featured | The Morgan Foundation

Little thinking behind beach purchase

Gareth MorganFebruary 9, 2016Environment

Kiwis have generously got behind a campaign to buy 7 hectares of beach and scrub, with the aim to fold it into the Abel Tasman National Park. So far the campaign has raised over $1.3m, attracting over 20,000 donors. Even … Read More

TPPA – It Comes Down to Trust

Geoff SimmonsFebruary 2, 2016Environment

The controversy over the TPPA looks likely to continue right up to the signing and in the days afterward, with Prime Minister John Key confronting Maori indignation over lack of consultation, and Labour battling internal divisions. Jane Kelsey and other … Read More

Free Tertiary Education – Helping the Poor or Middle Class Welfare?

Geoff SimmonsJanuary 31, 2016Tax and Welfare

Over the weekend Labour committed to free education in the 21st Century – including 3 years of free post-school education over a person’s lifetime. This is estimated to cost $1.2b by 2025 – but is that the right way to … Read More

Six Ways the Government has exaggerated the cost of meeting climate targets

Gareth MorganNovember 30, 2015Environment

This week in Paris, New Zealand – like every country – will attempt to justify why our national emissions reduction pledge is credible and a fair contribution to the global effort against climate change. Good luck with that. Our Government’s … Read More

Ten things you need to know about climate change

Gareth MorganNovember 29, 2015Environment

The Paris climate change summit is upon us. Next week the Morgan Foundation is supporting coverage from Paris by sponsoring the NZ Herald’s science reporter Jamie Morton. To ‘warm up’ for the event, here is a ‘guide for beginners’ – ten … Read More

Could rising sea levels hit the Government’s books?

Gareth MorganNovember 22, 2015Environment

On Thursday the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) released a report which recommended the Finance Minister work with insurers, banks, local authorities and residents to develop a plan for sea level rise. The Finance Minister’s response was that the … Read More

Uber vs the Taxis

Geoff SimmonsOctober 19, 2015Economics

Regulation is important, but unless it is nimble and well managed it can become a bigger problem than whatever it was intended to solve. We’ve seen one example of that in with minimum parking requirements, but another, much bigger regulatory … 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

Four Ways to celebrate a turning point in New Zealand’s history

Susan GuthrieOctober 14, 2015Treaty

Whina Cooper’s land march, which ended in Wellington forty years ago this week, was a turning point in New Zealand’s history. It brought the vast scale of Maori land loss to the wider public’s attention in a way that had … Read More