2017 – Dr Oliver Hartwich

A blueprint for opposition politics

If National accepts the challenge to be a creative opposition, the next three years will be a contest for the best ideas rather than a war of attrition. And that would be good: for National, for Labour – and for New Zealand. [...]

Thank you and Happy Holidays

2017 was a great year for The New Zealand Initiative. [...]

Questionable questions

It is the right of the opposition to hold the government to account. That much is out of question. But opposition MPs flooding the Government with requests for bits and pieces of meaningless information is more questionable. [...]

Comprehensive and progressive FDI liberalisation

We should not be content for other countries to beat us on attracting investment. If we do not liberalise our FDI regime, New Zealanders will miss out. [...]

Challenges stack up for super minister

There is no more challenging task than making New Zealand’s cities thrive in the global era of urbanisation. Quite appropriately, we now have a superminister to deal with it. [...]

Our very own House of Cards

The new Parliament promises to be a place of high theatre. It will be the stage for heroes and villains of Shakespearean proportions. [...]

Swiss lessons in subsidiarity

Our new government is committed to subsidiarity and the regions. But this should lead to more than a billion-dollar fund for development. [...]

Go Swiss: Learnings from The New Zealand Initiative’s visit to Switzerland

New Zealand has much to learn from Switzerland. [...]

Monetary window-dressing

The best way for a central bank to achieve both low inflation and low unemployment is to make it pursue price stability alone. [...]

Congratulations, New Zealand

New Zealanders can be proud that after an agonising month of politics, our political culture eventually delivered a dignified transition of power. It is testament to the strength and vitality of our democracy and institutions. [...]