December 19, 2017

Immigration reform spotlight: Fairness, economic development, and the Working Holiday Scheme

Oksana Opara

Historically high net migration to New Zealand — which reached over 70,000 annual arrivals in 2017 — has spurred many social and political concerns, including about how the country’s already-strained public infrastructure will cope in the coming years. In response, the newly-elected Labour-New Zealand First coalition government plans to significantly

 

September 19, 2017

Limits to growth?

Charles Crothers

Mounting concern with housing, transport and diversity issues in Auckland point to a consensus that growth trends are exceeding our ability to readily cope. This is aggravated by reports that portions of our wilderness tourism areas are being hammered by very high usage. In earlier elections these concerns have spilled

 

July 4, 2017

Fair Borders?: Migration Policy in the Twenty-First Century

David Hall

Late last year, it struck me as obvious that the issue of immigration would catch fire come election time. The kindling was set; the matchbox within reach. So I decided to publish a book on the subject. Fair Borders?: Migration Policy in the Twenty-First Century brings together ten writers (myself

 

August 3, 2016

Think Big: Auckland, immigration, and the absence of income growth

Michael Reddell

Of the biggest cities in each advanced economy, Auckland has been one of the fastest growing. Just in the last 15 years, Auckland’s population has grown by 30 per cent, while the population in the rest of the country has risen by 13 per cent. Many argue that big cities

 

August 11, 2015

High House Prices: A Blunder Of Our Governments

Michael Reddell

There has been a strong sense this year that “something must be done” about high house prices, especially those in Auckland. To date, however, the policy responses display little awareness of how previous policy choices have made New Zealand housing increasingly unaffordable over the last couple of decades. Blaming investors

 

August 5, 2015

The Problem With Migration

Bernard Hickey

We’re now having a fractious debate about foreign buying of houses, but the more important and tougher debate we should be having is about migration. Does it actually generate the right type of long term economic growth, or does it just pump up house prices and interest rates, suppress wages

 

August 14, 2014

Too Many Immigrants?

Richard Bedford

The triennial election year debate about immigration has been warming up over recent months. The switch from a small net loss of people through permanent and long-term (PLT) migration in the year ended 30 June 2012 (-3.191) to one of the largest PLT net migration gains ever in the year

 

May 28, 2014

Population Matters

Natalie Jackson

It is ironic that as Paul and Anne Ehrlich were writing their influential book The Population Bomb (1968), the global population growth rate was beginning to fall. Driven by declining birth rates, it has continued to fall, and today is half its 1960s’ level of 2.2 per cent per year.