Nau mai haere mai and welcome to your newsletter.

Sadly, the release last week of a UNICEF report into the well-being of children came as little surprise to anyone who has followed the main indicators over the past decades. New Zealand was ranked 35th out of the 41 rich countries surveyed, with childhood obesity, youth suicide, poor educational outcomes and income inequality all contributing to that dismal result.

Furthermore, despite being signatory to various international treaties and agreements on children’s rights, New Zealand’s domestic law doesn’t make those rights explicit. But, as professor of law Clair Breen argues, by extending the legal definition of age discrimination we might at least move towards upholding those rights in practice as well as in theory.

Fellow legal expert Alexander Gillespie tackles the pending referendum on the legalisation and control of cannabis, concluding that a simple cost-benefit analysis shows the past decades of prohibition have done more harm to society than good. While we can never avoid harm altogether, he writes, we can certainly regulate the supply and quality of cannabis to achieve better results than we have so far, and reduce the criminal black market in the process.

There’s plenty more to read here and on our homepage - including a sobering report on the impact of COVID-19 on Māori, and a fascinating analysis of why Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is such an adept communicator for the social media age.

Till next time, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa.