LVRs: First Home Buyer Killers

Gareth MorganEconomics

We can expect the LVR (loan to value ratio limits) intervention to impact the housing market. We can also expect first home buyers to be in the firing line of this policy. How ironic, given that the whole issue with … Read More

Fatties: Lazy Pigs or Wrongly Programmed?

Gareth MorganHealth

We need to change our fatty-bashing culture if we are ever to have a sensible conversation about food and health. The fact is that our obesity and diabetes crisis is not simply a result of gluttony and sloth. The truth … Read More

How real is your milk

Gareth MorganHealth

Dairy is our largest exporter, dominates our landscape and is our greatest contribution to the diet of the world. In the past we have been justifiably proud of this industry, but the relentless push for increased volume is changing it … Read More

Headed in the wrong direction

Gareth MorganEnvironment

With the local election results out of the way, attention now turns to sorting out our transport network. And judging by the proposals on the table, there is plenty of work to do. National roading projects are judged (in part) … Read More

Time for Coke to Pay for Making Us Crook

Gareth MorganHealth

Soft drinks are under the hammer. Around the world they are being taxed and regulated. Here in New Zealand we have seen the launch of the FIZZ campaign to knock soft drink consumption for six. Coca Cola recognises the threat, … Read More

Time to be the Natural Capital

Gareth MorganEnvironment

Time to be the Natural Capital In an election bemoaned for a lack of issues and poor turnout, one strong message has been sent to the Town Hall in Wellington: we want to make Wellington the Natural Capital. Conservation is … Read More

Saturated Fat – Angel or Devil?

Gareth MorganHealth

The initial response to our book and infographic has sparked the sort of online spats that the book was trying to address – incomplete science, the prevalence of see-saw fad diets and the habit of breaking foods down to their … Read More

Why We Are Supporting the Munch Awards

Gareth MorganHealth

One of the most surprising findings of Appetite for Destruction was that being fat isn’t a matter of individual choice. We have actively raised this current generation of fatties as if they were battery farmed hens, and our only hope … Read More