Maxim Institute's regular e-newsletter, Real Issues, highlights the issues behind the headlines and keeps you up-to-date with important developments in policy and culture in New Zealand and around the world.
"And as the West contemplates ever tighter regulations on how and where money can be spent, lent and invested,
their leaders should remember that economic and political liberty—while not the whole story—play a key
role in prosperity. They are the engine driving much of what makes life worthwhile."
Ryan Streeter and Arthur C. Brooks
A registered charitable trust, funded by donations, Maxim Institute values your interest and support.
New Zealand is a richly textured country. It has a great and colourful history and a thriving culture. Its people have inherited a vast and dynamic landscape. They know how to live and play well. Yet, New Zealand faces serious challenges. How we respond today shapes the future our children inherit tomorrow.
Maxim Institute is an independent research and public policy think tank. We are committed to the people, land, history and culture of New Zealand. Our mission is to foster ideas and leadership that enable freedom, justice and compassion to flourish in New Zealand. We are not affiliated with any lobby group, religious organisation or political party and are also independently funded. We have received donations from over 1,700 individuals and trusts since our inception.
New Zealand needs to invest properly in family interventions that can address the serious problems of child abuse, neglect and antisocial behaviour.
Annual John Graham Lecture 2009
Cardinal George Pell will deliver the 2009 Annual John Graham Lecture, titled "Free for All: Negotiating freedom in a world of individuals."
Broken Boughs
Too many children in New Zealand suffer in dysfunctional homes, where sub-standard parenting can cause problems
like abuse or neglect, and severe anti-social behaviour. Some of those children are the recipients of government-
funded programmes that attempt to help them, but some of those programmes have never been proven to be effective.
While stories continually hit the news about horrible cases of child abuse or neglect, effective programmes are
available that can actually help to tackle these problems—they just may not be the programmes getting the
funding.
This finding has emerged from research Maxim Institute conducted looking at two types of family
interventionshome visitation programmes and parent management training programmes. These findings are
compiled in our report, Broken Boughs: The role of effective family interventions. The research indicates
there is genuine hope for children in dysfunctional homes. There are interventions that work with families while
children are still young, which can make a very real difference for those children suffering from abuse or neglect
or who display severe anti-social behaviour (also known as conduct disorders). However, not all programmes that try
to help actually achieve what they intend to. According to one of the report's authors, Alex Penk, "To achieve real
change, we need to invest properly in interventions that are proven to actually deal with the problems. This means
allocating funding to what works, as shown by rigorous evaluations."
Coinciding with the release of this report, Maxim Institute hosted a lecture by Professor David Fergusson who spoke
about interventions to treat conduct disorders. Professor Fergusson examined the portfolio of relevant
interventions and argued that programmes need to be tested properly, using randomised controlled trials, which
compare programme recipients with a control group who do not participate in the programme. He argued that without
doing such rigorous tests, we run the risk of funding programmes that are ineffective, or even damaging to
participants.
Our research showed that the New Zealand Government is funding some programmes that have been shown to be
effective, but the vast majority of funding goes to Family Start, a programme that is not proven. We were therefore
pleased that the Minister for Social Development has announced that a review of Family Start will take place before
the end of the year.
However, while this decision is a crucial first step, it is vital that it leads to some change in the way we
develop, fund and evaluate programmes. Otherwise we run the risk of once again failing those we are meant to
help.
Annual John Graham Lecture 2009
What does it mean for a person to be free?
Freedom exists in the context of constraints. It is expressed in the lives of people, relationships and systems,
and it competes with other values and virtues that are equally upheld. Freedom may have intrinsic value, but it is
bound to the culture, the people and the ethics that it exists alongside.
This year's Annual John Graham Lecture will be delivered by Cardinal George Pell on Friday November 6 at the
Wintergarden in Auckland. Cardinal Pell will explore what is meant by freedom in modern Western democracies.
Looking at issues such as the financial crisis, he will ask: what should we use our freedom for, and when should we
lose it? The lecture will be titled "Free For All: Negotiating freedom in a world of individuals."
Cardinal Pell was born in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1941 and was ordained a Catholic priest in St Peter's Basilica, in
1966. After serving as Archbishop of Melbourne and Archbishop of Sydney respectively, he was elevated to the Sacred
College of Cardinals in 2003. Cardinal Pell holds a Licentiate in Theology from Urban University, Rome, a Masters
in Education from Monash University, Melbourne, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Church History from the University
of Oxford. He was made a Companion in the Order of Australia in 2005.
Since 2001, Cardinal Pell has been a weekly columnist for Sydney's Sunday Telegraph. His publications
include Catholicism and the Architecture of Freedom (1999), Be Not Afraid (2004), and God and
Caesar: Selected Essays on Religion, Politics and Society (2007).
Dinner and lecture held at The Wintergarden, The Northern Club, 19 Princes Street, Auckland
Friday 6 November commencing at 6.00 pm
Ticket price is $150 inc. GST (single) or $1,450 inc. GST (table of 10)
Some spaces are still available. If you are interested in attending, please contact Summer Haycock on (09) 627 3261
or email rsvp@maxim.org.nz
Measuring well-being?
Earlier this year, France's President, Nicholas Sarkozy announced a new way of assessing his country's growth,
broadening out the measures for well-being to include more than merely economic indicators. The idea was that
finances alone don't indicate well-being—humans are not simply consumers, so more holistic measures of well-
being are needed.
There are now a plethora of indicators that attempt to measure well-being, from economic freedom scales, to
measures of health and education. Insightful commentary has been published in the Wall Street Journal this
week that helps make sense of these different scales. The authors suggest that the different measures do not
conflict with each other, but rather that they often overlap. Well-being indicators like good health and education
often correlate with economic and political freedom. The article states, "While free enterprise is not the only
important factor explaining national differences in well-being, it probably does explain most of it."
The authors indicate that freedom is one of the most significant factors in measuring a country's well-being.
Tax rate harmony
The Tax Working Group, established by the Government to investigate ways to improve New Zealand's tax system, has
hosted its last discussion session on the issue of corporate taxation. At the moment 15 percent of New Zealand's
tax revenue is raised from taxes on businesses at a rate of 30 percent—above the OECD average. A challenge
before the Group, and the Government, is whether we should continue to raise corporate tax at this rate, since it
makes New Zealand a less attractive business base. The Group dismissed the idea of merely tinkering, determining
that a "few changes would not significantly improve the current system." It supported the idea of harmonising tax
rates on capital, savings and labour at 30 percent in order to tax these bases more fairly, and improve investment
incentives. It seems likely that the Government will give this idea serious consideration since Revenue Minister
Peter Dunne also supports alignment of the personal, corporate and trustee tax rates.
