Author Archive

The Fast Death of Our Major Forestry Mills

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 pm, November 20th, 2024 - 14 comments

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.

The New Zealand left are in the worst place in a century

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, September 23rd, 2024 - 68 comments

New Zealand has the most right wing government it’s had since Governor George Grey determined to eradicate all Maori power by systematic war and then systematic legislative theft in 1863. But the left shows no sign of unifying.

A new Labour electricity policy

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, September 9th, 2024 - 70 comments

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?

Let’s Talk About Tax

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, September 2nd, 2024 - 44 comments

Yes, Labour can restore its woeful tax position.

Power and Speed

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, August 27th, 2024 - 17 comments

We are in a power crisis and the government has had to respond, but will their response make any difference?

Where Does Labour Rebuild? 

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, August 26th, 2024 - 48 comments

It won’t come from the working class. But we know where it will come from.

Luxon’s Support for AUKUS 2 is Against Our Interests

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, August 18th, 2024 - 21 comments

Three NZ prime ministers talking to Zelensky

It is well time the Prime Minister set out how it is in our interests to move against China by buying into AUKUS.

Gender Essentialists Hate the Olympics

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, August 10th, 2024 - 157 comments

The Olympics are a real persistent problem for gender essentialists.

Israel is in Serious Trouble

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, August 7th, 2024 - 18 comments

Israel’s failure to solve its own problems, its weakening democratic institutions, fraying civil patience, massive wastage of global patience and U.S. aid, and inability to plan for civic success following military conflict, point to a country in very serious trouble with no apparent way out.

The Promises of Lange, Moore, Bolger, and the WTO

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, August 4th, 2024 - 26 comments

In 2024 we ought to ask if the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s has delivered on what was promised. 

How Northland Became New Zealand’s Deepest Shame

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, June 25th, 2024 - 27 comments

Last week Northland had a power pylon simply fall down on a still day. 100,000 properties lost power. Quickly restored, it underscored how vulnerable the Far North is. 

What the Aratere Grounding Means

Written By: - Date published: 4:24 pm, June 22nd, 2024 - 67 comments

The grounding of the ferry Aratere is potentially a political gift to National.

Is Shane Jones Right About Mining?

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, May 25th, 2024 - 36 comments

Maybe Shane Jones is at least partially right about mining.

A Deliberate Recession

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, May 20th, 2024 - 51 comments

It is sickening to see how economic power is being used against ordinary New Zealanders right now.

Fonterra’s Brand Sale Continues to Drag New Zealand Down

Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, May 19th, 2024 - 26 comments

Fonterra is a complete construct of the New Zealand state, but it is pulling our entire country down.

NZ White Rural Rage

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, April 27th, 2024 - 14 comments

What is really going on in the minds of

New Zealand Needs a Security Alliance Fast

Written By: - Date published: 12:09 pm, April 25th, 2024 - 21 comments

Who will defend us when the military chaos now expanding in the world finally hits hard in our region, because that is what is really happening.

The list

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, April 21st, 2024 - 11 comments

Making a major infrastructure deal happen takes years of planning, exceptionally qualified people on all sides, and in New Zealand it takes about ten years of your life. Until now.

Forget this Trump trial

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, April 16th, 2024 - 14 comments

In the Trump felony trial now underway, there’s a yawning gap between media attention paid to this and the actual scale of the crime and its potential punishment. Trump is not indicted for trial for electoral fraud. He’s not on trial for paying a porn star for services. He’s not on trial for adultery. He’s […]

News and New Zealand Democracy

Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, March 9th, 2024 - 15 comments

How do we prevent the decline of broadcast tv news being a deep wound to our democracy?

Dune 2 and Gaza

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, March 3rd, 2024 - 7 comments

What if life followed fiction and Gaza was explained by Dune 2? Sigh. It isn’t. 

Newshub Closes

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, February 29th, 2024 - 80 comments

One can hate the mainstream media but OMG you sure will miss it when it’s gone.

What’s Left?

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, February 25th, 2024 - 51 comments

From Election 2023’s result through to February 2024 there has been massive loss and damage to the Parliamentary capacity of Labour and Greens. Who still has the capacity to lead? What’s left?

National and the Gutting of Local Democracy

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 pm, February 13th, 2024 - 16 comments

We have remarkably little democracy left in New Zealand. 

A Trump-led Withdrawal from NATO

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, February 13th, 2024 - 37 comments

Just as he did in 2017, Trump is clear in 2023 that the United States should withdraw from NATO.

Are Road User Charges for every vehicle actually fair?

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, January 22nd, 2024 - 99 comments

New Zealand is one of the most car-reliant and petroleum-reliant countries on earth. So how we are taxed to travel on land has huge equity implications.

Labour and the Democrats

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, January 20th, 2024 - 64 comments

Both the US Democrats and NZ Labour need to take hard looks at themselves. Failure is not inevitable. But there is now only one English-speaking centre-left democracy left in the world: that is the state of where we are now. 

What If Trump Wins Again?

Written By: - Date published: 9:25 am, January 14th, 2024 - 65 comments

New Zealand has gained prosperity over 40 years within a free flow of trade under peacetime supported by minor attacks to shipping and planes, low international trade costs such as tariffs, and confidence that international trade disputes will be settled by law rather than by might is at risk: all of that required a United States President prepared to support that.

The Coming Oil Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, January 13th, 2024 - 21 comments

An expanding Middle East war that puts the Red Sea and Suez tanker route at risk is a major risk to us because it could hit the global price of oil.

Our Resistance

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, January 11th, 2024 - 7 comments

There are still groups of people in New Zealand who can and do organise to resist the damage of the right.

Darkness Towards Peace

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, January 5th, 2024 - 39 comments

Can Israel lose a moral battle in Gaza and yet still win?

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