Reports & Media

Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative is concerned that sugar tax advocates are misleading the public by pretending to punish manufacturers rather than consumers. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, policy analyst Jenesa Jeram says there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Jeram says that trying to regulate the sugar content of sugary drinks, as University of Waikato researcher Dr Lynne Chepulis recommends, is likely to have unintended consequences. Read more

Wellington (16 January 2018): The New Zealand Initiative's Sam Warburton says that Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers’ Union has overlooked bigger problems in transport funding in his claim that the National Land Transport Fund be limited only to roads.  “Apart from the contribution public transport can make to alleviating congestion, what Mr Williams’ argument misses is that much National Land Transport Fund expenditure is matched almost dollar-for-dollar by ratepayers,” said Warburton. Read more

The call for a sugar tax has been strengthened by a new study of New Zealand's soft drinks which shows they contain more sugar than in other countries. Responding to renewed calls for a sugar tax, Jenesa Jeram discusses on Newstalk ZB there are still no grounds for introducing such a tax in New Zealand. Read more

On Monday 4 December we launched our third report on how we can improve the recreational fishing experience.The panel discussion included Dr Randall Bess (author of the report), Hon. Stuart Nash (Minister of Fisheries), Sir Mark Solomon (Deputy Chair of Te Ohu Kaimoana), and Bob Gutsell (Vice President of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council).You can read more about our findings here: http://bit.ly/2B6F5XC Read more

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) admitted errors in its report on the economic benefits of hosting the America's Cup in Auckland. Its initial cost-to-benefit ratio estimate was between 1.8 and 1.2, meaning benefits would outweigh cost by between 80 and 20 percent. However, it revised this to a high of 1.14 and a low of 0.997. Sam Warburton, who reviewed MBIE's numbers, tells Larry Williams why “hosting the Cup in Auckland would be barely worth it." Read more

Wellington (21 December 2017): The New Zealand Initiative welcomes today’s correction by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to its previous estimates of the economic benefits of hosting the America’s Cup. On 22 November 2017, MBIE released the results of its cost-benefit analysis. At the time, it concluded that the degree to which benefits exceed costs stood at between 1.2 and 1.8 (depending on a host of factors). These optimistic figures were widely reported in media. Read more

The government has launched a new $22.5 million plan to keep motorists safer on rural highways. Sam Warburton speaks with Mike Hosking about this plan. Read more

Mike Hosking interviews Bryce Wilkinson about Treasury’s Living Standards Framework. It's part of a Government plan to show how many children have been lifted out of poverty in next May's budget. Bryce argues that there's a risk the Government could emphasise the points it wants to. Read more

The coalition Government says about 384,000 families will be better off by $75 a week under its families package.It's estimated 88,000 children's lives will be turned around by the flagship policy which will cost $5.5 billion over the next five years. Bryce Wilkinson talks to 1 News about this announcement. Read more