Michael Reddell • Oct 15, 2017 •
I’ve been a little unclear what to make of the Rocket Lab story. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the idea that our regulatory systems can, on occasion, be sufficiently adaptive to cope with new and innovative industries – even if it is far from generally true. And I wish all the best to any New Zealander with innovations … Read More
Guest Work • Oct 06, 2017 •
By Lisa Sharma-Wallace Environmental problems today are complicated. Some might even call them ‘wicked’. They involve clashing public perceptions, moving targets, differing stakeholder aspirations, and long-term time-frames, often stretching over generations. They’re also multi-dimensional, including a number of different causes, impacts, parties, and objectives which shift over time. Where do we even begin to address problems like these? Non-linear … Read More
Public Health Expert • Oct 06, 2017 •
Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Chris Cunningham, Frederieke Sanne van der Deen, Stephanie Erick, Zoe Hawke, Prof Janet Hoek, A/Prof George Thomson, Louise Thornley, Anaru Waa, Prof Nick Wilson The “Achieving Smokefree Aotearoa by 2025” Action Plan was launched at Parliament on 2 August. A previous blog described its key features and a rationale for the recommended … Read More
Andreea Calude • Sep 03, 2017 •
One of the perks of an academic career is having the ability to apply for, and all being well, be granted sabbatical leave. Of course, travelling with 2 children under 5 around the world is not quite the kind of sabbatical that most academics hope for, but I consider myself lucky to have a supportive husband who will willingly grab … Read More
Michael Reddell • Jun 21, 2017 •
A month or so ago I ran a couple of posts on New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in international context. Readers may recall that New Zealand now has the second highest emissions per unit of GDP of any OECD country, having moved up from sixth in 1990. As part of the Paris climate change accord process, New … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 15, 2017 •
The New Zealand government finally got around to telling the tobacco companies what the rules will be under plain packaging. Plain packaging won’t be in effect for a while yet, but it takes a while to adjust production lines – it’s good that they finally got the rules out. Fairfax’s Rob Stock called me asking for comment on plain … Read More
Robert Hickson • May 24, 2017 •
NZTech have promoted the creation of a Ministry of the Future in their 2017 Manifesto “New Zealand’s Digital Future“. As a country, we need to wholeheartedly embrace this change, installing a dedicated Ministry of the Future, and Chief Technology Officer, to consider the implications of change across social, economic, educational and all other areas of policy. … Read More
Eric Crampton • Feb 22, 2017 •
The push for more localist approaches to policy problems in New Zealand continues to gather steam. Earlier this month, the McGuinness Institute argued for what they’re calling Demarcation Zones for policy trials. Their formulation differs a bit from what we at the Initiative proposed in 2015, but the core idea is similar: let local communities take on additional … Read More
Robert Hickson • Oct 14, 2016 •
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere these days, especially in opinion pieces and reports to or from governments. It’s almost like you need IBM Watson Analytics to keep up with it all. Here’s a sampling from the last week or so. Venture Capitalist Marc Andreessen notes that it’s a new architecture not just a new feature. Andrew Ng, chief … Read More
John Kerr • Jul 18, 2016 •
The Government funds millions of dollars’ worth of conservation and environment research each year – and it needs your help to make sure that research is heading in the right direction. A planned conservation and environment science ‘roadmap’ will lay out the Government’s research priorities of for the next 20 years. The Department of Conservation (DOC) and Ministry for the Environment (MfE) have jointly … Read More