Politics and the economy
If it had been published on April 1, your PoO team would have had a good chuckle and credited Stuff with posting a splendid spoof.
Not just a spoof, but a spoof spiced by a raunchy headline:
If you think hell is other people, then cities aren’t a great place to live.
We are all at least a little bit annoying. We all impose small bits of nuisance. Those of us unwilling to live in an off-grid hermit’s shack have to find tolerable ways of accommodating each other.
Continue reading “Bring the noise! Or zone housing for choice”Donald Trump’s erratic behaviour has led to increasing speculation that United States legislators may invoke the 25th Amendment to the United States’ Constitution to remove him from office. Respected media outlets like the New York Times have been openly raising questions about the President’s sanity and therefore his capability to remain in office.
Continue reading “US Constitution provides for replacing an impaired President – but what happens in NZ?”This op ed was offered to the NZ Herald, which declined it.
The decision by the International Olympic Committee to restore the core purpose of women’s sport: providing biological females with a fair and safe arena to compete, is long-overdue.
For years, many sporting bodies adopted the IOC’s earlier open-door policy, leading to predictable harm. Women and girls lost podiums, scholarships, team places and opportunities. In contact sports, their safety was put at risk. Science was sidelined in favour of ideology.
Note: I was a vegetarian for 10 years and previously worked at the SPCA. I am a believer in high animal welfare standards and think that many animal welfare groups do a great deal of good work. Many of them are a bit nuts though.
There I was, scrolling the apps, when a familiar Kiwi farmer’s face appeared with a message that sounded quite good. I halted in my tracks and bestowed a view on the video’s tally. The gist was that our imported farming products should live up to our national animal welfare standards. Fair enough, right?
Continue reading “Useful idiots? The vegan astroturf organisation that has tricked Kiwi farmers”
The annual AUT report on trust in New Zealand’s news media is out today, and the headlines reporting it are mostly positive. This is because trust is up. The decline has stopped, for now. Unsurprisingly, some media organisations are already taking a victory lap. Be sceptical.
Continue reading “New Zealand’s media trust is still in crisis”
Brushing up on the nature of symbiotic relationships, PoO was reminded that they can be categorized into mutualism (both parties benefit), commensalism (one benefits but not the other), or parasitism (one benefits, the other is harmed).
A splendid example of mutualism – we suggest – would result from Pope Leo XIV and American Vice-President Vance forging a stronger relationship.
Leo could be instructed in theology; Vance could learn how to muster a mob of admirers.
Continue reading “What Pope Leo and JD Vance can teach each other about theology and being admired”
Political polls provide a snapshot of voters’ views at a particular moment in time. While polls conducted months before an election cannot reliably predict the outcome – given the potential for unforeseen events – they nonetheless offer political parties a valuable guide as to how they are tracking with the electorate.
Continue reading “Warning for National”Winston Peters has reintroduced the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill as the latest in a series of legislative proposals from NZ First against “woke ideology” and “social engineering.” While the Bill is likely to fail at first reading (like the TPB), it has already shown that National are not with the program in the run-up to the 2026 election.
If passed, the Bill would insert new sections 13A and 13B into the Legislation Act which say that in any legislation “woman means an adult human biological female” and “man means an adult human biological male”.
Continue reading “From Sex to Gender”
Critics of judicial overreach face an odd challenge. The most sophisticated response is not to defend the decisions – it is to deny that constitutional limits exist at all. If courts made the rules, the argument runs, courts can remake them. Last month’s column, An Inheritance Worth Defending, drew that response, among others.
Four arguments recur. On the surface they are distinct – one concerns the foundations of parliamentary sovereignty, one the proper limits of common law development, one a comparison with Australian constitutional law, and one concerns the lessons to be drawn from two landmark cases on judicial review and constitutional supremacy.
Continue reading “Why Courts Cannot Determine the Scope of Their Own Authority”
Point of Order 