An alcohol licensing regime should have one big job: to ensure that licensed outlets operate responsibly, first by vetting applications and then by monitoring compliance. Its measures should be proportionate to the risks being addressed, and cost-effective. Read more
Housing targets have long been a political football – and an emotional subject. Would it not be better to take some of the heat out of the housing debate and ask more systematically how we could better plan for future housing supply? Read more
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single politician in possession of good polling must be in want of an election. Similarly, politicians lacking public support are wary of the electoral meatgrinder that awaits them. Read more
Imagine that a public health authority publishes a report on the nation’s diet. After 22 years of data and a 100-page methodology, it announces the four least nutritious food groups. Read more
Dr Benno Blaschke talked to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB about his research note Beyond Targets, arguing that housing targets alone are insufficient without addressing the planning rules and zoning that create artificial scarcity. Dr Blaschke proposed an independent expert panel, likening it to a financial adviser for cities, to help councils get the urban economics right rather than leaving housing affordability to political decision-making. Read more
Dr Benno Blaschke talked to Jesse Mulligan on RNZ Afternoons about his new report Beyond Targets, which argues that New Zealand's "predict and provide" approach to housing planning locks projections into rigid regulation that fails to respond to real market demand. Dr Blaschke proposes a more flexible system with an independent accountability function, similar to the Reserve Bank's role with interest rates, that monitors price signals and adjusts zoning to ensure housing is provided where people actually want to live. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 21 May 2026) – Housing targets have long been a political football. They are also an emotional political subject. Read more
Housing targets have long been a political football. They are also an emotional political subject. Read more
Housing targets have long been a political football. They are also an emotional political subject. Read more
Observers of European politics know Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a right-wing, populist party, probably extreme, certainly friendly to Russia. Less visible from the outside is that the AfD is not an ordinary opposition party that might win an election, govern badly and then be voted out. Read more
In this episode, Oliver talks with senior fellow John Howard about mounting geopolitical instability, from Iran and the Strait of Hormuz to Trump's visit to Beijing and the growing pressure on Taiwan. They discuss what these crises mean for New Zealand's energy security, political leadership, European security, business risk, and the need for more serious strategic thinking. Read more
When Jim Chalmers stood up on budget night and announced the end of negative gearing on established properties, he assured Australians it was worth breaking a promise for “right and justifiable reasons.” Grant Robertson, New Zealand’s finance minister, said something remarkably similar in March 2021 when he broke his own promise not to extend the bright-line test on property. Robertson called his earlier commitment “too definitive.” A New Zealand Herald columnist observed that this sounded a lot like “too honest.” New Zealanders know how this story ends. Read more
In this episode, Oliver talks with Roger Partridge about the Government’s decision to legislate to stop the Smith v Fonterra climate change case. They discuss why Parliament was right to step in after the Supreme Court reinstated a claim the Court of Appeal had unanimously struck out, the causation problems at the heart of the case, and why media claims of an attack on judicial independence get New Zealand’s constitutional order backwards. Read more
Mike Smith, the climate activist suing six of New Zealand’s largest companies over greenhouse gas emissions, is unhappy. On Tuesday, the Government announced it will amend the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to stop cases like his and others like it. Read more
Ahead of New Zealand’s 2017 election, I floated the idea of a grand coalition between National and Labour in a few columns. The circumstances back then made it appealing. Read more