Jane Kelsey's court victory over the evil MFAT/Tim Groser empire is probably too little, too late for her campaign against the TPPA. But it sends some important messages to a range of public actors in New Zealand's governing arrangements.
Read MoreUncategorized
Dog-whistle politics and Islamophobia in the Canadian election
With just a week to go in Canada's Federal elections, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been roundly accused of racism and dog-whistle politics in order to draw attention away from the failings of his administration. Next Monday he will know if his tactics have worked.
Read MoreIt ain't over 'till it's over
A couple of recent cases show that being right about the law isn't enough - you also need to get the courts to do what you want. Because if you can't, you may even end up worse off than when you started.
Read MoreOwning New Zealand
How Much of New Zealand Has to Be Owned and Controlled by Foreigners?
Read MoreThe TPP - there's a lot to like
The TPP may not deliver an immediate big bang for our dairy industry. But there's an awful lot to like in it - and New Zealand really has to be a part of it.
Read MoreSuccess - everyone equally unhappy
TPP can help lift incomes in New Zealand but to make a difference for people, there’s a lot more work still to do.
Of TPP's, ISDS's and the Constitution
If the Trans-Pacific Partnership becomes an Agreement, New Zealand will become bound by a set of "Investor State Dispute Settlement" procedures. What are these, and why should anyone care?
Read MoreWinning is all that matters - whatever it takes
You can't get away with much on a rugby field these days. It used to be different, and some argued that whatever was good enough for rugby was good enough for politics
Read MoreRed Peak, red faces - flag turns into a farce
The Greens and National have combined today to add Red Peak to the flag referendum, and in doing so have ensured a troubled process has crossed into slapstick
Read MoreFrom Great Satan to Lesser Satan…not if Republican nominee hopefuls have their way
You would never know from the Republican Presidential nominee hopefuls that they have lost their battle to defeat Obama on the Iran nuclear deal….but electioneering is not known for being mindful of facts.
Read MoreCure for third-termitis? A dose of the polls
A year on from the election and we now see loud and clear what defines the John Key government - a willingness to bend to public opinion and give the people just enough of what they want
Read MoreParliament is a social media friendly space
Parliament's powerful Privileges Committee has had a hard look at how social media is being used to report on Parliament ... and decided that everything is working pretty much fine as it is. Hooray!
Read MoreIs Jeremy Corbyn the Donald Trump of the British left?
It's one thing to galvinise the base, quite another to win over the general electorate. And it's hard to see a strategy which Jeremy Corbyn can use to achieve that
Read MoreMy sole contribution to the great flag conspiracy
Will taking the Union Jack off New Zealand's flag "open the gates of hell" and give John Key absolute power? No. No it won't.
Read More"Into the River" should not have been banned
The reasons given for imposing an order stopping anyone from being able to access Into the River do not justify it. The order is wrong.
Read MoreWon't someone PLEASE think of the children?
Just how dangerous can a book be? And in order to combat that danger, how far should our expressive freedoms be restrained?
Read MoreAylan the life-saver... and what comes next
How long has it been since the death of a single child has saved so many other lives? And now that we are paying attention, how do we get the next step right?
Read MoreIt was a catastrophically wrong decision not to intervene to stop Assad
Today’s refugee crisis is one result of doing nothing to stop Bashar al-Assad after he used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.
Everyone talks about the human consequences of intervention. But we also need to look at the human consequences of doing nothing.
Read MoreUnderlying Trade Deals
This was an introduction to a presentation by Stephen Jacobi: "TPP – Where to from Here (And How Did We Get Here Anyway)?" To a NZIIA lecture, 2 September 2015. (Some editing)
Read MoreWe can do something right now - refugee crisis
There are ninety towns in New Zealand with a population between 5,000 and 20,000. If each of those towns took ten refugees, and our larger cities took 100 each, we’d triple our quota to nearly 3000 without any going to Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington.
New Zealand would be a proud example of practical, no-nonsense compassion.