Wellington (30 January 2018): “We welcome the government’s focus on tracking the number of children in persistent poverty and hardship. However, setting multiple arbitrary targets for reducing child hardship is easier than actually helping people extricate themselves from their predicaments,” said Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
On February 3, the timer counting down Labour’s first hundred days will pop. There’s been a lot of urgency about pushing through important parts of Labour’s election manifesto before that hundred-day timer runs out. Read more
What’s the difference between Oxfam and the Tinder dating app? One concerns itself with issues of equality and fairness across swathes of the world’s population; the other is a charitable organisation set up in Oxford by the Quakers in 1942. Read more
Earthquake-prone New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next earthquake or major disaster. That is the central finding of The New Zealand Initiative’s research report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground. Read more
I am delighted for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. There is surely no more enriching experience than parenthood. Read more
The last time I wrote for Interest about the road toll was in October. At the time, Police were predicting 60 further deaths for 2017. Read more
Kiwis know a lot about earthquake preparedness. We know that we have to store enough water and supplies to last for an extended period. Read more
Wellington (25 January 2018): New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake or major disaster. That is a central finding of a research report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground, launched by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
Our new report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground says New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake. Authors Bryce Wilkinson and Eric Crampton have reviewed the policy response to the Canterbury earthquakes. Read more
Eric Crampton features on 1News discussing his new report, Recipe for Disaster, and the lessons that the government can learn from the response to the Christchurch earthquakes.
Read Recipe for Disaster here: http://bit.ly/2ncQJGz Read more
On Newstalk ZB, Eric Crampton discusses our latest report, Recipe for disaster. He says New Zealand still hasn't fixed the policy problems that slowed Christchurch's rebuild and remains under-prepared for another big quake. Read more
To say the new Minister of Fisheries, Stuart Nash, inherited some fisheries management problems is an understatement. The Ministry for Primary Industries and its predecessors have failed to grapple with the misreporting of commercial catch, discarding of unwanted bycatch and the high grading of targeted catch. Read more
Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative is concerned that sugar tax advocates are misleading the public by pretending to punish manufacturers rather than consumers. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, policy analyst Jenesa Jeram says there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Read more
Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative's Sam Warburton says that Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers’ Union has overlooked bigger problems in transport funding in his claim that the National Land Transport Fund be limited only to roads. “Apart from the contribution public transport can make to alleviating congestion, what Mr Williams’ argument misses is that much National Land Transport Fund expenditure is matched almost dollar-for-dollar by ratepayers,” said Warburton. Read more
The call for a sugar tax has been strengthened by a new study of New Zealand's soft drinks which shows they contain more sugar than in other countries. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, Jenesa Jeram discusses on Newstalk ZB there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Read more