Reports & Media

There is a natural cycle in intellectual development. New ideas begin as isolated and idiosyncratic attacks from without. Read more

The question I have been asked to address is ‘How big should government be?’. My temptation is to start with the position that they who govern best govern least. Read more

The study of constitutional law often begins with a dispute between two different versions of the relationship of the individual to the state. There are those who think that atomistic individuals come together by a set of voluntary contracts, and those who think that societies should be treated as though they are complex organisms that cannot be understood simply as the sum of their parts. Read more

Limited school choice programmes that give parents a little more choice within a system of largely unchanged, uniform schooling alternatives, should not be used to judge the effectiveness of school choice as a reform catalyst. John Merrifield looks at examples of both real and limited school choice policies from around the world and finds out why some succeed while others fail. Read more

One of the most famous statements about the relationship between a company and a state is contained in a remark by Charles E Wilson ('Engine Charlie' of General Motors) when he was being questioned for his appointment as Secretary of Defence in 1953, the early days of the Eisenhower administration. He said that, "for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Read more

The Forum has long argued that the main contribution the Council can make to the advancement of the overall welfare of the citizens of Wellington City is to minimise the rates and regulatory burdens that it imposes. It could achieve this by focusing on funding genuine local public goods and services, facilitating the efficient provision of necessary infrastructure and exiting from non-core activities. Read more

Opportunity for a lifetime is the fourth and final paper in a series that forms part of the New Zealand Institute’s initial research program on Creating an Ownership Society. This paper follows on from our first three papers, The wealth of a nation, It’s not just about the money, and Home is where the money is. Read more

This lecture, Affirmative Action: The US Experience and Implications for New Zealand, was delivered on 3 August 2004 at the offices of Russell McVeagh, Wellington. Read more

The submission comments on the proposal that the Council should contribute up to $3.95 million per annum for seven years towards the costs of holding the V8 Supercar Championship series (V8 race) in Wellington city from April 2006. Read more

There is a perception in New Zealand that the so-called ‘rich’ do not pay their fair share of tax. Yet the evidence examined by Sinclair Davidson shows this to be untrue. Read more

On my last visit to New Zealand in 1999 I spoke as an outsider to a sceptical audience on how best to interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.1 I said that one of the great challenges facing a country formed by successive waves of immigrants is to put together disparate norms from rival cultures, each of which has its own distinctive legal understandings as to how the world does or should work. On that occasion I said that I would like to start from a neutral corner, and then proceeded to address several Roman law analogues to the question of prescriptive rights, largely on the basis that the great Roman authors were not influenced by the future events that unfolded in New Zealand. Read more

The Bill's explanatory note describes it as an omnibus bill. It will amend the Securities Act 1978, the Securities Markets Act 1988, the Takeovers Act 1993, and the Takeovers Code, with related amendments to other statutes. Read more

We have several concerns about the propositions contained in paragraphs 20 and 21. We raise them in the context of section 68 of the Act. Read more

We are grateful for the opportunity to comment on the Ministry's discussion document, Review of the Financial Reporting Act Part II. Read more

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) has released five papers that are part of a review of the government’s role in the domestic food sector. The fifth paper, Principles and Possible Methods for a Cost Recovery Framework (the Cost Recovery Paper), states that its purpose is to “propose principles and possible methods for a cost recovery framework for domestic food safety that will determine the funding of functions undertaken by the regulator or on its behalf and who will fund those functions” (p 5). Read more