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All Episodes

The New Zealand Initiative — 340 episodes

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Title
1

The Martian Audit: Or, how New Zealand repelled an Invasion through procedural complexity

2

Why free speech is losing ground even in free societies

3

An operational pause is not peace

4

Thanked Once a Year: An Anzac Day Conversation with Bob Davies

5

What New Zealand's 19th-century teachers knew but progressive educators forgot

6

Why children can't learn unless they feel safe

7

Who runs the country?

8

Why New Zealand can't assume the fuel will keep flowing

9

Let prices do the job when fuel is scarce

10

Will the Planning Bill actually deliver housing affordability?

11

Academic freedom and institutional neutrality in New Zealand’s universities

12

Alain Bertaud on what planners control — and what they don't

13

Iran, three weeks on

14

Why the RMA replacement falls short on property rights

15

The Iran war and what it means for New Zealand

16

Renovating the Nation: How Asset Recycling Can Help Solve the Infrastructure Deficit

17

What went wrong between the RMA blueprint and the bills

18

New Zealand's 14-day fuel problem and the Iran crisis

19

Hope is not a strategy: What a more dangerous world means for New Zealand

20

Understanding the highly sensitive learner

21

New Zealand's falling fertility and the limits of immigration

22

New Zealand faces rare earth ultimatum

23

Why vague codes of conduct threaten free speech on campus

24

Housing Affordability: NZ at the Global Policy Frontier (Part 3) - Finishing the Revolution

25

Wrapping up 2025: policy wins and what's ahead for New Zealand

26

Fast track reform and parliamentary oversight

27

How mayors could replace regional councillors

28

Housing Affordability: NZ at the Global Policy Frontier (Part 2) - From Heresy to Reform

29

How New Zealand ends up writing off $700 million in corporate taxes every year

30

Universities, democracy and cultural shifts: A farewell to Dr James Kierstead

31

Housing Affordability: NZ at the Global Policy Frontier (Part 1) - Clarity Emerging from the Mists

32

Sir Ian Taylor on literacy, AI and what schools should teach

33

How better data could fix New Zealand's struggling health system

34

MMP After 30 Years: Time for Electoral Reform?

35

Sir Nick Gibb on what works in education reform

36

Owning less to achieve more: Refocusing Kāinga Ora

37

Why New Zealand's productivity lags behind small European nations

38

Building Nations: What Canada’s First Nations can teach us about devolution and development

39

What's driving grade inflation?

40

Building cyber resilience in New Zealand

41

When authoritarians silence universities

42

When tax policy goes wrong

43

What Adam Smith can teach us about regulating technology

44

Unscrambling Government: Less confusion, more efficiency

45

Breaking down barriers not breaking up supermarkets

46

Why getting an A at university is so easy now

47

How Trump lost ground to Putin in Anchorage

48

How professional licencing restricts competition

49

Going Dutch: Lessons from the Netherlands

50

Calling time on NCEA

51

A fresh perspective on learning: Barbara Oakley's NZ odyssey

52

Going for Housing Growth (Part 3): The Government’s proposals

53

Going for Housing Growth (Part 2): The way out

54

Going for Housing Growth (Part 1): How we got into this mess

55

When do jobs need occupational licences?

56

How to legislate for academic freedom

57

Gambling reforms that actually work

58

A Fast-Track to stronger grocery competition

59

Empowering local government through AI

60

When universities take sides

61

Putting student learning at the centre of school governance

62

Is NZ unprepared for its ageing population?

63

Rethinking NZ's three-year parliamentary cycle

64

Regulating credit card interchange fees

65

Does the new academic freedom legislation have teeth?

66

From Austria to the Initiative: Benno Blaschke's journey

67

The Heart of Healthcare: Renewing New Zealand's Primary Care System

68

Building better pathways for vocational education in New Zealand

69

Transforming maths education in New Zealand with Professor Barbara Oakley

70

Rural council challenges in scattered communities

71

Trade Routes: Charting New Pathways from Secondary School to Industry Training

72

Former Australian Home Affairs Secretary calls for integrated ANZAC defence force

73

Meet Jemma Stevenson: Tackling government complexity

74

The People's Portfolio: A $571 Billion Question

75

How local planning rules block retail competition

76

The day the West Died: A wake-up call for New Zealand

77

The Trouble with Hate Crime Laws

78

Responding to Salmond: Democracy, Classical Liberalism, and the Regulatory Standards Bill

79

What the Regulatory Standards Bill really means

80

2024: A year of hard truths

81

From Dependency to Development: A First Nations Governance Success Story

82

Why Doubt Makes Democracy Stronger

83

Making Local Government Work

84

NZ's ETS Forest Controls

85

The Long Road to Better Regulation

86

How would age limits for social media work?

