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
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A 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 MoreToday’s Vicars of Bray
The ease with which independents in the policy networks switch their allegiance when governments or ministers change tells us something about how New Zealand’s wider government system in works.
Read MoreRedesigning the Welfare State
A new report raises questions about the past and future of the support that we give to those in need.
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 MoreBy their acts ye shall know them
Wearing a wig is not a form of expression. Depending, that is, upon the sort of wig it is. And why the person is wearing it. Maybe. Hope that clears things up for you.
Read MoreTaxing for Wellbeing
Can we extend our tax system to make it more suitable for a modern (post-neoliberal) nation?
Read MoreAre Share Prices Important?
How Do Share Markets Work?
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 MoreThe Arrogance of Experts
Poor work gets echoed if it is sensational enough and suits ideological preconceptions..
Read MoreThe New Government’s First Hundred Days.
What has it told us about the next three years?
Read MoreThe Future of Free Trade Agreements
This column was first posted at https://www.newsroom.co.nz/.
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 MoreCommonsense about Measuring Poverty
Treasury made a egregious error in its calculation of the impact of Labour’s tax package on poverty. Can we learn from it?
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 MoreHow Economically Radical Will Today’s Labour-led Government Be?
These are notes prepared as a background for a ‘Pundit’ interview on RNZ Nights with Bryan Crump on 23 January, 2018.
Read MoreLegalFling - whatever it does, it does not create a legally binding contract
The makers of app LegalFling claim it creates a "legally binding contract" for sex that can result in remedies for breach, including enforcement of penalty clauses. I think it doesn't.
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