The Standard

Author Archive

The World Cup final, and Defence double standards in the Pacific

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, July 21st, 2026 - 17 comments

The World Cup is over and the good guys won, geo-politically speaking. When China fired a test missile a few weeks ago, it was as if the sky had fallen in.

Four Promises, Fifty Years On

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, July 18th, 2026 - 6 comments

Norman Kirk once said people do not ask for much: someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work, and something to hope for.

Where the Fight Against the DSS Bill Now Stands

Written By: - Date published: 10:11 pm, July 5th, 2026 - 1 comment

On Thursday, Victoria Coleman handed over a petition at Parliament calling for the Disability Support Services Bill to be scrapped — 16,458 signatures got in five weeks while she cares full-time for her seven-year-old son Levi. Campaigning on top of that responsibility tells you whats at stake for thousands.

The cut to Total Mobility doesn’t add up

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, June 29th, 2026 - 8 comments

7 days after petitioning parliament seeking proper funding for Total Mobility, the government instead cut the funds.

On Trump’s Temporary Fix In Iran

Written By: - Date published: 12:48 pm, June 20th, 2026 - 17 comments

Trump has finally said what New Zealand has been too afraid to say about Israel’s bombing of residential areas in Lebanon, and in Gaza.

Kamikaze Chris does Labour a favour

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, June 5th, 2026 - 31 comments

On May 21st, 2026 National’s Chris Bishop did his best to lose the 2026 general election and his Hutt South electorate.

Stop This Madness

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, May 14th, 2026 - 33 comments

Why is Chris Bishop wanting to review the cost of the City Rail Link while at the same time is happy to proceed with roads of national signficance that are very expensive but provide limited financial return?

Our Willingness To Earn US Approval, Via China-Bashing

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 pm, March 19th, 2026 - 7 comments

The Chinese Embassy is right. The recent joint statement by Australia and New Zealand condemning China’s actions in the South China Sea reads like a relic from a bygone colonial era.

On The Iran War

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, March 2nd, 2026 - 55 comments

Funny…when Russia invaded Ukraine, New Zealand didn’t wait for Putin to tell us whether his aggression was legal under international law. Different story when it comes to the Americans.

Affordability is not about prices – it is about extraction

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, January 9th, 2026 - 10 comments

The real affordability crisis lies in the systematic extraction of income from households.

The Tunnels project and SH 1 to Wellington Airport

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, December 20th, 2025 - 13 comments

The plan ignores standard traffic planning practice, takes no account of predicted sea level rise and will be obsolete before the last stone is turned.

Ireland’s new President causes Western backlash

Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, November 14th, 2025 - 8 comments

There are clear signs Ireland’s new President Catherine Connolly’s landslide victory has intensified efforts to undermine the country’s neutrality and neuter its aim to punish genocidal Israel.

On Our Looming Spending Spree On Japanese Frigates

Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, October 31st, 2025 - 22 comments

Like the Americans, maybe we should re-name our Ministry of Defence as the Ministry of War. The frigates New Zealand wants to buy can carry long-range Tomahawk Cruise missiles, with lethality so beloved by Judith Collins.

We Deserve Better

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 pm, October 23rd, 2025 - 68 comments

New Zealand’s media landscape is falling apart. We need a publicly-funded media entity covering television, radio and a digital platform

New Zealand’s Willing Submission To The Pentagon’s Command And Control

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 pm, October 18th, 2025 - 23 comments

Our multi-billion billion spend-up on Defence has nothing to do with repelling a foreign invasion. It is all about being led by the US to join in attacking a target – China – located far from our shores.

Fiscal Choices: Scandinavia or America?

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 pm, October 14th, 2025 - 88 comments

Brian Easton says we cannot attain a sustainable Scandinavian-type quality of life while keeping the existing tax system in place

On The Shameful, Incompetent Decision On Palestine

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 pm, September 29th, 2025 - 4 comments

The last time New Zealand put itself on the wrong side of history was when a New Zealand rugby team toured apartheid South Africa just after schoolchildren were gunned down on the streets of Soweto.

