Max Salmon: Government tackles work from home

The Finance Minister this week announced a crackdown on public servants working from home. The push comes as part of a wider focus on productivity and efficiency-increasing measures from the government.

However, there is a small problem.

Max Salmon: Localism enjoys council support

As localism – the idea that local communities should have more control over decisions that affect them – gains political capital, questions naturally arise: What would localist policies look like? What do councils think about localism? What do they see as localism's largest challenges?

A new survey of New Zealand's mayors, chairs, councillors, and council chief executives provides answers to these questions. The survey, covered in my report 'The Pulse of Local Government', is New Zealand's first public resource that catalogues council attitudes toward localism.

Max Salmon: Where is the commissioner?

New Zealand’s most recent Public Services Commissioner announced his retirement in September 2023. He retired in February 2024. The government has yet to find a replacement. Meanwhile, a quarter of its elected term has elapsed.

The role of Commissioner comes with considerable power to shape the face of the public service. The Commissioner is responsible for finding and hiring candidates for the Chief Executives of the public service. The Commissioner can shuffle Chief Executives between ministries, an ability that allows those candidates to avoid an open and competitive hiring process. The Commissioner is also charged with the development of senior leadership in the public service, and the enforcement of its standards.

Max Salmon: The young stand to suffer as ageing population bites

New Zealand's superannuation scheme is laudable for its universal and simple approach to ensuring dignity for our elders. However, the system's simplicity obscures unfortunate truth – it will punish our younger generations.

The current superannuation system (and the wider welfare state) is dependent on the taxes of the working population, a portion of which it receives. This system is functional, provided the ratio of working people to retired people does not change dramatically.

Max Salmon: We need some easy wins - Liberalising GMOs could be one

New Zealand could use some easy wins. A miasma of slow stagnation appears to be settling over the country. We need an injection of economic vigour.

Fortunately, there is low-hanging fruit within reach – liberalising our Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) regulations.

New Zealand’s history with GMO has been difficult.

Max Salmon: Modifying a failing regulatory system

It is time we liberalised our Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) regulations.

Benefits to New Zealand would include pest-resistant crops, more productive crops and fruit, sterile pines for forestry, reduced carbon emissions, reduced agricultural methane, better healthcare products, cheaper medication, and pest control.

Yet these are only a few of the benefits that could be realised with existing technology. More are sure to follow as other countries continue to liberalise their regulations and invest in further research.

Max Salmon: ComCom antics

Last week the Commerce Commission announced its concern with a proposed merger between Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island. Their concern is a decrease in competition in the market.

It sounds crazy when you first hear it, but it’s even weirder when you see what the Commerce Commission is actually worried about.

Max Salmon: Too complex

How complex is too complex? My new report for the New Zealand Initiative, Cabinet Congestion: The Growth of a Ministerial Maze, poses this question with respect to the executive branch of New Zealand’s Government.

New Zealand’s executive is incredibly powerful. Its members control the levers of state power through its departments and agencies. Everything from healthcare to roads, education to foreign policy, is within its purview.

Max Salmon: Cabinet Congestion

New Zealand’s Executive Branch has grown to an abnormal size. The number of departments, portfolios, and ministers likely causes a suite of coordination, policy drift and resource management problems.

New Zealand relies on the Executive for everything from education to roads. This report’s research, alongside the academic literature, suggests size and complexity are severely limiting the optimal performance of this branch of Government.

Max Salmon: To Waste

I’ve always had a focus on New Zealand’s infrastructure issues. Like many other waste enthusiasts, I’ve been concerned about the likely impact of the incoming government’s focus on cost-efficiency on our infrastructure outcomes. However, recent headlines have given me hope that we will continue to punch above our weight regarding rail infrastructure waste.

Max Salmon: A legacy to be proud of

James Shaw announced his resignation as co-leader of the Green Party earlier this week. Although retirement was not announced, one assumes it cannot be too far away.

Shaw has remained an interestingly divisive figure throughout his tenure as co-leader. He was respected by many on the right for his pragmatism and disliked by a core of the left for his perceived openness to compromise. All this, despite having led the Greens as they embraced a dramatically left-leaning US-style politics of identity and culture.

Max Salmon: Houthi rebels

Half a world away from New Zealand in the Red Sea, a small group is making a big splash in international relations theory and philosophy.

The Houthis, already well known for their stunning flag design talents and progressive stance on ageist restrictions to military service, have awed the intellectual community once again.

Max Salmon: Fuel tax is a dying revenue source

New Zealand is a long, narrow country with a very low population density. Air transport is expensive and passenger rail almost non-existent. As a result, our cities, towns, and rural communities rely heavily on our local and national road network.

To pay for this network, New Zealand relies materially on a tax on the petrol we put in our cars, known as the Fuel Excise Duty (FED). Traditionally, this has been a low-cost funding tool. Nearly every vehicle in New Zealand uses petrol. The tax is simple to collect, the revenue generated scaled with road use, and it increased with the consumer’s road use.

Max Salmon: New Zealand's fiscal constraints

The incoming government has been entrenched in drawn-out coalition negotiations.

Across the table from National Party leader Christopher Luxon sit the leaders of two minor parties, both basking in the now-fading glow of recent electoral successes, eagerly eyeing their slices of the economic pie. Unfortunately, this pie has seen better days. The crust is stale, and the filling is sparse.

Max Salmon: Opposition for a four-year term

The election has come and gone. While Wellington sits in stasis awaiting Winston’s next press scrum, New Zealanders might be forgiven for feeling that we’ve only recently been here before.

New Zealand has one of the world’s shortest parliamentary terms. There are familiar arguments in favour of increasing its length. Four-year terms would mean less spent on elections. Three-year terms mean election periods eat up one of every ten days that a government serves (before you adjust for sitting days). Short parliamentary terms constrain medium- and long-term policy thinking.

Max Salmon: Engineering new outcomes

The election is now firmly behind us, and the shape of the Sixth National Government of New Zealand will soon emerge. Likely coalition partners National and ACT have staunchly advocated for deregulation in their election campaigns.

But how effective will this red-tape shredding enterprise be? GMO (genetically modified organism) regulation will be a useful litmus test.