What Can Be Saved?
The tide of this government is running out. There’s 18 months left in the term. What would you save?
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Who Will Protect Us From Media Power Now?
With RNZ and TVNZ now in full merger mode, we have yet another untested state megalith upon us. But where is the power that will hold it to account?
Water and Money
If the 3 Waters reforms can survive its attacks and be implemented, a consequence will be that we are going to have a most enormous nationwide economic argument about the price of water and who pays for it all.
Change nothing
You get to a point – and Ardern must be close – where the most you can do is hang on.
3 Waters Reform Must Happen
If you’re out there in ZB land and believe that water management should be democratically elected, you won’t find respite here. Local Government has done a terrible job dealing with water and change is urgently needed.
Should We Just Settle?
New Zealand does not have to settle for being small, quiet, and weak.
Can This Government Be Saved?
Can Labour win a third term? Here are some pathways up, and some pathways down.
The Peace Settlement Must Start
Pressure for a Ukraine war settlement starting with a ceasefire will continue to mount. If this does drag out, there’s more chance of […]
Crisis, What Crisis?
There is only so much New Zealand and its government can do to soften the blows of the instability that are besetting the world. And the problem is without dramatic change New Zealand will remain one of the most car-addicted, petrol reliant societies on earth for several decades to come.
Pick a side
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinsky has made a direct appeal broadcast to the United States Congress. That will sort out the Putin supporters from the rest. And with climate change beckoning it is time to pick a side.
The world in 6 months
In six months time the world could be in a very precarious position.
The latest poll
National/Act (47%) would beat Labour/Greens (46%) if there were an election held tomorrow, according to the latest One News Kantar poll.
The International Legion of Territorial Defence
However much infighting there was on the Spanish Republican side between leftists, Communists, anarchists and others, you could be confident that the Nazis were on the other side. In the Ukraine it is not so simple.
Is This The Boom We Wanted?
New Zealand’s time as high end ingredients producer to the world has arrived. But it has big costs.
Remarkably Hopeful
We will probably never get over the feeling that somehow, if enough people just banded together, it would all get better again, like we did when the United Nations charter was struck.
How Russia wins
Russia hasn’t lost an intervention in quite some time.
Watch China’s next move
Why should we in New Zealand give a damn about Ukraine? My answer is: China.
They Are Us
The people camping outside Parliament are also us.
100 Things We’ve Lost
Over the past two years we have lost so many things that are not coming back.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff to Retire
Some thoughts on the contribution of Phil Goff to Auckland during his term as Mayor.
Can this government get re-elected?
Where will the votes come from to get Labour a third term?
Chloe Swarbrick Needs A Reset
Chloe Swarbrick has requested that the government help Auckland central’s restaurants. But in a post Covid pre climate change world this is not going to help.
Prime Minister Ardern on Climate Change and the economy
The full text is worth perusing across multiple areas, but Prime Minister Ardern’s speech in Parliament yesterday gave useful hints about how the economy and climate change are being integrated into a single economic strategy.
What Do We Keep?
The things we don’t regret keeping are a strong measure of what we don’t value. COVID’s 2 year anniversary asks us this simply through what events we commemorate.
How the Covid era changes us
With Prime Minister announcing effectively the beginning of the end of state control of COVID, the question that has to be asked is how will the end of COVID change us all?
And what have they done anyway?
With Ardern getting a good-old media beat-down, remember here’s how to change a country for good like no one else but Labour can.
Light Rail: The State Is Back
The light rail route and mode decision this week shows something new. It’s in the nature of the state itself.
The Price Isn’t Yet Right To Invade Ukraine
The entity making the most money out of threatening the Ukraine is the Russian Federation government itself. Follow the money.
In Tax we trust
In a welcome change Millionaires and billionaires worldwide are calling for governments to tax them more.
On the death of Joan Didion
We need to remember Joan Didion, who died December 23rd, as perhaps the best defensive pessimist we’ve ever had. She nailed the feet […]
What Starts off in Support of Alabama’s Miners …
What Starts off in Support of Alabama’s Miners turns into a homily from Beau on the power of getting community change going when and only when you have the organisational power to pull it off month after month after month.
Our Energy Upheaval
Ministers Wood, Shaw and Parker (Energy, Climate Change, and RMA reform respectively), must pull their eyes downward from the misty clouds of climate change and stuff multiple decades away and down into the jagged, shadowy deal-by-deal path of the transition to clean energy.
Can Labor Win Australia Back?
Coming up surprising quickly in 2022 is the Australian federal election – and Labor has a good shot.
No One Cares
I had reason to visit Waitara in Taranaki recently, and I don’t want to sound like there’s a different world still operating … […]
Goodbye, Auckland
For the hundreds of thousands of Aucklanders who have decided to holiday at a town near you, just be careful: they may never leave.
The 2022 Economic Boom
New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery. But what will we do with this success?