The New Zealand Initiative

In this episode, Oliver talks with senior fellow John Howard about mounting geopolitical instability, from Iran and the Strait of Hormuz to Trump's visit to Beijing and the growing pressure on Taiwan. They discuss what these crises mean for New Zealand's energy security, political leadership, European security, business risk, and the need for more serious strategic thinking.

In this episode, Oliver talks with Roger Partridge about the Government’s decision to legislate to stop the Smith v Fonterra climate change case. They discuss why Parliament was right to step in after the Supreme Court reinstated a claim the Court of Appeal had unanimously struck out, the causation problems at the heart of the case, and why media claims of an attack on judicial independence get New Zealand’s constitutional order backwards.

In this episode, Michael talks to Oliver Hartwich about his new satirical novella The Martian Audit, in which two alien auditors arrive in New Zealand to assess it for invasion, only to find themselves defeated not by weapons but by the country's regulation and bureaucracy. There are no villains, just a country full of friendly people trapped in systems that don't work, from leaky homes and hospital waiting rooms to view shafts you can't legally stop to admire.

In this episode, Michael and James talk with Sarah McLaughlin from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. They discuss attacks on free speech internationally,  with governments from Washington to Beijing using deportation powers, financial leverage, and anti-terror laws to silence critics. They analyse the censorship impulse across the political spectrum, the threat of social media age bans to internet anonymity, and the failure of even strong legal protections to protect free speech fail when citizens fail to defend their own rights.

The guns have paused in the US-Iran conflict but Oliver Hartwich and John Howard argue New Zealand should take little comfort from that.

All parties are struggling to find an off-ramp, damage to Qatar's refineries alone means a two-to-three-year rebuild, and New Zealand still lacks the energy strategy promised in 2024. Singapore, a city-state the size of Lake Taupō, has built the fuel resilience we have not.