I came to New Zealand in the 1980s, and it was a very decent place to live back then. At a time when Britain was starting to deal with race riots due to immigration, New Zealand was a broad contrast. The people were great, the culture was familiar and, above
Although I voted on the second day of advanced voting, I am still watching the entire election campaign with great interest. This election is about swinging voters, and also the large number of ‘undecided’ voters that the polls continue to throw up. That makes it interesting. It is possible that
David Seymour is currently on the radio telling listeners to ignore promises made by politicians. This is a strange thing for a politician to say, particularly as ACT has a considerable manifesto containing a large number of policies it will be hoping to get past National – and possibly New Zealand
I watched TVNZ News on Thursday 28 September. (I did this so that you didn’t have to) and, honestly, it was a disgrace. According to the radio during the day, Hipkins had clearly won the second Leaders’ Debate the previous evening (Wednesday), and the knives of the oh-so-biased media
I was considering voting for ACT at the election. Maybe I still will, but I have to admit, David Seymour’s recent antics have made me think twice. The election is now only a few weeks away. If voting mirrors the current polling in any way, we should have a
Like most of us, I am delighted to see the trend in the polls showing that a centre-right government is more and more likely next month. Momentum seems to be gathering for a change of government. Even the media, with their enormous left-wing bias, seem resigned to the fact that
Christopher Luxon has been criticised for constantly pointing out that the election is not about him, or about Chris Hipkins. This criticism came from the wonderful Tova OBrien, who was roundly rebuffed for her efforts by Chris Penk. In an amusing tweet, Penk pointed out that Tova was in no
At the 2020 election the Greens proposed a wealth tax. I remember being horrified that, if Labour needed the Greens to govern, they might make the introduction of a wealth tax one of their bottom lines. While we had often discussed a capital gains tax, this was the first time
Winston is back. As the election draws nearer we will be hearing more and more from him. It follows a familiar pattern. He is a master at manipulating the media, who will chase him down the street for a single comment. He will come out with policies designed to attract
So here we go again. University of Auckland Taxation Law Professor Craig Elliffe says we need a capital gains tax… just as the final touches are being put to the 2023 Budget. Are we being softened up? Actually, I do think we need a capital gains tax in some form,
I’m not really intending to make this a series, but the response to my last two articles has been surprising. So let’s make it a trifecta. Let’s talk about Winston. Winston Peters. The Lazarus of the political scene. He has resurrected himself more times than an extra
My article Why Is National Not in the Lead got a strong response from our readers and a large number of comments. In reading the responses, two things hit me like the proverbial brick. Here is the first, in a comment from Gazotaki: Challenging the speaker is unheard of within
After the last three years, the National Party ought to be streets ahead of the government in the polls. This has been the most divisive government ever, from the attacks on democracy, to their soft approach to crime, to their hijacking our water system, to their attacks on our farmers,
At the beginning of last week something strange happened. Every media outlet was talking about this person, this ‘anti-trans activist’ Posie Parker, who was coming to our country. It was on the TV1 News every night last week, and it was on Newstalk ZB every time I turned on the
Hello everyone. It’s been a while. I have been busy entertaining my brother and sister-in-law who came to visit at the beginning of February and went home last week. My brother had never been to New Zealand before, so I wanted to make his visit a holiday that he
Last week I wrote about how the Reserve Bank has got it wrong by reducing interest rates to close to zero, and then pushing them up at a rate of knots when inflation, that they created, started to hit. Some of you disagreed with that opinion, and in particular some
