REPORTS

This new research note, When the Bloat Began: Non-Academic Staffing at New Zealand Universities over the Long Run, 1961-1997, reveals the year in which non-academic employees started to outnumber academics at our universities. Building on the findings of our earlier research report, Blessing or Bloat? Read more

From 2026, students will have to pass new assessments in reading, writing and numeracy to attain any level of NCEA. However, pilots of the new assessments in 2022 and the first full-scale assessment round for these new standards in 2023 indicate that if they are adopted as a corequisite for NCEA as planned, completion rates for the qualification will fall precipitously. Read more

Classroom streaming – the separation of students into classes based on their prior attainment – is currently a topic of debate in New Zealand. Some commentators have called for the practice to be banned. Read more

Requiring Medsafe approval for pharmaceuticals already approved by at least two trustworthy overseas regulators makes little sense. Foreign pharmaceutical approval agencies are well-resourced. Read more

We are pleased to announce the release of our groundbreaking report, Irish Secrets - An Irish lesson in prosperity. Written by Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative, and featuring a foreword by Fraser Whineray, head of the delegation to Ireland, this report summarises what New Zealand can learn from Ireland. Read more

In this research note, we analyse the six-year spending spree of the Sixth Labour government in the context of historical precedents. Elected on the back of an ambitious policy agenda, the Ardern government quickly found itself struggling to balance the books. Read more

In this short research note, we have focused on the fiscal performance of the Sixth Labour-led Government. We have pointed out that much of our current predicament comes down to unrealistic plans, lack of commitment to stated intentions, and not enough rigour in fiscal management. Read more

The most important component of any system of school education is its teachers. But, New Zealand’s teacher education programmes do not ensure that new teachers are well prepared for the classroom. Read more

As the nation prepares to vote on 14 October, the sentiment across New Zealand is one of frustration and concern. Skyrocketing living costs, unaffordable housing, strained healthcare, and a growing educational gap are the voices of a country looking for change. Read more

New Zealanders should not be too proud to learn from others. In 2017, The New Zealand Initiative led 36 senior business leaders to visit Switzerland for this purpose. Read more

New Zealand's general medical practitioners (GPs) are facing a crisis, with a workforce shortage set to worsen over the next decade unless immediate action is taken to support workforce expansion and development. The health of all New Zealanders and the delivery of top-tier healthcare heavily relies on community-based medical care, mainly provided by Specialist GPs and multi-disciplinary health care teams. The introduction of an "accountability-free capitation" has seemingly driven a decline in the hours GPs work by creating a financial incentive to minimize patient service costs, and analyses indicate a significant decrease in the GP to population ratio, and a decline in GP work hours. Read more

Pharmac is often criticised for not funding enough new medicines and for being too slow to determine which ones it will fund. However, being slow and focused is not proof of being too slow or too focused. Read more

‘Administrative bloat’ – the idea that universities have too many administrators – is hot topic in debates around higher education in the US and elsewhere. Is there a similar problem in New Zealand universities? Read more

There are no silver bullets in housing and infrastructure policy. Too many separate problems compound, resulting in a severe housing shortage and some of the world’s least affordable housing. Read more

New Zealanders need a competent, productive, merit-based public service. Those attributes matter for effective government and, thereby, community wellbeing. Read more