Are Kiwis taking their civics for granted? American columnist H.L. Mencken once quipped that democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. Read more
On August 8, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government would consider loosening New Zealand’s border controls and strict visa regime. Ardern said the Government is “keen to get local businesses more access to essential skilled workers to help grow the economy and create opportunities for resident Kiwis.”The Government is right to be concerned about this issue. Unfortunately, the Government was forced to switch its focus to stamping out the virus and fixing the country’s evidently porous borders.But with firms... Read more
This research note takes a closer look at school effectiveness across state, state-integrated, and private schools, otherwise defined as school authority (or type) using the Initiative's school performance tool. Read more
This report examines the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand’s arrangements for prescription medicines. Central to them is the Pharmaceutical Management Agency, Pharmac, a Crown entity. Among OECD member countries, Pharmac is “unique” in combining “clinical, economic and commercial aspects, and decision-making within a fixed budget for subsidising pharmaceuticals.”1 Other member countries commonly separate these roles and may have more open-ended budgets.Perhaps the greatest strength in New Zealand’s arrangements compared to elsewhere is that, from its inception in 1993, Pharmac... Read more
Up to a million Kiwis live overseas with a right to return to New Zealand. While the country is now effectively free of Covid-19, with cases only in the country’s quarantine facilities, the pandemic rages abroad and is unlikely to abate anytime soon. Even if a vaccine is developed this year, scaling up its production will take time. In the meantime, the Government must scale up its own capabilities and capacity within its managed isolation and quarantine facilities.This report provides... Read more
The Government’s response to the economic challenges of Covid-19 has primarily focused on new spending which will balloon public debt from 19% of GDP in 2019 to 30% in 2020 and peak at nearly 54% of GDP by 2024. It is only expected to modestly fall to 42% of GDP by 2034.A clear choice has been made to defer paying the costs of the Government’s economic response to the Covid-19 crisis into the future, either by lower levels of public... Read more
New Zealand is now on a dangerous path to higher public debt and unprecedented money printing with no credible plan for unwinding the situation before the next crisis, warns a new report by The New Zealand Initiative. Covid-19 and the various types of lockdown responses have caused many governments to go even more heavily into debt and print money to sustain asset prices with borrowed money. Read more
Since the first cases of the Covid-19 virus emerged in the Chinese province of Wuhan, several East Asian countries including Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan have successfully 'flattened the curve' of infection rates. The three countries used common public policies in the first 50 days since each registered their 100th case. Read more
Several legal scholars have raised concerns about the legality of the emergency powers during the Covid-19 crisis exercised by Government officials – specifically, the Director General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield’s orders under the Health Act 1956 sending the country into lockdown on 25 March. The courts will decide the lawfulness of Bloomfield’s actions now that they have been challenged by former Parliamentary Counsel (and legal textbook author) Andrew Borrowdale (the Borrowdale proceedings). Read more
In preparation for New Zealand’s September 19 referendum on cannabis, all sides of the debate are sharpening their lines of argument. Read more
On 14 May, the Government introduced an Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Amendment Bill to the House and held its first reading on the same day. It had such little regard for public consultation the deadline for submissions was set for 4 pm on Monday, 18 May – giving submitters only two full working days. Read more
Alongside South Korea, Taiwan is one of the few countries to “flatten the curve” of Covid-19 without a national lockdown due to its prior experience with the SARS epidemic of 2003. New Zealand’s pathway is similar to Taiwan’s and there are lessons to be learned as New Zealand moves into Alert Level 2. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters suggested creating “international bubbles” for countries with Covid-19 success to introduce new trade connections and travel links. Read more
As New Zealand nears the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency, all eyes are on the economic recovery. The New Zealand Government has already indicated the post-recovery world will look quite different. It has also given itself great flexibility in designing policies for this crisis. For example, it has temporarily suspended the financial scrutiny forms called Regulatory Impact Statements, relaxed visa rules and is about to relax planning procedures. Read more
New Zealand’s universities have, at least since the mid-2000s, relied on foreign students for substantial parts of their income. Though the extent of foreign students’ contributions is obvious to anyone working in academia, they are not well appreciated outside the tertiary sector. Worse, even though reliance on income from foreign students has been designed into the tertiary sector’s funding model since the Clark administration, the Government of today seems to have forgotten, or at best underappreciated its importance. Read more
The Covid-19 pandemic and economic lockdown means many countries are looking inwards. But global cooperation will be an important lever out of the economic and social consequences of the virus. The New Zealand government should embrace the opportunity to reinforce its image as a clean, open and lawful nation. Read more