The objections to giving integrated schools the same helping hand as other schools just doesn’t stack up, no matter what your prejudices are.
Read MoreIntegrated schools: the excuses for discrimination are lame
Politics
Policies for the Twelve Days of Christmas - Third Way Style. Blog #8
The festive season is a time to reflect on what has been and what might be. Over the 12 days of Christmas, a gift is supposed to be unwrapped each day. Try making those gifts a policy you would like to see in 2020 - it is election year afterall.
Read MoreHey bro, luckily I'm not on it because if I had been, I'd have been sacked
Kris Faafoi has joined the long list of Labour MPs whose lack of judgment has hurt this government. He’s survived, ironically, because he didn’t do what he promised. But these lapses are no laughing matter for a lurching Labour Party
Read MoreTurning the NZ First Foundation fiasco back on National is hilarious and sad
For many online, the mysterious activities of the NZ First Foundation raise serious concerns and the National Party must answer them…
Read MoreThe Neglect, or, the new cosmogony of the Labour government
All cultures and faiths require a creation myth to help make sense of the world. Things are no different for this government and its supporters. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to see how the internal narrative of the sixth Labour government continues to evolve as it is revised.
Read MoreBritain’s Labour Tragedy
Britain wants a revolution, just not Corbyn’s revolution.
Read MoreLabour Conference Delegates - check your hubris at the door
Labour head in to their annual conference this weekend, and their Party members are likely to be feeling pretty confident about their chances of returning to Government in 2020.
However, it would be smart for them to keep their hubris in check by taking a quick trip across the ditch, where the Australian Labor Party (the ALP) thought they would too romp home at their election.
Read MoreJacinda Ardern's Crisitunity
The NZ First donations fiasco presents Jacinda Ardern with a real problem - and a serious opportunity.
Read MoreWell, that's just, like, your religion, man...
You can’t expect religious New Zealanders to embrace secular government while attacking them for making secular arguments in policy debates.
Read Moreassisted suicide: that nagging feeling
For me, the death penalty cannot be countenanced as an ordinary part of the justice system because, no matter how stringent the checks and balances, the risk of wrongful execution cannot be eliminated. Those concerns carry no less weight in the case of assisted suicide.
Read MoreIs there a constituency for the Sustainable New Zealand Party?
The path ahead for Sustainability New Zealand looks rocky, not because of ingrained left-right ideologies, budgets or green politics… but because of confirmation bias
Read MoreAuthoritarian populism, the third way and the future of social democratic politics. Blog #7
Authoritarian populists can be found in governments throughout the democratic world. Where did they come from, can they be resisted and did the third way clear the way for populists to triumph?
Read MoreNo longer an operational matter: Armed police now must become a political decision
Now that the police’s new Armed Response Teams are being used for “lower risk” events and not just “critical or high risk incidents” and the government’s top justice advisor has stated police have probably made their minds up already on their ‘trial’, the arming of police has become a political hot potato government ministers can’t dodge
Read MoreIs Sustainable NZ an endangered species from its birth? Or are friends in the wings?
The biggest sustainability question to be answered by Sustainable New Zealand may be about the survival of the party itself. Can it strike a chord when the Greens have already moved to the right? Or could there be a deal beckoning in North Shore?
Read MoreRegulating social media or limiting political debate?
There appears to be a whole lot of bother and proposed solutions for regulating social media use by politicians without anyone truly working out whether the consequences of regulation outweigh what actually can be achieved. Do we really want to put voter engagement at risk?
Read MoreMike Bush as Dirty Harry: Well, do ya trust him, punk?
All year - before and after the Christchurch mosque murders - Police Commissioner Mike Bush insisted he had no plans to routinely arm police officers. So why, this week, has he just put routinely armed teams on the streets to police a third of all New Zealanders?
Read MoreThe Three Year Term is Too Short
The three year term has done its dash and in more complex times it’s time to change
Read MoreProgressive Pragmatists - New Zealand Labour and the Third Way. Blog #6
New Zealand Labour has the distinction of being a first, second and third way party. Sometimes all at once! But did it fully implement a third way platform? Maybe not. Maybe it is time to look again at what the third way, with its focus on civil society/community, has to offer. .
Read MoreIn Praise of Dictators – Those Under the Control of Representative Democracy.
A British Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, described parliamentary democracy as an ‘elected dictatorship’. Recent events illustrate how right he was.
Read MoreJohn Tamihere's 'sieg heil' lets Phil Goff off the hook on his claimed ban
Phil Goff has been in court and on the ropes over his false claims to have banned two alt right speakers from Council venues last year, but now John Tamihere has gone and shot himself in the foot. Again
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