There is an old tradition in academia to publish a Festschrift to honour significant birthdays of eminent scholars. It is not something we do in think tank land, so we should at least celebrate Bryce Wilkinson’s 75th birthday in Insights. Read more
“The ownership of these [water] entities sits with local bodies and government. … Local government retains ownership. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 18 August 2022): A Policy Note by Senior Research Fellow, Dr Bryce Wilkinson was published today by the New Zealand Initiative. It rebuts the argument that New Zealand’s inflation rate today is a result of deliberate Reserve Bank decisions in 2020 to save jobs and the economy at the expense of inflation. Read more
Last month, the Initiative published an essay listing six mistakes Graeme Wheeler and I argue the world’s major central banks widely made in responding to COVID. The New Zealand media interpreted this as an attack on the RBNZ. Read more
The situation was dire as the country went to the polls. Certainly so, according to a pamphlet produced by the opposition leader. Read more
A time traveller from the end of the last millennium could be forgiven for thinking the 21st-century world has lost its way. At the end of last century, even the most uncharitable could only marvel at humanity's progress. Read more
Oliver Hartwich talks with Professor David Rozado from Otago Polytechnic about his research in positive/negative sentiment words and terms loaded with political connotations in academia and news/opinion articles from news media outlets. To view Professor Rozado's twitter feed click here. Read more
Eric Crampton discusses with Heather Du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB the Auckland Council's Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway. Read more
A friend who worked in one of the Ministries years ago called it “Hiding the cheese”. It’s a fun game for the Ministries, hiding the cheese. Read more
You load 16 tons and what do you get? You get one day older and deeper in debt. Read more
Michael Johnston discusses improving our childrens' reading and writing with Belinda Blick-Duggan and Dr Helen Walls. Click here to view a range of content that teachers and parents can use to improve childrens' handwriting. Read more
The world is in a mess. According to psychoanalyst Carl Jung, that’s because human psychology is messy. Read more
Politicians are recently pushing for a large-scale adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEV; currently <1% of vehicles in NZ) to reduce the emissions generated by the transport sector. The emissions reduction plan supports this with $1.2bn of spending, of which $569m are used for the “Clean Car Upgrade” programme. Read more
In Frank Hebert’s classic Dune series, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood’s supernatural abilities extended only so far. There was a place where their powers could not see – a place that repelled and terrified them. Read more
The year is AD2022. The West is united against its many foes. Read more