As mentioned, new taxes are being contemplated, but these are only user pays taxes, levied on consumers. Higher taxes on high incomes, or a wealth tax, or a windfall tax on the excessive profits by ...

Chances are, the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics will run at a loss. These Games have an initial operational budget of $1.9 billion, some of which will be recouped by the sale of broadcasting rights, ...

Thanks to the West’s indifference, the Islamic Republic is now more firmly entrenched than ever. In addition, the mullahs now know that the US, Israel and the Arab states actually prefer to keep the ...

As the unemployment rate hits 5.4%, the highest jobless rate in a decade, PM Christopher Luxon may be regretting his choice of “Fixing the Basics, […] ...

So asset sales are back on the agenda, and will be dependent only on the coalition government getting re-elected next year. Yikes. Right wing governments are forever selling off the assets created by ...

In the past week, Israel has reverted to slaughtering civilians, starving children and welshing on the terms of the peace deal negotiated earlier this year. The IDF’s current offensive seems to be ...

In the wake of the IPCA report, it is easy to understand why the politicians have been so willing to endorse terms like “cover up” and “ corruption.” It is convenient to explain what went wrong in ...

Drill and dig, baby. The week began with the coalition government giving an Australian mining company the green light for an open cast gold mine in central Otago. Things then got even worse. Later ...

The spectacular improvements in reading achievement announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford on Monday were almost too good to be true – so it isn’t surprising that the figures justifying those ...

In the wake of Winston Peters lame response to the US attack on Venezuela, its almost enough to make one yearn for the good old days when Murray McCully was our Foreign Minister. Here’s the gist of ...

If something isn’t really broken, no wonder people feel suspicious when government promises to “fix” it to the potential benefit of corporate interests. In 2011, Parliament passed legislation that ...

It’s democracy Jim, but not as we know it. In line with the plans that the government unveiled this week to reform local government, the recently elected regional councils will be scrapped, and their ...