I do not often write columns that I later come to regret. But I wrote one for Newsroom in January 2022 that turned out to be completely wrong (Russia has won the war without firing a single shot, 25 January 2022). Read more
For three decades we treated defence as a peace dividend to be spent down, not an insurance policy to be maintained. Every government did it, to some degree, because the neighbourhood felt safe and there were always more pressing places to put the money. Read more
Picture a councillor about to vote on whether her council should sell its shares in the local airport. Management tells her that voting one way could expose the council to legal risk. Read more
One of the most important things teachers can do to help their students improve is to give them feedback on their work. To be effective, feedback must be timely and specific. Read more
Greece. Crete. Read more
Over the past fortnight, both ACT and New Zealand First announced policies targeted at those who live in New Zealand as permanent residents rather than as citizens. In both cases, the announcements aimed to push permanent residents to take up citizenship, to accept a sharply degraded experience living here, or to leave. Read more
There was a line that made the rounds when Trump first campaigned to be President: his promises should be taken seriously but not literally. Last week, New Zealand First promised that, from 2029, only citizens would be able to collect superannuation. Read more
“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods,” H.L. Mencken wrote in 1936. Read more
This week, the results of the ninth round of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) were released. PISA enables countries to track their educational performance over time. Read more
The four months before an election aren’t great for those who care about good policy. Politicians’ competence at other times is questionable. Read more
Two speeches from the Crown’s most senior lawyers over the past month have answered a question that should never have been in doubt: Who makes the law? Attorney-General Chris Bishop spoke to the Law Association on 6 August. Read more
It does not happen often that I set my alarm to just before 4am to watch the results come in from a provincial election in Germany. But that is what I did yesterday for Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany’s east. Read more
In April 1901, a Bavarian immigrant baker named Joseph Lochner was arrested in Utica, New York. Unlike the larger bakeries, which worked two shifts, Lochner employed a single crew: his bakers arrived in the evening, prepared the dough, slept a few hours on the premises and baked before dawn. Read more
Voting opens today in the most important election of 2026. And no, this is not the General Election. Read more
Imagine two paddocks at the edge of a city. They have the same soil and access to the same roads and pipes. Read more
