Funding New Zealand's fire-services TDB is pleased to have contributed to the work of the Property Council that has led to the government announcing a review of the funding of fire services in New Zealand. The government has said it recognises the problems with the current regime’s [...]
Improving local government funding The Productivity Commission is undertaking an enquiry into ways to improve local government funding. As part of a submission for Foodstuffs NZ, TDB analysed the use of development contributions (DCs) by local councils. Development contributions are a fee charged by councils on new [...]
Becoming smoke-free It is looking unlikely that New Zealand will be smoke-free by 2025. Although smoking rates have declined since 2011, they still remain high, particularly among Maori and Pacific. At the current rates, we predict smoking will persist well into the second half of the century. [...]
Risk-based regulation in aviation Risk-based regulation is not only a catchy term, it is an important principle – especially in the transport sector. Some risks can be difficult to assess (such as those related to highly unlikely occurrences), however failing to undertake risk analysis can result in [...]
Gas Governance Review The gas sector is currently co-regulated by the Government and industry-owned Gas Industry Company (GIC). This co-regulation has been the case since 2004, though major gas outages last year have raised the question, do we need to rethink this governance model? In our recent [...]
State-owned enterprises in Georgia The New Zealand government currently owns thirteen state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The Georgian government on the other hand owns approximately 160 SOEs with a further 70-plus owned by local government. Over the last year, TDB director Phil Barry has had the opportunity to work [...]
Productivity in the electricity lines sector One of the biggest challenges the New Zealand economy faces is how to boost its productivity. By increasing the output that is produced with a given amount of resources, increased productivity means we can all be better off. We were surprised, [...]
The Wellbeing Framework The Government’s wellbeing approach to its budget and policy-making has been held up as a world-leading new approach. But how new is it really, and most importantly, will it actually make us better off? In a recent article in the NBR, TDB Director Phil [...]
Are there too many electricity distributors? A long-standing debate in the New Zealand electricity sector is whether the country has too many electricity distribution businesses (EDBs). In our recent report looking at the potential benefits from amalgamation of the current 29 EDBs, we found that amalgamation is [...]
Commerce Commission price reviews The Commerce Commission has recently accepted applications from Wellington Electricity and Powerco to go on customised price-quality paths (CPPs), allowing new revenue limits to be set for these electricity distribution businesses. After processing the two applications, the Commission published an open letter seeking [...]