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Showing posts from April, 2025

Wellington Councils Need a Breathalyser Test

In the heart of Wellington sits a gravel lot. It was meant to be a $5.5 million park a decade ago, a little civic green to soften the concrete. Instead, it’s burned through $1.6 million in reports to propose a $42 million boondoggle. It’s not just a would-be park. It’s a metaphor for Wellington City Council. Welcome to the capital, where local politics is stuck in student union mode. The slogans are slick, the vibes are good, but the pipes are bursting with turds not even a large PR team and an army of outsourced strategic communications consultants can polish. Basic delivery of public services has been replaced by permanent consultation theatre. Now, Tory Whanau cops a fair amount of stick for WCC’s underperformance, but she didn’t break Wellington. Years of Green policy theatre left the basics to rot. However, under Whanau, delivery was parked while ideology took the wheel, hit the Pinot, and drove the city into a ditch. It’s fair to say that if WCC were a private car, it’d be fitted...

The Greens Are Governing a Dysfunctional Discord Server

Another Green Party scandal, another round of blame-shifting. When does the pattern become the problem? The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has had a shocker. Over the past year, they’ve racked up more political own-goals than most parties manage in a decade — and the hits just keep coming.  The latest? Benjamin Doyle, the party’s spokesperson for early childhood education, was recently thrust into the spotlight for using a private Instagram handle: BibleBeltBussy. Yes, really. from the resume of someone shaping policy for tamariki.  Let’s be clear: no one is defending the abuse Doyle has received — online threats are completely unacceptable. But that doesn’t mean the party’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimate optics issue gets a pass. When you're responsible for children’s education, and your online alias is sexual slang, you can’t just roll your eyes and pretend people are overreacting.  Voters will Google. Voters will ask: “Is this person for real?”  Instea...