SGI 2024 | New Zealand | Key Challenges

Key Challenges

Recent Governments Experts

SGI experts on New Zealand

Olli Hellmann

Olli Hellmann is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand. He specialises in the politics of Asia-Pacific, and has published extensively on issues of democratic quality and governance. Recent publications include Stateness and Democracy in East Asia (Cambridge University Press, co-edited with Aurel Croissant), “State capacity and elections in the study of authoritarian regimes” (special issue of International Political Science Review, co-edited with Aurel Croissant), and “The historical origins of corruption in the developing world: a comparative analysis of East Asia” (Crime, Law and Social Change).

Jennifer Curtin

Jennifer Curtin is a Professor of Politics and Director of the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland. Her research and publications focus on Australian and New Zealand electoral politics, trans-Tasman policy innovations, sport, and gender, politics and policy. Jennifer is the Academic Director of Auckland’s Master of Public Policy Programme and teaches comparative public policy, lesson drawing and the politics of policy. She also runs an internship course for postgraduate policy students, working with a range of government agencies, policy consultancies and non-profit organisations. She was a NZ-Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in 2012 and regularly speaks about issues connected with her research to national and international media outlets.

Patrick Köllner (Coordinator)

Patrick Köllner has been director of the Institute of Asian Studies, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA) since 2011. He is also a professor of political science at the University of Hamburg. His research focuses on political regimes and organizations in East Asia and in comparative perspective. Between 2007 and 2013 he co-edited the yearbook Korea: Politics, Economy and Society. Köllner holds a doctorate in political science from the Humboldt University of Berlin and a venia legendi in political science from the University of Trier.

New Zealand faces numerous policy challenges, many of which can be traced back to the neoliberal free-market thinking that has dominated policymaking since the 1980s. Under the Labour governments led by Jacinda Ardern (2017 – 2023) and Chris Hipkins (January – October 2023), efforts were made to ameliorate the worst excesses of market capitalism, arguably addressing some of these challenges. However, the change in government to the National Party risks undoing the progress made in recent years.

To begin with, Labour had some success in tackling the issue of child poverty, most importantly by significantly boosting working-age benefits and by passing the Child Poverty Reduction Act, which requires current and future governments to set three- and 10-year targets for reducing child poverty. While child poverty rates are still relatively high compared to other OECD countries, particularly among Māori and Pasifika children, a recent UNICEF report attests to New Zealand’s “good progress.”

The Labour government achieved positive results in addressing the inequitable challenges that Māori face in the public healthcare sector. For example, it expanded telehealth services, prioritized Māori in the funding of diabetes drugs, and increased the number of Māori doctors. Labour also established the Māori Health Authority and legislated a world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations (19.9% of Māori smoke cigarettes daily compared to 7.2% of non-Māori).

These improvements are threatened by the right-of-center National-led coalition. Prime Minister Christoph Luxon has said that he aims to combat child poverty primarily through tax cuts. However, tax cuts do not channel benefits to the families who need them the most. Additionally, Luxon has announced plans to abolish the Māori Health Authority and lift the “future generations” smoking ban.

More fundamentally, Labour’s successes in social welfare and public health suggest that government intervention can help correct market failures. Hence, to address its many policy challenges, New Zealand may need to shift away from the neoliberal principles that have underpinned policymaking for more than three decades – under both National and Labour governments – and embrace a renewed focus on the state’s role in governance.

Government intervention could help address the problem of housing affordability, which has made it difficult for young people and low-income families to enter the property market, especially in cities like Auckland and Wellington. For years, various political groups and experts have called for a broad-based tax on capital gains from rental and second homes, arguing that this will help cool the overheated housing market.

New Zealand’s environmental policy regime would benefit from more regulation. Perhaps most crucially, the Zero Carbon Act 2019 – a legally binding commitment to reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 – needs to be revised to set more ambitious reduction targets for the agricultural sector. Other interventionist climate change policies and publicly funded projects implemented or debated under the Labour government also hold great promise in the fight against climate change, including the Clean Car Discount, the legal ban on oil and gas exploration, and the Auckland light rail project.