This paper tells the story of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s efforts to improve policy quality and capability. The purpose of the paper is to outline the key elements that have underscored MCH’s success as a top performing policy shop. There is no single formula for this, so what the author describes...

The 2016 Review of Retirement Income Policies covered seven themes spread across seven months: KiwiSaver, decumulation, ageing workforce, who pays for what, vulnerable groups, who gets what and the international picture.

You might not have noticed thanks to world events, but the UK parliament recently approved the government’s so-called Snooper’s Charter and it will soon become law. This nickname for the Investigatory Powers Bill is well earned. It represents a new level and nature of surveillance that goes beyond anything previously set out in law in...

In this speech, the Secretary of the NZ Treasury talks about how the focus of public policy should be on enabling a more prosperous, sustainable and inclusive New Zealand, now and into the future. He discusses how New Zealand can invest in sustainable improvement in wellbeing, in particular through growing human capital, natural capital, social...

Without strong and ambitious policy support, the energy efficiency potential of cities is likely to remain largely untapped. Often cities have the opportunity to implement policies and programmes in the building sector that are complementary, more stringent or reflect greater ambition than national activities.