The New Zealand Initiative

Following the release of our latest report, Educational Performance and Funding in New Zealand: Are our children getting the education they deserve? Senior Fellow and co-author of the report Dr David Law delves into the results and explains that a high level of education spending, doesn't always equate to a high level of performance in our schools. Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/3sKyN6g

New, accurate, and rapid saliva-based PCR testing for Covid-19 has started to be used in New Zealand, after being validated by the University of Illinois in 2020. The New Zealand Initiative Chief Economist, Dr Eric Crampton, and Rako Science Executive Director, Leon Grice, discuss the benefits of this test and how it makes daily testing possible for those who work at the New Zealand border.

Leonard Hong's report, The Need to Build: The demographic drivers of housing demand, outlines why the worst of the housing crisis is yet to come. Even with net-zero migration for the next 20 years, we need to build close to 20,000 additional dwellings annually. It is imperative to build now and fast.

In this week's podcast, Senior Economist Matt Burgess provides an update on the Climate Change Commission's draft emissions report.

Oliver Hartwich talks about the Government's proposal for a new New Zealand history curriculum.

Oliver Hartwich expands on his February 2021 Newsroom column, where he discusses how the EU's Covid-19 vaccine rollout disaster is shredding the Commission's credibility.

Senior Economist Matt Burgess shares his thoughts on the Climate Change Commission's draft report to the Government on the steps it should take to reduce emissions in New Zealand.

The Initiative's executive director, Dr Oliver Hartwich, shares his thoughts about the Government's response to the recent Climate Change Commission's report, which outlined a path to achieve more ambitious greenhouse gas reductions, in this Magic Talk interview.

In this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast, Oliver Hartwich and Chelsy Killick interview our Senior Economist Matt Burgess, who has been looking at climate change policy for the last couple of years. The Climate Change Commission is due to release the first emissions budget. A good opportunity for Matt to talk through New Zealand’s current climate change policies and discuss what the Commission is likely to recommend.

In his latest podcast on Newstalk ZB, Leighton Smith talks to Oliver Hartwich about citizenship, the Emissions Trading Scheme, China, education, and other matters.