City Rail Link Is Really About Workers
Plenty of politicians will seek credit when it opens, but none of them will have lifted a spade. The reason New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project exists is because over 1700 workers actually built it.
Politics
Deep stuff
Does Policy Still Win the 2026 Election?
In a 2026 election beset already by bombast and hyperbole, is the big-policy-first approach of the left still working?
No tears for Starmer
An MI6 plant in my opinion. A hollow man, deeply duplicitous, a Zionist warmonger whose only job was to expunge the Labour left. He will not be missed or regretted.
The trouble with AI
Is AI the great savoiur for our civilisation? Or a fast track to environmental, social and economic devasation?
They all do it…
FiveEyes issues warning re possible Chinese intelligence recruiting methods! Beware! China issues warning re already recruited anti-China MPs. Cue shock horror!
Should Kiwis dream of Electric Sheep?
Electricity and Data Centres are a major problem and opportunity for New Zealand.
Mapping Carney’s speech to our MMP Politics
Carney’s observations of the rupture in the world order and great power rivalry are mirrored in NZ politics.
Our Quiet Tyranny
The attack on the NZ Reserve Bank is lock step with Trump.
The death of truth
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.
A Radical Gets Real Power and Runs Something Big
Tim Shadbolt’s passing shows what it’s like when a bona fide radical activist gets into power for long enough to make a permanent difference.
Advantage’s 2026 predictions
Advantage gets out the crystal ball and postilated what may happen next year.
Our Accelerating Public Sector Decline
New Zealanders are losing confidence in the institutions that once held us together. Can this be changed?
Wrecking the country’s climate change response
If you thought that your contempt for the current administration had peaked let me disappoint you. This week they have taken steps to undermine the Climate Change Commission and the ability of the public to influence future emission reduction plans.
Tax: the debate must continue
Today’s leak of Labour’s tax policy is unsurprising. The later Robertson and long-term Parker views are lost. And this position is at odds with much of the thinking in the Labour Party.
Psy-Op Alert: The Four Horsemen of the Linguistic Apocalypse
‘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.
The Curious Case of Central Otago
How can a region be so pretty, so rich, but so poor?
Good, Democratic, Easy-To-Support Energy Policies
How to make fundamental changes to the country’s energy systems to ensure that future supply is sustainable and democratically controlled/
The Rainbow Warrior 1985-2025. Part 2: Nuclear refugees in the Pacific: the evacuation of Rongelap
On its last voyage the Rainbow Warrior evacuated the entire population of Rongelap. Cancers, birth defects, and genetic damage had ripped through the population after US above-ground nuclear explosions.
State-run food stores anyone?
What if we broke New Zealand’s grocery misery with our own grocery store?
National Wants to Increase Retirement Age to 67
If Luxon and Willis go ahead with it as a policy platform for the 2026 election, and win, a raise in the age of entitlement for national superation will most likely be implemented.
Louisa Wall – Project 2025 Is Silencing Māori Dissent — and It Didn’t Even Start Here
The attempt to punish Te Pāti Māori MPs for a haka protest is not just an internal matter—it reflects a broader, global effort to suppress dissent, erase cultural expression, and centralise power under the guise of order.
The existential moment we are in
As the world re-entangles and pushes our interdependence to the foreground, we need a new thesis on freedom.
Our growing stress is everywhere
We don’t know where this country is going and it’s getting worse.
Get ready for the Regulatory Standards Bill
Following on from the undermining under urgency of the current Pay Equity scheme the Government intends to introduce the Regulatory Standards Bill which if passed would have a significant adverse effect on collective rights and environmental action.
After ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day 2025 is just so dark in the face of a hot war in the Ukraine, and the real lack of commanding peacemakers left on this earth.
Atlas and the Treaty Principles Bill
It is time to reflect on what happened with the Atlas Network and the Treaty Principles Bill.
Farewell Pope Francis
“Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change. The system has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”
Its the end of the Media as we know it …
Two recent media related stories made me wonder if there was now formal acknowledgement that the concept that media should fearlessly and impartially report the news is now dead.
Radio NZ’s bizarre handling of the Bayly fiasco
This morning on Radio New Zealand there was sharp questioning of Christopher Luxon by Ingrid Hipkiss and sharp analysis by Jo Moir. But they allowed Brigette Morten air time to spin the issue in a National friendly way.
The World has too many Oligarchs
In his final speech Joe Biden has warned the world about the dangers posed by Oligarchs supporting the right into democratic power. He is right.
Reviewing the Cook Strait Ferry fiasco
A review of the history of the Ferries issue suggests that this could be coalition ending and career ending.
The Left Went That Way
In the past two decades, election results in western Europe, Australasia, and North America have been framed as a crisis of the left. But in reality are things that bad?
The Pogues wrote the best Christmas song ever
It is Christmas time and the eternal debate about who wrote the best Christmas song ever is being debated yet again. For me there is only one possible contender.
Electric Shock
New Zealand is one of the slowest countries in the developed world to transition from combustion to electric vehicles. The shocks we are seeing in Europe to car makers and car buyers herald more trouble ahead.
The Fast Death of Our Major Forestry Mills
2024 is the worst-ever year for our forest export industry as a whole, with most of our largest sawmills closing and the loss of hundreds of jobs.
A new Labour electricity policy
Proposed policy for the Labour Party. New Zealand’s power system should empower the people in their lives and systems, secure electricity use and production for New Zealand in perpetuity, and make the electricity system serve New Zealand not the other way round. How do we achieve this?