Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, March 5th, 2026 - 39 comments
Trump’s attack on Iran, in cahoots with, or in support of, his regional proxy, Israel, is illegal, but also unconscionable in moral and political terms. It is a resurgence of the post-war experience, in which the development of the rules-based international order was qualified by the arbitrary actions of “big players” in Iran, Suez, Cuba […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, March 3rd, 2026 - 22 comments
A prime minister who does not understand how vulnerable New Zealand’s economy is to a Middle Eastern war as we have now, is a Prime Minister who should be removed from office.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, March 1st, 2026 - 42 comments
Trump’s attack on Iran has a high risk of turning into another Afghanistan in which the United States was utterly humiliated.
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.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 5:31 pm, February 22nd, 2026 - 22 comments
All the signs are pointing to a new Shock and Awe campaign by the United States, with the goal of a fast knock-out of Iran.. War seldom goes entirely to plan.
Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, February 14th, 2026 - 79 comments
If you dismantle welfare, you push many New Zealanders into desperate poverty.
Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, January 30th, 2026 - 27 comments
There is no evidence of immediate improvement in our economy, or of this government improving it.
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, January 22nd, 2026 - 11 comments
Some NZ hospitals are going into critical status at least twice a day, turning away patients who are then as twice likely to die. Plus: National isn’t meeting its targets and election day announced.
Written By: - Date published: 6:09 am, January 22nd, 2026 - 44 comments
“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.
But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just.
…
The powerful have their power. But we have something too – the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home, and to act together.”
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.
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 pm, January 16th, 2026 - 26 comments
To understand what’s going on in Iran, abandon what the Persians invented centuries ago: Manichaeism, black-and-white, political framing.
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, January 1st, 2026 - 7 comments
Happy New Year to all the readers, commenters, and fellow authors/mods at The Standard
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, December 23rd, 2025 - 11 comments
Advantage gets out the crystal ball and postilated what may happen next year.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, December 19th, 2025 - 6 comments
The Taxpayer’s Union campaign against Nicola Willis’s Socialist handling of the economy, complete with novelty fudge has crashed unceremoniously. The sponsors have clearly spoken.
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, December 13th, 2025 - 5 comments
Under a series of science driven policy options, National / ACT and NZ First unanimously choose “catastrophic peril”. Anything for the fossil fuel and farmer industry, but at what cost, NZ?
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, December 10th, 2025 - 13 comments
Jason Walls is a former Newstalk ZB Political Editor turned TVNZ business correspondent. Under his choices, can we still rely on 1News business reports? Plus: Chris Bishop’s nefarious RMA play
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, December 7th, 2025 - 2 comments
The world is entering a generation of challenges not seen since the late 1930s. New Zealand is better placed than most states to weather this challenge if it prepares now.
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, December 2nd, 2025 - 22 comments
David Seymour’s campaign to reduce the so called excessive spend on Labour’s school lunches have struck a rather awkward problem. At least for one school recently provided lunches were inedible which basically destroys the whole reason for having them.
Written By: - Date published: 7:06 am, November 30th, 2025 - 19 comments
The government on Tuesday announced plans to replace regional councillors with boards made up of mayors and maybe some minister-appointed representatives. It’s a mess.
Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, November 7th, 2025 - 10 comments
The importance of a New Zealand focus
on the rebuild of Gaza.
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, October 31st, 2025 - 24 comments
Individual State Schools face the prospect of hostile takeover by groups that may wish to change dramatically the way that the school is run. And Kelston Boys High School is a test case for how the process may work.
Written By: - Date published: 10:06 am, October 30th, 2025 - 140 comments
The usual voices have publicly attacked Labour’s proposed Capital Gains Tax using arguments that do not stack up.
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, October 25th, 2025 - 23 comments
National has announced it will be spending nearly three times as much on Roads of National Significance as it campaigned on and has justified dubious investment decisions by changing how benefits are calculated.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, October 16th, 2025 - 46 comments
Sean Plunket has threatened to sue the Broadcasting Standards Authority after it released a draft opinion suggesting that broadcasters using the internet should be subject to the same requirements as traditional broadcasters.
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
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, October 7th, 2025 - 57 comments
Martyn Bradbury’s attacks on Winston Peters and an attack on his home has allowed Winston to claim victimhood status and hog the media spotlight.
Written By: - Date published: 2:22 pm, October 4th, 2025 - 8 comments
Anti vax organisation Voices for Freedom has published a glossy well presented booklet suggesting how local body campaigns should be run. And it looks like a number of right wing campaigns are borrowing heavily from the information in the booklet.
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