Jenesa Jeram discusses on The AM Show our new report Embracing a Super model: The superannuation sky is not falling. The report finds that New Zealand’s universal pension system is relatively affordable but could do with small tweaks as the population ages. Read more
New Zealand is one of a handful of countries to offer a universal non-means-tested benefit, payable from the age of 65 until death. Commentators insist that with an ageing population, New Zealand Superannuation (NZS) is unsustainable. Read more
Wellington (4 December 2018): New Zealand’s universal pension system is worth celebrating but could do with small tweaks to the model as the population ages, finds a new report titled Embracing a Super model: The superannuation sky is not falling, which was released by think tank The New Zealand Initiative. The pension age must rise and be linked to health expectancy, recommends Research Fellow Jenesa Jeram, to maintain a relevant relationship between retirement and receipt of superannuation. Read more
When the leaders of the G20 met in Buenos Aires on Friday, one of them arrived unfashionably late. German Chancellor Angela Merkel missed the first day of the conference and only just made it to the opening dinner. Read more
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade must have a psychedelic drug in its watercoolers. How else does one explain MFAT’s new consultation on the pipedream of a future free-trade agreement between New Zealand and the UK? Read more
Desperate to turn away from trivial controversies here in New Zealand about Santa’s true gender, I looked to the British press and found The Times and The Telegraph reporting on claims of racism in J.R.R. Tolkien’s depiction of orcs in The Lord of the Rings. Read more
In the old days, quitting smoking was apparently a miserable affair. So miserable, in fact, that even when faced with the prospect of ‘quit smoking or die’, too many smokers tragically fell into the latter category. Read more
If house prices go up, it is a scandal. If house prices go down, it is a disaster. Read more
The trouble isn’t so much the things we don’t know, as the old aphorism goes, but rather the things we know that aren’t so. Simply not knowing things can often be fixed. Read more
New Zealand’s screening regime for foreign investment in sensitive land conjures images of a madman waving a big stick in a public place. He is as likely to hit his own head as anyone else’s, but it is bad either way. Read more
Unless we are good friends, my picking the restaurant when you are paying the bill can be a recipe for trouble. Central and local government are not always the best of friends. Read more
Question: What costs three moon programs, puts nobody in space, and makes no difference to emissions? Answer: Energiewende (or energy turnaround), Angela Merkel’s plan to cut Germany’s emissions. Read more
If you were not already alarmed about the state of education in New Zealand, two stories in the media last week should shake you from any complacency. The first story was about a commonplace word, trivial. Read more
In 1898, the first publicly funded pension was introduced in New Zealand. Back then, those aged over 65 comprised only 1.3 per cent of the population, with the average life expectancy for males being 54. Read more
What Brexit is in the early 21st century, the Schleswig-Holstein Question was in the mid-19th century. That international calamity of dazzling complexity also gave one of the most memorable quotes in diplomatic history. Read more