The McGuinness Institute
The McGuinness Institute is a Wellington based non-partisan think tank working towards a sustainable future, contributing strategic foresight though evidence-based research and policy analysis.
What’s your burning question?
Last night the Institute had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by Megan Salole and her team at ActionStation to launch their new website www.wethepeople.kiwi.nz. “There is a constitutional review taking place in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the past, it has been impossible for all the people of a nation to join the conversation, and have their say....
LongTermNZ Treasury presentation now online
Last month the participants from LongTermNZ reconvened in Wellington to put together a short presentation for the staff at the Treasury. The video of that presentation is now on our YouTube channel. The participants did a fantastic job and we’re glad we can now share it with you all.
The World Peace Game
We’ve been thinking a lot about civics education at the Institute this week and it reminded us of this fantastic TED talk. Be inspired as US primary school teacher John Hunter explains how his ‘World Peace Game’ empowered fourth graders so solve all the world’s problems. We are particularly keen for those of you who...
The World Summit Awards
The World Summit Awards are coming up again and New Zealand submissions are currently open. The competition rewards excellence in multi-media and e-Content creation with a focus on entries for the development of New Zealand society. Entries for NZ close on the 15th of May and 8 applicants will be selected to advance to the...
EmpowerNZ featured in the NZ Journal of Public and International Law
The latest volume of the New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law (2012 10 NZJPIL) has a distinctly EmpowerNZ theme, with a copy of the workshop’s draft Constitution featured at the end of the journal. Accompanying the draft Constitution is a description by Dean Knight and Julia Whaipooti of the process undertaken last August...
The McGuinness Institute Discusses Civics Teaching with the Centre for Citizenship Education
Within the many conversations members of the Institute overhear around political, policy and constitutional issues, one commonly voiced sentiment is the frustration of New Zealanders over the lack of learning that takes place in our curriculum around civics and the running of government. On Friday morning McGuinness Institute staff and Wendy McGuinness met with someone...
“Twenty-five percent? That’s a bit mental.”
Thirteen of the LongTermNZ participants reconvened today to make a follow up presentation to the Treasury on the youth perspective of NZ’s long term fiscal policy. Over muesli and coffee, we kicked off by brainstorming key elements that had stuck with us in the months since participating in the workshop. Three main areas emerged: our...
Sir Paul Callaghan Science Meets Humanities Scholarship recipients
Sir Paul Callaghan’s vision of New Zealand as ‘a place where talent wants to live’ will be developed by two young scholars. To mark the anniversary of Sir Paul’s death on 24 March 2012, the we have announced today that Charlotte Greenfield and Darren Zhang are the joint winners of the Sir Paul Callaghan Science...
Paul Callaghan: Luminous Moments
Today Bridget Williams Books (BWB) launched the new BWB Text series of short digital books bringing together the best of the past, present and future of thought in New Zealand. The first of the series to be released is Paul Callaghan: Luminous Moments: Selected writing and speeches by Paul Callaghan. This book is filled with...
Forum for the Future: Living in two worlds
Tomorrow night a discussion entitled “Living in Two Worlds: Multiculturalism with bi-cultural foundations (the New Zealand-Canadian dialogue)” will take place at Te Papa. The event has been organised by the Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research’s as part of the Forum for the Future series. It will run between 6.30pm and 7.30pm in the Soundings Theatre,...
New Zealand King Salmon: Was it a good decision for New Zealand?
On 22 February 2013, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) published the Board of Inquiry’s final report and decision on New Zealand King Salmon’s (NZKS) application to establish nine new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds. The Board approved four of the nine farms, with conditions. This means up to 19,000 tonnes per annum of additional...
Book Review: Quiet
Closeted introverts rejoice! Susan Cain’s Quiet draws some needed attention to the extroversion ideal we find in today’s society. When over a third of people are introverts, including notables such as Steve Jobs and Rosa Parks, why are we writing off an entire personality type? It seems that we’re happy to celebrate the extremely talented tech-wizards, who...