Psy-Op Alert: The Four Horsemen of the Linguistic Apocalypse

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, September 11th, 2025 - 11 comments

‘Shared values,’ ‘like-minded partners,’ the ‘rules-based order,’ and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ have become the Five Eyes nations’ favourite rhetorical weapons in their contest with declared adversaries.

Guest Post – Planning By Firing Squad

Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, September 2nd, 2025 - 11 comments

The Planning by Firing Squad approach is characterised by being very rushed, lacking in detail, an almost total lack of public consultation, non-existent local knowledge and consistently paying little heed to environmental effects. It is a classic Wellington Ivory Tower approach.

Confusing Confidence with Competence: Erica Stanford and the Bulldozing of Education Reform

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, August 7th, 2025 - 28 comments

NCEA wasn’t perfect, but it offered students a chance to grow and succeed in different ways. It recognised that learning isn’t linear or one-size-fits-all. It gave students a chance to find their place – not just in the job market, but in the world. Which brings me to the current Minister of Education, Erica Stanford… Are we confusing confidence with competence?

Sport Must Stand Up. Sport Must Lead. Sport Must Include Everyone.

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, July 24th, 2025 - 67 comments

Guest post from Louisa Wall. The government’s decision to scrap Sport New Zealand’s transgender inclusion guidelines for community sport is not leadership. It is exclusion by neglect.

China is not a threat to Regional Peace

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, July 15th, 2025 - 35 comments

The real threat to peace in our region does not stem from China, but from a “China threat” narrative—promoted by the United States to rally other nations behind its China containment agenda.

Blind Spots When Playing for Big Stakes

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, May 2nd, 2025 - 65 comments

How the Greens Are Setting Candidates Up to Fail

Trade Like You Mean It: How Aotearoa Can Lead with Values in a Volatile World

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, April 5th, 2025 - 36 comments

In an era of weaponised tariffs, crumbling institutions, and trade policy made on the campaign trail, New Zealand’s long game is trust, credibility, and coherence.

If we choose to play it.

Vilification of Russia not good for peace in Europe.

Written By: - Date published: 1:18 pm, April 1st, 2025 - 33 comments

Putinversteher – one who “understands” Putin. It is meant as a slur but Professor Geoffrey Roberts, a British historian of Russia, embraces the term.

Posturing is not policy. How the West doomed Ukraine.

Written By: - Date published: 1:04 pm, March 24th, 2025 - 209 comments

Henry Kissinger nailed it back in 2014: “For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.” 

The Unbearable Weight of Being a Useful Idiot

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, March 23rd, 2025 - 96 comments

Res Publica takes aim at modern day ‘tankies’. Pro-authoritarian leftist, who can apologise for any authoritarian regime provided that it is intellectually cloaked in the ‘correct’ rhetoric and a veneer of geo-politics. In their view, modern day tankies are only good at reducing the left’s credibility to rubble in real-time.

Another blow against decency and truth: the flourishing of evil.

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 8th, 2025 - 83 comments

I am an ordinary citizen of Aotearoa. I am deeply angered at and ashamed of the actions of Winston Peters in dismissing Phil Goff as our High Commissioner in London. It is a deplorable decision.

Foreign interference Bill ‘repressive tool’ to intimidate public: former minister

Written By: - Date published: 2:43 pm, December 11th, 2024 - 4 comments

New Zealand is set to update sedition and espionage laws, making these as harsh as those of other Western states that are now gearing up for war with Russia and China.

The Axis of Genocide

Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, November 8th, 2024 - 31 comments

The West, “will stand by the Israeli regime until they exterminate the last Palestinian”, says Mohammad Seyed Marandi, an American-Iranian academic. Despite being appalled at my government, I winced as a New Zealander to hear my country described as part of the Axis of Genocide.

US is spending $28 billion to colonise your brain

Written By: - Date published: 12:38 pm, October 25th, 2024 - 9 comments

Whoever owns the narrative owns the world – and things just got a lot tougher for those of us opposed to US influence campaigns.  In a staggering increase in funding for propaganda and covert action the US House has passed the Countering the PRC (People’s Republic of China) Malign Influence Fund, kicking in an extra $1.6 billion.