Author Archive

The Far Right’s Winning Narrative Superiority

Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:43 am, September 7th, 2019 - 132 comments

Why is the right winning so many elections?

Forget Brexit

Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:30 am, September 5th, 2019 - 39 comments

As Brexit fades our British parent country into a globally forgettable social embarrassment, we should remind ourselves that the only international politics of any impact on us is within Asia. There, as elsewhere, structured relationships are starting to crumble and impact upon us. This is because Asia in the past decade has undergone remarkable transformation […]

Transmission Gully

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:15 am, September 2nd, 2019 - 69 comments

NZTA have determined to not proceed with tolling the Transmission Gully motorway. Does this make it the country’s largest single transport waste?

China Becomes Fascist

Written By: advantage - Date published: 12:52 pm, August 26th, 2019 - 42 comments

Those who see fascism emerging under Trump can observe the full modern version in action now in Hong Kong’s contest of protesters with the Chinese government.

Fonterra failure and Government failure

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:38 am, August 19th, 2019 - 95 comments

Fonterra is dragging New Zealand down, faster and faster. What is this Government going to do?

Slowing economy?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, August 14th, 2019 - 39 comments

In May this year the New Zealand Treasury was projecting growth accelerating from 2.4% to 3% in 2019-20 while the Reserve Bank has pessimistically cut interest rates to 1%. Both can’t be right.

Dunedin South as Next Fox River Dump Disaster?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:00 am, August 10th, 2019 - 75 comments

If we thought the devastation and mess caused by a flood ripping through the old dump at Fox Glacier village was bad, just wait until a decent storm punches through the old dump of New Zealand’s fifth largest city on its coastline. It’s getting close.

Should the Government spend massively more?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 3:18 pm, August 8th, 2019 - 58 comments

With yesterday’s announcement by the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by 1%, some are suggesting that the government should embark on a massive public works spree to stimulate the economy while increasing national debt at low interest rates. But Kiwisaver reform may be more effective.

Maybe we should take the plane

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:42 am, August 7th, 2019 - 119 comments

Activist Greta Thunberg is attending a United Nations global warming summit in New York, and will get there by boat not airplane. But should she consider flying?

Arnhem Land and Ihumātao

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:28 am, August 5th, 2019 - 44 comments

A Recent High Court decision in Australia suggests that protection of indigenous land rights may be better than we think.

Can the Greens rise like the liberal democrats?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:56 am, August 4th, 2019 - 71 comments

Only 6 months ago the UK Liberal Democrat party was at a real low, with their leader resigning and the polls about 7%: same as the last five years. Fast forward five months from that and they are ready to become a major opposition party of opposition. Can the Greens do the same?

Embark 2019

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:05 am, July 29th, 2019 - 99 comments

Last week the Embark 2019 conference involved corporations discussing what they can do to address climate change.

Jacindamania

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:01 am, July 28th, 2019 - 138 comments

Despite the babies and the engagements, maybe it’s time to ditch the default Jacindamania.

The strait of Hormuz

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:44 am, July 20th, 2019 - 49 comments

With the seizing of an oil tanker by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz today as a presumably tit-for-tat escalation for British seizing an Iranian ship, and the U.S. Navy harassing their coastline, we are in for a senseless and dangerous political escalation.

Matata

Written By: advantage - Date published: 9:00 am, July 18th, 2019 - 44 comments

Many a bold claim has been made for the necessity of responding to climate change, but when it comes to storms affecting one’s own home, Matata is surely the test case of this century.

A Good Week for Conservation

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:26 am, July 15th, 2019 - 10 comments

Three big, bold moves for conserving nature and expanding our awareness of it were announced inn the last week. All of them led by Minister Eugenie Sage.

5G flip flop

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, July 2nd, 2019 - 62 comments

Six weeks after banning China’s leading tech firm Huawei from contracts with U.S. businesses, U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have reversed it after meeting China’s Premier Xi Jinping.

100% carbon free power generation?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, June 26th, 2019 - 77 comments

The Interim Climate Change Commission has come out saying that making our electricity generation 100% renewable would be really expensive and that that expense would land on the poor of New Zealand. But the Government has already indicated it could be flexible on the target. ICCC should be helping us plan, not throwing road blocks in the way.

Regulating Bankers

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:16 am, June 25th, 2019 - 76 comments

Grant Robertson gets occasional criticism from the left but it is hard to fault him for his timing or his delivery in seeking to strengthen banking sector oversight.

The Hong Kong protest worked

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:22 am, June 16th, 2019 - 20 comments

Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, has permanently suspended the legislative proposal to enable extradition of Hong Kong people to among other places mainland China.

Farewell Mr Makhlouf

Written By: advantage - Date published: 12:39 pm, June 13th, 2019 - 46 comments

Gabriel Makhlouf will be remembered because of events surrounding the unauthorised access of Treasury information by National. History should result in him being remembered for more positive things, like the creation of a new framework that has restructured how the government spends public money from the ground up.

Tiananmen Square’s Failed Revolution

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:00 am, June 4th, 2019 - 70 comments

Right now we could be dealing with a China with a similar mixed model to Vietnam, or a re-unified country like Germany. What happened to change this?

The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:45 am, June 3rd, 2019 - 49 comments

With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.

EU elections

Written By: advantage - Date published: 7:30 am, May 25th, 2019 - 20 comments

The results of the European parliament elections are due. It’s the first election they’ve had since the refugee crisis, the Brexit referendum, and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. There’s a reasonably high chance that the far right are going to increase their share of this Parliament.