The sacking of Rob Campbell from his role as chair of Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ and the Environmental Protection Authority highlights an urgent need to reform New Zealand’s public service. Campbell’s partisan comments on his LinkedIn profile were inexcusable for someone in his position. Read more
Police Minister Stuart Nash was right about retail crime. Solving the problem, as he suggested, requires reducing the number of targets. Read more
The Charities Amendment Bill is currently before Parliament, but it is flawed and full of unintended consequences. As promised in the Labour Party manifesto, charities in New Zealand are demanding a proper first principles review with a better process and more public participation. Read more
Building back better was a common catch-cry as the country looked ahead to the post-Covid economy. And why not, you might think. Read more
Mike Hosking discusses Eric Crampton's Newsroom column about managing retreat and insurance in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. Read more
Managed retreat from floods and rising sea levels seems like a difficult problem. How to decide who might be allowed to live where, and what risks are acceptable? Read more
When politicians talk nonsense about economics, it often goes unnoticed. This is likely both because nonsense is such a routine occurrence in democratic politics, and because many people cannot distinguish economic sense from nonsense. Read more
Few people attend business functions because of the speeches. No matter the speaker, these events are usually networking opportunities. Read more
Cyclone Gabrielle has battered New Zealand’s infrastructure. Roads, bridges and powerlines across large swathes of the North Island have been decimated. Read more
Sound decision-making underpins sound businesses and sound organisations. Major changes must be well-considered. Read more
Massive worker shortages across numerous industries have led to calls for more immigration, on other side of the debate there are concerns about infrastructure capacity. This to and fro has long made a immigration a political football kicked between the parties. Read more
Parliament’s Environment Committee is currently considering the Government’s woeful replacement Bills for the Resource Management Act. Eric Crampton and I appeared before the Committee last week to speak to the New Zealand Initiative’s submission on the Natural and Build Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill. Read more
Italy’s Prime Minister was scathing. Accusing Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy of causing the destruction of his own country, the Prime Minister swore never to meet with him. Read more
Roger Openshaw is Emeritus Professor of Education at Massey University. We drew on his rich knowledge of NZ educational history as we discussed the changing relationship between central government and NZ schools over the past century or so; the perils and promises of the new history curriculum; and how solid the evidence is for the common assertion that the NZ education system is racist. Read more
Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud speaks to James Kierstead, who gives his summary of the failed hate speech laws before they discuss the need for generosity towards your ideological opponents, the woke re-editing of Roald Dahl's books, and the general issue with translations and tampering with texts.
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