Pegasus Brief — Holding the high ground
The story breaks into the national mainstream. Residents are organised. Wolfbrook stays silent. And the public record on the people behind Wolfbrook is worth a closer look.
Grant McLachlan
20 hours ago7 min read
Who is the state really housing?
How New Zealand’s great housing experiment turned from sheltering the poor to subsidising the people who profit from them.
Grant McLachlan
4 days ago10 min read
A quagmire on a swampy battlefield: What Wolfbrook actually walked into at Pegasus
Two of New Zealand's premier residential golf courses collapsed twenty minutes apart in 2026. One is being cannibalised by a developer who has just donated to National. The other is in liquidation. The model is broken. The fix starts at Pegasus.
Grant McLachlan
May 2124 min read
Cannibalising Pegasus: How a 77-hectare slice of a championship course becomes a land bank
A developer has bought 77ha of Pegasus Golf Course — clubhouse, practice range, six holes — and wants it rezoned for housing. That contradicts the consent that built Pegasus, the zoning that protects it, and the reason the course exists at all.
Grant McLachlan
May 2015 min read
Days, not decades: Auckland already has the data to settle its bridge argument
The Mayor and the Transport Minister are arguing about whether to put a bridge or a tunnel parallel to the existing harbour crossing. I crunched the data that they ignored and modelled the solution.
Grant McLachlan
May 137 min read
The Bullshit Economy
New Zealand has constructed an elaborate economy out of its own inefficiencies.
Grant McLachlan
Apr 1725 min read
The gift you can’t refuse: How naming-as-performance is failing Maori culture, public infrastructure, and the Treaty alike.
New Zealand's infrastructure is being renamed not to locate people, but to perform cultural partnership — through a gifting process that forecloses dissent, rewards commercial relationships, and quietly hollows out the very culture it claims to honour.
Grant McLachlan
Apr 1518 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
Why aren't we there yet? The road New Zealand already replaced — and the one it should replace next.
The Manawatū Gorge closed without warning. Nine years and $824M later, we had a new road. The Remutaka is showing the same signs. Do we act now — or wait for the hill to make the decision for us?
Grant McLachlan
Mar 33 min read
Manufacturing the poor: How neoliberalism built the welfare state it loves to hate
How neoliberal governments manufactured the social crises they campaign against — and why beneficiary bashing is the oldest con in New Zealand politics.
Grant McLachlan
Feb 2718 min read
When noise drowns out democracy: The predictable playbook of environmental campaigns
In environmental battles, the winner isn't determined by facts—it's determined by who controls the noise. Create enough controversy, enough division, enough exhaustion, and people simply tune out. By the time Sustainable Tarras' legitimate questions get answers, no one's listening anymore. It's a strategy I've seen deployed countless times. And it always works.
Grant McLachlan
Feb 136 min read
The Cook Strait Tunnel: Has Elon Musk made it feasible?
The question shouldn't be “How much will it cost?”
The question should be “At what cost does this become feasible?”
Grant McLachlan
Feb 29 min read
The roads that never were: Ten New Zealand infrastructure dreams that died on the drawing board
New Zealand’s transport network tells a story not just of what was built, but of what could have been.
Grant McLachlan
Dec 1, 202518 min read
Investigative journalism master class eviscerating corrupt council
In an era when media organisations frantically downsize, replacing substance with clickbait and advertorial content, a remarkable counter-narrative is unfolding in Queenstown.
Grant McLachlan
Apr 16, 20256 min read
Has Queenstown exceeded capacity?
Queenstown risks destroying the very reason people visit the destination. With the sewerage plant overflowing, can it grow any further?
Grant McLachlan
Feb 7, 20254 min read
Is Queenstown's "Road to Nowhere" a waste of money?
The Queenstown upgrade of Melbourne & Henry Streets has been heralded as a bypass of Queenstown's CBD. Was the $128m price tag worth it?
Grant McLachlan
Feb 5, 20251 min read
Auckland Council: Too big to care, too complex to control.
Auckland Council has grown so vast that watchdogs lack the resources to keep up, fostering a culture that often rewards dubious conduct.
Grant McLachlan
Oct 3, 20244 min read
Warkworth Golf Club aerial graphics
I was asked by the Warkworth Golf Club to aerial map their course. I discovered that my drone could do a lot more than that.
Grant McLachlan
Sep 1, 20221 min read
Matakana War Memorial Heritage Application
Researching and preparing the heritage application for the Matakana War Memorial unsurfaced some disturbing agendas.
Grant McLachlan
Sep 23, 20212 min read
Napier to Taupō road a sign of the country going backwards
The Napier to Taupo Road road represented strides in New Zealand's progress. Now, it demonstrates that the country is moving backwards.
Grant McLachlan - Hawke's Bay Today - Column
May 3, 20214 min read
