The New Zealand Initiative

In our final episode of the year, Oliver and Michael discuss how things are sitting now in NZ with a new government, the challenges they're facing, some of the early decisions they've made and what the prospects are for the new year. www.nzinitiative.org.nz

Peter Shirtcliffe, long-time Chairman of Telecom and laureate of the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame, joins Oliver on the podcast. Telecom (now known as Spark) was NZ's largest listed company from 1990 to 1999. We invite him on the podcast as a political observer to talk about NZ's Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system and his personal story of campaigning against MMP. www.initiative.org.nz

Andreas Heuser, Managing Director with Castalia, joins Dr Eric Crampton on the podcast to talk about the massive energy potential of deep geothermal. They discuss what supercritical geothermal is, climate policy and the need for fast-tracking consenting processes. Related material: • Castalia's report "Supercritical Geothermal in New Zealand": https://www.geothermalnextgeneration.com/knowledge/supercritical-nz-economic-opportunity • Eric's Newsroom piece: https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/drilling-down-into-limitless-clean-energy/ • Eli Dourado "The state of next-generation geothermal energy": https://www.elidourado.com/p/geothermal • Quaise, a US startup testing deep-drilling technology: https://www.quaise.energy/ • Tom Ough on geothermal: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/watt-lies-beneath/ www.nzinitiative.org.nz

Lord Hannan, a sitting member of the House of Lords and an adviser to the UK Board of Trade, talks to Oliver on this week's episode. They discuss Lord Hannan's background, his role in the Brexit campaign and his point of view on the UK's progress since its withdrawal from the EU. They also talk about the idea of free trade, free movement of labour and enhanced political and diplomatic cooperation between Canada, Australia, NZ and the UK (CANZUK)

Dr Michael Johnston talks to Dr Claudia Rozas Gomez, who is a lecturer in Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland. In this episode, they discuss issues and criticisms around university-based teacher education.

Dr Michael Johnston and Ben Macintyre talk about the impact of classroom streaming in NZ, which is the subject of their new research report. It is a topic of debate in NZ, with calls for the practice to be banned by 2030. Their report "Class divides?: The impact of streaming on educational achievement and equality" examines NZ and international evidence on the effects of streaming on students' learning. Rather than banning streaming, they urge the Ministry of Education to conduct a large-scale study to help schools make informed decisions on streaming. You can find their latest report on our website www.nzinitiative.org.nz

Dr Michael Johnston talks to Glenn Fahey, who is the Director of the Education program at The Centre for Independent Studies based in Australia. They discuss the problems of Teacher Education in both NZ and Australia and the differing solutions they both came up with, which highlights the differences in both countries' systems.

Dr Michael Johnson talks to Dr Christine Braid, of Massey University, and Linda Kimpton, a literacy advocate. They discuss what structured literacy is and how an incoming Minister might approach getting structured literacy embedded.

Dr Oliver Hartwich talks to Ran Yaakoby, the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand, about the conflict in the Middle East. In this discussion, they talk about the attack on October 7, the ongoing conflict, the role of the media in all of this and the rise of antisemitism in Europe.

This week we have a special guest, Lord Jonathan Sumption, in this combined Free Kiwis and The New Zealand Initiative podcast episode. Lord Sumption talks to us about his advocacy on free speech and is in NZ as a guest of the Free Speech Union. Interviewing him is Dr Oliver Hartwich, Dr Michael Johnston and Dr James Kierstead and they also talk about the state of the world and the state of liberal democracy.