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In this episode, Oliver talks to Roger Partridge about his new report, Renovating the Nation, which proposes selling around $25 billion worth of government-owned commercial assets and reinvesting the proceeds into critical public infrastructure. Drawing on the success of New South Wales's asset recycling programme, Roger argues the Crown has too much capital tied up in businesses it doesn't need to own, and that ring-fencing sale proceeds in an independently governed fund could deliver the roads, hospitals, and public transport New Zealand desperately needs. Read more

Roger Partridge discussed the Initiative's new report on asset recycling on RNZ, proposing that selling selected state assets — including TVNZ, NZ Post, energy company stakes, Transpower, and Landcorp — could free up around $25 billion for a ring-fenced infrastructure fund. Partridge argued the model, drawn from a successful New South Wales programme, would direct proceeds exclusively to infrastructure priorities vetted by an Independent Infrastructure Commission, and called for public debate to move beyond slogans like "selling the family silver." Listen below. Read more

Roger Partridge discussed the New Zealand Initiative's new report on Newstalk ZB, which argues the government could unlock more than $24 billion by selling or leasing Crown-owned commercial assets such as Kiwibank and Air New Zealand. The report points to New South Wales as a model, where asset recycling raised more than $50 billion for a dedicated infrastructure fund, and Partridge suggested the approach could work alongside the proposed Infrastructure Commission. Read more

In this episode, Eric Crampton talks to Nick Clark about New Zealand's long and troubled history with the Resource Management Act — and whether the Government's 744-page replacement really fixes it. They examine the missing property rights protections, the absence of robust cost-benefit analysis, and the fail-safes needed to ensure the new framework delivers better outcomes for New Zealanders. Read more