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
“Random” answers for poverty prove Nobel-worthy
By Kieran Madden
Far too often, debates on topics that really matter are mired in oversimplification at best, and stagnate in sloganeering at…
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The failure of audacious goals
By Kieran Madden
“Goals are for losers.” I wouldn’t put it quite as provocatively as cartoonist Scott Adams did in his book How…
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Avoiding the election budget “black holes”
By Kieran Madden
In April this year, astrophysicists did the seemingly impossible and took a photo of a black hole. The black hole…
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Recommendations | Defining and measuring what it means to be poor in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT Defining Poverty: A definition of poverty cannot capture “everything in the world we don’t like,” as one…
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Defining and measuring what it means to be poor in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
INTRODUCTION Who is poor? How did they get there, and how has poverty damaged their lives? The first paper in…
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Drawing the Line | Measuring Poverty
By Kieran Madden
Just as there is no one accepted definition of poverty, there is also no one measure of poverty. Measures of…
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The Looking Glass | Defining Poverty
By Kieran Madden
DEFINITIONS Defining poverty is about distinguishing between those who are poor and those who aren’t, and is an exercise in…
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Digging Deeper | Understanding Poverty
By Kieran Madden
Most of us are swimming in ideological waters without even knowing it, and this immersion shapes to some extent how…
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Setting the Scene | The Problem of Poverty
By Kieran Madden
INTRODUCTION How we understand, define, and measure poverty matters. Poverty, especially in developed countries like New Zealand, is complex and…
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The Art of Disagreeing Agreeably
By Kieran Madden
Illustrations by Anieszka Banks When engaging with someone you disagree with, own the fact that it could get awkward. New Zealanders…
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Don’t turn away
By Kieran Madden
“Our noses were almost touching…we were breathing the same air.” These are the words of Marcia Khoza, whose mother was…
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The “yeah, nah” government
By Kieran Madden
That gutting feeling of unfulfilled expectations is hard to shake, and the bigger the promise, the bigger the disappointment. The…
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Raising resilient children through healthy relationships
By Kieran Madden
When we hear of the overwhelming, and often heart-breaking challenges that some families face it can be easy to feel…
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This is our home
By Kieran Madden
Vibrant flowers gild the gates of the Christchurch mosques, each bouquet laid with trembling hands, representing a beautiful solidarity amidst…
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Now is the time to take our changing future seriously
By Kieran Madden
The Government is dead-set on improving “wellbeing” as the mark of their leadership, and “long-term intergenerational wellbeing” in particular. This…
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Vocational surgery required
By Kieran Madden
Our vocational educational system is on life support— haemorrhaging badly in desperate need of surgery. Four of New Zealand’s sixteen…
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Killing the cult of consumerism
By Kieran Madden
“Our Gross National Product…measures everything, except that which makes life worthwhile.” Bobby Kennedy’s famous 1968 speech decried how measures like…
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On Common Ground
By Kieran Madden
Illustrations by Anieszka Banks “I could have hit him, I could have hurt him…but something in me said, you know…
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The Politics of Diving
By Kieran Madden
Soccer goalkeepers sure look spectacular with their acrobatic dives during penalties, but studies show that simply standing in the middle…
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Shaking off stardust politics
By Kieran Madden
Famously elusive about her political leanings, pop sensation Taylor Swift recently went beyond her usual neutral get-out-and-vote message to endorse…
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