The right’s candidate for mayor isn’t remotely ready to be mayor of a super city.
Person of Interest
Shamubeel is right - Get @X!@ real about immigration!
Blaming the Auckland housing bubble on immigrants is like saying 'cars are too expensive in New Zealand because the Chinese are buying all our cars.’
Read MoreFortune cookies for all parties in Northland
The loudest message went to National. The loudest clap was for Winston (not NZ First). But each party can take fortune cookies from the result in Northland this weekend.
First National. The secret of John Key's Teflon popularity; 'don’t be what we know you really are - Tories.' When National inhabits the centre ground, and behaves like a Labour-lite government, they're hard to beat.
Maybe it was a bottle of Armand de Brignac Nebuchadnezzar Champagne ...
Donghua Liu's alleged donations to Labour need more scrutiny. But the Police won't be the ones to do it.
Read MoreA taxonomy of scandal
A scandal can be distinguished from a controversy. Immigration policy became controversial in the 90s, the foreshore and seabed in the 2000s. Even though there were bungles, and offensive views and policies were aired, the underlying issue was always sharp disagreement over core values and policies.
In a scandal, the underlying issue is wrong-doing.
Read MoreNational’s muddled message on economy could help Labour
Why the Crimean border matters to New Zealand
There’s been a nasty dose of ‘border relativism' in the debate about Crimea and it misses the point; you can’t have a referendum at the point of a gun, doesn’t matter what history says.
Read MoreWarning: Annual minimum wage debate could lead to hysteria and unscientific claims
It never ceases to amaze me how outraged the richest people get when you suggest paying poor people a little bit more.
Act’s new leader Jamie Whyte said it was "hard to think of a crueler policy" for people most in need of work than increasing the minimum wage.
Say what? Cruel to pay people on the lowest incomes 50c more? Surely he can think of something crueler than that, like not having a minimum wage at all.
Read MoreJohn Key’s horrible weekend
National is in trouble.
Tonight’s TV3 poll put NZ First over 5%, which could make them king maker. No-one knows, least of all John Key, who they’ll pick after the election. But we do know Winston has a case for utu against John Key.
Dotcom hasn’t been extradited because it’s not clear he broke the law
If the FBI’s case against Kim Dotcom is so strong, then why hasn’t he been extradited yet? Larry Williams and Cam Slater disagreed with me on Newstalk ZB tonight when I said he had to be accused of a crime that is also a crime (carrying a similar sanction) in New Zealand.
Read MoreThatcher's ghost still haunts - 1984 cabinet papers released
The release of UK cabinet papers from 1984 show that Margaret Thatcher lied about the number of mines she planned to close, and reveal her government's deep belief that a certain level of unemployment was not only necessary but good.
Read MoreThe left must stand up to abuse
It’s time for the tolerant, open and compassionate left to stand up to vilification and abuse when it is practised by sections of the left.
Read MoreNo, we’re not the most secular nation in the world
‘Jesus is the reason for the season’, says the bumper sticker; not according to three out of four Kiwis who didn’t go to any church on Christmas day, or any other day for that matter.
Read MoreOrganise to Win
Of six by-elections since 2008, only one, Mt Albert, looks anything like Christchurch East in the scale of the Labour result.
It's no coincidence those two seats had similar results: They were planned and run on the same organisational template. None of the other by-elections were.
Read MoreFive Challenges for David Cunliffe
We only need to look across the Tasman to see what David Cunliffe should do now.
John McTernan’s ‘Five Things the Australian Labor Party Needs To Do Now’ and Julia Gillard’s piece on ‘Power, Purpose and Labor’s Future’ should be compulsory reading.
Here are a few thoughts for the To Do list:
The Greens have done the right thing
The greens are right to back down on QE. Their critics on the left are wrong to make QE a symbol of progressive orthodoxy.
Read MoreEd Snowden could come to NZ
The latest leaker superstar, Ed Snowden could end up flatting with Dotcom in New Zealand says international lawyer Geoffrey Robertson. That's one way to reverse the brain drain
Read MoreLisa Carrington - a star is born
The Olympic gold medal winner has the country at her feet, and could do for some time
Read MoreThe rise and fall of Peter Whittall
This week's Pike River hearings have focused on former CEO Peter Whittall. Once showered with public acclaim, Whittall is now in a very deep hole indeed, dug in part by his own denial
Read MoreDo not go gently into that good night ...
The sight of a Minister reading a speech to Parliament about a Bill he clearly hadn't even read has done what not even the Electoral Finance Act could: it's killed off a vital part of political discourse in New Zealand.
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