The Good Society is the home of my writing about how we can shape a better world together.
A detail from Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Renaissance fresco The Allegory of Good and Bad Government
The Post: Erica Stanford has made education a bright spot of first-year legacy
Her changes should also endure, given they continue a direction Labour started.
The Post: Understanding the forces that bring authoritarian populists to power
Levels of trust are particularly worrying among low-income New Zealanders.
The Spinoff: The right’s weird new obsession – Singapore
The enthusiasm reflects the bankruptcy of modern libertarianism.
The Post: The disaster scenarios arising from building consent deregulation
Homeowners are likely to be left carrying the can.
The Spinoff: A new suspect in the case of New Zealand’s property investment obsession
Investment property takes off in the 1990s, just as another form of investment declines.
The Post: Manufactured crisis over ACC ignores the bigger picture
A $7.2bn deficit is, ironically, a good thing.
The Spinoff: The slow drift towards ‘user pays’ risks turning New Zealand into a two-tier society
Private health insurance and toll roads spell wastefulness and division.
The Post: Governing by gut instinct: when science surrenders to ministerial reckons
The social investment agenda will have to clear up a lot of unscientific decision-making.
The Spinoff: Here’s what’s at stake in the Labour tax debate
How to weigh up the relative merits of capital gains and wealth taxes.
The Post: How a capital gains tax could help fix the economy
We're too short-termist in our national thinking, and lack the long-term investment needed for shared prosperity.