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It took eighteen years for New Zealand’s school system to plunge from world-leading to decidedly average. Despite a concurrent 32% real rise in per-pupil spending, in maths, Kiwi 15-year-olds now perform the way 13 and a half year-olds did just 20 years ago. Read more
In this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast, as the country prepares to weather what could be a particularly bad recession, it needs plenty of good ideas. Unfortunately, those good ideas are few and far between. Read more
New Zealand looks to have won its second battle against Covid-19. The country should brace itself for another round of self-congratulatory backslapping. Read more
Wellington, 7 October 2020 – Over the next few years, New Zealand will face an immense challenge to keep Kiwi’s employed, get the economy growing again and rein in debt. According to a report by The New Zealand Initiative, there is also an important opportunity to fix the worst social and economic ills that have plagued this country for decades. Read more
Educational standards have plummeted over the past two decades. Where New Zealand children once topped international league tables, they now perform mediocrely due to education providers blindly adhering to the philosophy of child-centred learning. Read more
Research Fellow Briar Lipson explains in a new book why New Zealand’s education system is a mess, riddled with unscientific ideas and seduced by child-centred orthodoxy. She talks to John Campbell on TVNZ Breakfast about how to create the corrective shift that will reverse the decline and narrow New Zealand's educational inequities. Read more
If your main source of information on this year’s cannabis referendum were the Say Nope To Dope campaign, it would be pretty easy to imagine marijuana-leaf decorated cannabis shops on every corner. Contrary to that campaign’s full-page ads portraying classic Kiwi dairies turned into garish marijuana stores, the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill is rather restrictive. Read more
I had the misfortune recently to lunch with an economist. Economists are generally despondent about government stupidity, ineptitude and profligacy. Read more
For political tragics, Wednesday was a feast day. First, the US Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Read more
Anybody who watches house prices in Wellington will realise there is a mismatch between demand for homes and supply. Wellington City’s Draft Spatial Plan attempts to address this and the fact that over the next 30 years an extra 80.000 will move to Wellington. Read more