Articles

On Housing as an Election Issue According to a recent international study New Zealand is one of the least affordable places on Earth to own […]

Click for big version. One of the pitfalls of instant opinionating is the assumption that politicians know what they’re doing and that the job at […]

If Treasury ideologues had been around back in the day, we would still be waiting for the private sector to build a road and rail […]

Having spent $510,000 of taxpayer money on her investigation into the extent and source of leaks about the controversial Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade […]

Even before this week’s leaks via Wikileaks about the current state of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, there were signs the deal was in […]

Yesterday, the government unveiled the latest round of oil permits. Five of them are located onshore in Taranaki and the East Coast, but five are […]

It is hard to feel sorry for John Banks. Sorry, I’ll start that again. It would be easy to feel sorry for John Banks in […]

Perhaps a bit more scepticism about the PISA results could be healthy. Surely, shouldn’t we should feel misgivings about a test that claims to measure […]

Much of the criticism of the asset sales programme has focussed – quite justifiably – on how it will increase income inequality in this country, […]

Everyone likes the new Pope, right? Seems a nice guy, a humble man of the people, has a good sense of humour etc etc. A […]

When the UN Refugee Convention was passed in 1951, climate change was unimaginable. In those days and in the shadow of WWII, the focus was […]

The charade of bogus “independence” by the Remuneration Authority has produced the latest round of backdated Christmas bonuses for MPs, Cabinet Ministers and the Prime […]

The controversial Texas oil company Anadarko are due to commence exploration drilling off the coast of Raglan this week. Now, you would think that any […]

The last time Air New Zealand got into serious trouble was through its investment in Ansett Australia during the late 1990s – an investment touted […]

Another coronial inquiry into a series of deaths from quad bikes, another call for better safety protection measures to be put in place: The coroner’s […]

It will not be until December, when the article on the Lombard case by retired judge Ted Thomas is finally published, that anyone one can […]

Is there any New Zealander who doesn’t like Kiwibank? From the outset, Kiwibank has introduced fresh competition into banking in this country, and – although […]

It seems to be a basic law of political thermodynamics that centre left parties can only ‘lurch’ or ‘swing’ when they begin to sound more […]

Not many winners in the NSA spy scandal, are there? Oh sure, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been reaping some political applause at home for […]

A curiously meandering interview on RNZ’s Business programme by Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler, this morning. During it, Wheeler shed crocodile tears on behalf of […]

So only 62,000 investors have lined up to buy Meridian, even at the rock bottom price of $1.50 a share. That’s even after the process […]

According to Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce, Team New Zealand “is not a job for life” but it certainly seems the next best thing to […]

A lot of the time, policing is a difficult and unpleasant job and when its done well, the Police get little credit for doing it. […]

The defence that John Banks has been offering to the charges of electoral fraud – that he didn’t read the document he signed, and therefore […]

Leaving aside the tawdry details of Auckland mayor Len Brown’s extramarital affair, the oddest feature is the timing of the revelations. By Brown’s own account […]

It seems incredible that a tiny faction of the Republican opposition in the US Senate can hold to ransom the entire country – and the […]

The style of David Cunliffe’s speech to the Council of Trade Unions conference yesterday was almost as important as the content. Plainly, Labour now has […]