Wellington mayoral candidates are promising transparency and citizen participation well beyond what the law provides.

Are we, as Thomas Piketty predicted, reverting to Victorian levels of wealth inequality?

It is all very well loving our fellow citizens: but what if they don’t love us back?

Despite the bitter disappointment of those who backed capital gains tax for a win, it’s not the only horse in the wealth tax race.

Could the social safety net be arranged differently, and how would we pay for it?

Expectations have been raised, but can they be met using the same old methods?

How can government improve to meet modern expectations and retain public trust? By deepening democracy.

Green MPs will stop accepting corporate hospitality and start publishing diaries, and citizens can now organise petitions online.

We need more rigorous and visible disclosure, which could require coordinated standards across the media.

Ambitious and far-reaching, but there’s more to sketch out.