Four spokesmen, one script, no answer on the bill
Bridges, Hartwich, Abernethy and now Genesis’s own chief executive have all run the same defence this winter. Watch what happens whenever someone asks them a number.
Grant McLachlan
5 days ago3 min read
Was Jeremy Wells right about Mike Hosking all along?
A decade-old radio parody is now Exhibit A in a High Court defamation case — and the media company trying to bury it owns the target, the impersonator, and the columnist covering the trial.
Grant McLachlan
Aug 289 min read
ACT’s small-state pitch is a big-state con
Andrew Ketels wants a leaner public service. Follow the money and it is his own client base that keeps getting bigger.
Grant McLachlan
Aug 234 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
We’ve seen this muppet show before
Matthew Hooton’s move to the editor’s chair at The Post follows a script already written in Washington — and it lands at the moment New Zealand’s newsrooms have never been cheaper to capture.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 1611 min read
Whose bank is it to sell?
Taranaki is being asked to bless a $620 million deal that hands its last locally owned bank to a listed company — at a discount, with the seller lending the buyer the money. New Zealand has watched this story before.
Grant McLachlan
Jun 1412 min read
The great butter racket: How New Zealanders pay export prices for milk we produce
A pale $0.80-per-100g American import has done what a year of inquiries couldn't: shown New Zealanders how thoroughly the butter market is rigged against them. Why the press won't say so. And why the Finance Minister won't either.
Grant McLachlan - Column
May 147 min read
The Bullshit Economy
New Zealand has constructed an elaborate economy out of its own inefficiencies.
Grant McLachlan
Apr 1724 min read
Seven steps to a productive economy
New Zealand's addiction to property speculation is strangling the productive economy. Seven practical reforms — from taxing land and capital gains to protecting elite soils and standardising public infrastructure — could redirect investment where it is actually needed.
Grant McLachlan
Apr 17 min read
