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Urban land use planning systems that load councils with the costs of urban growth while letting councils decide whether new housing can be built are a recipe for failure. This underpins a decade of low build rates, a substantial housing shortage, and skyrocketing house prices. Read more

In Greek mythology, Hercules was tasked with slaying Hydra, a gigantic and deadly water snake. Hydra had multiple heads. Read more

Daily testing for everyone involved in the border system was always ideal, though it took rather some time for the government to come around to that view. It looks like daily Covid testing will soon be part of the border regimen. Read more

It does not happen every day that I find myself in agreement with the Ministry of Education. But their reasoning for introducing a New Zealand history curriculum is sound. Read more

UK political commentator Jeremy Driver put his finger on something important about his country’s failure to deal sensibly with Covid. It’s something that has also been rather easy to see from half-way around the world. Read more

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. That is what it must be like for the government in the housing crisis. Read more

If you want to get into New Zealand during the pandemic, it’s not that hard. The government just needs to consider you to be a priority for a scarce managed isolation space. Read more

Suppose a tear in the spacetime continuum had delivered you a copy of December quarter 2020’s employment statistics one year early. You had received the key graphs on the employment rate, the unemployment rate, labour force participation rates and underutilisation rates for the year to come – but none of the accompanying discussion. Read more