Author Archive

Freedom Protesters are a pain in the ass

Written By: - Date published: 7:36 am, November 10th, 2021 - 74 comments

Human rights are a pain in the ass. Yesterday’s protesters were rude, unfit to invite home to dinner, shouty, and so incoherent that you could’t make any sensible point with them. They were and are a pain in the ass. But they are OUR pain in the ass.

New Zealand’s New Low Carbon Economy Stays Difficult

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, November 7th, 2021 - 36 comments

Southland Mayor Gary Tong has justified felling a forest to construct a coal mine by saying “[w]e all want to make a cleaner, greener planet, but we can’t do it in five minutes.”

The Rules To Save The World

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, November 4th, 2021 - 7 comments

Beyond the NGO emotion and singing and joyous arm waving, country leaders at COP 26 actually have to achieve stuff this week.

Covid alters Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, November 3rd, 2021 - 22 comments

With in-person shopping about to re-start in Auckland next week, this is the best moment we will have to reinvent Auckland: one customer at a time.

COP26 is on

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, November 1st, 2021 - 39 comments

The show is now on for Conference of Parties 26 (COP 26), where countries show each other how they will achieve the Paris Agreement climate goals. How will we do? Set in Glasgow, it will bring together negotiators from nearly every country on earth to assess progress, and to determine the scale of sacrifice we’re […]

Good Again

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, October 28th, 2021 - 23 comments

COVID has reminded us how good New Zealand is, and we should remember how we were reminded.

In December 2022 We Will Be …

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, October 25th, 2021 - 15 comments

A year ago we were preparing for the America’s Cup and threading our way through the latest crisis quite well.  What will we be planning next year?

Friday will change Us As Citizens

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, October 22nd, 2021 - 210 comments

While we may have been lifted out of martial lockdowns and some rights have been reinstated in limited form, we have surrendered to another more pervasive power.  The power of big data.

Get Ugly

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, October 20th, 2021 - 94 comments

Kindness will not get the country to meet its Covid vaccination goals.  It is time to change the tone.

Jacinda Ardern: Tear Down This Wall

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, October 17th, 2021 - 109 comments

In the coming months Fortress New Zealand will be dismantled.  What will take its place?

Why Can’t We Do More?

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, October 16th, 2021 - 35 comments

The Government’s dramatic action taken over the past 18 months to respond to Covid and the population’s overwhelming support suggests that it should be taking similar drastic action to address poverty and climate change.

More Promises from Prime Minister Morrison

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, October 11th, 2021 - 14 comments

So, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is preparing for a November resumption of international air travel.

China and Real Estate Developers

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, October 10th, 2021 - 17 comments

Speaking of contagion, China is dealing with an outbreak of real estate market ebola.

China, Australia, and Coal Energy

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, October 1st, 2021 - 31 comments

China, which previously banned coal imports from Australia, is running out of coal.  Will Australia uses the resumption of coal supply as a diplomatic play?

Highway to the Danger Zone

Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, September 29th, 2021 - 25 comments

I never thought I would see the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of the United States military essentially being a witness against the previous President of the United States. Yet here we are.

Germany Votes: Where To Now

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 26th, 2021 - 22 comments

Germany is up for Federal election tomorrow and it’s pretty important for the stability of the European Union.

The Golden Ticket

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 24th, 2021 - 110 comments

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern claimed yesterday that a very high vaccination rate in New Zealand would represent a “golden ticket” and make level 4 lockdowns redundant. What could that mean that’s positive for New Zealand?

CPTPP V Nuclear Submarines

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, September 19th, 2021 - 41 comments

In a piece of incredible timing, on the same day as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced their defence technology procurement pact and pissed off ally and competitor alike, China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Porgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Where Is The Real Green Party?

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, September 17th, 2021 - 48 comments

Where’s the hairy knuckle-dragging woke when you need them?

COVID, We Need To Talk About Class

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, September 14th, 2021 - 27 comments

We’ve never seen a nationwide disease illustrate class and deprivation like the future of the country depended on it. Not like this. This should change us.

Is this the post Covid world?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 11th, 2021 - 132 comments

Just as we did with travel security after 9/11, we are about to get our next set of global regulations to control crisis.

New Zealand Superconductors

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, September 8th, 2021 - 18 comments

Just to note a little sadness at the sale of New Zealand’s High Temperature Superconductor business out of Scott Technology (a robotics specialist company based in Dunedin sold to a Brazilian meat company a few years back).

Can The Terror-Injured Citizens Hold the New Zealand Government To Account?

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, September 5th, 2021 - 57 comments

While Prime Minister Ardern is an empathic Prime Minister, good for the country in a crisis, and is genuinely caring, there’s also a time for citizens to say that the state must pay to right wrongs.

The Top 20 Biggest U.S. Military Interventions, Best to Worst

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, August 31st, 2021 - 76 comments

With the last flights coming out of Kabul, it’s time to review whether this US attitude to the world is a good idea.

How Far Ought The State Go In A Pandemic?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, August 29th, 2021 - 120 comments

Even in a time of crisis, people have human rights that must be upheld.

Ardern Needs to do More Than Manage Crisis

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, August 25th, 2021 - 24 comments

For a country that has sought to form advantage for itself with strong and hard COVID-19 lockdowns, we’re not gaining any more advantage than yet another binge-purge cycle of supply tension and shortages, rapid economic downturn softened by tens of billions of subsidy, followed by unsustainable booms, over and over again.

Farewell Dr Michael Cullen

Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, August 20th, 2021 - 21 comments

Dr Michael Cullen has died, and with him goes a real standard-bearer for Labour for three decades.

The United States Retreat from Afghanistan

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, August 16th, 2021 - 140 comments

President Biden is about to get a Jimmy Carter-scale shellacking with tv footage coming of Afghani Taleban going through Kabul and in short days rifling through the U.S. Embassy as they finally take over the entire country. You don’t win re-election with defeats and withdrawals, and you won’t be thanked for it in the mid-term Senatorial races either.

We are stuck

Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, August 12th, 2021 - 45 comments

New Zealand has one of the most concentrated and oligopolistic economies in the world, and also one of the least commercially protected societies. Will we ever be able to break out of it? If you look across our society, it is the relationships of less than 20 main companies with our government that form a […]

When We Needed Electricity, it Was Shut Off

Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, August 10th, 2021 - 104 comments

Minister Woods and Prime Minister Ardern have been reduced to asking a series of questions about why Transpower got major electricity providers to drastically cut power last night.

Our modern Olympics

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, July 26th, 2021 - 7 comments

The Olympics is an opera that runs on one orchestrated symbol after another, and this Tokyo Olympics is a superabundant tragedy.