The Standard

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Towards an independent Foreign Policy

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, April 8th, 2026 - 15 comments

Vanushi Walters has outlined a stark contrast between the Government’s appeasement of Donald Trump and Labour’s desire to have an independent principle based foreign policy.

Missing in action

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, April 6th, 2026 - 47 comments

As this Government’s inaction over the oil crisis becomes more pronounced more and more people are noticing that Christopher Luxon is missing in action.

Pawn takes Bishop

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, April 5th, 2026 - 19 comments

Christopher Luxon this week showed strong leadership by demoting Chris Bishop for a coup against Luxon that was staged six months ago.

In a crisis the left does better

Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, April 2nd, 2026 - 31 comments

The Government’s complete reluctance to do anything about the approaching oil crisis is in stark contrast to the approach adopted by more progressive administrative governments overseas.

The Government wants to make workers more unsafe

Written By: - Date published: 1:43 pm, March 26th, 2026 - 7 comments

Stand with Pike representatives have submitted to the Government that its proposed changes to worker safety laws will make people less safe at work.

Why does this Government hate poor people?

Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, March 24th, 2026 - 23 comments

The Government will today announce its response to increasing pressure on household budgets cause by the oil crisis. And it seems inevitable that poor people who are not working will be excluded from its effect.

Why scrapping Labour’s climate change policies has made the oil crisis worse

Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, March 17th, 2026 - 10 comments

Driven by ideology, this Government has worsened the country’s prospects to reduce oil dependance by axing policies that would have cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

The oil crisis – What would Jacinda do?

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, March 14th, 2026 - 43 comments

Jacinda Ardern led the country through some of the most taxing international crises imaginable. How would she deal with the potential oil shock caused by the Iranian war and how does this compare to Christopher Luxon’s response?

Lies, damned lies and Shane Jones’ Oil Refinery take

Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, March 12th, 2026 - 29 comments

Shane Jones has been making a song and dance about how the previous Labour Government was responsible for the closure of the Marsden Point Refinery. But a perusal of the cabinet paper he cites in support shows that this clearly is not the case.

What will Winston do if National sacks Luxon?

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, March 9th, 2026 - 16 comments

Winston Peters has been in this scenario before. The brutal replacement of Jim Bolger as PM in 1997 eventually saw Peters walk away from the coalition. What will happen this time around?

Dead man walking

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, March 6th, 2026 - 65 comments

It has been a hell of a week for Christopher Luxon. His performance particularly over Iran has been appalling. And a new poll puts National under 30%.

So much for being the President of Peace

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 1st, 2026 - 29 comments

Trump’s attack on Iran is one hell of a way to divert away from the Epstein files.

In support of Chris Bishop

Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, February 26th, 2026 - 12 comments

Chris Bishop was forced to eat humble pie this week on his plan to make Auckland a more compact city. And the Government’s backflip on the number of new dwellings makes a mockery of Auckland Council’s recent consultation on Plan Change 120. How councillors are supposed to weigh the new proposal with open minds under that kind of pressure is anyone’s guess.

Fining beggars

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, February 23rd, 2026 - 20 comments

Fining beggers will only increase their problems and moving them on will not solve the problem only spread it around.

Why can’t Government Ministers say “climate change”?

Written By: - Date published: 12:36 pm, February 18th, 2026 - 14 comments

In the midst of multiple states of emergency caused by climate change induced rainfall Mark Mitchell and Christopher Luxon have reverted to Oil Industry talking points that what is happening is “just weather” and that “weather changes.”

A comparison between the LNG Terminal deal and the NZ Steel deal

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, February 16th, 2026 - 14 comments

A comparison of the LNG Terminal deal and the previous Government’s deal with NZ Steel to replace its coal fired furnace with a renewable energy supplied electric arc furnace clearly shows what this Government’s priorities are.

Think Big 2.0

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, February 12th, 2026 - 34 comments

The Government has responded to a perceived urgency caused by dry years to the country’s power supply by proposing something that is counter intuitive. Instead of rolling out solar it wants to burn imported Liquified Natural Gas. And use enabling legislation to avoid any overview of the proposal.

Fast Track law fails at the first big hurdle

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, February 8th, 2026 - 18 comments

Environmental groups have cheered the draft Panel’s decision refusing to allow Taranaki’s continental shelf from being smashed up to extract rare earth minerals. But how will the Government respond?

Shane Jones loves fossil fuels

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, February 2nd, 2026 - 9 comments

National has allowed Shane Jones to effectively veto the country signing up to a road map away from the use of fossil fuels supported by much of the world that was consistent with current policy settings.

What does Labour do about Winston?

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, February 1st, 2026 - 61 comments

Current polling suggests that we may witness something that has not happened before, a one term National Government. But this may mean Labour making a deal with Winston Peters. What should Labour do?

Who would have thunk that slashing Health IT budgets would result in IT outages

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, January 29th, 2026 - 9 comments

A year after the Government slashed a third of Health IT jobs the Auckland hospital system has suffered a massive IT outage.

Should Luxon join Trump’s Board of Peace?

Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, January 21st, 2026 - 16 comments

Donald Trump invited Christopher Luxon to join a new organisation to oversee the redevelopment of Gaza and eventually the replacement of the United Nations. How should Luxon respond?

Management speech mumbo jumbo

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, January 20th, 2026 - 17 comments

Christopher Luxon’s latest State of the Nation speech suggests that over summer he has been spending more on his Spotify summer list than he should have.

Luxon’s utu

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, January 17th, 2026 - 10 comments

Christopher Luxon is extracting utu on Chris Bishop for his pre Christmas attempted coup by making Bishop eat humble pie on his plans to allow intensification in Auckland’s inner suburbs.

Peters attacks Reserve Bank Governor

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, January 15th, 2026 - 27 comments

Winston Peters has attacked the REserve Bank Governor Anna Bremen for publicly expressing concern about politically inspired Department of Justice attacks on US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

The death of truth

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, January 10th, 2026 - 100 comments

The competing social media takes based on video that clearly shows that the shooting of Minnesota woman Renee Good was totally unjustified shows how dominant social discord is now considered to be more important than truth.

Some random and unusual responses to the US invasion of Venezuela

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, January 7th, 2026 - 25 comments

Among a significant number of leaders claiming they are actively monitoring the situation in Venezuela after the US invasion and the kidnapping of President Maduro are some pointed and very relevant comments from some unusual sources.

What David Seymour did during the holidays

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, January 3rd, 2026 - 5 comments

David Seymour has spent some of his holidays meeting Argentine leader Javier Milei and praising Milei’s far right inspired destruction of local Government institutions.

Some random predictions for 2026 …

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, January 2nd, 2026 - 8 comments

What will election year 2026 bring to Aotearoa?

Politician of the year?

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, December 31st, 2025 - 3 comments

Chris Bishop is thought by some to be the politician of the year, mainly for drafting a couple of bills plaigarised from the work of David Parker and untested promises to build hugely expensive roads of National significance. But they are ignoring the most extraordinary performance by an opposition leader in recent decades.

Peters spits the dummy over India Free Trade deal

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, December 24th, 2025 - 22 comments

“National preferred doing a quick, low-quality deal over doing the hard work necessary to get a fair deal that delivers for both New Zealanders and Indians.”