In this episode, Michael speaks with Professor Elizabeth Rata about the history of New Zealand's school system. The conversation challenges the contemporary narrative of 19th-century schools as authoritarian and oppressive. Read more
In May 1935, as Winston Churchill later told the story, Pierre Laval travelled to Moscow to sound out Stalin about an alliance against Hitler. Late in the talks, the French foreign minister asked whether the Soviet leader might ease his persecution of Russian Catholics. Read more
The Reserve Bank keeps inflation in check, oversees the financial system, regulates banks and issues the country’s currency. These are important jobs, defined by Parliament. Read more
In 2007, then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a ‘digital education revolution.’ His government allocated A$2.4 billion (A$3.9 billion in today’s money) to the project. A large chunk of that went to providing a laptop to every senior secondary student. Read more
New Zealand has solved one of the great puzzles of modern government. A Bill currently before Parliament abolishes the census and declares its replacement to also be a census, only annual and therefore better. Read more
Last Friday, New Zealand signed its first city deal, a formal agreement between central government and Auckland, the country’s largest city. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called Auckland “New Zealand’s economic engine room” and promised to get it “firing on all cylinders.” Among the deal’s headline commitments are a plan to roof the Auckland Tennis Centre, a review of the ownership model for Eden Park, the national stadium, and $10 million to relocate Auckland Cricket to Colin Maiden Park. Read more
With energy prices spiking, an old idea has gathered fresh momentum: break up the big electricity companies. New Zealand First put the proposal on its agenda at the party’s State of the Nation address, calling for the four gentailers, companies that both generate and retail power, to be split apart. Read more
In this episode, Michael talks to Lynda Knight, principal of Glenview School in Porirua, about how understanding the neuroscience of stress and trauma transformed her school's approach to dysregulated behaviour. They discuss why a felt sense of safety, strong relational connections and teacher self-regulation are essential foundations for learning, and what schools and policymakers can do to better support children experiencing stress and trauma. Read more
If you think hell is other people, then cities aren’t a great place to live. We are all at least a little bit annoying. Read more
Imagine waking up and discovering that, overnight, you had been granted superpowers. With a touch of your finger, you could cause new housing to emerge in places with housing shortages. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich talked to Peter Williams on Taxpayer Talk about his paper arguing New Zealand's public service system is fundamentally broken, with the Public Service Commissioner, not elected ministers, controlling the appointment of department chief executives and shaping their career incentives. Drawing on Germany's model of ministerial responsibility and contrasting it with the American and Australian systems, Dr Hartwich proposed a transition toward giving ministers direct control over their departments while maintaining safeguards such as qualification requirements and a duty to object to unlawful orders. Read more
Critics of judicial overreach face an odd challenge. The most sophisticated response is not to defend the decisions – it is to deny that the constitutional limits exist at all. Read more
Auckland Council protects eighty views across the city. Mainly, not views from homes. Read more
When were you last genuinely enthusiastic about casting your vote? Not just resigned to the least bad option, but actually excited to tick that box? Read more
Imagine hiring someone to run your business. Except you did not hire them. Read more