deutsche Bank, is being asked to stump up $18 billion to US authorities for dodgy dealings in the lead up to the global financial crisis. Read more
Having attended a couple of conferences in Miami last week, it was time to fly back to New Zealand on Monday night (US Eastern Standard Time). The in-flight entertainment on our domestic flight to LA was excellent: we had live TV, and the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was on. Read more
Dr Andrew Butler and Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s new book, A Written Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, proposes radical changes. This is not entirely a surprise. Read more
New Zealand maintained its third place ranking in this year’s Economic Freedom of the World reports, but it’s hardly a place allowing markets in everything. And that can be costly. Read more
Last month, we launched a report on the government’s interest-free student loan policy. To summarise briefly, the scheme has had no particular benefits in improving access to tertiary study, but has been rather costly both for the government and for the tertiary sector. Read more