Nearly every week the Government passes laws that regulate the way New Zealanders can go about their lives. Whether this be scaffolding regulations, changes to KiwiSaver, or how charities operate, the effect of government is present is almost all aspects of our lives.
Our research focuses on the how the will of Parliament interacts with society, whether current legislation is fit for purpose, and whether certain policy settings can be improved.
Read our submission to the New Zealand Productivity Commission on their Local Government Funding and Financing Issues Paper (November 2018). Read more
About the authorDr Bryce Wilkinson is a Senior Fellow with The New Zealand Initiative and Director of Capital Economics Limited. Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to Parliament's Transport and Infrastructure Committee on the Building Amendment Bill. Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to the Environment Committee on the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Bill. Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to the Treasury on New Zealand’s Fiscal Policy Framework: Establishing an Independent Fiscal Institution. Read more
Lime scooters are Satan’s own vehicle. If you ride one, you will lose control, scrape your knees, maybe even break a leg. God forbid someone die on a Lime scooter. At least that’s what the worry-warts want you to believe. Read more
Only the officials at Inland Revenue know why they commissioned a poll on Kiwis’ attitudes to tax that included questions about the respondents’ general political orientation. Releasing the polling data should be part of fixing any perceived problems. Read more
Readers will be familiar with that exasperating feeling of looking for something and not finding it. You know it should be there, but it is missing. Read more
Anybody even remotely connected with housing, housing research, the building industry – or with the ability to fog a mirror by breathing on it – had to know it was near-impossible for the government to meet its KiwiBuild promises on its 10-year schedule. Read more
Tidying guru Marie Kondo advises her followers to hold or hug everyday items and ask yourself: “Does this item spark joy?” So I picked up a plastic bag and clutched it to my chest. I first felt joy, and then an overwhelming grief. The moment I had been dreading had arrived: my household had reached the last of our plastic bags. As my tears splashed off the plastic folds, I reflected on the injustice of the impending plastic bag ban. Read more
