SGI 2020 | New Zealand | Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Recent Governments Experts

SGI experts on New Zealand

Olli Hellmann

Senior Lecturer in Political Science/International Relations, University of Waikato

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

Director, Public Policy Institute, University of Auckland

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.

Thomas Kalinowski (Coordinator)

Associate Professor, EWHA University Seoul

Thomas Kalinowski is an associate professor of political science at the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University in Seoul (Korea). He teaches courses on international political economy, comparative political economy, and international organizations and development. After receiving his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin (2004), he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California in Berkeley and a visiting assistant professor at Brown University, Providence. Recent publications include works on the financial crisis, financial regulation and bank reform, the IMF, the global role of East Asia, the diversity of capitalism, and the transformation of the East Asian developmental state. Currently, professor Kalinowski is working on a book about the international regulation of finance. You can follow his research at www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Kalinowski.

Low death toll
from recession

New Zealand has weathered the global COVID-19 pandemic relatively well, both in terms of public health and economic performance. As of December 2021, the country had only recorded nine deaths per million population – the lowest such figure in the OECD. New Zealand’s economy also bounced back faster than expected and is projected to exit recession in 2022. The unemployment rate saw a sharp drop in 2021, from a peak of 5.3% in the September 2020 quarter to 3.4% in the September 2021 quarter.

Opportunities
missed

However, the Labour-led government under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been criticized for not using the COVID-19 crisis to tackle major structural policy issues. For one, New Zealand suffers from comparatively high child poverty rates and is ranked near the bottom of UNICEF’s child well-being ratings. While the Ardern administration boosted welfare benefits in the 2021 budget (aimed at lifting between 19,000 and 33,000 children out of poverty), critics have pointed out that these measures do not go far enough.

Housing market
driving inequality

The overheated housing market is a further factor driving social inequality. Average house prices were 33% cheaper in the month before COVID-19 hit than they were at the time of writing; the average house price was $748,111 in March 2020, but has now exceeded $1 million. Ardern continues to ignore calls for a capital gains tax, which – according to its proponents (such as the government’s own Tax Working and the Green Party) – could help to slow down runaway prices.

Insufficient focus on climate issues

In addition, critics have pointed out that the Labour government missed an opportunity to set New Zealand on course toward a low-emission economy. While the 2020 budget mainly pledged funds for weed and pest control, biodiversity enhancement and restoration projects, the 2021 budget funneled very little money toward environmental causes. Based on current policies and public spending priorities, the Climate Action Tracker, which assesses countries’ performance in terms of meeting their Paris Agreement commitments, rates New Zealand as “highly insufficient.”

Structural inequalities persist

What is more, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed structural inequalities between Māori and non-Māori parts of the population. Not only do Māori continue to be disadvantaged with respect to almost every socioeconomic indicator (e.g., education, income), but they have also been at higher risk of catching COVID-19 than other parts of New Zealand society.

Power concentrated
in executive

These various policy outcomes are influenced by New Zealand’s Westminster-style democracy, which concentrates political power in the executive and features very few veto players. While the New Zealand political system is commonly rated as one of the most democratic in the world, the country struggles with issues of media pluralism. The media market is dominated by (mostly foreign-owned) commercial conglomerates, which place greater emphasis on entertainment than on critical news-gathering.

Efficient, transparent administration

Policy implementation is the responsibility of a highly transparent and efficient bureaucratic apparatus. New Zealand continues to be ranked among the least corrupt countries in the world and performs strongly on a number of other related indicators, such as the availability of and access to government information. In 2021, the government passed a new Public Service Act, which is designed to facilitate cooperation between government departments and agencies.