Articles

One can only imagine the outcry if a centre left government could manage to meet its goals as economic managers – in this case, to […]

In essence, everyone in New Zealand falls into one of three camps on David Bain, and whether or not he should be paid compensation: (a) […]

Presumably, we are only days away (at most) from learning the contents of the report on the David Bain compensation case prepared by the distinguished […]

New Zealand has been hosting the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Auckland for the past week, but you’d have to say things haven’t worked […]

Remember how the Key government has justified being so very, very secretive about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) because goodness me, you don’t negotiate these […]

The best way of appreciating Fran O’Sullivan’s attack on Auckland University law professor Jane Kelsey in the NZ Herald yesterday is to read it aloud […]

By now, we’ve come to recognize Prime Minister John Key’s typical response to bad news, which is to (a) claim the real figures aren’t in […]

According to one of RNZ’s Morning Report hosts this morning, David Shearer “needs to stamp his authority” on the Labour caucus over the David Cunliffe […]

The conference speech that David Shearer will deliver this weekend is shaping up as one of those Masterchef/New Zealand’s Got Talent events where the nation […]

A week is a long time but, thankfully for governments, the flow of news tends to get broken down into discrete items which can then […]

Was it only four years ago that Barack Obama was first elected? The visibly tired, visibly older man on stage in Chicago yesterday seemed to […]

Gordon Campbell and Alastair Thompson November 7, 2012 Hi there and welcome to Scoop’s election day coverage, in which Al Thompson and I will be […]

While Kate Wilkinson has resigned as Labour Minister, it is clear from the Royal Commission Pike River report that the contributing factors were (a) rooted […]

While the moral epi-centre of Middle Eastern politics continues to be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, much of the struggle on the ground is still between the […]

It is now just over 20 years since the Employment Contracts Act was passed, and 12 years since its main provisions were overturned. Unfortunately, the […]

For politicians and bureaucrats alike, their readiness to diss the people they rely on to improve education outcomes is a risky leadership tactic. To most […]

One of the interesting things about trade pacts is that while they promote harmony and mutual dependence among the signatories, they’re not regarded quite as […]

Hidden in amongst the usual holiday weekend filler stories – the road toll, the weather, the disgrace of Lance Armstrong etc – was a fascinating […]

So the Act Party and its friends in government have concocted a fresh piece of legislation – aka the Education Amendment Bill 2012 – that […]

If no one owns the water – as then government insists is the case – then what it is doing selling a significant stake in […]

On the face of it, it looks very strange that our government should have jumped to comply with American concerns about the Internet business of […]

While John Key was in Los Angeles wooing the US studio executives at dinner to bring more film projects to New Zealand, a significant piece […]

This week is Mitt Romney’s last chance. And as Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has pointed out so brilliantly, the real debate in Denver today […]

This sounds cosy. The second inquiry to be launched in the past ten days into the GCSB – this time, into its capabilities, performance and […]

As predicted in yesterday’s column, the restrictions in the Inspector-General’s own guiding legislation have prevented him from reporting adequately on (a) issues of Ministerial responsibility […]

Who watches the watchers? Putting in place effective oversight mechanisms for intelligence agencies is a chronic problem in Western democracies. Given the recent revelations of […]

Well, John Key promised us a different style of government than what we’d had from Helen Clark. No more of that being on top of […]

By the week, the “welfare reforms” of Social Development Minister Paula Bennett are starting to look more like the Cave Creek viewing platform than a […]