Gareth Morgan | The Morgan Foundation

Think Russia, Azerbaijan & Kazakhstan – Think Oil, Gas and Coal

Gareth MorganJuly 23, 2019Environment

Having spent the last 3 months in these countries and getting some appreciation of their dependence on fossil fuels – oil, gas, coal – one realises how loopy is the idea popular in societies like New Zealand that have negligible … Read More

Cullen’s Tax Working Group: High on politics of envy, low on economic literacy

Gareth MorganMarch 13, 2019Tax and Welfare

Tax Working Group head, Michael Cullen, asserts that the capital gains tax (CGT) is best described as a “tax on capital income”. Since when have capital gains been income? Show me any country’s national income accounts that include them in … Read More

Name and Shame Time

Gareth MorganJanuary 14, 2019Environment

I get pretty sick of faceless organisations whose senior people fail to stand up and face the music when they make blunders or outrageous claims. Despite unleashing its obscene affront to New Zealand’s native heritage a week ago and inciting … Read More

5 points showing Kiwi businesses want ambitious climate action

Gareth MorganNovember 16, 2015Economics, Environment

Businesses are often seen as the bad guys when it comes to climate change, lobbying governments to stymie action and water down commitments. That seems to be true in some cases – as we’ve seen recently with Exxon Mobil’s alleged … Read More

Coleman – Leave the Pregnant Ladies Alone – They Are Not the Solution To our Obesity Crisis

Gareth MorganOctober 28, 2015Health

Nothing gets women more upset that being told 1) they are responsible for everything that goes wrong with their children 2) how much weight they should put on when they are pregnant (or rather they are putting on too much … Read More

Four Questions about putting cancer patients on the Job Seekers allowance

Gareth MorganOctober 14, 2015Tax and Welfare

It was revealed yesterday that people diagnosed with cancer and receiving treatment for that cancer (who are not deemed terminally ill) can only receive government support to live via the jobseekers allowance, not the disability allowance. The jobseekers allowance ironically … Read More

Poo Bum: Our Government Lacks the Will to Stop People Dying From Colorectal Cancer

Gareth MorganAugust 23, 2015Health

While a somewhat infantile title, it is also rather appropriate, as I just happened to be reading a book with this very title to my kids when I heard (another) report discussing the terrible state of bowel cancer identification and … Read More

How do we know how unequal we are? – Whiteboard Friday

Gareth MorganAugust 20, 2015Tax and Welfare

We hear a lot about inequality, but we don’t do a good job of looking beyond inequality of income. In this Whiteboard Friday, Jess looks at the missing pieces of the inequality puzzle. Care about equality? Watch this video. How … Read More

One dumb regulation is driving up the cost of your house and your flat white

Gareth MorganJuly 22, 2015Environment

We’ve been pretty critical of the Productivity Commission in the past for endorsing more sprawl as a response to the housing crisis, but their Using Land for Housing draft report released a couple of weeks ago gets some things dead … Read More

Central Government is shirking its fluoridation responsibilities

Gareth MorganJuly 21, 2015Health

‘Water Fluoridation’. If you are a councillor in Hamilton (or in fact a councillor in any local authority) these are words to strike fear into your heart. The expensive debacle over the decision to stop and then restart fluoridating community … Read More