Whatever your view of current health funding, the Counties Manukau DHB's failure to sound the alarm is a dereliction of duty. What's more, there is a solution to the funding issues
Read MorePolitics
Playing political dress-up – Party leaders still trying on their new roles
Four of New Zealand's five most senior politicians are now under 45 and one the most notable features of this term so far is the sight of party leaders struggling to exercise power and to come to terms with the big jobs
Read MoreHigh Noon in the Economic Development select committee room ...
What narrative emerged from Radio NZ's bosses revisiting the Economic Development select committee room? Nothing definitive ... but there's more to come yet, I think.
Read MoreGluckman: chief science advisor says the NZ media have been flogging fake news for 20 years
The chief science advisor to the Prime Minister has just issued a damning commentary on the way in which the media presents 'information' about crime and punishment in New Zealand
Read MoreMy spy boy told your spy boy, "I'm gonna set you flag on fi-yo."
Should we just make up some Russian spies so we can kick them out because the rest of the world is doing it? Or, would that be a less-than-ideal politicisation of intelligence information? I report, you decide.
Read MoreWhoops, sorry, the dog ate my Russian spy
Looking at the long lead-up to New Zealand's increasingly curious stance on Russia, the government seems to be wasting diplomatic capital at a time it should be storing it up against future need
Read MoreRNZ, Hirschfeld and Curran let the clichés come out to play ...
Carol Hirschfeld's resignation as head of content for RNZ shows that "Honesty Is The Best Policy", while Claire Curran's decision to set up a cafe meeting reminds us all to "Look Before You Leap". Let the clichés commence ... .
Read MoreHow we found the NZDF was wrong on Hit & Run
A year ago New Zealand's top soldier stood in front of the cameras and insisted that the book Hit & Run had got it wrong. This week, after a year's wait, an OIA request prompted the NZDF to admit the photos in the book had the right location after all. This is the story of that request
Read MoreA submission on the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act
A bunch of legal and political studies academics think the proposed Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill (or, party hopping law) is a bad idea. Here's why.
Read MoreSteven Joyce and the turning of the tide
Of course there was nothing else for it. Steven Joyce was never going to sit there and fade into insignificance. So now National begins its true test, and it could signal a realignment on the right of New Zealand politics
Read More"If the King's English was good enough for Jesus Christ ... "
As I told Laura Walters at stuff.co.nz, Clayton Mitchell's bill to deem English an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand is a piece of legally meaningless virtue signalling. Here's why.
Read MoreDon't say a prayer for me now... but should we save it for some time after?
When Trevor Mallard read out a new, revised prayer at the start of parliament this year, I started writing about some of the questions it raised for me. It's taken a while to get it down, but I wonder whether we shouldn't be giving this some deeper thought
Read MoreCan Israel really make New Zealanders pay damages for expressing their opinion?
An Israeli legal group are threatening to sue two New Zealand women for writing an opinion piece on a New Zealand website. They'll probably never get a cent from it, but that's not really the point of the exercise.
Read MorePredictable polls and bye-bye Bill
As all things new come to dominate New Zealand's political landscape, National will be forced more quickly than it hoped to confront its own need for change. Tonight's poll offers succour for the party, but tolls the bell for Bill.
Read More"Do it for all of us". Can Labour save social democracy?
Social democracy is in trouble. Social democratic parties have been annihilated in Greece, reduced to a shadow in France and struggle in Scandinavia. Corbyn in Britian and Sanders in the United States have support but can't get elected. Can New Zealand Labour show that it is not only possible to form a government but also to save social democracy?
Read MoreHow Donald Trump helped save the trade deal and enabled Ardern's realism
Labour's willingness to back the new CPTPP owes a lot to the US president, but also shows the rise of the political realists in its ranks. But the hard part is yet to come
Read MoreImagine - Ardern, Gayford, motherhood and work
The announcement by Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford that they will be parents this year for the first time suggests a Rubicon is about to be crossed. Some progress has been made toward women being able to be mothers and in paid employment but there is some way to go. Given Ardern and Gayford's prominence they may be about to make the tectonic plates of our society shift.
Read MoreWho controls the past now, controls the future
Should NZ reintroduce legislation requiring MPs that leave their parties to also quit Parliament? The debate over that question involves a battle over what happened in the past.
Read MoreJim Anderton's political legacy... & his final win
Jim Anderton has died at a time when the party he fought for, then walked out on, looks more like him than it does his erstwhile opponents.
Read MoreMoko: The first thing we need to do to save lives is...
Oranga Tamariki has a new name, but the same problems and, as we saw in Coroner William Bain's report this week, the same failings. But there is a way to make a difference
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