Issue Analysis
Issue Analysis (IA) are shorter publications that deal with controversial and current issues.
Categories
China’s Insecurity and Search for Power
Although China feels vulnerable now, there is no doubt that it intends to eventually supersede American power and influence in our region.... Read More
Baby Steps Toward Self-Funded Parental Leave
The debate about increasing the aged pension highlights the fact that, once again, government handouts lead to increasing burdens on taxpayers. When considering a government-funded paid maternity leave...... Read More
Government Intervention in Mortgage Finance: The Case Against 'AussieMac'
An Australian GSE and the mortgage securitisation industry would likely expand only at the expense of other financial intermediaries, damaging long-run competition and innovation in the industry.... Read More
The Bipolar Pacific
Guest-worker schemes, which have been proposed as a development solution for the Pacific, no doubt benefit the individuals lucky enough to be selected to participate. But even high guest-worker numbers,...... Read More
Child Care and the Labour Supply
This report investigates whether child care is unaffordable and if government funding is contributing to its affordability or making it more expensive.... Read More
A Whiff of Compassion? The Attack on Mutual Obligation
The Rudd government is planning to water down the existing work requirements and mutual obligation policies that have helped unemployed people find jobs.... Read More
Putting Democracy in China on Hold
Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, China has moved closer to a market economy but further away from a democratic state. The impetus for democracy has been lost over the past two decades.... Read More
KiwiSaver or KiwiSucker? A Critical View
The promised benefits of KiwiSaver do not match the high cost of the taxpayer subsidies. With KiwiSaver and New Zealand Super combined, it is now possible for a young person on the average wage to retire...... Read More
What are Low Ability Workers To Do When Unskilled Jobs Disappear? Part 2
Despite low unemployment, working-age welfare dependency remains high, partly because demand for unskilled labour is in decline. Instead of more government spending on education and training, we need to...... Read More
Five Out of Ten: A Performance Report on the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI)
The Solomon Islands is stagnating despite 30 years of aid flows of hundreds of millions of dollars, innumerable consultants’ reports and development pledges. This year will mark the fifth anniversary...... Read More
What are Low Ability Workers To Do When Unskilled Jobs Disappear? Part 1
Nearly two million working-age people are on welfare benefits. The fall in the unemployment figures has disguised a displacement of jobless people into other benefits like the Disability Pension and Parenting...... Read More
Why is Australia So Much Richer than New Zealand?
New Zealand has lower labour productivity, higher income tax, fewer opportunities for capital investment and more sporadic government intervention and regulation than Australia.... Read More
Child Care: Who Benefits?
Child care has gone from something that families would use sparingly and only if necessary to being an alleged human right. The research base of many claims about child care does not support their weight.... Read More
Kava and after in the Nhulunbuy (Gulf of Carpenteria) Hinterland
Ending kava sales will have positive effects only if the factors that make the Nhulunbuy hinterland dysfunctional are tackled. If underlying deprivation is not ended, alcohol and drugs are likely to replace...... Read More
Taming New Zealand’s Tax Monster
New Zealanders now pay an extra $20 billion per year in tax than they did in 2000. There needs to be a proper review of government spending to assess its value for money, and effectively determine the...... Read More
What Is Working in Good Schools in Remote Indigenous Communities?
School‑side and community‑side interventions with which good schools are trying to break the cycle of low attendance, achievement and retention show that we need a new focus on school performance...... Read More
Reinventing New Zealand’s Welfare State
New Zealanders are much richer than when the welfare state was founded. People’s incomes should therefore be sufficient to buy many of the services earlier generations could not afford. But reliance...... Read More
Mismatch: Australia’s Graduates and the Job Market
The Commonwealth-directed higher education system has produced a mismatch between available graduates and jobs. Australia’s centrally controlled system of allocating university places has failed to...... Read More
New Zealand’s Spending Binge
Government spending in New Zealand is now $20 billion higher than it was in 2000, yet the available social indicators show negligible improvements. Life expectancy, infant mortality, hospital outputs,...... Read More
Australia and the Future of Nuclear Deterrence
Strategic developments in North Asia are being driven by North Korea’s dangerous missile and nuclear brinkmanship, as well as by the rapid pace of China’s force modernisation. It is an open question...... Read More
