Can candidates for the Auckland mayoralty next year find a way to move the Ports of Auckland? If so, where to and at what cost?
Read MoreLessons From Greece
Travel extends the mind. Here are some of the things I learned from a recent trip to Greece: about the age of the human condition, about how civilisations end with environmental depletion, about the stresses to the current Greek economy and about how trivial are New Zealand news websites.
Read MoreWe need to talk about the one per cent
One per cent of the world's population now control half its wealth.
The concentration of more and more resources in fewer and fewer hands has actually accelerated since the global financial crisis. This is no accident. It is the outcome of policy decisions made – or avoided – by political leaders either unable to learn the lessons of the crisis or unwilling to act on them.
Read MoreCanada's new Trudeau
An anti-incumbant pro-change wave took hold of Canadian politics this week…thrusting to victory the 43 year old son of one of the country's most enigmatic politicians. Canadians may have had a love-hate relationship with Trudeau Snr., but they sure feel the love for his scion.
Read MoreDixon v R: An easy case that raises hard questions
There's a legal saying that hard cases make bad law. But sometimes the opposite can be true - an apparently easy case can lead a Court into some pretty swampy terrain.
Read MoreWhere is the world economy going?
The more one is certain about the state of an economy, the more one is likely to be wrong; the more one is certain about the state of an economy, the greater the media coverage. No wonder the public is confused.
Read MoreA Third Intifada?
Violence is rocking Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and all Israel's government can come up with is punish the Palestinians even more. It has never worked before. It won't work now.
Read MoreKey-Turnbull: How to get out from under the detention centre shadow
The New Zealanders languishing in Australian detention centres are a stone in the shoe of the first John Key-Malcolm Turnbull meeting this weekend, but there are face-saving ways Turnbull could cut Kiwis some slack
Read MoreScience is golden... But where's the gold?
With our leading science organisations 'right-sizing' and science funding stalled, is the government's approach to science meeting the needs of New Zealand now and in the future?
Read MoreTo every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven
It is now legal for anyone in New Zealand to get hold of and read a copy of Into the River. This happy ending to a sorry saga demonstrates that it perhaps is time for a change of leadership at the Film and Literature Board of Review.
Caution: contains sweary stuff ... you may need to wash your eyes afterwards.
Read MoreComes the rule with no exception
Jane Kelsey's court victory over the evil MFAT/Tim Groser empire is probably too little, too late for her campaign against the TPPA. But it sends some important messages to a range of public actors in New Zealand's governing arrangements.
Read MoreDog-whistle politics and Islamophobia in the Canadian election
With just a week to go in Canada's Federal elections, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been roundly accused of racism and dog-whistle politics in order to draw attention away from the failings of his administration. Next Monday he will know if his tactics have worked.
Read MoreIt ain't over 'till it's over
A couple of recent cases show that being right about the law isn't enough - you also need to get the courts to do what you want. Because if you can't, you may even end up worse off than when you started.
Read MoreOwning New Zealand
How Much of New Zealand Has to Be Owned and Controlled by Foreigners?
Read MoreThe TPP - there's a lot to like
The TPP may not deliver an immediate big bang for our dairy industry. But there's an awful lot to like in it - and New Zealand really has to be a part of it.
Read MoreSuccess - everyone equally unhappy
TPP can help lift incomes in New Zealand but to make a difference for people, there’s a lot more work still to do.
Of TPP's, ISDS's and the Constitution
If the Trans-Pacific Partnership becomes an Agreement, New Zealand will become bound by a set of "Investor State Dispute Settlement" procedures. What are these, and why should anyone care?
Read MoreWinning is all that matters - whatever it takes
You can't get away with much on a rugby field these days. It used to be different, and some argued that whatever was good enough for rugby was good enough for politics
Read MoreRed Peak, red faces - flag turns into a farce
The Greens and National have combined today to add Red Peak to the flag referendum, and in doing so have ensured a troubled process has crossed into slapstick
Read MoreFrom Great Satan to Lesser Satan…not if Republican nominee hopefuls have their way
You would never know from the Republican Presidential nominee hopefuls that they have lost their battle to defeat Obama on the Iran nuclear deal….but electioneering is not known for being mindful of facts.
Read More