“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods,” H.L. Mencken wrote in 1936. Read more
This week, the results of the ninth round of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) were released. PISA enables countries to track their educational performance over time. Read more
The four months before an election aren’t great for those who care about good policy. Politicians’ competence at other times is questionable. Read more
Two speeches from the Crown’s most senior lawyers over the past month have answered a question that should never have been in doubt: Who makes the law? Attorney-General Chris Bishop spoke to the Law Association on 6 August. Read more
It does not happen often that I set my alarm to just before 4am to watch the results come in from a provincial election in Germany. But that is what I did yesterday for Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany’s east. Read more
In April 1901, a Bavarian immigrant baker named Joseph Lochner was arrested in Utica, New York. Unlike the larger bakeries, which worked two shifts, Lochner employed a single crew: his bakers arrived in the evening, prepared the dough, slept a few hours on the premises and baked before dawn. Read more
Voting opens today in the most important election of 2026. And no, this is not the General Election. Read more
Imagine two paddocks at the edge of a city. They have the same soil and access to the same roads and pipes. Read more
For young people, contemplating career options can be bewildering. It can be hard even to know what opportunities are available. Read more
What 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. Read more
New Zealand is barely a military power. It has had no combat aircraft for 25 years, and its ageing frigates need replacing. Read more
For practical purposes, not emitting a tonne of carbon dioxide is equivalent to pulling a tonne of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and securely sequestering it, so long as the accounting is sound. The Zero Carbon Act consequently requires net zero for greenhouse gases other than biogenic methane. Read more
Most news clips from Parliament are from Question Time. It is at least as much performance theatre as a mechanism for holding government to account. Read more
In November 2018, officials at Immigration New Zealand began work on replacing the ageing biometric systems that verify identities and manage immigration risk. Seven years later it was dead, having delivered no measurable benefit. Read more
No competent physician would prescribe a remedy for a symptom before determining its cause. Local Government Minister Simon Watts wants to cap council rates increases at 2 to 4 percent. Read more
