Roger Partridge is chairman and a co-founder of The New Zealand Initiative and is a senior member of its research team. He led law firm Bell Gully as executive chairman from 2007 to 2014, after 16 years as a commercial litigation partner. Roger was executive director of the Legal Research Foundation, a charitable foundation associated with the University of Auckland, from 2001 to 2009, and was a member of the Council of the New Zealand Law Society, the governing body of the legal profession in New Zealand, from 2011 to 2015. He is a chartered member of the Institute of Directors, a member of the University of Auckland Business School advisory board, a member of the editorial board of the New Zealand Law Review and a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
The personal grievance provisions of the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA) prevent an employer from firing an employee without good cause. Instead, dismissals must be justified. Read more
Wellington (Monday, 21 June 2021): New Zealand's productivity growth is being hampered by employment protection laws that constrain boards and business owners from firing poorly performing senior managers, warns a report from The New Zealand Initiative. In Nothing Costs nothing: Why unjustified dismissal procedures should not apply to the highly paid, Initiative chair and senior fellow Roger Partridge found strong arguments for New Zealand adopting an Australian-style carve-out of high-income earners from the unjustified dismissal provisions of the Employment Contracts Act 2000. Read more
Persistence looks set to pay off with one of Labour’s 2017 election manifesto promises: to reintroduce compulsory sector-wide collective bargaining across the country. Dubbed “Fair Pay Agreements,” the Government’s plan is to take New Zealand back to the system of awards that dominated industrial relations for most of the 20th century. Read more
Read our submission to the Ministry of Education on Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories in the New Zealand Curriculum (draft for consultation). New Zealand's history is much more complex than can be explained by arguments about the exercise and expression of power. Read more
The personal grievance provisions of the Employment Contracts Act 2000 (ERA) prevent an employer from firing an employee without good cause. Instead, dismissals must be justified. Read more
Following the Government's annoucement, Roger Partridge and Oliver Hartwich discuss how Fair Pay Agreements are likely to harm productivity and would not be in the interests of workers, the unemployed, consumers, and overall wellbeing. Read our 2019 report, Work in Progress: Why Fair pay Agreements would be bad for labour. Read more
Grant Robertson could not have looked more pleased delivering his 2021 pre-budget speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce earlier this week. For a start, he was speaking to a live audience, in stark contrast to 2020. Read more
During the Covid pandemic, the public has heard a lot about the precautionary principle. The Prime Minister referred to it when announcing every lockdown. Read more
New Zealand’s highest stakes bet is taking place at the country’s border, where Covid infected Kiwis and returning residents are arriving almost every day. When you are betting the farm, you need to play your best hand. Read more
According to Long’s Axiom, an elephant is a mouse built to government specifications. The saying is a corollary to the old gag about a camel being a horse designed by a committee. Read more
This month events at either end of the country highlighted a fundamental failure afflicting New Zealand’s biggest pre-Covid export earner: tourism. On 10 March, Auckland Council heard submissions on when it should reintroduce its Accommodation Provider Targeted Rate (APTR), which is uses to fund Auckland events and destination marketing. Read more
Eighteen months ago, the Government announced a curriculum change making it compulsory for all schools to teach “key aspects” of New Zealand history. The Ministry of Education was tasked with creating a new curriculum to “span the full range of New Zealanders’ experiences… with contemporary issues directly linked to major events of the past.” Asking the Ministry of Education to draft a compulsory New Zealand History curriculum for school children was always fraught with risk. Read more
No one should doubt the importance of a sound understanding of mathematics in the future workplace. A recent study by the National Maths and Science Initiative found that 16 of the 30 fastest-growing occupations in the United States require substantial mathematics or science understanding. Read more
In this Quick Take podcast, Roger Partridge outlines the core arguments from his Herald column on Australia’s success against Covid-19 and why setting up a trans-Tasman bubble should now be a government priority. If you would like to listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
The sounds of cricket on the radio are already wafting over campgrounds around the country. Who would wish to spend the holidays anywhere else in the world? Read more