Was Paul Henry ACT's dead cat?
The same Tuesday ACT unveiled its newest star candidate, the Herald confirmed the party’s own former president had pleaded guilty to further sex offending. Coincidence, or convenient timing?
Grant McLachlan
5 days ago4 min read
The Super City failed. Why Hawke’s Bay council mergers will be a disaster.
Wellington wants Hawke’s Bay’s councils redesigned by 9 August. Auckland already ran this experiment — and the man now advising Hawke’s Bay on the redesign is the one whose mayoralty set Hastings on its debt path in the first place.
Grant McLachlan
Jul 97 min read
Is Steven Joyce still running the show?
Two boardroom rescues and a courtroom costs judgment inside five weeks have put the same handful of National-aligned names back at the centre of the party's donor world.
Grant McLachlan
Jul 85 min read
Is OneRoof talking down Jacinda's premium the night before her auction?
OneRoof ran its “celebrity homes don’t sell for more” story the night before Jacinda Ardern’s own auction — and its own numbers say otherwise.
Grant McLachlan
Jul 85 min read
How New Zealand Tourism saw stars rather than the purpose behind the Michelin Guide
The Government paid $6.3 million to bring the world's most famous restaurant guide to New Zealand, then confined its inspectors to the four cities least in need of the introduction.
Grant McLachlan
Jul 45 min read
Is Nick Smith race-baiting over Abel Tasman?
The Nelson mayor says he is defending a national park from a bill he calls the largest removal of protected land in New Zealand's history. His own post, and his own record, leave out the parts that complicate that claim.
Grant McLachlan
Jul 33 min read
The game of candidate chess in Hawke’s Bay that could decide this year’s election
This election, Hawke’s Bay won’t be the sideshow. It could even be the main event.
Grant McLachlan - Hawke's Bay Today - Column
Jun 271 min read
Are we grown up enough to be a republic?
Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand will be a republic in her lifetime. She has not said what problem it solves — or whether we are mature enough to do it well.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 226 min read
Why does it take a foreign watchdog to catch a New Zealand official?
John Edwards is the latest senior New Zealander official who rose at home and was brought to account abroad. The pattern says more about our institutions than theirs.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 205 min read
Is the Greater Auckland campaign against the Northland motorway fighting waste — or causing it?
Greater Auckland calls Warkworth to Te Hana the most expensive road the country has ever built. But picking off the single hardest stage of a staged corridor, weeks before a contract is signed, is exactly how you manufacture the incrementalism the group says it opposes.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 198 min read
TSB-Heartland deal: Did the Toi Foundation meeting make the case?
Two hours of questions in New Plymouth, and the Toi Foundation’s trustees fronted up. But the answers raised sharper doubts than the deal began with — and the most forensic case against the sale came from the bank’s own former auditor.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 188 min read
The roads we can’t afford, and a plan that will stall them anyway?
The National Infrastructure Plan is right that the country cannot pay for the roads it keeps promising. But its remedy — defer, stage, build later — is the very stop-start it was written to end.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 173 min read
Silly buggers: what game is New Zealand First playing in the electorates?
New Zealand First is parachuting household names into seats it has little hope of winning outright. Work out why, and you start to see how Winston Peters could decide the next government one electorate at a time.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 1511 min read
Pros versus cons: Why Australia will likely never host a FIFA World Cup
The stadiums are built, the fans would come, and the sums could be made to work — the obstacle is the bidding process itself.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 128 min read
Why does the press conference now come before the disaster?
Prediction is the riskiest science in public life — but the political rewards for fronting a forecast have never been higher.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 1011 min read
Why does one poll count and another vanish?
When TOP recently cracked five percent, the newsrooms that live off polling looked the other way — just as they do when a rival wins an award.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 86 min read
Is New Zealand really the most beautiful country in the world?
We sell the world a postcard and then punish anyone who turns it over. The published record — and our own talent — tells a harder story.
Grant McLachlan - Column
Jun 74 min read
Why are New Zealanders turning on their politicians?
Two attacks in a year are a symptom. The disease is a political class that no longer feels within reach.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 44 min read
Is New Zealand the best democracy money can buy?
We are almost certainly not the most corrupt country in the world. We may simply be the cheapest to influence — and the least likely to check the receipts.
Grant McLachlan - Column
Jun 26 min read
Is the Crown really the villain of this story?
Liam Ratana aims his King’s Birthday anger squarely at the monarch. The historical record keeps pointing somewhere closer to home.
Grant McLachlan - Column
Jun 16 min read
