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KiwiBuild never made any sense and could not work. The reason was simple. Read more

A 500-gram punnet of grapes: $1.89. A 2 litre bottle of Coca-Cola: also $1.89. Read more

If you're going to read the Commerce Commission's market study on supermarkets in New Zealand, I'd suggest starting with the first half of Chapter 6 which explains the difficulties facing any potential new entrant. As far as I'm concerned, evidence on margins and such really don't mean much unless there are substantial restrictions against new entry. Read more

About a year ago, North American friends started looking to New Zealand as an early glimpse of their own potential post-Covid world. They were still stuck in lockdowns; we had emerged from ours. Read more

Two cars pull up to a traffic light. One is a farmer in his trusty ute. Read more

Last week's protests by farmers show it is only a matter of time until the Government's punitive approach on emissions will fail. With each new policy the Government is burning political capital at a faster rate than it is cutting emissions. Read more

When opposition parties produce policy documents, they can be overly simplistic and populist. They can be unrealistic because they do not have to be implemented straight away. Read more

In my book, governments that do not publish a competent cost-benefit assessment justifying their spending and regulatory proposals do not take community wellbeing seriously.(Only if the wellbeing benefits plausibly exceed the costs is the policy likely to benefit the public.) The absence of such an assessment is now common. It suggests that a measure is being imposed on the public for partisan or elitist, paternalistic reasons. Read more