New Zealand Initiative

The New Zealand Initiative is a pro-free-market public-policy think tank and business membership organisation in New Zealand.[1] It was formed in 2012 by merger of the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR) and the New Zealand Institute.[2] The Initiative’s main areas of focus include economic policy, housing, education, local government, welfare, immigration and fisheries.

The New Zealand Initiative
FormationApril 1, 2012 (2012-04-01)
TypeThink tank
Legal statusLimited company
Location
Executive Director
Oliver Hartwich
Chairman
Roger Partridge
Websitenzinitiative.org.nz

Economist Oliver Hartwich has been the executive director of The Initiative since its formation in 2012.

Background

The New Zealand Initiative's predecessor organisations were both business membership organisations. The Wellington-based Business Roundtable, founded by Roger Kerr in 1986, was among the main proponents of New Zealand's liberal economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s.[3] To that end, the Business Roundtable produced a wide range of publications (books, reports, submissions) and undertook other activities that informed and influenced public debate.[4]

The New Zealand Institute was established in Auckland In 2004. Like the Business Roundtable, the New Zealand Institute was a business membership organisation that operated as a think tank, albeit with a more centrist political tilt. Some members of the Business Roundtable moved their support to the New Zealand Institute.

By 2011, according to New Zealand Institute chairman Tony Carter, both organisations lacked scale. Carter approached Business Roundtable chairman Roger Partridge to merge the two organisations. The New Zealand Initiative was launched in April 2012 and Hartwich was appointed its first executive director.[5]

Organisation

The New Zealand Initiative is based in Wellington. It is a limited company, governed by a board of directors under a constitution.[6][7] It is one of the three biggest think tanks in New Zealand, the other two being the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) and Business and Economic Research (BERL).[1]

The membership of The New Zealand Initiative comprises about 70 members, mainly large New Zealand companies.[8] According to the Initiative’s Annual Report 2016, the combined revenue of its members equals a quarter of the New Zealand economy.[9]

The chief editor of NZI, Nathan Smith, resigned from the position in December 2020 after news reports that he was the author of a far-right blog.[10]

Approach

On its website, The New Zealand Initiative says its mission is "to help create a competitive, open and dynamic economy and a free, prosperous, fair, and cohesive society"[11] and describes itself as "strictly non-partisan." It takes a more free-market perspective than the NZIER or BERL.[1]

Apart from its research activities, the New Zealand Initiative hosts a range of events. These include public forums, panel discussions, an annual debating tournament for university students, as well as events for its members.[12] In May 2017, The Initiative organised a study tour of Switzerland for more than 30 senior New Zealand business leaders.[13]

Among the speakers hosted by The New Zealand Initiative are New Zealand Prime Ministers John Key and Bill English, Leaders of the Labour Party David Shearer, David Cunliffe and Andrew Little, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, former British Trade Secretary Peter Lilley as well as members of all parties represented in the New Zealand Parliament.

The New Zealand Initiative released Manifesto 2017: What the next New Zealand Government Should Do, an overview of its policy recommendations from its first five years, in the lead-up to the 2017 general election.[14]

Policy positions and public reception

Education: The New Zealand Initiative has called for the performance measurement and management of teachers in New Zealand schools, a proposal that was cautiously welcomed by education minister Nikki Kaye and rejected by the teachers' union PPTA.[15] In an earlier report, the Initiative had criticised the New Zealand government for introducing new teaching methods in mathematics that led to worsening numeracy of students.[16]

Housing and local government: According to business columnist Pattrick Smellie in 2017, The New Zealand Initiative's main contribution to the housing debate was to point out the factors that were limiting housing supply: Along with high immigration, a sub-scale building industry, and dysfunctional planning law, the incentives for local councils to discourage rather than compete for new citizens was a big part of why Auckland's housing crisis existed. The NZ Initiative had been pointing out these growth-limiting settings almost since its creation five years earlier.[17]

In November 2015, Hartwich and the Labour Party's housing spokesperson Phil Twyford published a joint opinion piece advocating the abolition of height and density controls, infrastructure bonds, and an end to the rural-urban boundary.[18] The article was interpreted as a shift from traditional Labour positions on land-use planning[19] and regarded by international commentators as a sign of a new emerging consensus on housing policy.[20]

The New Zealand Initiative's proposal to establish Special Economic Zones across New Zealand was supported by Wellington Mayor Justin Lester and Malcolm Alexander, chief executive of Local Government New Zealand.[21] Government papers released under the Official Information Act revealed that cabinet ministers were considering the Initiative's proposals.[22]

