REPORTS

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

This paper considers whether continuing the current direction of economic policy in New Zealand - "down the free-market track" - will be detrimental to social cohesion. The central questions are whether the economic growth process is socially disruptive and whether a reduction in the role of government in redistribution of income would be more likely to weaken or strengthen social cohesion. Read more

On 15 May 1991, parliament enacted the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA). Parts I and II of the ECA abolished all forms of compulsory unionism in New Zealand, and took bold steps toward restoring the common law of contract, property and tort to New Zealand labour markets. Read more

As President of the Court of Appeal, Sir Robin Cooke (as he then was) suggested that there may be common law rights that run so deep that parliament cannot abrogate them. One of these, he suggested, was a right of access to the 'ordinary Courts'. Read more

It is easy to find strong similarities between the New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993 and the so-called anti-discrimination laws in the United States. Indeed, laws of this type are increasingly popular elsewhere in western democracies, and perhaps throughout the world, so that a comparison of these two systems carries with it wider implications. Read more

This paper has been prepared by ACIL Economics and Policy Pty Ltd (ACIL) and Tasman Asia Pacific Pty Ltd (Tasman) for the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR). The paper is intended to provide further insights into the agricultural marketing issues raised by ACIL in an earlier report and subsequently developed through valuation work on dairy industry assets by Ireland, Wallace and Associates. Read more

This paper investigates the use of economic theory by common law judges. I shall begin that inquiry by propounding a gentle paradox. Read more

Crime has increased significantly in New Zealand over the past 20 years. New Zealand now has one of the highest burglary rates in the developed world, higher than the United States, Great Britain or Australia. Read more