OPINION

Last week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern decided the conduct of her Workplace Relations and Safety Minister showed a “lack of judgment.” Whether Iain Lees-Galloway’s indiscretions justified him being thrown out of cabinet is open to question. But the weaknesses of his labour market reform agenda are not so debatable. Read more

Free parking isn’t free. Whether it’s an unmetered on-street parking space, or a parking space that comes bundled with an apartment or house, or the off-street parking space in front of a shop that you’ve not had to pay to use, they all have a price. Read more

Last week the EU’s leaders not only signed the organisation’s budget of just over a trillion euros for the next seven years. They also established a €750 billion post-pandemic recovery fund. Read more

The Pharmaceutical Management Agency, Pharmac, attracts plenty of praise and criticism. It has achieved notably low prices for many pharmaceutical medicines but is widely criticised for not subsidising a wider range of medicines and being slow to subsidise new medicines. Read more

The white doors opened gently and in strode the great Irish statesman Edmund Burke. He was five minutes late for the interview, but given that he’d just been reincarnated, I let him off. Read more

An old Australian tourism ad highlighted empty gorgeous beaches, wide-open spaces and asked viewers, “So where the bloody hell are you?” The ad was top-of-mind as our family toured the South Island over school holidays. Up to a million Kiwis live overseas. Read more

The longer the Covid-19 pandemic rages abroad, the more important it will be to keep New Zealand’s borders safe. Border safety cannot mean closing them since up to a million Kiwis live overseas and have a right to return. Read more

Covid-19 is not just a medical and economic crisis. It is a historical watershed moment with massive effects for entire generations. Read more

It is a pity Kiwis cannot build a mirror image “New Zealand v2” somewhere in the Pacific to test controversial policies like cannabis legalisation. Actually, that’s why the US is such a great political system. Read more

Perhaps the election of Judith Collins to the National leadership does not change her party’s immediate electoral prospects. National is still fighting an uphill battle to unseat an extremely popular Prime Minister. Read more

This year has created a “new normal,” at least outside of Fortress New Zealand. Handshakes are likely a thing of the past; hugging is no longer kosher; masks are now mandatory in many places; and concerts, conferences or café catch-ups could become a distant memory. Read more

A good project manager knows that unnecessary bells and whistles endanger a project's aims. Gold-plating a specification wastes resources and threatens a venture’s viability. The same is also true of public policy. Read more

The Green Party’s “Poverty Action Plan” is all about tackling poverty, although the outcomes may differ from what the party expects. While it is meant to help struggling Kiwis, the plan will instead provoke emigration, disincentivise work and saving and stifle investment in education and skills, capital, enterprise and innovation. Read more

It could have all been so nice. At their meeting last Thursday, Eurogroup finance ministers should have elected Spain’s economy minister Nadia Calviño the group’s new head. Read more

If the Covid-19 pandemic had happened in a non-election year, would this or any Government’s response have been different? At the best of times, election campaigning can be a distraction for politicians. Read more