Treating symptoms without diagnosing the disease can provide temporary relief but is not the best way to find the cure in the long run. So it is with medicine, as it is with policy. Read more
It has been two weeks since I started work in New Zealand, at the Initiative. Starting a new job in a new country, there are a few things to get used to. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative invites the public to discuss the topics that matter to everyday people. Join the conversation! Read more
Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich spoke to Sydney's ABC TV on the Kiwi economy - and how it is facing many of the same headwinds as Australia. He discusses migration, housing and trade. Read more
Putting a line in the water is one of the more popular New Zealand pastimes. But here’s a harsh truth. Read more
The Overseas Catch: The state of recreational fisheries management abroad author, Dr Randall Bess, discusses his overseas research trip. He travelled to the Gulf of Mexico, northern California, British Columbia and Western Australia to learn more about how these locations manage their recreational fisheries - what worked well, what didn't and what can New Zealand learn? Read more
A weighty package from the Cato Institute, the US think tank, landed on my desk shortly before Easter. It contained an impressive 300-page tome called The Human Freedom Index 2016. Read more
Former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is famous for his reference to known-knowns, known-unknowns and unknown-unknowns. In other words, there are things we know we know, things we know we don’t know, and things we don’t know we don’t know. Read more
One of the joys of working at the Initiative is writing for the weekly Insights newsletter. As a think tanker it allows you to pick from a veritable smorgasbord of worthy topics and opine on them (hopefully in an insightful manner). Read more
New Zealand may never have a better chance of drawing top talent away from America. This week's changes to skilled migrant requirements will help but not as much as they should. Read more
Unless recreational fisheries management changes, fishers will face a steady decline in daily bag limits, increases in minimum legal sizes, and shorter fishing seasons. The recreational fishing experience will worsen, as will conflicts between the recreational and commercial fishing sectors. Read more
Wellington (19 April 2017): New Zealand’s management of recreational fisheries lags behind other fishing nations and risks our fishing future, according to the latest report from The New Zealand Initiative. Dr Randall Bess’ second report on fisheries management, The Overseas Catch: The state of recreational fisheries management abroad, shows how other nations have managed conflict between recreational and commercial fishers when fish become scarce, and how they have worked to replenish stocks to improve the fishing experience. Read more
The latest report in our fisheries project, The Overseas Catch: The state of recreational fisheries management abroad, was released today. Report author, Dr Randall Bess, discussed how recreational fisheries are manged in the four locations he visited (British Columbia, the Gulf of Mexico, northern California and Western Australia) on Newstalk ZB. Read more
The Initiative's fisheries Research Fellow Dr Randall Bess spoke on TV1's Breakfast show about the latest report in our fisheries project, The Overseas Catch: The state of recreational fisheries management abroad.
Read more
The New Zealand Initiative has welcomed the Government’s changes to immigration policy, which were announced today, calling them a pragmatic way of ensuring businesses get access to the international skills and talent they need to compete. Under the changes, Government will for the first time allow the wages offered to overseas workers applying for permanent skilled and unskilled visas to count towards their immigration points total. Read more