Ahead of New Zealand’s 2017 election, I floated the idea of a grand coalition between National and Labour in a few columns. The circumstances back then made it appealing. Read more
Local government is hard to defend. Rates are rising at more than three times inflation. Read more
Mike Smith, the climate activist suing six of New Zealand’s largest companies over greenhouse gas emissions, is unhappy. On Tuesday, the Government announced it will amend the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to stop cases like his and others like it. Read more
Centralisation has been New Zealand's answer to local government's problems for decades. It has not worked. Read more
The name ‘Einstein’ is synonymous with intelligence. More than 70 years after the physicist’s death, if someone is called an Einstein, everyone knows they are incredibly smart. Read more
This week, the Government moved to reassert Parliament’s authority over the courts. Two years ago, in Smith v Fonterra, the Supreme Court revived a climate change claim the Court of Appeal had unanimously struck out. Read more
There’s always been a tension in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. The Act’s object has two parts. Read more
A bar in a rough neighbourhood has a few viable options. It can have a strict doorman checking every patron to make sure they suit the vibe the bar is trying to create. Read more
Treasury projects public health spending will rise from 7.1 to 10 per cent of GDP by 2065. Over the same period, the ratio of working-age taxpayers to superannuitants will halve. Read more
In 2013, Scottish teacher Tom Bennett realised that his training had not well prepared him for the classroom. He had not even been taught basic classroom management skills. Read more
A German economist writing satire about New Zealand sounds like the opening line of a bad joke. The joke gets longer when you learn the plot: two Martian auditors land in the Wairarapa expecting humanity at its best, are promptly fined for parking without consent, and proceed on a reluctant tiki tour of the country in the company of a Wellington bureaucrat named Ben, who has quietly decided his career is over and he may as well help them. Read more
Any minister of finance would find this month’s Budget a challenge. The problem is chronic deficit spending. Read more
Something happened in law schools in the closing decades of the twentieth century. It did not make the headlines. Read more
Russian power has always sat on a contradiction. The country can put satellites into orbit and tanks across borders, but it cannot build a normal economy. Read more
Is it better to be a policy analyst or a plumber? In the minds of many New Zealanders, university degrees carry greater status than industry qualifications. Read more