Avatar photo

Coronavirus: We’re paying for an epidemic of stupidity.

New Zealand is lauded as the perfect example of how to crush the virus, but would anyone be surprised if it too has to pay the price somewhere down the line? Four new cases locked down the 1.6 million inhabitants of Auckland in a monstrously excessive overreaction...


Avatar photo

Tipping Points

What James Shaw didn’t spell out is that the Green School, which has just received $11.7m in taxpayer funding, is an elite private school that charges annual tuition fees of $24,000 for New Zealand students and $43,000 for international students.


Avatar photo

Taxing Methane

What is new is that the Coalition Government has decided to tax the Methane on its way around this natural, been-there-forever, cycle. It sounds more like a blatant tax grab than an honest attempt to deal with climate change. 


Avatar photo

Political Agenda Endangers Lives

The ‘by Maori, for Maori, with Maori’ separatist “solution” that’s being proposed is sinister. It not only fails to address the real cause of the child abuse crisis, but it also fails to even acknowledge it. The real problem is not the government agency - nor institutional racism or colonisation - but family members threatening the safety of their children.


Avatar photo

An Endless Cycle Of Despair

At its core, the Indigenous child welfare system is broken because so many Indigenous families are broken. Until this is recognized and confronted, it will be impossible to make progress. Blaming colonialism or other past injustices is a triumph of the victim narrative that will put more Indigenous children at risk.


Avatar photo

Important Developments

It appears that the Prime Minister was planning to push ahead with a September election, until Winston Peters threatened to bring down the Government unless the election was delayed. It was this threat that forced the Prime Minister to put fairness above political self-interest.


Avatar photo

Incompetence is one thing, misinformation another

A watershed moment point came for me when I heard political commentator Richard Harman state the unthinkable on Jim Mora’s The Weekend Panel when he called on Bloomfield to resign for misleading his minister.


Avatar photo

Covid Disruptions

Given the lackadaisical approach by the Government to border management that has been reported by workers, it certainly looks as if their failure to keep our borders secure may have led to this community outbreak that has closed down Auckland and put the rest of the country at risk.


Avatar photo

Changing the election date

The return of COVID-19 community transmission, with Auckland back in a level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand at level 2, raises real questions about New Zealand’s upcoming general election.


Avatar photo

The Key Election Issue

As we look to the election, a major question on the mind of most voters is which government will best manage New Zealand out of the current crisis – one led by Labour or National.