Reports & Media

Supporting a regulated market for cannabis hardly requires you to think cannabis is a good thing. It rather recognises that illegal markets are risky with their own harms, and that American states that have liberalised have generally seen good outcomes. Read more

Auckland’s first KiwiBuild winners could hardly keep the smiles off their faces. And who could blame them? Read more

It is hard to make good rules in a hurry. And the period after an earthquake – or any natural disaster – is the worst time for setting new building codes, new city plans, or new rules for urgent building demolition. Read more

The past fortnight’s shenanigans have raised calls for campaign finance reform. But campaign finance regulation is like squeezing a balloon. Read more

The government’s planning changes to freshwater management. Earlier this month, the government released consultation documents outlining its intended approach to improving freshwater quality. Read more

Political scandals usually have a policy core – unlike Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross’ falling out with his now former party, which appears to be about personal issues as much as anything else. Yet at least one policy question has arisen out of this political train crash – whether using the new ‘waka jumping’ law would be appropriate to allow a party to remove defectors from Parliament. Read more

A very long time ago, as long ago as last Friday, Yvette, 5, and Rupert, 6, committed their grandparents to 100 years of thinking time. For the uninitiated, thinking time is a penalty some parents impose on their young kids for misbehaving. Read more

The Tax Working Group’s high-level advice is absolutely correct: The government should simplify the alcohol excise structure, put tobacco excise increases on hold, and not proceed with any sugar taxes until it figures out what it is trying to achieve. This sound advice relies on a rather reasonable summary of the issues produced by the Tax Working Group’s secretariat. Read more

According to Karl Marx, history repeats itself – the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. Looking at Italy’s looming debt crisis, he might have had it the wrong way around. Read more

Normal politics too quickly leads to despair about democracy and humanity. If you are tired of reality-TV political shenanigans, turn off the Twitter feed and turn an eye to the government’s promising work on freshwater management. Read more

In the media they say if it bleeds it leads. That may be so, but last Friday I took the unusual step of writing a column about some good news. Read more

At a time when everyone and their grandma is glued to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on their smartphone, what better way to target people during a political campaign than through social media. That is how the kererū won Bird of the Year 2018. Read more

Global debt is now higher relative to global income than in 2009 according to the latest International Monetary Fund statistics. This is despite the imposition of much more stringent financial regulation since the 2008 financial crisis. Read more