REPORTS

New Zealand's two main warships will reach the end of their working lives within about a decade, and Cabinet must decide by 2027 what should replace them. The choice will shape the country's ability to help keep its trade routes open for a generation. Read more

Is New Zealand a country in decline or a quiet success story? A new report from The New Zealand Initiative argues it is neither. Read more

The Government wants to merge New Zealand’s councils into a smaller number of big councils. A new report from The New Zealand Initiative says this is the wrong fix. Read more

If re-elected, National would make KiwiSaver contributions compulsory from 2028, with employers and employees each contributing 6 percent by 2032. That compulsion requires guardrails, according to a Research Note published today by The New Zealand Initiative Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton. Read more

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which funds injured New Zealanders’ care and recovery, has halted a decade of decline. But a New Zealand Initiative report warns its recovery rests on tighter decisions and exits, not proven rehabilitation. Read more

New Zealand cannot build enough houses because councils cannot afford the pipes and roads that new suburbs need. That is the conclusion of a new report by The New Zealand Initiative. Read more

This is The New Zealand Initiative’s 2026 Prescription for Prosperity. Since 2017, the Initiative has prepared a briefing for the incoming government. Read more

Housing targets have long been a political football. They are also an emotional political subject. Read more

The Martian Audit is a satirical novella. Two Martian auditors land in the Wairarapa expecting to assess humanity at its best. Read more

A heavy diesel mechanic earns roughly the same as a policy analyst, qualifies in the same time and graduates with little or no debt. Yet most New Zealanders still regard university as superior to industry training and our school qualifications system has quietly reinforced that bias for decades. Read more

The Government’s 2025 Defence Capability Plan commits $12 billion over four years, including $9 billion of new spending. But without institutional reform, new money risks being absorbed into a system too slow and fragmented to deliver modern capability, a new report from The New Zealand Initiative warns. Read more

New Zealand’s ministers answer to Parliament for departments they cannot control. They cannot choose, direct or remove the chief executives who run those departments. Read more

“New Zealand's resource management system is broken”, said Nick Clark, author of The New Zealand Initiative’s new research note RMA Reform: Getting the new system right. “Many attempts have been made over the past three decades to fix it. Read more

2025 marked a turning point for The New Zealand Initiative’s mission to build a more prosperous country. Ideas we have championed for years moved from research papers into the Government’s reform programme. Read more

When land is subdivided and new roads are created, every holder of a registered covenant or easement over that land must individually consent before the road can vest as public road. In practice, this can mean obtaining written consent from hundreds of parties and their banks, at significant cost in legal fees and delays that are ultimately passed through to the price of new homes, even though courts have never found that any of these parties has a material interest. Read more