The New Zealand Policy Agendas Project

Abstract

Rhonda L. Evans launched the New Zealand Policy Agendas Project (NZPAP) in 2013 with support from the Edward A. Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies that she directs at the University of Texas at Austin. The NZPAP now has a complete dataset of decisions for the New Zealand Supreme Court (2004–15) and Questions for Oral Answer for the 49th Parliament (2008–11). The project has produced one publication (Evans and Fern, 2015) and a series of conference papers. This chapter outlines some features of New Zealand’s political system; what was coded as part of NZPAP; and an example of how the data have been used.