Lindsay Mitchell: Same-old, same-old

The Social Investment Agency is a creation of the National government. It kicked off in July 2024 and is headed by the former police commissioner Andrew Coster.

According to Nicola Willis, “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for all New Zealanders... So we’re taking a different approach. We want to look beyond good intentions in our policy-making and use hard evidence to invest in what works. Our new approach builds on better social science evidence and advances in technology."

That sounds promising. A break with the old.

Capitalist: Must Be Designed to Fail

You can imagine my hoots of derisive laughter at Andrew Coster being named head of the ‘Social Investment Agency’ (don’t worry, no one else had ever heard of it either until a couple of days ago) in order to “...[advise] the government on commissioning services for vulnerable people...” according to the NZ Herald. The article rather hilariously talks about a ‘hiring process’ and other twaddle, suggesting Coster’s job isn’t anything other than being fired as police commissioner and a government too sooky to pass a special bill through parliament officially firing him, as I would happily have done.

Kerre Woodham: Why don't we focus the headlines on the good news?

There is a common trope that if prisons worked, we wouldn't need them. And that if prison was a deterrent, people wouldn't commit crime. If prison was about rehabilitation then people would serve their term and then they would not reoffend.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Jobs for the Boys......

Jobs for the Boys - why has the Police Commissioner been chosen to head the Social Investment Agency when he doesn't have the required skills?

It has been announced that the Police Commissioner has been chosen to head the Finance Minister Nicola Willis' Social Investment Agency when he steps down in November. So how does the NZ Treasury define social investment?