Articles

Drinking water quality remains a critical metric from which we can measure wellbeing in New Zealand. Access to safe drinking water is taken as given across almost all of New Zealand – for good reason. But as our Chart of the Month shows, although drinking water across most of New Zealand meets required standards, a lack of funding and measurement against some standards increases drinking water risks more than most would expect.

Over the past six years Masterton’s wellbeing has improved its relative position in six out of nine wellbeing domains. In our chart of the month, we showcase the district’s movement up the wellbeing rankings using the Infometrics regional wellbeing framework available in the newly refreshed Regional Economic Profile.

Infometrics is proud to announce that the Regional Economic Profile (REP) has been refreshed with a new look, improved functionality, new wellbeing data, and many new charts and tables. The REP provides in-depth economic insights into every region and territorial authority in New Zealand.

In the years since the Global Financial Crisis, New Zealanders have enjoyed consistent economic growth and Māori have earned their share of this. But on many key metrics, a clear gap between the economic fortunes of Māori and non-Māori remains.

For the past few months, the Infometrics team has been fully occupied with modelling the effects of the pandemic on the national economy, and on the local economies and individual operations of our clients. In this article, Alistair Schorn takes a closer look at Infometrics Wellbeing Framework developed in 2019 to evaluate the wellbeing of New Zealand’s communities.

Plastic packaging is being talked about more than any other time since it was first invented. With single-use plastic bags now banned, and our ability to outsource soft plastic recycling overseas becoming less viable, there are some fundamental shifts occurring for New Zealand. With more efforts to switch to reusable alternatives, and a rethink about plastic recycling, we need to focus much more on how we manage our waste.

A new report from economic consultancy Infometrics highlights the stark divide in wellbeing between urban and rural New Zealand. Regional Wellbeing marks the first attempt to comprehensively report on wellbeing at a local level around New Zealand. It covers 30 indicators and draws from Infometrics’ online Regional Wellbeing Framework.

Lifting the skills and opportunities available for Māori has been one of the key priority areas of the government’s Wellbeing Budget. Plenty has been written about the socio-economic, health and other challenges facing Māori over the past couple of decades, yet many of these interrelated issues remain.

Today’s Wellbeing Budget is a significant departure from previous budgets. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has laid out an ambitious spending plan for the economy based around the government’s five wellbeing priorities. The test will be how achievable this plan is.

All eyes are on wellbeing this week, as Finance Minister Grant Robertson unveils the world’s first wellbeing budget. But the Government has been quiet as to wellbeing differs across New Zealand. At Infometrics we thought this was a massive gap that needed to be filled, so we developed a Regional Wellbeing Framework. This article outlines introduces our Regional Wellbeing Framework and provides a teaser to our forthcoming regional wellbeing report that will be released on 11 June.