Kieran Madden
About Kieran Madden
Research Manager
Kieran joined Maxim Institute as a researcher in 2012 after graduating with a Master of Public Policy from the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University.
Prior to this he worked as a researcher for an Australian Senator, following several years as a Project Manager for Hewlett Packard.
Most Recent Activity
Excessive tertiary education sends the wrong signals
By Kieran Madden
The higher education system is a colossal waste of time and money—far more about signaling to future employers than gaining…
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Submission: Child Poverty Reduction Bill
By Kieran Madden
Maxim Institute supports this Bill and proposes amendments to strengthen it. We welcome this Bill and its potential to increase…
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The end of individualism?
By Kieran Madden
In the early nineties, political theorist Francis Fukuyama famously proclaimed the “End of History” was upon us-that western liberal democracy…
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Promises and plans to change poverty in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
A few weeks ago, my colleague wrote about Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s “courageous move” to introduce the Child Poverty Reduction…
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Kieran Madden on Radio New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
Kieran Madden recently joined Radio New Zealand to discuss the issues of poverty. He argues that the Labour Government must stick…
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Thinking with others
By Kieran Madden
“I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a…
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Save Social Investment
By Kieran Madden
National’s Social Investment Approach must stay, but not as we know it. Imagine, for a moment, that policies are cars….
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Following the leader
By Kieran Madden
Can you remember that ground-shaking moment during the election campaign when you heard a policy announcement and were persuaded to…
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Taxes, trust, and transparency
By Kieran Madden
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” This, apparently, was economist John Maynard Keynes’…
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The battle lines for our votes
By Kieran Madden
It’s the economy, stupid. This phrase, coined by one of Bill Clinton’s wily campaign strategists, has done a crude but…
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Death to deciles
By Kieran Madden
The Government is about to drive school deciles out of town. Good riddance. What will replace the much-maligned decile system?…
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The future is not (only) digital
By Kieran Madden
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution” is upon us—the exponential rise in technology that is set to disrupt every aspect of our…
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The State must serve
By Kieran Madden
Is the government’s flagship Social Investment approach simply the “incremental privatisation of social services?” When journalist Richard Harman posed this…
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The trust trade-off
By Kieran Madden
The Government is going all in on its Social Investment strategy for fixing social ills, but the big data it…
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Our insecure future of work
By Kieran Madden
Many pinned Trump’s election and the Brexit vote as being fueled by people’s fear of losing their way of life….
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Welfare to work?
By Kieran Madden
Just where do people go when they move off a benefit? It’s a serious question that demands an answer. Why?…
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Lessons from America
By Kieran Madden
While most of us have experienced holding our nose as we vote, our American friends are, as usual, taking it…
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Between risk and reality
By Kieran Madden
We use statistics to inform policy development and public discourse—it is a tool to better society. But like most tools,…
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Ka pai, Oranga Tamariki
By Kieran Madden
Contrary to the sticks and stones rhyme from our childhood, we all know that names can hurt. Names are not…
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Social insecurity
By Kieran Madden
Humans deeply yearn for security. Safety, in both its physical and economic forms, is solidly perched just above physical survival…
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