Articles by Phil Conroy

For years New Zealand First has been politically underestimated. Written off. Declared finished. · Told its support base was ageing out. · Yet somehow, election after election, Winston Peters keeps proving political commentators wrong. Now, as New Zealand heads toward the 2026 General Election, a growing number of voters are beginning to ask a serious question: · What if New Zealand First is no longer simply a coalition partner? · What if it…

For years, New Zealanders have been told that giving unelected representatives voting rights on council committees was about inclusion, partnership, and better decision-making. This week, the Government effectively said something many ratepayers have been saying for a long time. · Advice can be appointed. · Power should be elected. · The Government has announced that voting rights on council committees will be restricted to elected councillors.…

There’s a growing anger across New Zealand and it’s not hard to see why. · Scroll through any community page, any comment thread, any local discussion group, and the pattern is unmistakable: people are fed up with food prices. They’re not just frustrated they’re angry. · And the assumption driving that anger seems logical on the surface. · Fuel prices have come down. So why haven’t food prices followed? · But here’s the uncomfortable reality:…

Out in the Waikato, where the river runs like it always has, steady, quiet, certain, there was a way of life that didn’t need explaining. · Not perfect. Not easy. But real. · Tama grew up in it. · A Life Without Labels · Born in the late 20s, Māori mum, Pākehā dad. Back then that wasn’t a label, it was just family. Just how things were. · You didn’t sit around defining yourself. You worked, you showed up, you pulled your weight, and you looked…

Cutting Through the Noise · There is a lot of noise around government spending, debt, and who is responsible for what. Most of it comes from people mixing annual spending, total debt, and political framing without separating what is structural, what is emergency, and what is long-term obligation. · To understand it properly, you have to separate three things: what the government spends each year, what it earns each year, and what it has…

New Zealand likes to describe itself as sovereign. Independent. Self-sufficient. A clean, green island nation standing on its own two feet. But when you strip the slogans away and look at what actually keeps this country running, the question becomes harder to ignore: · How exactly is New Zealand sovereign today? · Because in 2026, New Zealand is more dependent on the outside world than at any other point in modern history. · Not…

We hold our farmers to some of the highest standards in the world and then wonder why local food costs what it does. I’ve spent my life working with animals, raising them carefully, and making sure every step is done right. I’m accredited, audited regularly, and every animal that leaves my farm is tracked and accounted for. I invest in proper transport, infrastructure, and paperwork, and I follow every rule not only because it’s the right…