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Michael Bassett Political historian Michael Bassett CNZM is the author of 15 books, was a regular columnist for the Fairfax newspapers and a former Minister in the 1984–1990 governments. bassettbrashandhide.com The Labour Government lost the 2023 election when its support halved from 2020. It deserved to lose on
Who remembers the song “Sailing Away”, the song that became the anthem for our hopes of winning the America’s Cup in 1987? The song, sung to the tune of “Pokarekare Ana” by many local singers and personalities, was number one on the singles charts for nine weeks: a record
Emeritus Professor Rex Tauati Ahdar Faculty of Law University of Otago The rainbow. Once the great sign of God’s covenant with humanity not to ever flood the Earth again (Genesis 9:9-17), it has now taken on a different hue. It has been co-opted by the homosexual community as
Don Brash bassettbrashandhide.com There has been fairly predictable outrage this week at the revelation by Judith Collins, the minister in charge of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and Security Intelligence Service (SIS), that China spied on our Parliament in 2021. China has denied the accusation, but knowing Judith
Bold, Focussed and Determined, that’s The BFD and we are proud to announce the buyout and the rescue of Stuff in order to properly protect journalism in New Zealand. Brash and positive are some of the words being used to describe the buyout of Stuff by the BFD. The
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The raising of a rainbow flag on a Norfolk Pine tree outside Destiny Church at Wiri in South Auckland this morning has led to an alleged assault being investigated by the police. However, Destiny Church has hit back, describing the claims as “mischief-making” and suggesting the tree climber already had
Police are treating the painting over of a rainbow crossing in Auckland this morning as a hate crime. […] In a statement, Auckland City Central Area Commander Inspector Grant Tetzlaff said police made a number of enquiries into the incident on Thursday afternoon and founds [sic] some items of interest. Officers
Dr Guy David Hatchard hatchardreport.com Guy is an international advocate of food safety and natural medicine. He received his undergraduate degree in Logic and Theoretical Physics from the University of Sussex and his Ph.D. in Psychology from Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield Iowa. He was formerly a senior
Nicholas Khoo Associate Professor of International Politics and Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Indo-Paciifc Affairs (Christchurch), University of Otago. Last week’s visit of the Australian and British defence and foreign ministers to Adelaide and Canberra is another step in the evolution of the trilateral AUKUS security and technology partnership.
democracyproject.substack.com Why is the National Party doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s policy
Many years ago, I was interviewing a financial planner on the subject of succession planning. One her greatest bugbears, she said, was people who were swimming in a fortune of assets, but still determined to get the aged pension. “You’re sitting on a ten million dollar property — you don’
As Anthony Hopkins once admitted, “actors are pretty stupid”. Nowhere is this more obvious than when actors, as they regularly do, subject us to the dreary ritual of lecturing us on current affairs. Mostly, of course, these overpaid, preening parrots are merely doing what they do for a living: squawking
Michael Lambert Research Fellow and Director of Widening Participation, Lancaster University “For the decades of pain that you have suffered, I offer today a sincere and heartfelt and unreserved apology. We were wrong.” One year ago, on March 22 2023, the then first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, stood up at Holyrood
I rarely put much credence in celebrity opinions, because celebrities are generally not very bright, not very worldly, and terrified of saying anything they know their peers (and paymasters) won’t approve of. That said, occasionally, a celebrity does something that breaks the mould and shows a rare streak of
The Doctor There are three systems of jurisprudence in the world. The civil system used in Europe, south and Central America and various other countries that have Spain, Portugal, France and Italy as colonial powers in their past. The second is Islamic based law used in Islamic countries.[i] The
