Public Forums

Changing national laws can be cumbersome. Finding central government solutions to local problems can be impossible. Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle it out with the moot: This house believes that high house prices make us poorer as a nation. We will have panellists Phil Twyford, MP, Labour Party Housing Spokesperson and Andrew King, Executive Officer, New Zealand Property Investors Federation. Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle it out with the moot: This house believes that economic growth always comes at the expense of people and the environment. We will have panellists Sir Roger Douglas and Sue Bradford. Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle it out with the moot: This house would legalise euthanasia. We will have panellists Maryan Street (former Labour MP) and Dr Stephen Child of NZMA. Read more

At The New Zealand Initiative we believe that people can be trusted to make their own decisions. Which is why we are concerned that governments are increasingly telling us what and how much to eat, whether to drink, or how to arrange our financial affairs. Read more

On Thursday, 4 June Minister of Education Hekia Parata will launch our new report. The report investigates a programme introduced to New Zealand primary schools 15 years ago that changed the way maths is taught, and tracks maths achievement over that time. Read more

Meredith Connell, together with the New Zealand Centre of International Economic Law and The New Zealand Initiative, invites you to a discussion with Gary Born. Gary Born is widely regarded as the world’s preeminent authority on international commercial arbitration and international litigation. Read more

Discussing The New Zealand Initiative’s latest publication on economic growth. We will have three Members of Parliament to join us for a thought-provoking event. Read more

Join us on Monday, 23 March, for the launch of From Red Tape to Green Gold, when research fellow Jason Krupp will outline the policy changes needed to boost mining output and bolster environmental protections. As a country with one of the highest natural capital endowments per person in the world, New Zealand is not just sitting on a gold mine, but oilfields, iron ore deposits, high grade coking coal seams, and numerous other industrial minerals. Read more

The papers are full of quantitative easing and exchange rate volatility. But there are much bigger changes underway in the Asia-Pacific economies. Read more

New Zealand is in good fiscal shape and the budget on track back to surplus. However, demographic change means we cannot afford to be complacent. Read more

On 9 November 1989, world history was made. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended decades of German division, it brought the Cold War to an end, and it even triggered US political scientist Francis Fukuyama to proclaim “the end of history”. Read more

Earthquakes are bad enough on their own but policy can always make them worse. Regulatory and planning policy in the lead-up to the February 2011 earthquake and in the subsequent response period led to needless deaths, too few options for those whose homes were damaged, a confusopoly in insurance, and an endlessly drawn out quest for the perfect downtown plan. Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle over the moot: Commemorations of past wars are nationalistic exercises in war glorification. We'll have panellists Stephen Franks of Franks Ogilvie and Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative Dr Oliver Hartwich. Read more

Come along and listen to some of New Zealand’s top university debaters battle it out with the moot: Should New Zealand tie MPs and Ministers' salaries to a multiple of the average national income? We will have panellists political commentator and blogger David Farrar and Jordan Williams, Executive Director of The Taxpayers' Union. Read more