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When Guyon Espiner reported on a police estimate of ‘$7.8b harm from booze’, I was curious whether the figure was the old BERL alcohol cost zombie back again from the dead to torment the living. The BERL number included drinkers’ spending on their own alcohol – not a ‘social cost’ by any reasonable standard. Read more

At The New Zealand Initiative, we have long advocated a more welcoming stance towards foreign direct investment (FDI). Our research has consistently shown that New Zealand needs foreign capital to boost growth, and that our restrictive FDI rules have been a major barrier to attracting overseas investment. Read more

Eminent New Zealander, Sir Roger Douglas has renewed his case for radical changes to fiscal policy in the last three weeks. The issues are relevant to Budget 2024. Read more

For over a decade, we at The New Zealand Initiative have been staunch advocates for liberalising New Zealand’s foreign direct investment (FDI) regime. Our consistent message has been that New Zealand needs an influx of foreign capital to accelerate economic growth, and that our current FDI rules are overly restrictive, acting as a significant deterrent to potential investors. Read more

New Zealand's superannuation scheme is laudable for its universal and simple approach to ensuring dignity for our elders. However, the system's simplicity obscures unfortunate truth – it will punish our younger generations. Read more

If a picture contains a thousand words, this column is going to run well over our normal word limit. But the charts do say a lot, so we’ll let the charts do most of the talking. Read more

Yesterday, 6 June, was the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy. This day marked the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe from Nazism. Read more

Last weekend, deeply disturbing allegations emerged that the privacy of New Zealanders’ census data was grossly violated in the lead-up to the 2023 general election. Media reports include allegations that confidential personal information collected during the 2023 census on behalf of Statistics New Zealand was illicitly copied for private benefit. Read more

The nation is in shock following reports that former President of the USA, Donald Trump, is eyeing up New Zealand as a retirement option. With the two-term limit on the American presidency due to kick in if he wins the coming election, the former host of NBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ is considering a quiet exit from politics as New Zealand’s premier. Read more