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The Government has copped much criticism lately for its Kiwibuild policy, including from our chair Roger Partridge writing in Insights two weeks ago. So it is only fair to praise Housing Minister Phil Twyford when he deserves it. Read more

Auckland’s first KiwiBuild winners could hardly keep the smiles off their faces. And who could blame them? Read more

The only two certainties in life are death and taxes. So goes the quote attributed to American politician Benjamin Franklin (or Christopher Bullock or Edward Ward, depending on which source you trust most). Read more

Housing Minister Phil Twyford’s address to Infrastructure New Zealand’s Building Nations Symposium last week made it very clear that the current governing coalition is very serious about fixing Auckland’s housing affordability crisis. But the conference also made a few other things clear. Read more

Switzerland, my home country, is often referred to as the poster child of localism. A substantial part of the political decision making, taxation and public spending is done on a sub central level. Read more

Travelling to New Zealand will be a tremendous shock to the system, a couple of my peers tried to convince me before I left home in Zurich. It was - but not for the reasons everyone told me. Read more

Treasury is the heart of economic expertise in government. But it is more than that. Read more

“If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion,” said Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw. Or at least that is who the quote is attributed to. Read more

For six years, the Initiative has been arguing the case for localism. Pointing out that New Zealand is one of the most centralised countries in the world, we have called for a radical shift of political and fiscal power from the centre to communities. Read more