The New Zealand Initiative

In 2016, Australia agreed to purchase 12 conventionally powered Attack Class submarines from France. The deal cost AU$50 billion. Last week, Australia tore up the deal and instead agreed to purchase nuclear submarines from the USA. At the same time, Australia, the UK, and USA announced the formation of the AUKUS defence alliance. Dr Oliver Hartwich’s latest Newsroom column, A torpedo to European security, analyses the fallout and the implications for European security. He joins Ben Craven on the podcast to discuss the subject in further detail.

Dr Eric Crampton speaks to Medicines New Zealand CEO Graeme Jarvis about therapeutic medicines that ca treat Covid-19, and when we might expect them to become available in New Zealand.

Dr David Law joins Ben Craven to discuss what we know about the Government’s plans for unemployment insurance, and what such a scheme could look like for New Zealanders.

This week the price of a New Zealand Unit of carbon credit passed $50 for the first time. Ben Craven spoke to Matt Burgess about why this happened, and what the increase in price will mean for consumers, emitters, and New Zealand’s environmental commitments.

Individualised Funding, or IF, is a funding model for disability support. IF gives money directly to individuals so they can hire their own support staff. Each individual’s personal budget is set based on an assessment of their needs. Today, there are around 8,000 people on IF, nearly 20% of the people who receive disability support. Matt Burgess talks to Rt Hon Sir Bill English about the transformative effects that IF is having in the lives of disability support recipients and their families. Sir Bill is an owner of Manawanui, the largest IF host in the country. Sir Bill is a former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. He led the National government’s social investment approach. You can read more about IF in the New Zealand Initiative’s report released last week, The Power of Freedom: How personal budgets for social services are transforming lives on the link below. https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/reports/the-power-of-freedom/

Carl Hansen, the former Chief Executive of the Electricity Authority between 2010 and 2018, joins Matt Burgess to discuss what happened on the evening of 9 August when 35,000 homes lost power on the coldest night of the year. Carl explains how the blackout happened and the response to the event by the government. He also talks about how the system drives investment in new capacity, recent announcements of new generation including major solar projects, and the outlook for the next few years. Carl also talks about the recent study which suggests generators may be earning excess profits.

Ben Craven talks to New Zealand Initiative Senior Fellow Dr David Law about the implications of rising inflation, and how a different type of mortgage could make it more affordable to get on the housing ladder.

Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton talk to University of Auckland’s Professor Des Gorman (Ngāpuhi), from the University’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. The team discuss New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and what could be done differently.

Eric Crampton and Matt Burgess discuss the thousands of homes hit by blackouts on the coldest night of the year and government’s response to it so far. Decisions should be made only after the facts are established. Questions include what led to the decision to cut power to homes, and whether all of the available generating capacity was used. The independent Electricity Authority has responsibility for investigating last night’s outage but at the time of the recording (3:30pm on 10 August) had not made a statement on the issue.

Matt Burgess talks to Oliver Hartwich about the government’s Natural and Built Environment bill, the first of three pieces of legislation to replace the RMA. The bill shows the government sees planning as an appropriate vehicle for everything from protecting the natural environment, to culture, growth and climate change. Matt argues the top priority of the reforms should be housing affordability. The bill also signals an intent to re-establish the same unbridled executive powers which Robert Muldoon used to ruin the New Zealand economy. The Environment Committee should ask Minister Parker to start again.