If we went back several centuries and peeled away all the legislation which forced us to care for each other, would mankind be voluntarily philanthropic and benevolent?
Read MoreRodney Hide
With nary a whisper of drama, signifying much
Pita Sharples cut a fine figure at the UN. But what, if anything, did it all mean?
Read MoreTo pee or not to pee
What do Housing Minister Phil Heatley and North Shore City mayor Andrew Williams have in common – beyond a couple of bottles of wine?
Read MoreTurning ECan inside out: Creech governance review, exposed?
Is the government's investigation of the performance of Environment Canterbury open to more robust critique than it has been getting?
Read MoreSuper city debate gets super heated
Aucklanders are giving the government’s super city plan the kind of reception that makes a lead balloon look positively stratospheric. Can Rodney Hide and Steven Joyce pull the Key coalition’s irons out of the fire?
Read MoreAuckland heads for a "Toyota Moment"
Auckland is heading for a real “Toyota Moment” – a head-on collision into the reality of out-of-control growth, with Rodney Hide in the crash dummy’s seat
Read MoreHide & Harawira: sorry should be the hardest word
Hide's apology is out of kilter with earlier statements and behaviour, while any apology from Harawira would deman both him and us. It's no wonder voters have a low opinion of these crisis-time converts
Read MoreFrom Power to the people
So far, Simon Power is doing the right thing by the people and their constitution. Rodney Hide? Not so much
Read MoreWobbly and messy
The benign winter is over but spring is proving autumnal for the Government
Read MoreA call to arms: Peters and Brown enter the battlefield
Winston Peters and Len Brown both made declarations of intent at the weekend that promise a battle royal on the right of New Zealand politics
Read MoreSuper-City needs super-glue
The rush to reshape
Don Brash as Productivity Tsar: this year's biggest political joke so far
To close the gap with Australia, will Brash dare to follow the Australian example? Or will it be Rogernomics: the next chapter?
Read MoreSlimming down the up-sized public sector
The recession is going to change everything else in
The hide of Hide
Local government minister Rodney Hide didn't earn the nickname "Rhino" for nothing. Still trying to ramrod Super-City government into Auckland, he is now taking on the rest of New Zealand
Read MoreMt Albert – the nearest place to Hell
At the best of times, by-elections are never pretty. These are not the best of times, and
Super-City – the shape of things to come
Official papers released by Local Government Minister Rodney Hyde show his blitzkrieg plan for
Squawking seagulls, lunatics, and lone sheep
Debate quickly degenerated into abuse as the steam started rising over the Government’s bklitzkreig plan to unite
David Garrett's inconvenient rights problem
David Garrett's contemptuous dismissal of the Attorney-General's Bill of Rights Act report on his cherished Three Strikes Bill shows he either doesn't understand the Bill of Rights, or doesn't believe his bill can be justified
Read MoreWhat's Rodney Hide up to?
With Auckland's governance inquiry drawing to a close soon, we can be pretty sure that our shiny, new, super-slim minister for Local Government is developing a cunning plan
Read More2008 redux: Farewell Awards
Spreading the Christmas cheer before he takes time off to finish his next book, Jon reviews 2008's stand-out political performances, for good and ill,
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