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
The Post: Extra spending doesn’t always mean wasteful spending
Labour should have gone on the front foot on government waste, and is now paying the price for not doing so.
The Post: There’s a long way to go on poverty. How will we get there?
National is striking a sympathetic note on tackling poverty, but will struggle to meet targets.
Newsroom: Labour’s lost blue-collar dogs
A new memoir spurs reflections on the demise of working-class Labour and the turmoil of the 1980s.
The Spinoff: Has Labour really been ‘the most transparent and open’ government ever?
The government made big promises about being open with the public. But did it live up to them?
The Post: The trouble with PPPs ‒ problems, pitfalls and pain
There are better ways to fix our infrastructure problems than costly and complex public-private partnerships.
The Post: Confronting old orthodoxies and hard truths
New Zealand must not allow its politics to follow Britain’s stagnation.
The Conversation: Tougher donation limits and funding fixes would make future NZ elections fairer for all
Large donations raise concerns about influence and unlevel playing fields.
The Post: A revolution in how local government works could be coming soon to a mailbox near you
Wellington is trialing its first citizens’ assembly, and other innovations await.
The Post: NZ is having a bad moment – but it won’t last
Progress on child poverty, coal use and house-building shows that not everything is broken.
The Post: Greens' wealth tax plan reflects a more mature country – and party
The voters available to the Greens want more radicalism, as do some of the wider public.