Shedding some light on democracy
Back in April, the Government promised $50 million to support a flagging media sector. It’s hard to make a buck online, but the real problem was getting people to pay attention to news. Read more
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Inequality, deprivation, and the UNICEF Report
Last week’s UNICEF report on child wellbeing gets one big thing very right. Important parts of government policy are failing children. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton
"Civic knowledge in New Zealand is remarkably poor”
How much of what Kiwi voters should know about democracy do they really know? Our Chief Economist Eric Crampton discusses the results of our new report on the state of civic knowledge in New Zealand on TVNZ Breakfast. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton
Almost a third of Kiwis can't name parties in Parliament
Our new report Democracy in the Dark shows that almost a third of New Zealanders cannot name the political parties currently in parliament. Less than half of the one thousand people surveyed understood how New Zealand's political system MMP, works. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton
Report highlights importance of civic education
In our report Democracy in the Dark, we argue that New Zealanders might need to brush up on their civics homework before the upcoming election in October. Chief Editor Nathan Smith joins Radio NZ's The Panel to discuss the report's findings. Read more
The vexing issue of Damien Grant's 'career-ending' convictions
Should a convicted fraudster be allowed to work as an insolvency practitioner? If your spontaneous answer is “no way!”, then you agree with the board of RITANZ, the professional body for insolvency practitioners. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich
Cultural enrichment
There must be a German word for it: That feeling when you are enjoying something that is just not quite right. Not a guilty pleasure, more an incorrect one. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich
Tax is love?
In a predictable statement earlier this week, the Green Party co-leader declared her party’s undying love for taxation. A rather Orwellian take on the libertarian war cry of “tax is theft,” Marama Davidson said those who fork out money to the state are world-saving humanitarians since “tax is love.” In the spirit of this wonderful reframing of charity, I propose a few more ideas so Kiwis can help spread the “love.” A good place to start is property rights. Read more
Cannabis use in ‘these’ United States
It is a pity Kiwis cannot build a mirror image “New Zealand v2” somewhere in the Pacific to test controversial policies like cannabis legalisation. Actually, that’s why the US is such a great political system. Read more
Greens Clean Energy Plan a fool's errand
A good project manager knows that unnecessary bells and whistles endanger a project's aims. Gold-plating a specification wastes resources and threatens a venture’s viability. The same is also true of public policy. Read more
Roger Partridge