When We Needed Electricity, it Was Shut Off
Minister Woods and Prime Minister Ardern have been reduced to asking a series of questions about why Transpower got major electricity providers to drastically cut power last night.
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Our modern Olympics
The Olympics is an opera that runs on one orchestrated symbol after another, and this Tokyo Olympics is a superabundant tragedy.
What If Boris Is Right?
Now that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has “opened up” the United Kingdom from many of the Covid19 strictures that it had undergone, there is a lot at stake to his reputation and indeed to the lives and livelihoods of its citizens.
Why Not Support The Farmers?
The Groundswell farmers movement want the new freshwater policy scrapped, the “ute tax” removed, lots of imported labour for farm work, parts of the ETS dumped the new Significant Natural Area policy dumped, the draft policy on indigenous biodiversity scrapped and Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill stopped. How likely is this?
The Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill
Why the proposed changes to the law relating to gender identification is not such a bad thing. The law allowing this has been in place since 1995, but the process is confusing, intimidating, and time-consuming.
Minister Robertson’s Economic Development Strategy
Minister Roberston’s recent speech to the Trans Tasman Business Circle sets out both how this government is using the pandemic to reset whole sectors of the economy, and also how it is getting its head around economic and social challenges. The points made were unsurprising, but his intended direction was unclear.
America’s Democratic Decline Really Matters
With the United States Supreme Court allowing individual states to choke voting rights into bare consciousness, that country is accelerating its democratic decline. That matters for every democracy including ours.
Oppose this new hate speech bill
Hate speech is about to get a lot more criminalised with much stronger penalties. It’s worth going back to what the Royal Commission […]
Let the Mills die
From Kawerau to Nelson to Tiwai Point, our accelerated decline of heavy mass manufacturing factories continues.
The Rock is moving
Since real estate is that machine that relentlessly powers our society and most of our economy, it’s already worth checking whether this governments’ recent policy changes are starting to have some of its intended effects.
Make the film and be damned
A company wants to make a film about the Christchurch mosque massacre on 15 March 2019. Maybe it should do.
The America’s Cup is just another spinoff
We need less presumed hold over Team New Zealand, and more encouragement of more spinoff businesses that make their way in the world.
The Climate Commission Report
As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.
Cycling Politics is Winnable Politics
This Sunday Aucklanders have an opportunity to protest the catastrophic failure of NZTA to generate a cycleway from the North Shore to the CBD, and to promote a practical proposal to “liberate a lane” on the Harbour Bridge which would do the job in the meantime.
New Zealand’s Perverse Economy
At a forecast farm gate milk price of between NZ$7.25 and NZ$8.75 per kilo of milk solid, Fonterra is going to fill up its milk tankers, drive back to their suppliers with cash and pump it straight back into the farmhouse like we haven’t seen in a decade.
Cycling Politics Is Damn Serious Business
Don’t knock local politics until you’ve had to stand up and defend a cycleway in public.
Where Did Business Go?
Back in the day when we had useful Opposition, business leadership could be relied upon to think as if they had interests in common as business. This budget, their ability to think let alone lead has deserted them.
C’mon National!
Forlorn for now though they may be, this is the advice National MPs need right now.
Will we rebuild better?
There’s a question Covid19 allows us to ask that we haven’t been able to ask since the end of World War 2: can we all just co-operate to get along – as a species?
Hang Facebook
The decision by the Oversight Board of Facebook to continue banning Donald Trump is one of the biggest moves against free speech and the modern definition of its limits that the world has seen.
Ethnic Cleansing and New Zealand
If we want to be a part of retaining our human rights in the world supported by democracy – and stand with those countries who already see the damage of racist ethnic assimilation – we should continue to resist what China is doing in its north-west.
The problem with coal
New Zealand is about to enter a transition phase in energy that’s going to affect absolutely everyone.
Too much too far?
As we lead up to Budget 2021, there’s much more shape to the whole direction of this government.
Climate Commission Hope Versus NLTP Reality
The very hardest climate challenge New Zealand has is in transport, but the latest National Land Transport Plan is pretty much like the wind being resisted by the Climate Commission air conditioning unit. Time to face our reality not our words.
Government Control at Air New Zealand
The New Zealand government has just increased its loan to Air New Zealand to a $1.5 billion total, and there’s a catch.
Well done John Edgar
I’d thought I’d take a moment to celebrate the life of John Edgar, who passed away a few days ago.
Resistance
Chris Trotter recently asked the question about why there isn’t more resistance to the degree of inequality that we face in New Zealand. He’s partially right, we do spend an awfully amount of time arguing with each other about matters of smaller and smaller moment while inequality slides downhill from glacier to avalanche. But intersectionalism isn’t the primary cause of activist cooling.
The Australian Parliament and Women
To understand how power and misogyny and democracy all flow from the one stinking head, one need look no further than the Australian Parliament right now.
That’s No Moon – It’s A Space Station
Did anyone notice Russia and China signing up to a treaty to form a common base on the moon?
New Zealand Service in Afghanistan Concludes
Did New Zealand military forces do good in Afghanistan?
Vaccine Diplomacy
Vaccines have had a place in diplomacy since the Cold War. The country that can manufacture and distribute lifesaving injections to others less fortunate sees a return on its investment in the form of soft power. Today the country moving fastest towards consolidating these gains may be China.
Water Rights War Brewing
Minister Parker is firing an 18 inch gun round that he’s ready to take on all with his call-in of the Otago water rights plan change.
How to Put A Stake Through Our Monarchy’s Heart
The Monarchy’s attacks on Meaghan Markle may backfire spectacularly.
Biden can reset with China
New Zealand should resist China’s authoritarian ways, and U.S. President Biden should too. But it’s all in how he does it.
Senior Business Leaders Call Out To Government. Again
Senior business leaders have called for more openness and clarity from the Government on its plan for getting New Zealand to “COVID normal”. But have failed to say what they would do to contribute or what they are doing to help.
The Very, Very Lucky Country
While Australia is rightly branded The Lucky Country, it looks like we can reasonably be called the Very, Very Lucky Country.