Exciting learning opportunities, open to everyone

Open Day 2026 - Safeguarding Democracy

FREE EVENT - registration essential by 23rd Feb

Speaker: Jonathan Boston

Date: Saturday 28th February 9.30am-1pm

Venue: Waikanae Baptist Church Hall 286 Te Moana Road, Waikanae

Dr Jonathan Boston ONZM is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and has been the Director of the Institute of Policy Studies and the Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies. His research interests include governance, public management, child poverty, the welfare state and climate change policy. He has served on many government advisory bodies and NGO boards.

Jonathan Boston, ONZM, is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy in the School of Government at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include climate change policy (both mitigation and adaptation), child poverty, governance (especially anticipatory governance), public management, tertiary education funding (especially research funding) and welfare state design.

He has served at various times as the Director of the Institute of Policy Studies and the Director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. In the early 2000’s he served as a member of the Tertiary Education Advisory Committee and helped design and implement the Performance-Based Research Fund in New Zealand’s tertiary education sector. During 2012-13 he co-chaired the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty for the Children’s Commissioner. In 2021 he was seconded to the Ministry for the Environment to contribute to policy advice on various aspects of environmental policy, including resource management issues. He served during 2022-23 as a member of the Expert Working Group on Managed Retreat for the Ministry for the Environment and also assisted the Environmental Defence Society with their project on climate change adaptation. Over the years he has served on the boards of various non-governmental organizations, such as Oxfam Aotearoa (2013-22).

Recent books and major reports include: Child Poverty in New Zealand (with Simon Chapple) (2014); Governing for the Future: Designing Democratic Institutions for a Better Tomorrow (2017); Safeguarding the Future: Governing in an Uncertain World (2017); Foresight, Insight, and Oversight: Enhancing Long-Term Governance through Better Parliamentary Scrutiny (with David Bagnall and Anna Barry) (2019); Transforming the Welfare State: Towards a New Social Contract (2019); Funding Managed Retreat: Designing a Public Compensation Scheme for Private Property Losses: Policy Issues and Options (2023); and A Radically Different Planet: Preparing for Climate Change (2024). He is the

Co-editor of Policy Quarterly.

Jonathan will explore the nature of current threats to democratic values, processes and institutions, ponder alternative scenarios (both globally and locally), and consider the options for defending fundamental human rights and enhancing the resilience of democratic governance. Humanity faces an unprecedented global polycrisis, with multiple existential threats. Compounding matters, growing political polarisation in many countries is undermining political stability and democratic governance. Today, there are more autocracies than democracies, and the drift towards autocratic modes of governance is gathering pace in many long-standing democracies. The need for global collaboration to tackle shared policy issues is urgent. At the same time, the rules-based international system is being weakened, and key multilateral institutions are facing threats to both their legitimacy and effectiveness.

This talk will consist of a morning session, a break for morning tea and then time for Q&A.