SECTIONS

Smoko

OpinionJune 26

ACC tinkering leaves culture of nastiness

It's time we went back to first principles on ACC. Because there's been so much politicking over it, the corporation's original intent tends to be lost in the increasingly acrimonious mists of spin and misinformation.
OpinionJune 19

If only the business lobby was more open to green ideas

Deep down, most New Zealanders are environmentalists. It runs in our blood, is laid down in our bones. But many of us seem to have a deep aversion to it being suggested how certain actions might be having an adverse effect upon the natural world around us.
OpinionJune 12

National finding itself out of step with voters

If rather too much is being made of the Government's supposed current woes, that is probably because, in general, it had such an easy ride for its first three years.
National finding itself out of step with voters
National finding itself out of step with voters
OpinionJune 5

Honours list spurs divided feelings

The annual Queen's Birthday Honours list induces in your columnist a case of split personality.
OpinionMay 29

Education vision doesn't add up

So the Government is going to set up a "working party" to look again at teacher-pupil ratios in schools. I hope it is going to include some educational experts, and not just stack it with "analysts" and economists, because, as we now see, even this supposedly numerate approach to devising educational infrastructure can come up short.
OpinionMay 22

Questions about welfare reform board

Paula Rebstock is a well-educated person with an impressive CV. She has worked in Treasury, for the Labour Department, in the Office of the Prime Minister, and headed the Commerce Commission. I wonder if she's ever spent time in a soup kitchen.
Questions about welfare reform board
Questions about welfare reform board
OpinionMay 15

Plain packaging risks lawsuits

Smoking is bad for our health.
OpinionMay 8

Death of public service TV

Apologies for returning to an old hobbyhorse, but now the Government and TVNZ have conspired definitively to put TVNZ 7 out to grass, and with it the last vestiges of public service television in this country.
OpinionApril 24

Words are no use when the tale defies telling

My friend's father had been a prisoner of war. That much I knew and not much else; and I knew it because he had named his only son after the man who, he said, had saved his life, by sharing his meagre rations of soup - little more than a watery gruel in which potato peelings had been stewed - during those unbearably harsh years of captivity.
OpinionApril 10

Gambling with the social fabric

Roll up, roll up! Anybody out there, corporations or multinationals want a piece of the action in this country, just sing out. Make yourselves known.
OpinionApril 3

No fault but mud sticks

What has the Accident Compensation Corporation got to do with JRR Tolkien?
OpinionMarch 27

Smoko: Death a chance to reflect, examine and learn

Death may not be a particularly cheery subject to reflect on, but on occasion it pulls us up short and requires us to examine ourselves, our societies, and asks us to learn.
OpinionMarch 20

Smoko: Innocent fun? It won't wash

It does make you feel old - and a little out of the loop. Having trouble recalling when you were last invited to a foam party?
OpinionMarch 13

Private prison flagship put in plain-sailing terms

Last week, the Government announced a new 960-bed prison will open in Wiri, South Auckland, in 2015. It will be a prison with a difference: the flagship for the new public-private-partnership mode of building, funding and running state institutions.
OpinionMarch 6

Smoko: Learning from amateur rugby

I have two early memories of what I wanted to be. At about 4, I was desperate to become a carpenter.
NewsFebruary 28

Smoko: Immigrants- co-builders of our future

I have been thinking about immigrants of late. And I'm partly prompted to put pen to paper about them by the snide, patronising and sometimes outright racist attitudes that are thoughtlessly propagated about them.
NewsFebruary 21

Smoko: Demonising the innocent endeavours of science

The word "science" come from the Latin root scientia, which means knowledge.
OpinionFebruary 14

Smoko: Talk always returns to tremors- literal, metaphorical

I shared a long ride with a Canterbury earthquake survivor at the weekend. It was an eye-opener.
OpinionFebruary 7

Smoko: Key's pension pledge might not be so super

What was it exactly that possessed John Key in 2008 to say he would resign as Prime Minister before sanctioning a rise in the age of pension eligibility in this country?
Smoko: Key's pension pledge might not be so super
Smoko: Key's pension pledge might not be so super
OpinionJanuary 31

Smoko: Foreign ownership- put on the spot down on the farm

The great inequality debate was given impetus internationally last week by revelations of astounding bonuses still being awarded to top bankers in the United Kingdom; and pointed relevance in this country by the row over the salary rise of Christchurch chief executive Tony Marryatt, and the noisy ousting, particularly in Auckland, of the protesters of the Occupy movement.
OpinionJanuary 24

Why being rich is now a taxing conundrum

Consider these two unexpected propositions: a leading contender for the Republican nomination for President of the United States of America is ambushed by a competing conservative candidate for putting profits before people; and one of the richest men in America, a quintessential capitalist, is demanding that the nation's top earners pay higher taxes.
OpinionJanuary 17

Smoko: Wheels come off New Year's resolutions

May God bless and keep you always May your wishes all come true May you always do for others And let others do for you May you build a ladder to the stars And climb on every rung May you stay forever young Forever young, forever young May you stay forever young. - Bob Dylan, "Forever Young" Curious things, resolutions, especially those New Year ones.
OpinionJanuary 10

Smoko: DIY Man's battle scars- shonky levels, crooked angles

It wasn't so much the bare, urine-burnt patches of grass at the bottom of the wide garden steps that offended. No, that could be put down to sheer sloth on my own part, shooing the dog down in that direction late in the evening instead of taking him for a regulated constitutional stroll - to do his dirty work elsewhere, or kill some wild weeds on a roadside verge.
OpinionDecember 27

2011 through lens of 'i' word

Traditionally, at this time of year, we look backwards and forwards - and sometimes sideways - to reflect on the world around us, and our part in it.
OpinionDecember 6

Pike River evidence as explosive as mine

Hindsight has the potential to make fools out of the supremely confident while turning silent naysayers into sages.