NZCPR Weekly: Five Policies to Improve Our Future

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we reflect on the crucial importance of a country’s public policy framework and suggest five policy changes that would transform New Zealand’s future, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Kerry McDonald outlines the impact of two decades of shocking political leadership, and our poll asks whether you would support a nation-wide referendum on the future of the Maori seats..

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NZCPR Weekly: Swimming With the Tide of Political Opinion

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we discuss the need for truth, not propaganda, in the public policy arena, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Bryan Leyland raises concerns about advisers who tell the Government what they want to hear rather than telling them the truth, and our poll asks whether you think there should be more honesty and less political spin in public policy debates.

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Bryce Edwards: Political roundup – National’s super-smart step to the left

John Key has once again shown himself to be the master pragmatist with an eye for winning votes, even if it requires moving to the left sometimes. The education reforms announced yesterday are a strategic masterstroke and position his National Government incredibly smartly for this year’s election campaign, making National appear bold, fresh, and centrist. 

The new policy cleverly undercuts Labour’s growing emphasis on increasing economic inequality, while also making up ground for some very poorly received reforms and mismanagement in the education portfolio.

Reuben Chapple: Immigration Concretes

Current immigration debate refers to immigrants in general as if they were abstract people in an abstract world. But concrete differences between immigrants from different countries allow us to make a fair stab at determining whether their coming here is good or bad for New Zealand.

Richard Epstein: Will Banning Guns Prevent Another Aurora?

Once more, America gropes for a magic bullet.

The macabre tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, which left at least 12 people dead and 58 seriously wounded, is a grim reminder of the helpless position in which innocent people can find themselves at the hands of a maniac. No fictional film can top the tale of James Holmes, a former graduate student in neuroscience, who was decked out in “ballistic” regalia as he entered the Century 16 movie theater shortly after midnight during a showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Armed with assault weapons and tear or smoke gas bombs, he first immobilized and then shot his victims without reason or remorse. To top matters off, he then booby-trapped his apartment in an apparent effort to kill or maim the police officers that were likely to search it.