Decentralisation continues to be well received as a strategy for improving the governance of countries and delivering more responsive and efficient services. Cheerleaders include multilateral agencies like the World Bank and developed countries, like England, which seek to reverse years of centralisation. Evaluating the effectiveness of decentralised models raises the question of what it means...

New Zealand’s national parks are major attractions for tourism and recreation, while hosting other commercial activities considered compatible with that primary role, like grazing, commercial filming and renewable electricity production. Commercial activities can only be carried out according to the terms of legal documents referred to as ‘concessions’ (typically, permits, licences and leases). There are...

Several decisions have been taken over the past few months that aim to professionalise the regulatory community in New Zealand.

The importance of an ‘efficient and effective regulatory environment’ (Offices of the Ministers of Finance and Regulatory Reform, 2013) has never been more prominent in New Zealand than it is at the present time. The New Zealand Productivity Commission’s Regulatory Institutions and Practices report, which is both a product of and contributor to this enhanced...

Regulatory coherence has over the past four years become a term of art for domestic regulatory systems which interface seamlessly with the systems of other countries. And yet a precise or at least agreed definition remains elusive and descriptions often confuse ends and means. This article sets out to provide greater clarity, and in doing...