Having a change in government is a bit like moving house. When you pack up the house for a move, you get to take a hard look at a lot of stuff that’s accumulated over the years – things that might have been a mistake to buy in the first place and almost certainly should have been gotten rid of ages ago. Read more
“You New Zealanders don’t know how lucky you are,” said virtually every Australian I met at the recent Friedman Conference in Sydney. New Zealand, they pointed out, had a better tax system with GST across the board rather than at different rates on different products. Read more
Choosing the best school for your child is an important decision. The best school, whether it is primary or secondary, can have a big impact on your child’s wellbeing and success in school. Read more
The counterrevolution started in Auckland last night. That is when the Initiative hosted British educator Katharine Birbalsingh for a dinner lecture in front of an audience of almost 300 teachers, school trustees, business leaders and politicians. Read more
Jenesa Jeram tells James Coleman on World No Tobacco Day how vaping could be the pathway to a smoke-free New Zealand. Her recent report Smoke and Vapour: the changing world of tobacco harm reduction calls for a range of smokeless nicotine delivery products to be made available to smokers wanting to cut down or quit. Read more
New Zealand born London headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh founded Michaela Community School. It is often referred to as Britain's strictest school. Read more
On World No Tobacco Day Wendyl Nissen interviews Jenesa Jeram about how smokeless nicotine delivery products (e-cigarettes, snus, and heat-not-burn) can be used to help New Zealand become smoke-free. Read more
Today on World Smokefree Day, it is time to listen to the needs and preferences of smokers. Yes, that will sound counterintuitive – perhaps even abhorrent – to some. Read more
Katharine Birbalsingh is the founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School, a free school in London. She started her own school after declaring Britain's state education system “broken” because it kept "poor children poor." She's been called the "strictest teacher in Britain," but Katharine Birbalsingh tells Hayley Holt on Breakfast that her students "love the fact that it's strict". Read more
Wellington (30 May 2018): The New Zealand Initiative is celebrating World Smokefree Day (Thursday 31 May) as an opportunity to take a more compassionate approach to tobacco control policy. A recent report by The New Zealand Initiative Smoke and Vapour: the changing world of tobacco harm reduction calls for a range of smokeless nicotine delivery products (e-cigarettes, snus, and heat-not-burn) to be made available to smokers wanting to cut down or quit. Read more
When asked whether they own their home or rent, some people with a mortgage like to joke that the bank really owns it. If you don’t make your mortgage instalment, the bank can, in the limit, take the house away. Read more
Is it possible to have too both too much and too little of something at the same time? This may sound like a problem posed by quantum physics but the question arises with something much more prosaic: bus drivers. Read more
Literacy rates in New Zealand present a paradox. Our renowned Reading Recovery programme is an international export success. Read more
If politicians could make companies more productive and innovative by decree, they would have done so a long time ago. That did not stop the previous government from actively trying to steer companies’ research and development activities. Read more
I know that people who aren’t economists manage to raise kids and that it all seems to work out in the end, but I’m not entirely sure how. I have learned that standard practice in the Crampton household diverges a bit from practice elsewhere. Read more