Articles by Phil Conroy

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…