Regulation is a fact of life. It affects the food we eat, the safety of our workplace, the goods and services we buy and sell and the quality of our natural environment. It plays an important role in guarding New Zealanders from harm, protecting our rights, and ensuring that markets work fairly and efficiently. However...

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...

Some of the most important assets that the New Zealand government develops and maintains are not recorded on the Crown's balance street. They are the regulatory arrangements that have been developed, introduced and refined over many years to protect the rights, safety, property and other interest of its citizens, residents and visitors.

While child poverty remains a critical issue, ageing is a critical factor in the demographic changes are taking place in New Zealand. It is assumed in policy circles that belief that home ownership and New Zealand Superannuation (NZS) is a protective factor., but there is a trend towards declining home ownership and increases in poverty...