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Danyl McLauchlan (Politics, October 10) states an ugly truth beautifully: “…central government has too much power over the rest of the country, and the executive has too much power in central government, so the whims and indulgences of sleep-deprived ministers scrambling to save their careers can be visited upon the rest of us ‒ at enormous cost ‒ with the flick of a press release.” This was the gist of Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s 1979 book Unbridled Power? leading to the Royal Commission on electoral reform and the eventual adoption of MMP in 1993. Alas, only the first goal of MMP, proportional representation, has been partially achieved. The second, bridling power, has been forgotten in the belief that a government must have a majority. A government is a set of responsible…

“Quite frankly, if you can’t find the loos, you’re not good enough to vote for Act.” – Candidate Paul Henry, who was given the job of admin for the party’s campaign launch “Empathy is not enough, and who would rely on a politician for empathy anyway?” – Act leader David Seymour “They’re as centrist as I am an All Black.” – National leader Christopher Luxon on Opportunity party and why he won’t work with them “I’m an engineer and I know what I’m talking about. I’ve designed roads and built roads and owned roads and sold roads.” – Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says National’s Mill Rd project is “idiotic” “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” – Donald Trump…

1. Which actress has NOT played Queen Elizabeth I on screen? ❑ Judi Dench ❑ Cate Blanchett ❑ Margot Robbie ❑ Meryl Streep 2. In which province is the Kakanui River? ❑ Canterbury ❑ Waikato ❑ Otago ❑ Tasman 3. What is a synonym for “wither”? ❑ Augment ❑ Abstain ❑ Acquiesce ❑ Atrophy 4. Which acclaimed NZ book begins with the lines: “The twelve men congregated in the smoking room of the Crown Hotel gave the impression of a party accidentally met.” ❑ Mister Pip ❑ The Vintner’s Luck ❑ The Luminaries ❑ In a Fishbone Church 5. Which came first, Starman the movie or Starman the David Bowie song? ❑ Starman movie ❑ Starman song 6. The domestic silk moth, on which we rely for most silk production,…

For Competition No 164, we asked for a haiku about the developing El Niño pattern. FINALISTS: As the sky reddens Foreboding deluge and drought An anxious land waits ‒ Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Nothing but extremes looming in El Niño memes – planet splits its seams ‒ Tony Clemow, Te Kamo We arrogantly intensify El Niño and deny our guilt ‒ Rex McGregor, Auckland Dry paddocks unfold Gaunt cattle press together beneath pine shadows ‒ Karen Hooper, Lower Hutt Playground sits empty Westerly winds whip up sand Sunscreen left behind ‒ Dennis Hooper, Lower Hutt WINNER: My farm shows its bones I count bales as warm winds rise Beads of sweat, no rain ‒ Joanne Buchanan, Lower Hutt For the next Bright Lines, we have the Modern Proverb challenge, topic:…

It’s not just us. The decline of the purple vote – the traditional red and blue parties of the left and right – is common in many democracies. Labour and National tend to blame it on social media, but our politics looked a lot like this in the pre-TikTok days of the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of voters defected to the Alliance, New Zealand First and Act on the grounds the traditional parties were visibly ruining the country. But Labour and National reinvented themselves for the MMP era and have run the country since, winning power through shifting combinations of charismatic leaders, technocratic competence and election bribes. Can they recover from this nadir? Never say never, but they seem more disconnected from the public than ever: their leaders are…

More than six decades ago, the academic and acerbic writer Donald Horne invented the accolade “The Lucky Country” – the title of his rebellious book that railed against what he believed to be an unimaginative, mediocre Australia, manacled to the past. The opening words of the final chapter sum up the book’s thesis: “Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.” Horne fretted over his deeply conservative and unambitious country that relied on the luck of its resources while riding the coat-tails of its historical ties to Britain.…

It is some months since I concluded we have been living under the worst government of my lifetime. It took some time to get my head around the idea. I had, after all, cast my first vote against the government of Robert Muldoon, which was responsible for the single worst economic decision in the country’s history: the abolition of the fledgling compulsory superannuation scheme it had inherited. There is no corresponding whopper attached to the present government, if only because that would be hard to top. Instead, there’s been a series of feckless, arrogant decisions that will cost us dearly in years to come, and an inordinate focus on culture war issues while the economy stalled. Youth unemployment rose to a 30-year high while we wasted time and money on…

Nicky Hager is well-known for his investigative journalism, which he often manages to release around election time. His earlier books, Dirty Politics and The Hollow Men, created something of a stir when they were released. This makes his current offering, Dirty Work, something of a Shakespearean damp squib – “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. But if Hager’s offerings are of transient interest only, he has – perhaps unintentionally – made a significant contribution to the law and its protection of a journalist’s sources. Dirty Politics was published in August 2014, weeks out from that year’s general election. The book was based on emails and Facebook messages. These had been hacked from the blogger Cameron Slater by an anonymous source named “Rawshark”. Slater complained to the police, who launched…

There’s nowhere like Wellington in springtime – no city more grateful to feel the sun, even as a sudden wind lifts your hair. At this time of year we live inside a painting, our clothes billowing with strange energy, our trees waving like sea anemones, clouds racing and every window glittering. Anything could happen in a season like this, and it does. How generous spring can be! Turn any corner to see blooming, cottony cherry blossoms or mustard-yellow kōwhai bells dangling like grapes. Swimmers test the harbour and blunt-nosed kākā rule the skies, swooping low over houses and cars. Lunchtime might bring a burst of sunshine, but a vicious afternoon southerly will snatch it away. Wheelie bins topple like skittles; washing is torn from the line. As black thunderheads roll…