I will never forget the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011. None of us will, of course. But one of the things that stands out in my mind was how quickly the USAR crew arrived from Australia. They were here by late afternoon, after the earthquake had struck just before 1.
Matthew Hooton nails it once again. For those still committed to reality-based politics, Ardern’s “year of delivery” is as credible as her earlier promise to be “transformational”. KiwiBuild, the Billion Trees programme and the Provincial Growth Fund handing out only 3 per cent of the money Shane Jones has
I hate Seven Sharp. I hate Hilary Barry’s supercilious attitude to just about everything, particularly Jeremy Wells, whom she treats like a wayward teenager rather than a journalist (okay, comedian) in his own right. Unfortunately, I’m currently at the house with no smart TV, and therefore no Netflix,
Winston Peters, our Foreign Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, travels to Washington again this week to try to secure a trade deal with the US, particularly over steel tariffs. Winston was talking up his chances of pulling off a deal, seeming confident that he will manage it this time.
If you thought compulsory insulation, compulsory kitchen and bathroom fans and compulsory fixed heaters were enough, you are going to be disappointed. More than a year ago, the government announced that rental losses were going to be ringfenced. This has now passed into law… not that you would know about
I watched the first part of TVNZ’s series ‘That’s a Bit Racist’, and it was the most biased, one-sided and in itself racist programme that I had ever seen. It was brought about, of course, by the dreadful Christchurch massacre, but that was the first mistake. The mosque
With a rapidly growing population and an infrastructure that has not kept up, the humble motor vehicle is still the transport mode of choice for most people. No matter how much the government tries to tell us otherwise, most of us will not bike to work. It is simply not
What does Simon Bridges do about finding a coalition partner? Does he do what John Key did and refuse to deal with NZ First? Or does he offer NZ First an olive branch? Perhaps he does what he is doing at the moment, which is sitting on the fence, undecided
We have students wagging school. We have councils and even whole countries declaring climate emergencies when, for the most part, the weather is still behaving pretty much as it normally does. I mean – it is winter, so it is cold, right? Yes, it is. Jacinda claimed that climate change was
*The rumours about the 757 were not true Something weird is going on. Politicians take holidays all the time, and no one bats an eyelid. Everyone is entitled to take time out with their families. July is a common time for politicians to take a break. It is the middle
… courtesy of the military… Jacinda, Clarke and Neve took off on holiday together on Monday, heading away for a well-earned break from all the stresses and struggles of running a country and visiting schools and kindergartens. They arrived in Rarotonga, where Clarke will use the time to film some shots
Do you remember when Jacinda promised no more taxes at the 2017 election? Now we have additional fuel taxes, tourist levies and an extended Bright Line test, just to mention a few. Well, it is not over yet. The Government is signalling its intention to slash the price of imported
The Coalition of Losers campaigned on solving the housing crisis, claiming that they would build 10,000 houses a year for 10 years. It took 18 months for them to fail spectacularly, but many people, both inside and outside of the construction industry knew perfectly well that they would never
Wellington has already declared a climate emergency, even though it is as cold this winter as ever. Yes, we have had a few nice winter days, but the nights are as cold as ever… the wind bites as much as ever… but the Wellington City Council knows best and have
It took 4 days to get more than 40 complaints made against landlords who have not fitted the required insulation in their rental properties. So many things make me shake my head over this. First, there is the element of gross stupidity. If your landlord is the government, you might
I felt I had to write about this. In the midst of Jacinda wanting to virtue signal us all to death by declaring a climate emergency for the whole of New Zealand, we get a glimpse of some of the real problems facing our country… and they are not pretty.
