The New Zealand Initiative
| Formation | April 1, 2012 |
|---|---|
| Type | Think tank |
| Legal status | New Zealand limited company |
| Location | |
|
Executive Director
|
Oliver Hartwich |
|
Chairman
|
Roger Partridge |
| Website | nzinitiative.org.nz |
The New Zealand Initiative is a think tank and business membership organisation in Wellington, New Zealand. It was formed in 2012 out of the merger of the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR) and the New Zealand Institute. Its executive director is Oliver Hartwich, who joined The New Zealand Initiative from the Australian Centre for Independent Studies.
The New Zealand Initiative's predecessor organisations were both business membership organisations. The Wellington-based NZBR, founded by Roger Kerr in 1986, was among the main proponents of New Zealand's liberal economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. To this end, the organisation produced a wide range of publications (books, reports, submissions) and undertook other activities that informed and influenced public debate.
In 2004, the New Zealand Institute was established in Auckland. Just like the NZBR, the New Zealand Institute was a business membership organisation that operated as a think tank, albeit with a more centrist political direction. Some members of the NZBR moved their support to the New Zealand Institute.
By 2011, according to New Zealand Institute chairman Tony Carter, both organisations had lacked scale. Carter approached NZBR chairman Roger Partridge and the two organisations merged in April 2012, appointing Oliver Hartwich as their first executive director.
The New Zealand Initiative is based in Wellington. It is a New Zealand Limited Company, governed by a Board of Directors under a constitution.
The membership of The New Zealand Initiative comprises about 70 members, mainly large New Zealand companies. According to its Annual Report 2016, the combined revenues of its members equals a quarter of the New Zealand economy.
According to its website, The New Zealand Initiative names as its mission "to help create a competitive, open and dynamic economy and a free, prosperous, fair, and cohesive society." It describes itself as "strictly non-partisan" and pledges to make the results of its research available to the public, free of charge.
Apart from its research activities, The New Zealand Initiative hosts a range of events. These include public forums, panel discussions, an annual debating tournament for university students, as well as events for its members. Among the speakers hosted at these functions listed on its website have been New Zealand Prime Ministers John Key and Bill English, Leaders of the Labour Party David Shearer, David Cunliffe and Andrew Little, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, former British Trade Secretary Peter Lilley as well as members of all parties represented in the New Zealand Parliament.
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