87

Breaking Down Healthcare Supply Barriers

88

An Accidental Berliner

89

Empire, Ethics, and Academic Freedom: A Conversation with Nigel Biggar

90

Defending academic freedom on NZ university campuses

91

What NZ and Australia learned from handling COVID

92

German lessons for NZ councils: How merging mayor and CEO roles transformed local government

93

Who makes the law? Reining in the Supreme Court

94

Learning, Behaviour, and the Future of New Zealand Classrooms

95

Unpopular Opinions: Academic Freedom in New Zealand

96

American Democracy at a Crossroads: The 2024 Election and Beyond

97

Rethinking the Government's role in competition

98

Auckland Univerisity's controversial new courses

99

Eastern German state elections reshape political landscape

100

The state of geopolitics and liberal democracy

101

Germany's political shift and its global impact

102

The Pulse of Local Government: Insights from New Zealand's Councils

103

Unpacking New Zealand's $9 billion alcohol cost

104

Boosting housing development through revenue sharing

105

Debunking education myths: A response to Prof Peter O'Connor's critique of curriculum reforms

106

Transforming education: Lessons from England's school reforms with Nick Gibb

107

Reforming New Zealand's Curriculum

108

Driving Change: How road pricing can improve our roads

109

Free Speech, Education, and Democracy: A Conversation with Toby Young

110

AI in Education: Navigating the opportunities and risks

111

City and Regional Deals

112

Fixing New Zealand's university funding

113

Jonathan Rauch and the Constitution of Knowledge

114

Murray Horn and New Zealand's fiscal challenges

115

John Morris and the state of NZ's education system

116

Protecting free speech in UK universities

117

China's Belt and Road Initiative

118

Victoria University's postponed free speech event

119

Evaluating global polices on safer nicotine

120

Germany's dual education system

121

Are councils debt constrained?

122

Education for neurodivergent students

123

New Zealand's a-maze-ing government structure

124

New Zealand's fairy godmother

125

Fast-Track Approvals Bill

126

Localism: A Swiss perspective

127

New Zealand's infrastructure deficit

128

What's going on with Wellington?

129

Rise of non-academic staff in NZ universities

130

Competition and land-use planning

131

Mike Smith climate change case

132

Entrepreneurship

133

The Independent Hearing Panel's review of Wellington's Distric Plan

134

Antarctic research

135

Current global foreign policy situation

136

2023: A year of new beginnings

137

Peter Shirtcliffe and our MMP electoral system

138

Massive energy potential of deep geothermal

139

Lord Hannan on Brexit and CANZUK

140

University-based Teacher Education

141

Class divides? The impact of classroom streaming

142

How can we improve Initial Teacher Education?

143

Structured Literacy

144

Conflict in the Middle East: A conversation with the Israeli Ambassador

145

Lord Sumption on free speech

146

Sir Bill English on the state of NZ politics

147

Technology's effect on education

148

Teacher education in NZ: Past and present

149

Post-election: our reaction and what happens next

150

The 2023 New Zealand general election

151

Teacher education

152

MMP vs FFP

153

The Deficit Diaries

154

EPS. 179 - Debunking Degrowth

155

EPS. 178 - Issues With Teacher Training

156

EPS. 177 - Who Teaches The Teachers?

157

EPS. 175 - Teaching Science

158

EPS. 176 - The Government Policy Statement on land transport.

159

EPS. 174 - Exploring Literacy in New Zealand

160

Prescription For Prosperity: A Discussion

161

EPS. 173 – New Zealand's Tobacco Policies

162

GST off fruit and vegetables: NZ's dumbest policy proposal ever?

163

Podcast: Unlocking New Zealand's Potential

164

Podcast: Media funding and regulation

165

Podcast: Learning from the Emerald Isle

166

Podcast: The changing landscape of higher education

167

Podcast: Data analytics for social impact (part two)

168

Podcast: Data analytics for social impact (part one)

169

Podcast: The economics of free speech

170

Podcast: Universities In Crisis

171

Podcast: Retail crime in New Zealand

172

Podcast: Culture & Economics

173

Podcast: Teacher training

174

Podcast: Rail transport funding

175

Podcast: Planning urban futures

176

Podcast: NCEA and the school curriculum

177

Podcast: Australia vs. New Zealand: Where to Thrive?

