Recent coverage of Wellington’s wastewater issues has revived debate about decisions made during the city’s 2021-2031 Long‑Term Plan (LTP). At the time I was the portfolio lead for water and worked constructively with all Councillors to secure a record $678 million capital investment in the network over the ten-year plan, with more for a new sewage plant at Moa Point to minimise sludge. Public discussion has recently focused on two elements of that process: the option to significantly...

The Occasional Saturday Satire Education Minister Erica Stanford stands accused of compressing a generation of reform into two years. Her programme is “radical,” “ideological,” and risks turning children into guinea pigs. Auckland University’s Professor Peter O’Connor calls it neoliberal “shock-and-awe.” These are serious charges. History teaches us that haste in education leads to disaster. Consider the cautionary tale of Charlemagne. In the ninth century, he rashly insisted that monks...

The latest Salvation Army State of the Nation Report 2026 presents a litany of excuses for the sorry state of New Zealand's social statistics, in particular, those relating to Maori. The report is divided into sections covering children and youth, work and incomes, housing, crime and punishment, and social hazards. Each section ends with a Te Ora o Te Whanau lens view. After the section on children and youth comes the following:     "The over representation of Māori tamariki and rangatahi...