How They Set the Pattern
Māori and their left-wing allies are both well aware that when the key institutions of the state are in your hands, guns are an unwelcome distraction.
Chris Trotter
Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in NZ.
Covid-19 and the State
Exposing the purposes of power. When people come to believe that the danger was exaggerated and measures to combat it are barely effective or even harmful, then the state’s power disintegrates and it can only be buttressed by ever-more-draconian controls.
This Is Such a Shameful Capitulation
We can have democracy or we can have indigenous sovereignty. We can’t have both.
The US Is Now Transformed
The Republican Party can now become a truly ‘national’ political institution.
This Is Project Fear Unleashed
The disaffection with official America runs so deep that its condemnation of Trump was received by roughly half of the adult American population as a powerful recommendation.
Is Prebble a Warning Shot?
Why then fire Prebble as the government’s only, lonely, warning shot? Why not clean out all 22 of the tribunal’s sitting members?
No Place for Love in a Mean Season
If National’s leading liberals want to be loved, then they should each go out and buy themselves a dog.
“Iwi versus Peewee”: A Good, Old-Fashioned Debate
It is the particular tragedy of contemporary New Zealand politics that, with the noble exception of Bradbury’s Working Group, the critical cultural, political and constitutional issues raised by the Treaty Principles Bill will not be fairly, frankly or fearlessly debated anywhere else.
There Was No ‘Project 2023’
The fate of the coalition Government’s ill-thought-out effort to roll back the cultural changes of the Labour Government highlights the difficulties of acting without first securing the active support of both the state apparatus and the wielders of the society’s ‘soft power’.
The Treaty of Waitangi Was a Deal – Not a Sacred Covenant
It is difficult to argue that Seymour’s pithy compression of the three key elements of the treaty doesn’t capture the essence of its purpose admirably.
Two Suns in the Sky
For New Zealanders alive today, much now depends upon whether Queen Ngāwai takes after Elizabeth or Mary.
The Rednecks’ Revenge
What if, sick of being talked down to from above, ordinary New Zealanders decided the time was right to push back a little harder from below?