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January 2025 THE PROPOSED REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL Most New Zealanders with an interest in political matters, and quite a few who would not normally take much interest, are currently, and quite rightly, deeply disturbed, not to say alarmed, by an attempt being made to alter the principles evolved over the past four decades governing the…

Mr Micawber’s Outcome  Back I trust most people are familiar with the works of Charles Dickens, not least because they will tell you far more about the social history of mid Victorian England than any number of academic studies.  I’m referring to them because if you want to know about what happened here in the…

What is New Zealand for? A few years ago I encountered a possibly true story about an Englishman who loses his way on a walking tour of Ireland.  So he calls at a nearby cottage and asks the way to Dublin.  And the Irish cottager replies: “Well sorr, if I was settin’ out for Dublin…

Waitangi: An Alternative View Back If you want to understand the Treaty of Waitangi, the first thing you have to do is to invent it. If you don’t know how history is written that probably sounds a bit weird, so let me explain it to you.  History writing exists at two levels.   There is…