Think tanks

The late Ronald Reagan once said “There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination and wonder”. At The New Zealand Initiative we share his optimism.

2015 was a great year for The New Zealand Initiative.

Good ideas are more powerful than political posturing. I presume David Cameron would not call his Chancellor’s views insane now.

The 2017 New Zealand election should be fought on the real issues affecting the country.

As we are about to enter an election year, political debate may focus more on the fight for power rather than the question of what to do with it once it is attained or secured. This does not make the job of think tanks like us any easier, but it makes our work all the more important.

The most interesting policy ideas nowadays do not come out of political parties research departments, let alone their front benches.

Today’s graduates are brought up and educated to believe that their imagined intellectual brilliance and personal exceptionality will make up for everything else they are lacking.

As you know, 2012 was an eventful year for The New Zealand Initiative, not in the least because it was our first. Following the merger of our two predecessors, The New Zealand Institute and the Business Roundtable, my team and I have worked hard to build a credible and exciting new think tank in New Zealand.