The vote this election was quite predictable, but the journey of the campaign was not and whichever new government we get, it will be very different from the John Key years
Read MorePolitics Makes Strange Bedfellows
This is a series of quantitative thoughts on the election outcome. It is based on the 2017 election night vote. Specials are likely to change precise voting shares and even seats. However potential changes do not invalidate the column’s overall conclusions.
Read MoreThe morning after the night before
What do we know, don't we know and think we know after the election night results?
Read MoreBill makes history before heading into the Winston maze
With so much analysis it can be easy to miss the wood for the trees at this point. While there's still nothing certain about our next government, we can look back to look forward and recognise the historic nature of this result
Read MoreHow your vote may turn into a government
So who might be able to work with whom after this weekend's election? Well, it's complicated...
Read MoreNot That Kind of Voting
What the Electoral Commission’s attempt to boost turnout gets wrong about voting, and what we can learn from it.
Which New Zealand are you voting for?
In election week, it all depends on what you see when you look around the country that will determine who gets to celebrate on Saturday night
Read MoreJust when will the fat lady start singing this election?
We'll know the election night results very early on Saturday evening. But we likely won't know the election outcome until early October.
Read MoreAn Alternative to Neoliberalism?
Is public spending stuck in the vicelike grip of our quasi-Austerian economic policy?
Read MoreDid Murray McCully mislead Parliament?
If Murray McCully told Parliament that MFAT told him legal risk justified the Saudi Sheep deal, then why does MFAT say they never told him that?
Read MoreTime for true transparency (& I don't just mean tax)
The lack of transparency in this campaign is galling, but it's not just around tax and water. Under MMP we're voting for a coalition government and it's time politicians started acting like it
Read MoreFudging to the left of me, ghosts to the right:The lolly scramble election
As often as they say "let me be clear", politicians from both major parties this election are being anything but clear with voters. In a lolly scramble election, we deserve better
Read MorePressures to be Selfish
The last column described the philosophy of economist James Buchanan as it applied to the United States. What is its relevance to New Zealand?
Read MoreElections make some people say some silly things
Advance voting began today, and in two weeks time the whole shouting match will be done. None to soon, given the effect it seems to be having on some people.
Read MoreNo Gareth, you shall not go to the debate tonight
Gareth Morgan's attempt to have the High Court thrust him into tonight's TVNZ minor party leaders' debate failed. On the whole, taking everything into account, that's probably a good thing.
Read MoreIs Gareth Morgan different from the rest, or just one more?
So is Gareth Morgan going to go to court to force his way onto TVNZ's minor party debate? That story is a familiar one to me, but it also will be a defining moment for TOP
Read MoreRisky Business: Decision 17 debate has candidates on slippery ground
National and Labour leaders show just how close it is and how much is at stake, by upping the risk factor with new policy announcements live in the second leaders debate
Read MoreWealth’s Political Stealth
A new biography of James Buchanan, a founder of economist’s public choice theory, suggests he was not only anti-democratic but was working with others to revoke democracy in America.
Read More"Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts ... "
National apparently doesn't think gang members with criminal records are properly human. Or, rather, they don't deserve to be given the same rights that full humans possess.
Read MoreA taxing debate night, but everything's changed
It was a wonkish, nervy, tepid debate, but the political earthquake had come earlier and it changes the way we look at Election 17
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