Search

The central Government has a local government problem. Rates have been rising too fast, regional councils are seen as inefficient and unaccountable, and the public wants action. Read more

Many pre-modern people believed gambling was bad and suppressed it. If you think about it, your life insurer is a bookie betting that you’re not going to die this year. Read more

New Zealand has been trying to fix its resource management system for the better part of three decades. The Resource Management Act has been amended virtually every year since 1991 and reviewed several times during that period. Read more

Few policies manage to unite the left, the right and the Taxpayers' Union in opposition. The Government's billion-dollar LNG import terminal in Taranaki managed it inside 24 hours. Read more

The furore over immigration settings in the trade deal with India provides an excellent reminder about a basic policy principle. You’ll have a hard time getting a policy right if you’ve misdiagnosed the problem. Read more

Ask anyone in Australia’s competition law community what transformed the economy, and you will hear a familiar story. Australia was once a cartelised, complacent place where businesses divided up markets and consumers paid the price. Read more

New Zealanders once took pride in being a resilient “do-it-yourself” (DIY) people. Working city fathers, like mine, would spend much of their weekends working on their houses, gardens, fruit trees or sheds. Read more

Turn on the news and you will hear endless references to the Crown: “Crown obligations,” “Crown land,” “Crown Treaty settlements.” Politicians make decisions “on behalf of the Crown.” Courts issue rulings about what “the Crown” must do. Yet ask Kiwis what this “Crown” actually is, and many will give blank stares. Read more

For the first time since the Second World War, New Zealand is being asked to make major economic decisions under direct threat from an ally. New Zealand is negotiating a minerals deal with the United States. Read more