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| Dr Oliver Hartwich | Executive Director | oliver.hartwich@nzinitiative.org.nz | ||||||||||||
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The speech’s centrepiece announcements make sense. A dedicated investment promotion agency could help attract foreign capital, following the model of Ireland’s highly successful Industrial Development Authority (IDA). This reform is crucial. New Zealand currently ranks as the most restrictive OECD country for foreign direct investment. The New Zealand Initiative has long advocated for such reforms, having studied Ireland’s approach first-hand. Reform of science funding and intellectual property rules might boost innovation and commercialisation. The proposed changes to intellectual property settings at universities could help turn research into commercial success. The Prime Minister’s examples of regulatory barriers highlighted real problems. Plans to expand the Port of Tauranga, vital for New Zealand’s export industries, have been delayed for years by complex planning requirements. Removing such obstacles could unlock private sector growth. Yet all these pro-growth policies rest on shaky fiscal foundations. The government’s recent claims about having got spending under control sound hollow. Government expenditure remains well above pre-pandemic levels highs. The structural deficit stands at 2.7 percent of GDP. Treasury forecasts show no return to surplus this decade. This fundamental mismatch between spending and revenue requires urgent attention. Running persistent deficits means more government debt, higher financing costs and fewer resources for productive investment. The Prime Minister’s vision for a more competitive economy needs a credible plan to address these fiscal challenges. Without one, any growth initiatives risk being undermined by continuing fiscal imbalances. Luxon’s speech rightly identifies regulatory reform as being crucial for growth. Replacing the Resource Management Act and streamlining health and safety rules could boost productivity. These reforms cost little yet deliver substantial economic benefits. Real economic growth requires increased business investment, enhanced productivity and improved infrastructure. Less marketing rhetoric and more such practical initiatives would strengthen the government’s growth agenda. The Prime Minister’s plan to reshape Crown Research Institutes into four public research organisations focused on commercialisation shows promise. However, restructuring government agencies requires careful planning and robust governance to deliver real benefits. Sustainable growth needs strong foundations. Until the government seriously addresses its structural deficit, New Zealand’s growth potential will remain constrained. The next step must be a credible plan for fiscal consolidation that brings spending back to sustainable levels. |
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| Dr Michael Johnston | Senior Fellow | michael.johnson@nzinitiative.org.nz | ||||||||||||
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Universities have two core missions. One is to produce and test knowledge. The other is to teach students to think using the methods of rigorous disciplines like science and history. Both require environments in which ideas can be freely expressed and contested. In recent years, though, universities have become political monocultures. Dissent is often suppressed. On certain hot-button topics, ideology has replaced debate. Anyone challenging prevailing views on equity and narrow definitions of identity is at risk. In 2024, a New Zealand Initiative report cited surveys showing that many academics and students feel intimidated into silence on these kinds of issues. Similar data are available across the Anglosphere. At the tip of the iceberg, dissident academics have been censored and sacked. Invited speakers have been deplatformed. Beneath the surface is a culture of censoriousness and ideological capture. Politicians have belatedly noticed that universities aren’t always doing what they’re funded to do. In the UK, legislation has been enacted to penalise universities financially if they allow free speech to be infringed on their campuses. The New Zealand government has signalled similar legislation, to be introduced in March. Legislation may not fully address what is ultimately a cultural problem. Scholar and free speech advocate Peter Boghossian favours a more radical approach. Boghossian believes public universities should be defunded, enabling new institutions to fulfil the roles they have abandoned. In the US, green shoots are already sprouting. In 2021, historian Niall Ferguson, entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale, and journalist Bari Weiss conceived the University of Austin (UATX). UATX is founded on traditional university values of free speech and open enquiry. With hundreds of millions of dollars raised, a who’s-who of affiliated public intellectuals, and an inaugural cohort enrolled in 2024, it is off to a very promising start. New Zealand universities are established by statute, making an equivalent of UATX difficult to establish here. Furthermore, our small population may mean that such an institution would not be viable. Even so, there would be no harm in trying. Taxpayers should not have to support institutions that refuse to fulfil their key roles. If the government’s academic freedom legislation fails to refocus universities on their core missions, defunding and deregulation might be the way to go. |
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| Dr James Kierstead | Research Fellow | james.kierstead@nzinitiative.org.nz | ||||||||||||
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But this is going to be a Golden Age for the United States of America. I’m Making America Great Again, and I’m here to tell you that we’re ready to make you an offer to be the 51st state. OK, the 52nd. The 51st will be Canada. It’s a uuge compliment. On that note, I’m going to be Making America Respected Again on the world stage. No more of these war-mongering Democrats picking pointless fights with foreign countries. That’s why even before being inaugurated I’ve told everybody I want to take control of the Panama Canal and annex Greenland. It’s so, so big on the world map, people. Free speech is so so important to me. That’s why I’ve personally gone after anybody who’s made any real criticism of me. “General” Mark Milley, your portrait’s out of the Pentagon. Meghan McCain, I’m calling you a low-life because I didn’t like your father. I prefer war-heroes who don’t get captured. I prefer them like me, with no military record. I mean zilch, nada. Somehow I dodged that Vietnam draft, but it was so close. Anyway, academic freedom too, so so important. That’s why we’re going to stop our universities turning our students into communists and terrorists. Ron DeSanctimonious has led the way on this. He’s taken over the New College of Florida, he’s fired tenured professors, he’s banned gender studies. That’s so, so academic freedom. I also want to talk about merit. We’re going to Make America Fair again. No more special deals for the Democrats’ relatives and friends. I’m looking at you, Hunter. In this administration we’re only going to hire the best people with no conflicts of interest. That’s why I’ve hired the businessman Elon Musk (such a great guy) to help regulate businesses. We’re taking this country back from the crazy, pie-in-the-sky schemes of the Democrats. That's why we’re going to Mars, people. We’re going to build Trump City on Mars, people, it’s going to be so so beautiful, with beautiful great big golden Trump Towers everywhere. And we’re going to make the Martians pay for it. |
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