New Zealand’s rules to regulate money in politics can now officially be declared broken. Although, in theory, political parties are required to publicly declare any large donations, we now know that in practice they sometimes don’t, and the enforcement and legal consequences can be extremely weak. We know this because this month the Court of …

Last month an Australian billionaire property mogul made headlines when he welcomed more “pain” for Australian workers through increasing unemployment to remind them they are lucky to be in a job. Gurner Group chief executive Tim Gurner took aim at “unproductive tradies” for being “paid a lot to do not too much” and younger workers …

BY THE END of this week, or the next, New Zealand will have a government. It is unlikely to be a pleasant one. The three political leaders, and the three political parties they lead, comprise the most unlikely trinity. Whether they are able to work together constructively for more than a few months is a …

Incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is now being openly mocked and ridiculed by political commentators for his failure to achieve a coalition government. There are certainly signs that Luxon hasn’t managed the process well, and raising questions about competency at this early stage is a poor start to government. The most savage criticism of Luxon …

New Zealand’s corporate lobbyists are currently carrying out major manoeuvres in order to ensure they are in the best possible position to influence the new Christopher Luxon-led government. Despite some of these moves being blatantly outrageous, there are no serious rules to regulate any of this. NZ’s “most influential unelected official” is now a lobbyist …

Is it a problem that lobbying firms are being given contracts by government departments? Such firms, who assist private businesses and vested interests in their bid to influence government, are being hired by the government and given access to decision-making processes and officials, therefore potentially providing private sector clients with privileged access to power. In …

“CONSEQUENCES” – it’s a word that acquires an ominous quality in the mouths of political radicals. As in: “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from its consequences.” Or, as Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa Packer expressed it, when asked what would happen if the Act Party secured its referendum on Te Tiriti from its …

LIKE THE WAR in Ukraine, the war in Gaza is serving as a remarkable litmus test for the Left. It is testing its moral compass, its understanding of international law, its grasp of geopolitical realities and, not least, its awareness of what the PR mavens call “the optics”. A substantial portion, even, perhaps, a majority, …

In recent decades the New Zealand Parliament has become more representative of some of the historically neglected demographics in our society. As I told TVNZ’s Q+A programme in the weekend, it’s become browner, younger, more female and more gay, and this is good progress – see: New MP intake heavy on farmers, light on unionists. …

Two of the most significant policy disputes in the run-up to New Zealand’s 2023 election took place within our major parties rather than between them. In May Christopher Luxon pulled out of the cross-party agreement on housing densification – a policy developed by his own deputy leader – and in July Chris Hipkins confirmed he’d …

DISINFORMATION has been part and parcel of the political process since, well, forever. It was only in the Nineteenth Century, however, that the need to create narratives advantageous to one’s own cause, and disadvantageous to one’s opponents, gained access to technologies enabling disinformation to be communicated at great speed and on a massive scale. With …

Who will the new National Government listen to when it decides how to govern? An early indication may be seen in who Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon has brought in to train his new MPs and ministers. It was reported on Monday by Newstalk ZB that, because Luxon acknowledges his team’s lack of governing experience, the …

In April this year, when Kiri Allan was still Minister of Justice, she launched a review of lobbying. Justice officials were asked to investigate how corporate lobbying might be better regulated, following the controversy of ex-Labour Minister Kris Faafoi setting up a new lobbying firm less than three months after stepping down from his Ministerial …

I ALWAYS WONDERED what it would take to detach the New Zealand working class from Labour. Not all of the working-class, obviously, but enough to strip the party of the demographic heft that, for more than a century, has made it a decisive electoral player. Now I know, but it took a fair few wrong …

The Labour Party has crashed from 50 per cent of the vote in 2020 to around 27 per cent in 2023. The election loss has been described in the media over the weekend as a “bloodbath”, “horror show”, “utter devastation”, “a loss of biblical proportions”, and a “historic defeat”. What are leftwing and progressive commentators …

With only a day to go before voting closes in the 2023 general election, the turnout so far is incredibly low. This suggests the final turnout could be the lowest in New Zealand electoral history. Such a result will reflect the fact that this year’s hollow and unsatisfactory election is a sign New Zealand politics …

WHAT HAS CHRIS BISHOP SEEN that has so unhinged him? Why would National’s Campaign Manager, whose party is currently attracting by far the largest share of voter support, suddenly start babbling about a second election? In all its long history of responsible government: from the 1850s to the present day; New Zealand has never been …