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Should Australian residence visas be for sale? That is the question the Productivity Commission has to investigate now as outlined in a paper it released last week. Read more
Wellington (29 April 2015): The New Zealand Initiative is calling the Productivity Commission’s draft report on effective social services a useful contribution to the debate on how government delivers more efficient services, as greater accountability is needed. Jenesa Jeram, researcher at The New Zealand Initiative said the Productivity Commission’s report showed that around $34 billion of taxpayers’ money is spent on health, education and social services per year, yet there is currently little accountability for whether these services are achieving the outcomes they are set up to achieve. Read more
It’s easy to get reasonable people to agree that economic growth is a good thing, at least in principle. The New Zealand Initiative hosted a panel discussion on its recent report, by Jenesa Jeram and me, outlining the case for economic growth and dispelling a few myths around growth. Read more
The nearly unanimous verdict on Prime Minister John Key’s pre-budget speech last week is that it was completely underwhelming. In fact, some commentators have taken the speech as further evidence the government is running dry on fresh ideas. Read more
The UK elections are only two weeks away and typically, at this stage of the campaign, one should have at least a rough idea what is going to happen. Not so this time. Read more
The #eFairnessNZ campaign says it wants to level the playing field between imported goods and those bought domestically by New Zealand consumers. Because it costs more to collect the tax on lower valued goods than the tax revenues are worth, GST is not charged on imported products valued at less than $400. Read more
Sometimes, it takes a Labour leader to point out the deadweight costs of taxation. And so there is a lot to like in Andrew Little’s economic policy statement. Read more
A few things puzzle me in the rights-holders' cease and desist letter to New Zealand ISPs offering "Global Mode" services. That's likely because I am not a lawyer. Read more
Radical leftists like the Greek government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and nationalist right-wingers like France’s National Front do not have many things in common. However, they can both hope to be supported by Moscow. Read more
Maintaining fiscal discipline is certainly difficult. Resisting the temptation to increase spending, particularly during an economic boom, is something that governments worldwide grapple with. Read more