Author: Roger Partridge

OPINION: Roger Partridge New Zealand’s housing crisis has causes everyone recognises – RMA restrictions, building consent delays, infrastructure that cannot keep pace with growth and building costs. All are real. But there is a deeper problem almost nobody mentions: for councils, population growth is an unwelcome burden. Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour signalled last week that the 28 May Budget may finally begin to fix that. Speaking on Herald NOW, he indicated that councils may receive a share of GST from housing construction activity. It is a policy the New Zealand Initiative has been advocating for more than a decade.…

OPINION: ROGER PARTRIDGE When a story recently emerged about the government getting advice on carless days under the Petroleum Demand Restraint Act, older New Zealanders will have felt a warm flush of nostalgia. The 1979 restrictions brought coloured windscreen stickers announcing the weekday car owners had promised not to drive. Thursday proved the most popular choice. A thriving black market followed. Forty-three percent of vehicles secured exemptions. The first person prosecuted under the original scheme was caught driving at 3.45 am –after falling asleep in his car following a party. His designated non-driving period had begun at 2 am. Petrol consumption fell by a paltry three per cent. The policy was abandoned. But the story got me thinking. Which of the 1970s’ other good ideas might…

The pre-Christmas stoush between Finance Minister Nicola Willis and her 1990s predecessor Ruth Richardson has faded. The planned debate was cancelled. But beneath the theatre lies a puzzle neither of them addressed. The Government has cut contractors, culled consultants, deferred capital projects. Yet one number – the one most directly within ministerial control – has barely shifted. In June 2017, four months before Labour took office, the core public service employed just over 47,000 full-time equivalent staff. Six years later, on the eve of the 2023 election, that number had swelled beyond 63,000. Then came something curious. In the months…