Ele Ludemann: From $50,000 to less than $1,000

Minister Brooke van Velden shows what can be achieved when common sense and practicality meets bureaucracy:

Kiwis told us that they wanted their Government Departments to be easier to engage with by putting English names first, as it is the language that the vast majority of the country speaks.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Bureaucracy is strangling NZ’s potential for growth

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he wants a bureaucracy that says “yes.” He is right to want that of course, but a lot of current rules would need to change.

Under current rules, far too much is too hard. Try expanding a port or hosting a concert at Eden Park. Or try importing building materials or opening a supermarket.

Nick Clark: Absurdity in the asylum

This week, Stuff reported on a story that seemed so absurd, it caught our attention: the idea to fence a pool on a remote island, just meters away from the Pacific Ocean.

On Motukawaiti Island, 3.5km off Northland’s coast, authorities have mandated that a small swimming pool be enclosed. This pool, which has existed without incident for two decades, suddenly requires a barrier to protect against the unlikely event of unsupervised children under five accessing it.

NZCPR Newsletter: Activist Capture

Two weeks ago, the first day of racing of the Sail Grand Prix regatta in Lyttleton Harbour was cancelled due to the sighting of a Hector’s dolphin. That followed a practice day, where sailing was restricted to only 11 minutes. And on the final race day teams were again refused practice time.

The race area is a dolphin sanctuary and the race organisers had agreed to abide by the special protocols that were put in place.

However, world champion New Zealand yachtsman and SailGP Executive Director Sir Russell Coutts believes the restrictions were excessive and a symptom of a wider problem that New Zealand faces.

Michael Bassett: Labour and its out-of-control bureaucracy

Remember after the 2017 election when Winston Peters, for no good reason, threw his support behind the smaller of the two main parties and brought Labour to office? That party had only slogans they called policy, and proceeded to establish more than 200 taxpayer-funded working groups to flesh out the detail. Then they set about employing more bureaucrats, 15,000 over the years, to assist with the implementation of the detail. Not content with that, Jacinda Ardern and now her successor, Chris Hipkins, hired consultants as well, paying them hundreds of thousands each day. The cash register was clinking furiously before anyone in government even started the implementation process. Hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, had gone out the door before there was anything tangible. Remember the hapless Phil Twyford and the 100,000 new Kiwi Build houses that weren’t built?

NZCPR Weekly: Government Conceit

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we investigate the cause of the fall in business confidence and the implications for the future, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy shares his concerns over the threat that socialism – and all the other ‘isms’ – pose to individual freedom and our free market economy, and our poll asks whether a council’s decision to remove a tree house was over-regulation and PC gone mad, or a council doing its job and upholding the law.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
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NZCPR Weekly: The Pitfalls of Change

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we look into the nature of change and expose some of the agendas that are undermining our freedom and liberty, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Brian Giesbrecht examines the impact of the #MeToo movement, and our poll asks whether you believe that the position of Race Relations Commissioner should be disestablished.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
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NZCPR Weekly: Bureaucracy Rules

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we look into bureaucratic madness both in the UK and here in New Zealand, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Christopher Snowden reflects on the nature of officials who mindlessly apply the letter of the law instead of using their discretion, and this week’s poll asks whether you think the Food Act should be replaced with more practical regulations.

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Karl du Fresne: Council bureaucracy frustration

Everyone I know seems to have a story about the frustrations of dealing with council bureaucracies. Try to build a simple garage to keep your car out of the weather, and you’re bombarded with engineering requirements more appropriate to the construction of a nuclear reactor.

Apply for consent to build a standard house – which these days requires submitting hundreds of pages of documents – and you can expect to wait the full 20 working days allowed before getting a response, only then to be told that you’ve overlooked some minor technical detail and will have to put your builder off until it’s been rectified.