Articles by Mykeljon Winckel

Every year, millions of Americans celebrate Independence Day with pride, ceremony and a shared sense of national identity. New Zealand has no equivalent. While our constitutional journey followed a very different path, the absence of a widely recognised day celebrating our nationhood raises an important question: have we forgotten the story that unites us as New Zealanders? A Question Worth Asking · Every year on the Fourth of July, the United…

The Brian Tamaki firearms case raises questions that reach far beyond one individual, challenging New Zealanders to consider whether expanding preventative police powers are altering the long-standing balance between public safety, due process and individual rights. As Parliament grants broader authority under the Arms Act 1983, the debate is no longer simply about firearms—it is about whether New Zealand is gradually shifting from the…

The Question Nobody Is Asking · As New Zealand heads towards another General Election, Labour leader Chris Hipkins has challenged voters to ask a simple question: · "Are you better off than you were three years ago?" · It is a fair political question. · But perhaps it is not the most important one. · The question New Zealand should be asking is this: · If hundreds of billions of dollars of household wealth disappeared following the Covid…

There is an old saying in journalism: · "Never tell people what to think. Tell them enough so they can think for themselves." · For most of modern history that was exactly how the public consumed information. Editors decided what to publish, journalists gathered the facts, opinion writers argued their case, and readers reached their own conclusions. · The internet changed that. · Suddenly anyone could publish. Corporate media no longer…

Christopher Luxon's latest KiwiSaver announcement is being promoted as a plan to help New Zealanders build wealth and retire with greater financial security. On the surface, it sounds sensible. Who wouldn't want larger retirement savings? Who wouldn't want greater financial independence in later life? · But beneath the headlines sits a deeper question that politicians rarely ask: · At what point does encouragement become compulsion? · And…

The Green Party's latest tax proposal is being marketed as a solution to inequality. I see it differently. I see it as envy dressed up as economic policy. A wealth tax. An inheritance tax. Higher corporate taxes. More levies on productive enterprise. More government intervention into the lives and assets of people who have spent decades building businesses, creating jobs, taking risks and generating prosperity. The question New Zealanders…

Something is deeply wrong with a system where a company director can face prosecution, fines, disqualification, and even imprisonment for misleading shareholders, investors, regulators, or the public, yet politicians can make promises they know cannot be delivered, make statements they know are false, withhold critical information from voters, and suffer little more than a bad headline (if they are lucky). Enough is enough. · This week I came…

At the 2026 St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), leaders from Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Tanzania repeatedly returned to one central theme: sovereignty. Not sovereignty as a slogan, but sovereignty as an economic strategy. Sovereignty of finance. Sovereignty of energy. Sovereignty of technology. Sovereignty of infrastructure. Sovereignty of supply chains. Sovereignty of industry. President Vladimir Putin described what he…

Budget 2026 has been presented as a disciplined roadmap back toward stability. · Finance Minister Nicola Willis framed the budget around restraint, infrastructure, fiscal responsibility and resilience during a period of rising geopolitical uncertainty, fuel shocks and slowing economic growth. And to be fair, some of the numbers are significant. · Billions are being directed into hospitals, roads, rail, schools, energy security and frontline…

New Zealand has always had a pest problem. Possums, rats, stoats and other introduced species damage native ecosystems, threaten bird life and create major management costs. Nobody seriously disputes that action is needed. The real question is not whether pests should be controlled. The real question is whether New Zealand has become trapped in an expensive cycle of poisoning when it should be building industries instead. · Imagine taking…