The Standard

Author Archive

When is a Free Speech Union not a Free Speech Union?

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, June 4th, 2026 - 111 comments

When it is a right wing astroturfing front.

No nukes

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, June 1st, 2026 - 30 comments

The timing of the recent suggestion by Chris Penk that New Zealand should review its nuclear free policy makes you wonder if the Trump Administration has applied pressure to do so.

Hegseth accuses New Zealand of freeloading because we don’t want to arm for war

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, May 31st, 2026 - 32 comments

Pete Hegseth has claimed that New Zealand is freeloading because it is not spending enough of weapons of war at a time of international chaos created by the United States.

More fishy than a bait shop

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 pm, May 27th, 2026 - 15 comments

Christopher Luxon has implied that a junior staffer met major polluters and received submissions urging him to sink Mike Smith’s bid to hold them to account which were then hidden. But it was his Chief Policy Advisor.

Doing their master’s bidding

Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, May 25th, 2026 - 43 comments

Briefing papers from two of the corporates being sued by Mike Smith for damaging the environment urging the Government to change the law to stop the case were received but allegedly lost by Luxon’s office.

The absurdity of the Move on Orders law

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, May 24th, 2026 - 5 comments

Paul Goldsmith’s move on orders bill applies to young people aged 14 even though existing legislation provides police with all the powers they need to deal with homeless young people.

National wages war on the poor

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, May 22nd, 2026 - 32 comments

How cruel do you have to be to raise rents for some of our poorest citizens during a cost of living crisis?

The beatings will continue until morale improves

Written By: - Date published: 1:24 pm, May 19th, 2026 - 73 comments

National today intensified efforts to alienate the entire public service by announcing that a further 9,000 public positions will be culled if, god help us, they are returned to power.

Should we renationalise the BNZ?

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, May 18th, 2026 - 46 comments

Winston Peters is trying to appeal to the far left by calling for the renationalisation of the Bank of New Zealand.

Constitutional outrage

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, May 12th, 2026 - 26 comments

The Government’s plans to retrospectively change the law to stop a case seeking damages for climate damage caused by heavy emitters is a constitutional outrage and shows not only contempt for the rule of law but also contempt for any action taken by a citizen against climate change.

Dirty Politics 2.0

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, May 10th, 2026 - 38 comments

National has engaged in a Dirty Politics style attack on TVNZ reporter Maiki Sherman in an attempt to cower the media in election year.

Crisis what crisis

Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, April 30th, 2026 - 23 comments

Christopher Luxon has responded to Winston Peters releasing emails suggesting Luxon wanted to support the US invasion of Iran by dressing him down publicly. The Government is clearly in crisis.

As stable as a three legged stool?

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, April 26th, 2026 - 46 comments

The Peters-Willis-Jones stoush during the past week underlines the importance of Labour indicating that it will not go into coalition with NZ First after the next election.

Will the real National leader please stand up

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, April 21st, 2026 - 19 comments

Christopher Luxon will today face his sternest challenge as leader as repeatedly bad polls are having their effect on National’s caucus’s morale.

Tick tock …

Written By: - Date published: 9:42 am, April 17th, 2026 - 34 comments

National is leaking like a sieve. Either a coup is under way or a group of disgruntled MPs are busily attempting to destabilise Luxon’s leadership. Either way this is not good for National.

The Iranian Imbecile crisis

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, April 11th, 2026 - 67 comments

The Cuban Missile crisis was solved by intelligent leadership acting in the best interests of their nations. The current Iranian crisis shows no sign of quality leadership.

Towards an independent Foreign Policy

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, April 8th, 2026 - 16 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 - 48 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.”