Articles in ‘Opinion’

A Growing Public Response · Late on Friday afternoon, the Broadcasting Standards Authority moved on three complaints against The Platform, requesting recordings of broadcasts that were never aired on traditional channels. Each of the programmes in question was published online. · That decision has triggered a significant public response. · Around 12,000 New Zealanders have now written to the Broadcasting Minister through the Free Speech…

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…

Overview · New Zealand’s fuel supply position has firmed noticeably today, with inbound tanker activity increasing and national distribution stabilising. The system is now moving back toward a normal operating rhythm, though underlying structural vulnerabilities remain. · According to independent fuel analyst Dave Trotter of Marsden Point News Radio, vessel activity is trending upward. · "We have a vessel count of nine just now… we have two…

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…

There’s an uncomfortable question sitting just beneath the surface of New Zealand politics: · Is our democracy genuinely representative — or has it become a sophisticated form of vote buying? · Under MMP, political parties campaign on policies designed to win support. That’s expected. That’s politics. But what happens after the votes are counted is where the system begins to fracture. · Because under MMP, elections don’t decide policy. ·…

Why? · The latest poll results are showing a progressive decline in the National Party’s support numbers. · It would be pretty hard to go down from their current position but they seem to be doing a good job of trying to sink further in the polls. · Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for March 2026 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) on 47.5%, down 1% point and effectively tied with the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori…

Every time a New Zealander fills up at the pump, around 10 cents per litre is being added through the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). · At current consumption levels — roughly 8.76 billion litres per year — that equates to: · ~$860 million annually · Not in theory. Not in modelling. Real money. Collected every single day. · A Policy Nearly Two Decades Old · The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme was introduced in 2008 under the Fifth…

After the failure of the Royal Commission on Covid-19, we are all wondering ‘where to from here?’ We are not alone. The entire biotech industry is now planning future expansion bolstered by the ‘findings’ (???) of pandemic inquiries in multiple countries which have failed to criticise biotech experimentation. Bucking the trend of ‘all systems go’, Alina Chan, a molecular biologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and…

On April 8, 2026, London-listed Sunda Energy Plc signed a deal to acquire producing oil and gas assets in Taranaki from Matahio Energy. · The deal was announced publicly on April 9, with an effective date of January 1, 2026. · This was not speculation. · This was a transfer of control over producing assets: · Cheal, Cheal East and Sidewinder fields Existing infrastructure Around 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day production · And the…

New Zealand’s ministers answer to Parliament for departments they cannot control. They cannot choose, direct or remove the chief executives who run those departments. The Public Service Commissioner makes those appointments. The New Zealand Initiative argues this arrangement is broken. It recommends that New Zealand adopt a version of Germany’s model, where ministers appoint their top officials while a protected career service operates below. ·…