PremiumOpinionOpinion byEric Crampton NZ Herald·5 Aug, 2026 10:00 PM5 mins to readDr Eric Crampton is chief economist with the New Zealand Initiative Andy Burnham at Labour's Special Conference, where he was confirmed as the Labour Party's new leader and the country's next Prime Minister. Photo / AFPElection 2023 brought us a new Government committed to localist approaches. National had campaigned on greater localism as an alternative to the prior Labour Government’s more centralising tendencies across water services, polytechnics, housing and farming regulation.
In his Waitangi speech in 2024, the Prime Minister said that, “We, like you,
