Luxon never won Kiwi minds, let alone their hearts
On Saturday, New Zealanders elect a new parliament and deliver their verdict on the first term of Christopher Luxon’s government.
Berlin used to be ‘poor and sexy’ – now it’s afraid
Newsroom
Last Wednesday, at 9.46am, an email reached the Berlin office of Der Spiegel, Germany’s leading news magazine. Elif Eralp, the left-wing politician most likely to become Berlin’s next mayor, will wish it had never been sent.
Ten years for keeping quiet? NZ eyes end to right to silence
The Australian
In April 1638, guards in London tied a young man to a cart and whipped him through the streets to Westminster. There they locked his head and hands in a wooden frame for all to see.
Promises Half-Kept
Quadrant
In the April 2024 issue of Quadrant, I began a column with Enoch Powell’s observation that all political lives, unless cut off at a happy juncture, end in failure.
Judged by their peers
Insights
The Herald’s ‘Mood of the Boardroom’ survey has become a fixture in New Zealand’s media calendar. Once a year, the chief executives and chairs of the country’s largest companies deliver their verdict on political leaders.
The New Zealand Herald
Fight over a rounding error
Elections are supposed to be the moment when the main parties offer voters a choice between grand plans and rival visions. Indeed, that is the whole idea of democracy: to be able to choose between different paths, especially on long-term spending and taxes.
Newsroom
Losing sight of the lucky country – why we need a crisis to reform again
When I first visited Sydney in 1999, what struck me most were the cranes. They stood over the city in every direction, building towers, stadiums and rail lines for the Olympic Games.
Insights
The false economy of aged care
Last week, we co-hosted a dinner with the Selwyn Foundation. Its chair, former Labour health minister David Cunliffe, led the Government’s aged care advisory group and presented their report, A place to grow old.The report describes an underfunded, fragmented system facing more than twice as many over-85s by 2047.
The Australian
The day New Zealanders master Mixed Member Proportional, they may break it
It is election time in New Zealand and as such, political tragics like myself cannot have any meetings without the conversation turning to the question “And, who will win on November 7?”
Other publications
Should the government spend less? A debate between a neoliberal and a progressive
As election season debate inevitably focuses on the economy and spending, researcher Max Rashbrooke and The New Zealand Initiative’s Oliver Hartwich conduct their own debate on whether the next government needs to tighten its belt or loosen the purse strings.
Newsroom
Trump’s diesel squeeze leaves NZ dangerously exposed
Donald Trump’s second term has given Europe one fight after another. Tariffs, Greenland, Ukraine, and Iran have all had their turn.
Other publications
National’s proposed Foodstuffs split: would a written constitution better protect property rights?
Ten years ago, Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Butler asked me to speak at the Auckland launch of A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, their first draft.
Quadrant
When the Party Was Home
In two polls taken in the second half of August, One Nation stood five or six points ahead of the Coalition. In a third poll, it trailed by one.
The Australian
Is NZ now saying ‘no’ to foreign investment?
When law firms advise foreign clients on investing in New Zealand, they usually include some version of the same paragraph. It describes the country as a stable democracy with independent courts, secure property rights and predictable politics, and for decades nobody had to think twice before writing it.
