Town planners will finally have to answer for land prices – Oliver Hartwich

Opinion byOliver HartwichNZ Herald·2 Sep, 2026 09:00 PM5 mins to readDr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative (www.nzinitiative.org.nz).New planning laws put councils on the hook for land prices and housing costs. Photo / Getty ImagesWhat is politics? According to Max Weber’s classic definition, politics is “a strong and slow boring of hard boards”.Having worked around politics for over two decades has given me a good idea of what Weber meant by that. Achieving proper policy change is a tough business indeed. It is