Think Big 2.0: The Provincial Growth Fund risks turning into a fiasco

By Alex Penk

This article was written by Alex Penk and Julian Wood, and first published on The Spinoff on 26 February, on…

Making the Provincial Growth Fund a risk worth taking

By Julian Wood

The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) represents a once in a generation opportunity to support a sustainable future for New Zealand’s…

Regional Development Policy Paper – A Risk Worth Taking

By Julian Wood

One year into the $3B Provincial Growth Fund, Maxim Institute’s new research A Risk Worth Taking – Ensuring the Provincial…

When AI goes wrong

By Alex Penk

  You may have heard that the robots are coming to take our jobs, thanks to artificial intelligence. But a…

Time to take a risk for the regions – Newsroom column

By Alex Penk

To lay out an explanation for the recommendations in our Taking the Right Risks policy paper on regional development, Alex Penk…

Planning to take the right risks for our regions

By Julian Wood

New Zealand’s Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has a problem. He has three billion dollars and three years to change…

$1B regional development fund needs coherent vision

By Alex Penk

Maxim Institute welcomes investment in New Zealand’s regions, but CEO Alex Penk cautions that we urgently need more detail on…

Paying at the pump to revive our crumbling infrastructure

By Julian Wood

We hear a lot about Auckland’s infrastructure woes, but across the country there are regions desperately trying to fund their…

Urban/rural split could lead to political polarisation

By Alex Penk

Alex’s latest op-ed features in The Christchurch Press, where he discusses the political and social risks of growing demographic rifts between…

Newspaper coverage of regional development paper

Newspapers around New Zealand published articles in response to our Growing Beyond Growth report on regional development Read articles from: …

NZ Herald Focus interview on regional development paper

Bernadine Oliver-Kerby interviewed Alex Penk about our regional development paper for NZ Herald’s online video series. Watch the interview here

Alex Penk on RNZ National – Regional Development

The day we released our paper Growing Beyond Growth – rethinking the goals of regional development in New Zealand, CEO Alex…

Get real about regional spending

By Julian Wood

If you put people in a room and ask them how to bring growth to New Zealand’s regions, someone will…

Growing Beyond Growth: Rethinking the goals of regional development in New Zealand

By Julian Wood

New Zealand is already feeling the effects of an oncoming wave of economic and demographic change which should dramatically influence…

Inspiring Sustainable Development Goals

By Jane Silloway Smith

Since the UN announced their new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—17 broad goals with 169 specific sub-targets for the world to…

Turning off the taps

Billionaire  Lord Michael Ashcroft made quite the splash recently when he requested that the UK government “‘turn off the golden…

Paying for Samoan Education

It was announced with much fanfare last week that the New Zealand Government will be dedicating $5 million of its…

Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme

Yet another round of positive evaluations of the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme (RSE) has just been released by the Department…

Greening New Zealand’s growth

One of the many working groups that have been beavering away under the National-led Government has been a Green Growth…

Being Better Neighbours

By Jane Silloway Smith

As a member of the international community, New Zealand has a role to play in overseas development. A new policy…