As we say goodbye to 2021 and welcome in 2022, it's a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views our
There are wingnuts on social media and among talkback callers who think that description fits this country, but it's hard to believe Sir John Key is among them.
Read the full article: Sir John Key, the smiling assassin, is back
How to build our way out of the housing crisis - March 26
This is a crisis. Let's put it in capital letters. This is a CRISIS.
The new policies announced this week won't fix it. Not on their own. The Government promises more to come in the Budget on May 20.
The new measures focus on limiting demand, by signalling to investors they should no longer treat housing as a source of free money. The Budget is expected to focus on supply. That means a plan to build, build, build.
Here are five big things that plan will need. All of them should be happening, at scale, now.
Read the full article: How to build our way out of the housing crisis
Let's tithe private schools and double the funds for poor schools - September 24
Education is supposed to be about opportunity, but in more than almost any other area the gap between privilege and poverty in our schools is systematically baked in.
How do we know this? Because, as researcher Briar Lipson from the NZ Institute reports, this country has the strongest correlation between socio-economic background and educational achievement of any country in the OECD.
That suggests education is not about opportunity. To a far greater degree it's about reinforcing existing social hierarchies, not just in general but for most of the individuals in it.
It's true that many schools in poor areas are rich in so many ways. But poverty exacts a harsh toll, as does wealth, and they exact it on the same group of people: the students of our poorest schools.
Read the full article: Let's tithe private schools and double the funds for poor schools
Judith Collins' leadership is 1 year old and it's time her party grows up - July 13
Spare a thought for Judith Collins. Her leadership turns one year old tomorrow and she must sometimes wonder what she's done to deserve the party that got thrust on her.
But the answer's easy enough: she wanted it. What's not so easy is to work out what she wants to do with it.
National displays no greater ambition than to duke it out with Act and NZ First for a share of the disaffected. It's politics as a juvenile sport and the electorate knows it. We've moved on.
Read the full article: Judith Collins' leadership is 1 year old and it's time her party grows up
The infuriating Tāmaki Drive cycleway botch-up - February 5
Please, Auckland Transport, do not fix the Tāmaki Drive cycleway.
At least, do not fix it now. Do not waste any more time and money on that bumpy section you have just built. You have to get on with the rest of the project.
Actually, you have to extend cycleways into a thousand other places, and remaining stuck on one small part of the whole will slow that down.
The city cries out for more cycleways and progress building them is painfully slow. Tāmaki Drive should not be allowed to slow up what little else is being done. Fix it when it comes up on the maintenance schedule.
Read the full article: The infuriating Tāmaki Drive cycleway botch-up