Dramatic scenes in Hawdon River valley, Arthur's Pass National Park, Canterbury. Any day is a good day in the valley, regardless of the weather.

📷 New report out now: 'Age-Proofing Aotearoa. Rethinking our infrastructure for an ageing population' To mark the launch, our Deputy Director and report author, Kali Mercier, joined Jack Tame on Q+A to discuss the findings and what they mean for New Zealand’s future. 📰 Read

Infrastructure New Zealand immediately backs the idea

🌍💉💔Global health is drowning in agencies—but starved of funding. At the 2025 World Health Summit in Berlin, global health leaders called for a rethink: fewer agencies, clearer mandates, and more sustainable financing. Leaders like Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Winnie Byanyima, Nina Warken,

The so-called yellow line between Israel- and Hamas-held territory is “unmarked and difficult for Gaza residents to heed,” but Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians including four children when their vehicle was said to have crossed it. trib.al/RXBTviQ

Behind NZ Pork’s campaign to keep farrowing crates – Part 2 newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/21/beh…

A reminder of the very poor quality advice and policy process that led to the adoption of the ridiculously low discount rates now being used, at Tsy’s instigation, in evaluating govt spending etc proposals. croakingcassandra.com/2025/04/29/bad…

How independent are our research and other supposedly arm's length agencies from politicisation. This analysis shows that only one of 8 agencies in the UK is truly on all 7 criteria applied. Recently NZ's research agencies came under the control of MBIE. blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocial…

"Why claims of ‘transformational’ school reading improvement are premature". Only a minority of the children were the same ones measured at two points in time, and their changes did not suggest major improvement. theconversation.com/why-claims-of-… via The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand

Great work by Greater Auckland! The Government's RONS projects will bankrupt the country if they're allowed to proceed. greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/10/21/ron… And of all of them, the proposed new Basin Reserve project has the worst Benefit-Cost Ratio #nzpol

Hard to be optimistic about NZ's long term prospects when the govt holds a press conference talking about the plan to dump 50 billion dollars into the giant money hole and the media reporting is like "Three Key Facts About Government Plan to Fill Major Hole"

Paradise Lost: New Zealand's Crisis Of State And Identity socialeurope.eu/paradise-lost-…

"NHS medical negligence costs reach £60bn as maternity payouts soar". The UK should learn from the NZ scheme that does not require proof of fault and is far cheaper and effective than anything on offer in the UK. bmj.com/content/391/bm…

"Doctors guilty of serious misconduct abroad are working in the UK—how are they slipping through the cracks?". Failure to carry out simple internet-based searches. Let's hope the NZ system is better, although many overseas-hired doctors move on. bmj.com/content/391/bm…

Jewish community leaders rise to the occasion across many countries and professions. theguardian.com/world/2025/oct…

“Comparing companion open access journals to their traditional journal counterparts”. Fewer citations. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

"Insurance coverage and employment after Medicaid expansion with work requirements: quasi-experimental difference-in-differences study". Neither employment nor insurance coverage increased. An ideologically-driven experiment at considerable social cost. bmj.com/content/390/bm…

"Europe Needs A Public Investment Revolution To Secure Its Economic Future". With debate about public debt/investment, and NZLP's first policy contributions, this from experts in the EU who argue that it can crowd in private and meet investment criteria. socialeurope.eu/europe-needs-a…

“The TrumpRx website won’t slash drug prices — but this will”. This person argues pharma industry should create fewer drugs with clearer health benefits. At present there are many expensive drugs with questionable health outcomes. This could reduce prices. nature.com/articles/d4158…

Some solid data on the difference wind power could in principle reduce overall energy costs. theguardian.com/environment/20…