It does not happen too often that politicians do what I want them to do. It is even stranger when this almost makes me change my mind. New Zealand First’s Respecting New Zealand Values Bill has achieved this remarkable feat. When I received my permanent resident visa three years ago, I wrote an NBR column about the experience. What irritated me at the time were two things. First, that I received it with no sort of welcome letter. Read more

It is a sure sign I am getting old. At age 43, I am still working and I do not think it is a problem. If I shared the attitude held by a growing number of much younger people, I would have retired three years ago. Yes, you read that right: Retired. At 40. Like so many other movements, the frugalist movement started in America. Also known as FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), it has since gained followers worldwide. Read more

The hills were not alive with the sound of music last Thursday. That is when British Prime Minister Theresa May met with the European Union’s 27 other national leaders in the Austrian city of Salzburg.Promoted as an informal summit to allow the two Brexit sides to overcome their schisms, the summit only reinforced them. But maybe that was the whole point.The longer the Brexit negotiations drama goes on, the more observers might wonder what kind of game is being played here. Read more

It had to take an evolutionary psychologist and a lawyer to dissect (some of) the craziness of modern society and polity. Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s new book The Coddling of the American Mind is required reading for anyone wishing to understand 21st century politics, not just in the US but globally. At first sight, the book is about good intentions, bad parenting, and the education system. It shows how young people are being damaged by an emotional ‘safety first’ culture. Read more

In his latest 'Spotlight on Europe' column for Newsroom, Dr Oliver Hartwich explains just how undemocratic the European Union is, while at the same time it keeps trying to tell its members to be democratic.“I’d never join a club that would accept me as a member,” says Woody Allen’s character in Annie Hall. With the European Union, it is the other way around: The EU would reject new members as anti-democratic as itself.Nowhere is the EU’s democratic deficit more visible... Read more

“Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck.” This is how the late Donald Horne once described the West Island in The Lucky Country (1964). Half a century later, Horne’s double characterisation of the country and its political leadership applies more than ever. If proof was needed, it was provided by the overthrow of a sitting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by his own party last week. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative's CEO Dr Oliver Hartwich introduces his fortnightly 'Spotlight on Europe' column for Newsroom Pro this week. He describes himself as both a Europhile and an EU sceptic, and explains why New Zealanders should care about the continent where the modern world is crumbling.I was delighted when Newsroom offered me this new fortnightly column. From 2010 to 2016, I contributed a weekly Europe column to an Australian business magazine. Read more

Imagine a management consultancy asked for help with a large company’s performance. At the end the inquiry concludes the company does not measure whether its processes are efficient. Read more

At the risk of making myself unpopular, I have absolutely no problem with Simon Bridges’ expenses bill. Except that it was leaked and that some other politicians are trying to turn it into a scandal. The opposition leader spent too much money on travel, mainly on Crown cars. But that is just another way of saying he was doing his job. Over the past months, Bridges did what we would expect new opposition leaders to do. Read more

Since New Zealand just had to discuss the meaning of free speech, perhaps it is worth defining what free speech is. And what it is not. Read more

Many of us will remember those gloomy days in late 2008 when the Global Financial Crisis peaked. Stock markets around the world crashed, Lehman Brothers collapsed, and the world’s financial system was on its knees. This was the last time that New Zealand business confidence was as low as it is again today. This week, ANZ released its latest Business Outlook Survey. It revealed that “a net 45 percent of respondents reporting they expect general business conditions to deteriorate in... Read more

“If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion,” said Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw. Or at least that is who the quote is attributed to. Read more

For six years, the Initiative has been arguing the case for localism. Pointing out that New Zealand is one of the most centralised countries in the world, we have called for a radical shift of political and fiscal power from the centre to communities. When we started our campaign for localism, it was a fringe idea. At best, people thought it was unrealistic. At worst, they thought we were crazy to propose giving more power and money to councils. Read more

This week saw the beginning of not one but two separate studies into local government.Speaking at Local Government New Zealand’s annual conference in Christchurch, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced a Productivity Commission inquiry into local government funding and finance. At the same conference, LGNZ and my own organisation, The New Zealand Initiative, launched ‘Project Localism’ which proposes a radical recalibration of power between central and local government.Perhaps it was just coincidental that both these studies were announced within minutes of... Read more