In a 2013 Initiative report, co-authored by former cabinet minister Michael Bassett, the Initiative proposed funding residential infrastructure through targeted rates in special purpose vehicles.[23] The New Zealand government introduced such a scheme in July 2017 when it charged Crown Infrastructure Partners with this task.[24]

Foreign direct investment: The New Zealand Initiative promotes the deregulation of New Zealand's restrictions on overseas investors,[25] a position which attracted fierce criticism from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.[26]

Fisheries management: Based on comparative research, the Initiative proposed to establish a new agency to represent recreational fishing interests, modelled on the Western Australian body Recfishwest.[27] The proposal was rejected by fishing advocacy group LegaSea.[28]

Immigration: In its immigration report, the New Zealand Initiative defended New Zealand's liberal immigration policy,[29] arguing that migrants contribute positively to the economy and integrate well into New Zealand society.[30] Winston Peters rejected the Initiative's findings as "academic gobbledygook"[31] and attacked the Initiative for being a thinktank run by foreigners.[32] The Labour Party's Immigration spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway welcomed the report while criticising its alleged ignorance of migrants' infrastructure needs.[33]

Social policy: The Initiative supported the Key/English government's 'Social Investment Approach,'[34] including the introduction of Social Impact Bonds.[35] It has also argued that concerns about the recent rise of economic inequality were driven by rising house prices while income inequality in New Zealand had remained constant since the 1990s.[36]

References
  1. Dann, Liam (19 January 2018). "Who are New Zealand's economic think tanks?". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  2. Pattrick Smellie (2012-04-04). "Roundtable and NZ Institute morph into new libertarian think tank". National Business Review.
  3. "Fran O'Sullivan: Kerr's courageous stances kept Government honest". NZ Herald. 2011-10-30. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  4. "Kerr receives CNZM for services to business". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  5. Noted. "Oliver Hartwich: New business think-tank head - The Listener". Noted. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  6. "The New Zealand Initiative Limited". Companies Register. New Zealand Companies Office. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  7. "Constitution of The New Zealand Initiative Limited". Companies Register. New Zealand Companies Office. 2012-03-30. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  8. "Our Members | The New Zealand Initiative". nzinitiative.org.nz. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  9. "Annual Report 2016 | The New Zealand Initiative". nzinitiative.org.nz. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  10. Daalder, Marc (11 December 2020). "Think tank editor runs far-right blog". Newsroom.
  11. "About Us | The New Zealand Initiative". nzinitiative.org.nz. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  12. "Events | The New Zealand Initiative". nzinitiative.org.nz. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  13. O'Sullivan, Fran (2017-06-16). "What's the key to Swiss success? It's the education". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  14. "House prices a top election priority - NZ Initiative". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  15. Collins, Simon (2017-07-05). "Rate teachers on student achievement, advises think tank". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  16. "Back-to-basics call on maths". NZ Herald. 2015-06-03. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  17. Smellie, Pattrick (2017-04-17). "Why councils want to keep a lid on their population growth - Pattrick Smellie". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  18. Twyford, Phil (2015-11-29). "Opinion: Planning rules the cause of housing crisis". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  19. "Phil Twyford and his surprising enthusiasm for the private sector". Politik | New Zealand politics, inside news and analysis. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  20. "Land Regulation Making Us Poorer: Emerging Left-Right Consensus | Newgeography.com". www.newgeography.com. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  21. "Creating special economic zones could see regions prosper, experts say". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  22. "Special Economic Zones still on the table". Radio New Zealand. 2017-07-12. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  23. "Take a hint from Texas, report says". Taranaki Property Investors' Association. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  24. "Government setting up new housing infrastructure company, will invest $600m". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  25. "Editorial: Restrictions put us at a disadvantage". NZ Herald. 2012-09-02. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  26. "New Zealand Initiative more like New Zealand Submissive" (Press release). New Zealand First. Scoop Media. 2014-04-30. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  27. "Outdoor issues need to be discussed inside the house". Stuff. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  28. "Licencing a smokescreen for real agenda". LegaSea. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  29. "Migrants' benefits to NZ outweigh costs - report". Radio New Zealand. 2017-01-30. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  30. Tan, Lincoln (2017-01-31). "Do migrants dilute the New Zealand identity?". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  31. "Immigration report 'nonsensical': Winston Peters". Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  32. "Q+A: Winston Peters interviewed by Corin Dann | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  33. "Immigration Report Glosses Over Big Issues". New Zealand Labour Party. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  34. Jeram, Jenesa (2017-05-22). "Jenesa Jeram: Data can tell us when 'social investment' is worthwhile". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  35. "Insight: Social Bonds - Funding innovation or risky experiment?". Radio New Zealand. 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  36. "NZ politics daily: Anger and debate over inequality". The National Business Review. 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
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