An alcoholic 58 year old man with twenty convictions for drink driving has been disqualified indefinitely but keeps getting his licence back.
Read MoreYour Punt
State tenant subsidies, stigma and spirit
Stigma against state tenants is perpetuated when journalists fail to get the facts right
Read MoreThe Reserve Bank Act - time for a review
This year marks 25 years since the Reserve Bank Act 1989 was passed. While it has enjoyed a high degree of cross-party support over that period, the original settlement is unwinding and it is now time for a review. That need not involve throwing the anti-inflation baby out with the bathwater, nor the politicisation of a significant public institution.
Read MoreLiving in fear of full employment
The doctrine of the pre-emptive strike against inflation is self-immolating. Controlling (suppressing) demand growth invariably limits investment in new capacity and so the ability to improve productivity and/or maintain competitiveness.
Read MoreIs global economy really on the mend?
The IMF's latest assessment of the world's economy contains a surprising policy suggestion. Should we be concerned (again), or is it just another part of the great plan?
Read MoreOmbudsman: Arthur Taylor & segregated prisoners subject to cruel inhuman treatment
The Ombudsman has released a highly criticial report into the eight month segregation of Arthur Taylor in Auckland prison. Dame Beverley Wakem says the conditions for segregated prisoners "could be described as cruel and inhuman for the purposes of the UN Convention against Torture"
Read MoreThe dark side of the rock star economy
Why is there this clamour for a rise in interest rates? Just what are we trying to achieve?
Read MoreEQC time for a rebuild?
EQC is broken and needs to be rebuilt. Or does it? If the complexity of the situation, some complaints and conflict are to be expected, right?
Read MoreThe wonderful, the woeful and the weird in New Zealand sport
The laudable, lamentable and laughable in sport this year
Read More80% of countries use torture – New Zealand is one
The Corrections Department removes opiate pain killers, ritalin, and even anti-depressants from prisoners. It uses a 'mimimum dental services policy'. This causes intense suffering for thousands of prisoners. So does it amount to torture?
Read MoreHuge risk of environmental damage and loss of local democracy from planning reforms
Proposed planning reforms have been heavily contested by environmental, community, legal and professional organisations around the country
The Inquiry into the Inquiry into the Inquiry into the Inquiry
How it all came to pass
Read MoreSilence of the lambs: freedom of speech in New Zealand
A steady erosion of human rights in New Zealand through legislation is being accompanied by Ministerial attempts to avoid searching scrutiny of these measures, and to silence dissenting voices.
Read MoreThe GCSB Bill and press freedom
With a few exceptions, much of the GCSB media coverage has been superficial, and complicit in personal attacks and dismissive denials. Media had a vital role to play in answering the many questions around this Bill, and failed.
Read MoreWhere is Edward J Snowden's head?
I was surprised the dominant response to the Ed Snowden leaks in the United States has not been concern at invasion of privacy and the misuse of state power, but anger at the leaker... until I remembered something about US DNA
Read MoreStuart Broad and the Decline of the West
Is failing to "walk" in cricket symptomatic of a wider malaise?
Read MoreOut Of Touch With Poverty, Mr Jones?
Sir Bob Jones knows there's no such thing as a free lunch, but his cafe codswallop shows the multi-millionaire is woefully ignorant about reality of poverty in New Zealand
Read MoreIt's Something in the Water
How can we move forward with the fluoridation debate? Hamilton City Council has an obligation to show that its decision will not cause harm
Read MoreFamily Care Payments a Bureaucratic Merry-Go-Round
A mother explains why the Ministry of Health's base model for caring for the disabled is based on factual error and discrimination.
Read MoreS59: Was the popular will thwarted?
The 2007 law change prohibiting parents from hitting their children is being quoted as an example of frustration of the popular will by Parliament. But was it?
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