178

Podcast: The science of learning

179

Podcast: Tony Burton joins the team

180

Podcast: Average Effective Tax Rates

181

Podcast: Higher education in New Zealand

182

Podcast: New Zealand university administrative bloat

183

Podcast: The history of New Zealand's infrastructure

184

Podcast: Vocational education and training

185

Podcast: Save our Schools - New Zealand's Education Crisis

186

Podcast: Mātauranga Māori & Science

187

Podcast: Localism with Malcolm Alexander

188

Podcast: Public Service Political Neutrality

189

Podcast: The Flaws of the Charities Amendment Bill

190

Podcast: Benchmarking New Zealand's infrastructure delivery costs

191

Podcast: The economic effects of Cyclone Gabrielle

192

Podcast: Benjamin Macintyre joins the team

193

Podcast: Economic Roundtable

194

Podcast: Building market failure

195

Podcast: Challenges proposed in new legislation for Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act

196

Podcast: Michael Johnston talks with Holly Gooch about a project to help twice-exceptional students

197

Podcast: The Initiative's state of the nation with Josie Pagani and Oliver Hartwich

198

Podcast: Michael Johnston and Emma Chatterton on improving teacher supply through immigration

199

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton discuss NZ's immigration woes with June Ranson

200

Podcast: Christoph Schumacher on the OCR, Taylor Rule and GDP Live

201

Podcast: Martien Lubberink talks with the Initiative about bank profitability, regulation, and taxes

202

Podcast: The state of the nation with Josie Pagani and Oliver Hartwich

203

James Kierstead and Michael Johnston on new NCEA trial results

204

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton on barriers to supermarket entry

205

Podcast: Australia’s Universities: Can They Reform?

206

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich with Simon Court on the Clean Car Scheme

207

Europe’s mega crisis – Michael Johnston in conversation with Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton

208

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich and Michael Johnston on the modern learning environment experiment

209

Podcast: Reducing anxiety through self-leadership

210

Podcast: Eric Crampton and Scott Wilson on the history of funding and financing NZ's roads

211

Podcast: Every Life Is Worth The Same

212

Podcast: The cost of doing business - Oliver Hartwich with Greg Harford, CEO, Retail NZ

213

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich with Professor David Rozado on sentiment words from news media outlets

214

Podcast: Michael Johnston discusses improving our childrens' reading and writing

215

Podcast: Eric Crampton, Matthew Birchall and Scott Wilson on funding and financing NZ's roads

216

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich and Michael Johnston on New Zealand's education emergency

217

Podcast: Germany is stumbling towards an uncertain future

218

Eric Crampton speaks with Peter Nunns

219

Podcast: How central bank mistakes after 2019 led to inflation

220

Podcast: Dr Oliver Hartwich interviews two new colleagues

221

Podcast: Dr Eric Crampton speaks with Chris Snowden on making NZ a smokefree nation

222

Podcast: Dr Michael Johnston on resetting literacy standards

223

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich Talks With John McDermott

224

Podcast: Dr Oliver Hartwich and the crook who invented the modern world

225

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich talks with James Allan about his academic review of the He Puapua Report

226

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich Talks With Eric Crampton About The Government's Rushed Policy Making

227

Podcast: Eric Crampton Talks With Len Cook About Changes To The Stats Act

228

Podcast: Economic Roundtable

229

Podcast: Europe’s Path To Mexico’s Debt Crisis

230

Podcast: Fears of a global recession

231

Podcast: The supermarket study – Foodstuffs’ perspective

232

Podcast: Reassessing the regulators

233

Podcast: The Emissions Reduction Plan And Transport

234

Learning from Germany’s foreign policy errors

235

Michael Johnston And Oliver Hartwich On Te Hurihanganui

236

Climate change corporate welfare

237

Putin’s influence on the French election

238

Problems in the university

239

What is the future of media?

240

Understanding Ukraine with Alex Sundakov

241

International Outlook: Germany's response to the war in Ukraine

242

Celebrating ten years of The New Zealand Initiative

243

The rising cost of living for Kiwis

244

Addressing James Shaw’s dubious climate claims

245

Pretence of Necessity: Why further climate change action isn't needed and won't help

246

Understanding Putin’s dictatorship

247

Introducing Dr Michael Johnston

248

Who’s to blame for high inflation?

249

What do economic experts agree on?

250

International Outlook: Update on the Russia-Ukraine conflict

251

Effects of the CCCFA on financial services

252

International Outlook: Taxonomic vandalism, EU-style

253

Unemployment Insurance with Kirk Hope and Oliver Hartwich

254

Why inflation looks here to stay

255

International Outlook: Icarus In Downing Street

256

Energy and emissions in 2022

257

Understanding New Zealand’s high inflation

258

International Outlook: The Russia/Ukraine conflict

259

2021 in review

260

Social unemployment insurance lessons from Germany

261

Roger Partridge discusses our latest literacy research

262

The new German "traffic lights coalition"

263

The Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan

264

Oliver Hartwich discusses the effects of the Reserve Bank's Quantitative Easing programme

