All right-thinking people will deplore the brazen $1 million attack by three activists on one of our two vital spy crystal sets in Waihopai, Marlborough, and many will doubtless sleep less easily tonight.
Premier Helen Clark, who controls national security, remains tight-lipped about the possible impact on our well-being (let alone our international cred when it [...]
The cool store that blew up in Tamahere was approved to use Freon gas, but it was actually using propane as a refrigerant.
That was how dumb New Zealand journalists started to explain the disastrous explosion at Tamihere. If the fire brigade had known that propane was on the site, they’d have handled it differently, and [...]
There is a well-meant move afoot to try to remove GST from food prices. It is dangerously misguided.
When GST was first introduced, some politicians half-promised that it would replace income tax. Incredibly, some voters believed it. Today, we have the worst of both worlds – high marginal income tax that shifts an unreasonable amount of [...]
From Bismarck and Kaiser Bill to Bush and Blair, almost every major war in the last 100 years has been caused by politicians or “the Establishment”, and not the poor bloody infantry.
Most civilised people would prefer to sort out their differences through a game of football or rugby or cricket, or over a few beers, [...]
What hope is there for the free world, when US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton describes Helen Clark as “the former Prime Minister of New Zealand” and resurrects a well-worn-out joke about her?
It went like this: at the end of World War 3, the only surviving creatures would be cockroaches and Helen Clark.
This, from the wife [...]
Here is a short lesson in basic arithmetic, for the benefit of Finance Minister Michael Cullen. It’s the sort of stuff they try to teach very young children.
If the pre-GST price of a litre of petrol is $2, the post-tax price is $2.25.
If you remove GST on fuel, the pump price is $2, saving 25c. [...]
When Health Minister David Cunliffe issued his bellicose “bring it on” challenge to junior doctors, he made it clear that he wasn’t giving in to anyone within a couple of weeks or a couple of months – and he just stopped himself from saying a couple of years or a couple of millenia.
He appears intent [...]
Motorists are always easy prey when government - whether national or local - is looking for new sources of income. Wellington Regional Council has wasted $198,000 on investigating congestion charges for drivers. Chairwoman Fran Wilde now says the idea “is not on the table”, which is at odds with what she said last year: the [...]
The $130,000 so-called “independent” review of the All Blacks’ forgettable, worst rugby World Cup showing in history has finally been released, after nearly five months in the making. It is virtually worthless.
But the reviewers and NZRU would urge: fans, you must please believe that it was worth $130,000, because this inquest was written by highly [...]
Any idea that the exodus from Britain might be waning appears wildly premature. The latest survey predicts 1.8 million Britons retiring abroad by 2025 and 3.3 million by 2050.
The survey, on behalf of NatWest International, provides further evidence that the majority of leavers do not look back. Nine in 10 expats said they enjoyed a [...]
