The Good Society is the home of my writing about how we can shape a better world together.
A detail from Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Renaissance fresco The Allegory of Good and Bad Government
Stuff: An heiress's birthday and a support worker's meagre lot
Inheritance taxes would help fund better pay for some of our most important care workers.
Stuff: Goodbye Marx, hello doughnuts - a new image for a better world
We need to assemble a new economic paradigm, one in which circles and positive spirals provide the key metaphors.
Stuff: Terrible landlords aren’t ‘bad apples’ - they’re endemic
But there are just 37 inspectors to check up on 300,000 dangerously substandard rentals.
Stuff: Undisclosed money threatens next election
The New Zealand First Foundation judgement creates a loophole that must be urgently closed
Stuff: Here’s how Labour could outflank Luxon on tax
Edmund Burke thought you couldn’t tax people and make them happy. The government has a chance to prove him wrong
The Conversation: ‘They’re nice to me, I’m nice to them’: new research sheds light on what motivates political party donors in New Zealand
Donors enjoy access to politicians beyond that which ordinary voters can hope to gain.
Stuff: Ardern’s low-key school food revolution
The free school meals scheme has been a remarkable success – and in time could even be transformative.
Stuff: White men are being asked to be humble, not silent
It’s not the speaking that’s the problem, it’s the dominating.
Stuff: Ardern's govt has failed to deliver meaningful gains in growing trust
The prime minister hasn’t embedded changes that will last beyond her leadership.
Stuff: Poorer Kiwis sidelined in rush to help ‘squeezed middle’
Child support change is welcome, but there’s precious little else in the Budget for low earners.