NZCPR Newsletter: Time for Reform

When Treasury prepared its four-yearly Long-Term Fiscal Position report in 2021, the forecasts showed that the rising cost of funding the healthcare and pensions of retirees would bankrupt New Zealand by 2061 if policies remained the same.

The problem is demography. While retirees currently number around 800,000, between 2060 and 2070 they are expected to approach 2 million. At that time, the number of workers per pensioner, will fall from around four to one today, to just two to one.

Nick Cater: New political trio restores public sanity to NZ

New Zealand’s 42nd Prime Minister has committed to introducing a bill to parliament nominating English as the country’s official language, a measure none of his predecessors seemed to think was necessary.

Ministers have reminded bureaucrats that government business should be conducted in the vocabulary of 89 per cent of Kiwi homes. The convention of writing public signage primarily in English is to be restored, rather than Te Reo Maori, a language only 50,000 New Zealanders speak fluently, mostly in the northernmost districts of North Island.