Latest Posts

Talk and article on capital gains tax

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on September 18, 2017

This Wednesday Lisa Marriott from Victoria University and I are talking about capital gains taxes. We’ve got an article up at Newsroom here. Details about the talk here.

A big idea 5: ‘Electoral funding vouchers’

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on August 24, 2017

Max Rashbrooke is a senior associate at Victoria University of Wellington’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, and has recently published the report Bridges Both Ways: Transforming the openness of New Zealand government. This article sets out the last of the five ‘big ideas’ drawn from the report, and was originally published on Newsroom. One of…

Will Budget 2017 really lift 50,000 children out of poverty?

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on August 18, 2017

One item in May’s Budget that slipped through without much discussion was the claim that the changes to income tax and Working for Families payments would lift 50,000 children out of poverty. At the time I was sceptical, and information released by the Treasury last month – some to the whole public and some to…

New Spinoff piece on the need for civility in political debate

Opinion by Max Rashbrooke on August 12, 2017

I have an interview up on the Spinoff today with Jeremy Waldron, one of the world’s most respected political and legal philosophers, on what he sees as the urgent need for more civility in public discussions. The full piece is here. This is perhaps the key passage: Civility, Waldron says, is about abiding by the…