In the DC comic story, a flying Superman spies Lois Lane tied across a railroad line. A fast-moving passenger train is but metres away. Read more
A NZIER report released this week discredits a WorkSafe NZ safety programme that started in November 2011. The programme aims to reduce workplace falls from heights of below 3 metres. Read more
Almost a month after the election, New Zealand is about to have a new government. Yes, other countries take longer to negotiate coalitions. Read more
If no person’s life, liberty or property are safe while Parliament is in session, what’s the rush to have a new government? As I write this column, no coalition has been struck. Read more
Wellington (19 October 2017): Yesterday, the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment released a NZIER report that discredits a WorkSafe NZ safety campaign that started in November 2011. In our report, A Matter of Balance: Regulating Safety, in July 2015, we criticised the government and officials for launching a costly campaign to reduce workplace falls from heights of less than three metres. Read more
The number of people killed on our roads has continually risen over the last four years. Sam Warburton explains why on Breakfast. Read more
Oliver Hartwich talks to Ross Greenwood on 2GB, Sydney's premier news and talk radio station, about Winston Peters deciding to back Jacinda Ardern as the next Prime Minister of New Zealand. Read more
Sam Warburton says authorities should have identified the rising trend in road deaths sooner and could have saved lives by acting faster to improve safety. Radio NZ interviews him about this subject. Read more
To help us make sense of what Trump's policies mean for America's trading partners like New Zealand, we are hosting a special members’ lunch with U.S. economist and political commentator Daniel J. Read more
The discussion about the road toll has risen in recent weeks. Larry Williams asks Sam Warburton whether the road toll is actually increasing when you also look at things like population growth and the numbers of cars on the road. Read more
Sam Warburton looked at the data and gives Alison Mau his overview of the situation we are currently in with road deaths. Read more
When mathematician Stanislaw Ulam challenged Paul Samuelson to point to anything in economics that was both universally true and non-obvious, Samuelson pointed to David Ricardo’s principle of comparative advantage: Even the least productive countries still benefit from trade. Richard Thaler’s Nobel Prize is richly deserved for several substantive contributions in behavioural economics. Read more
Two weeks ago, and as part of an ongoing series about transport planning, investment and outcomes, I wrote about the road toll. In that period a further 15 car occupants have died, including four people north of Taupō this past Tuesday. Read more
It is Friday, 13 October and I am not writing about the coalition talks. We would have hoped to have a new government by now. Read more
In its 2017 Annual Report, the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank refers to itself as “a unique governance body in the public sector”. But unique is not necessarily synonymous with good. Read more