The New Zealand Initiative is a pro-free-market public-policy
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
and business membership organisation in New Zealand.
It was formed in 2012 by merger of the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR) and the
New Zealand Institute. The Initiative’s main areas of focus include economic policy, housing, education, local government, welfare, immigration and fisheries.
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
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
-based Business Roundtable, founded by
Roger Kerr
Roger Lawrence Kerr (17 January 1945 – 28 October 2011), a public policy and business leader, was the executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, a free-market think-tank based in Wellington, New Zealand.
Early life
Kerr gre ...
in 1986, was among the main proponents of New Zealand's liberal economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. 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.
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, the organisation lacked scale. Carter approached Business Roundtable chairman Roger Partridge and raised the possibility of merging the two organisations. The merger discussions were successful and the New Zealand Initiative was launched in April 2012, with Partridge and Carter as co-chairs. Hartwich was appointed its first executive director.
Organisation
The New Zealand Initiative is based in Wellington. It is a
limited company
In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...
, governed by a board of directors under a constitution. It is one of the three biggest think tanks in New Zealand, the other two being the
New Zealand Institute of Economic Research
The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) is the largest independent think tank in New Zealand. It is non-profit incorporated society and was established in 1958. It seeks to take a centrist, politically neutral position.
It has a sta ...
(NZIER) and
Business and Economic Research (BERL).
The membership of The New Zealand Initiative comprises about 70 members, mainly large New Zealand companies. According to the Initiative’s Annual Report 2016, the combined revenue of its members equals a quarter of the New Zealand economy.
The chief editor of the New Zealand Initiative, Nathan Smith, resigned from the position in December 2020 after news reports emerged that he was the author of a far-right blog.
In this blog he said, amongst other things, that the media controls people's thoughts and authors lengthy posts tying together "Muslim rape gangs" and incel ideology.
Hartwich said that these views were "abhorrent" and had no place at the New Zealand Initiative.
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" and describes itself as "strictly non-partisan." It takes a more free-market perspective than the NZIER or BERL.
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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. In May 2017, The Initiative organised a study tour of Switzerland for more than 30 senior New Zealand business leaders.
Among the speakers hosted by The New Zealand Initiative are New Zealand Prime Ministers ]John Key
Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to ...
and Bill English
Sir Simon William English (born 30 December 1961) is a New Zealand former National Party politician who served as the 39th prime minister of New Zealand from 2016 to 2017 and as the 17th deputy prime minister of New Zealand and minister of f ...
, Leaders of the Labour Party David Shearer
David James Shearer (born 28 July 1957) is a New Zealand United Nations worker and politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 2009 to 2016, serving as Leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2013.
Shea ...
, David Cunliffe
David Richard Cunliffe (born 30 April 1963) is a New Zealand management consultant and former politician who was Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from September 2013 to September 2014. He was Member of Parli ...
and Andrew Little, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
, former British Trade Secretary Peter Lilley
Peter Bruce Lilley, Baron Lilley, PC (born 23 August 1943) is a British politician and life peer who served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parl ...
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.
Policy positions and public reception
Education
In July 2017, 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 Minister of Education Nikki Kaye
Nicola Laura Kaye (born 11 February 1980) is a New Zealand politician who served as Deputy Leader of the New Zealand National Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 22 May 2020 to 14 July 2020.
Kaye served as the member of the New Zea ...
and rejected by the teachers' union Post Primary Teachers' Association
The New Zealand Post-Primary Teachers' Association Incorporated (PPTA) is a trade union in New Zealand and professional association. It represents about 20,000 teachers employed in state and integrated secondary schools, area schools, technology ...
(PPTA). 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. In September 2022, the NZ Initiative asked the Ministry of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
to provide evidence that large, open-plan classrooms helped improve students' learning.
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.
In November 2015, Hartwich and the Labour Party's housing spokesperson Phil Twyford
Philip Stoner Twyford (born 4 May 1963) is a politician from New Zealand and a member of the Labour Party. He has been a Member of Parliament since 2008. He is the Labour Party MP for Te Atatū.
Early years
Twyford was born in 1963 in Auckland ...
published a joint opinion piece advocating the abolition of height and density controls, infrastructure bonds, and an end to the rural-urban boundary. The article was interpreted as a shift from traditional Labour positions on land-use planning and regarded by international commentators as a sign of a new emerging consensus on housing policy.
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
Local Government New Zealand Te Kahui Kaunihera ō Aotearoa (LGNZ) is the local government association of New Zealand. It represents the interests of the regional, city, and district councils in New Zealand.
History
The Association was for ...
. Government papers released under the Official Information Act revealed that cabinet ministers were considering the Initiative's proposals.
In a 2013 Initiative report, co-authored by former cabinet minister Michael Bassett
Michael Edward Rainton Bassett (born 28 August 1938) is a former New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand, fourth L ...
, the Initiative proposed funding residential infrastructure through targeted rates in special purpose vehicles. The New Zealand government introduced such a scheme in July 2017 when it charged Crown Infrastructure Partners with this task.
Foreign direct investment
The New Zealand Initiative promotes the deregulation of New Zealand's restrictions on overseas investors, a position which attracted fierce criticism from New Zealand First
New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Winst ...
leader Winston Peters
Winston Raymond Peters (born 11 April 1945) is a New Zealand politician serving as the leader of New Zealand First since its foundation in 1993. Peters served as the 13th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1996 to 1998 and 2017 to 2020 ...
.
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. The proposal was rejected by fishing advocacy group LegaSea.
Immigration
In its immigration report, the New Zealand Initiative defended New Zealand's liberal immigration policy, arguing that migrants contribute positively to the economy and integrate well into New Zealand society. Winston Peters rejected the Initiative's findings as "academic gobbledygook" and attacked the Initiative for being a thinktank run by foreigners. The Labour Party's Immigration spokesperson Iain Lees-Galloway
Iain Francis Lees-Galloway (born 18 September 1978), initially Iain Galloway, is a New Zealand former politician. He represented the Palmerston North electorate in Parliament for the Labour Party. He was the Minister for Workplace Relations, Im ...
welcomed the report while criticising its alleged ignorance of migrants' infrastructure needs.
Social policy
The Initiative supported the Key/English government's 'Social Investment Approach,' including the introduction of Social Impact Bonds
A social impact bond, also known as pay-for-success financing, pay-for-success bond, social benefit bond or simply a social bond, is one form of outcomes-based contracting. Although there is no single agreed definition of social impact bonds, mo ...
. 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.
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://nzinitiative.org.nz/
Economy of New Zealand
Think tanks based in New Zealand
Libertarian think tanks