Reports & Media

The Government is determined to give local government a shake-up, with stern tellings-off about getting ‘back-to-basics’ and reforms to refocus councils on core services and efficiency. One of its ideas is that mayors could be given access to independent staff advice, separate from their chief executives and council staff. Read more

For decades after World War II, Austria was a model of political stability to the point of boredom. The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) dominated the political landscape. Read more

Max Rashbrooke's recent research note, "High earner tax rates: New Zealand in context," makes a case that rich people in New Zealand pay less tax than they would on the same income in some of the highest-taxed countries in the world. But is this really the case? Read more

Policies and regulations, most of the time, are a bit of a mess. Even if policies made sense when first conceived, sludge accumulates over time. Read more

Last Friday the government made a heartening announcement that its phase 3 reforms to the Resource Management Act will make property rights a ‘guiding’ principle. The RMA has failed in good part because of two fundamental flaws from a property right perspective: first, it allowed all and sundry to object with impunity to a changed land use; second, it denied compensation for the lost value from a successful objection. Read more

There should be a German word for it: that moment when one realises a dessert one has always associated with one country actually belongs to several countries – or perhaps, to none at all. As a German who has lived in both Australia and New Zealand, I have often found myself caught in the crossfire of the great Pavlova debate. Read more

The Government has long promised an inquiry into banking competition. With the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee (FEC) about to begin its work, that time has finally come. Read more

Good news! As of 11 September, it has been legal to advertise Jynneos, the monkeypox vaccine, to communities at risk for monkeypox. Read more

When law students first learn contract law, they learn that entering into a contract can happen in all sorts of ways. Only in the rarest of cases is a contract signed by both parties. Read more

Government sometimes cannot stop itself from providing bailouts when risk-taking goes wrong. This kind of ‘free’ insurance policy leads to no end of bad outcomes. Read more

The government is determined to shake up local government. It wants councils to get back to basics on core services and efficiency. Read more

Picture a rustic jetty on the shores of serene Lake Tarawera. Hanging off the jetty is a small swim ladder. Read more