Executive Summary: New Zealand’s housing market needs urgent reform. For too long, the rate of building has fallen below what is needed to keep up with household formation and demographics. It is difficult, costly, and time consuming to build a new house or dwelling. Rather than tinkering with demand-side stop-gap solutions, nominal subsidies, and bit-part...

This report is a summary of international fieldwork examining different property markets and systems of local government. Using Switzerland, Germany, Britain and Texas as comparisons to New Zealand, the report examines how they interact with local regulators, how the incentives at local government level affect how houses are built, and how their planning culture has...

Politicians in New Zealand are wedded to the idea of the activist state, but despite huge spending increases life is not much better for most people. Over the last decade, government has provided more social services but at such great cost that we have to question whether the marginal improvements in social outcomes justify the...

Liquor reform has become a political hot potato in New Zealand, this paper argues, and has resulted in misguided policy. Social problems caused by alcohol have meant successive governments have come under pressure to regulate sale and consumption of alcohol. One factor driving public outrage about has been reports that give outrageously high ‘social costs’...

After 13 years of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation, Prime Minister John Key has said it is time to ‘kick the tyres’ and see how much support the system enjoys. New Zealand will hold a referendum on the electoral system coinciding with the next election, which may well be a close contest. With this referendum...