President Bill Clinton, it is said, can speak for days without inhaling and is capable of holding sincerely, sometimes for minutes on end, exactly the same views as whatever group he is standing in front of. The columnist Dave Barry has even suggested that if Bill is put in front of tress, given enough time, he will engage in photosynthesis. Read more
Reform of pension systems has become a serious policy issue in many countries, including New Zealand. The Chilean scheme provided a model for similar reforms of state pensions in countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Read more
When David Lange made his famous remark in 1998 about the country needing to stop for a cup of tea and take a break from the task of economic reform, he probably had not idea that his metaphor would enter the national vocabulary in the way it has. The call for a teabreak symbolised the loss of momentum and direction of the latter years of that Labour administration. Read more
Towards the end of 1996, the trade and foreign investment policies of New Zealand were the subject of a comprehensive assessment within what is now the World Trade Organisation (the WTO). These assessments are in three parts: the government under examination submits a policy statement; the WTO Secretariat prepares a detailed report; and, on the basis of these two documents, in a meeting held at WTO headquarters in Geneva, officials from the Organisation's other member countries make comments of their own, and put questions to the Ambassador of the country concerned. Read more
Successive governments have reduced the Crown’s involvement in the provision of financial markets. Notwithstanding the reforms to date, the Crown remains responsible for the operations of the Nations Provident Fund (NPF), the Government Superannuation Fund (GSF) and the Public Trust Office (PTO) and the Public Trust Office (PTO). Read more
The Working Group's recommendations, as presented in Recommendations for Improved Investment Product and Investment Advisor Disclosure, Final Report (21 December 1995, corrected 25 January 1996) are delineated in Chapter One of this report. Following each of the important points on which the recommendations are based, I give brief assessments. Read more
The New Zealand economy has undergone considerable reform in the last decade. Reform of the tax system has been an integral part of this process. Read more
An important pillar of the Alliance’s economic policy is the proposal to replace the goods and services (GST) with a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). This report examines whether FTT should be preferred to GST on efficiency and equity grounds. Read more
Many people in this country have argued that good government is smaller government, and for some of them the recent election may seem to have delivered the ultimate nirvana – truly minimal government. Certainly the financial markets have rallied strongly, and business people have been able to get on with their job of running businesses, free of the risk of immediate political surprises. Read more
There are clearly deep divisions of opinion in New Zealand on the relationship between the courts and the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA). These address both substantive and jurisdictional issues. Read more
Health care has become an enormously contentious political and intellectual issue over recent years, both in the United States and else-where in the world. Previously the debate had taken place mainly among technical people - academics and health specialists. Read more
To make sense of the tort system, we need to understand its operation as a system. Like any system, it consists of various parts which are closely interrelated. Read more
From ancient times to the present, information has made the world go round, from the most routine of transactions to the most complex. One critical issue therefore is what legal rules, if any, should govern the creation, dissemination and use of information. Read more
The theme of this paper is comparative liberalisation. My aim is to set within a comparative historical framework the remarkable economic reforms in New Zealand which began with the change of government in July 1984. Read more