265

The latest EU migrant crisis

266

Bryce Wilkinson And Leonard Hong On Walking The Path To The Next GFC

267

Dr David Law On Unemployment Insurance

268

Climate of fear: How the Reserve Bank is overstepping its mandate

269

What the Three Waters reforms will mean for councils

270

Austrian media funding scandal

271

The Illusions of History

272

The Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan

273

Dr Eric Crampton discusses his latest research note on Covid policy

274

Feebate – the government’s reverse Robin Hood scheme

275

Oliver Hartwich discusses the German election results and possible government coalitions

276

The security implications of the new AUKUS alliance

277

Eric Crampton speaks to Graeme Jarvis about Covid-19 medicines

278

David Law on the Government's unemployment insurance proposal

279

Podcast: Matt Burgess on the increasing carbon price

280

Sir Bill English On The Individualised Funding Model For Disability Support

281

The blackout on 9 August with Carl Hansen

282

Podcast: What will rising inflation mean for first home buyers?

283

Podcast: Prof Des Gorman on New Zealand’s response to Covid-19

284

The government’s response to blackouts

285

Why New Zealanders should be worried about the government’s RMA reforms

286

Matt Burgess and Oliver Hartwich discuss competition in the supermarket industry

287

Matt Burgess on Catherine Leining’s article ‘Why the ETS is not enough’

288

Podcast: The government’s mistreatment of migrants raises human rights concerns

289

Graham Rich - A Kiwi Entrepreneur In Sydney

290

Podcast: A $50 carbon price – and then what?

291

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich on politics in football

292

Podcast: The pulse of the property market

293

Podcast: Eric Crampton on the skyrocketing ETS price

294

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich on the politicisation of central banks

295

Podcast: David Law on changes to Kiwisaver

296

Podcast: Matt Burgess on agriculture’s place in climate policy

297

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich, Eric Crampton and Carsten Hallwass on immigration policy

298

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich on the new normal

299

Podcast: Steen Videbeck on literacy In New Zealand

300

Podcast: The Practical Problems Of The Government's Feebate Scheme

301

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich on the next Euro crisis

302

Podcast: The Government's Feebate Scheme

303

Podcast: Joel Hernandez On His IDI Journey With The New Zealand Initiative

304

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich On An Unusual Scandal In German Politics

305

Podcast: Matt Burgess On The Climate Commission's Final Recommendations

306

Podcast: Interpreting Dr Rod Carr - With Matt Burgess And Oliver Hartwich

307

Podcast: Eric Crampton and Prof Josh Gans discuss effective covid response strategies

308

Podcast: David Law discusses unemployment insurance for New Zealand

309

Podcast: Eric Crampton On Budget 2021

310

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich on the history of Eurozone troubles

311

Mike Hosking discusses Eric Crampton's column on skilled migrants

312

Eric Crampton and Graeme Jarvis discuss Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing and distribution

313

Podcast: Roger Partridge And Oliver Hartwich on Fair Pay Agreements

314

Podcast Oliver Hartwich, Eric Crampton and Damien Grant on recessions and insolvencies in NZ

315

Podcast: David Law on the perils of rent controls

316

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich on becoming a New Zealander

317

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich and Jordan Williams discuss fiscal incentives for councils

318

Podcast: Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton share what's on their minds this week

319

Mike Hosking discusses NZ Herald article by Matt Burgess

320

PODCAST: Dr Eric Crampton discusses safety measures around the opening of the Trans Tasman bubble

321

Podcast With David Law On The Housing Package

322

Dr Bryce Wilkinson discusses the Government's review into Pharmac

323

Matt Burgess and Oliver Hartwich discuss emissions policy

324

The Government's Housing Package

325

Podcast - Who Will Succeed Angela Merkel?

326

Podcast: David Law discusses education spending and performance in NZ

327

Eric Crampton & Leon Grice discuss Saliva - Based PCR Testing

328

Podcast: Leonard Hong discusses demographic changes in NZ and what this means for our housing crisis

329

Podcast: Matt Burgess with an update on the Climate Change Commission's report

330

Podcast Oliver Hartwich on the New Zealand history curriculum

331

PODCAST: Oliver Hartwich on the EU vaccine rollout scandal

332

Podcast: Matt Burgess on the Climate Change Commission's draft emissions report to Government

333

Government's response to Climate Change Commission's report

334

Podcast: Matt Burgess on climate change policy

335

Leighton Smith podcast with Oliver Hartwich

336

Oliver Hartwich on the NZ election and why voters chose health over wealth

337

Eric Crampton the problem with climate policy

338

Are we making NCEA credits too easy for kids to get?

339

Oliver Hartwich ABC Radio Australia - NZ, Covid and the election

340

Oliver Hartwich talks to Leighton Smith about a wide range of topics affecting New Zealand