Heather du Plessis-Allan: The ferry "announcement" is embarrassing

I think we can all have a guess at why the Government announced the ferry decision two weeks before Christmas. 

Because this is embarrassing, isn’t it? 

What have they been doing for the last year? 

How do you go a year after cancelling the mega ferries and still have nothing to show for it? 

David Farrar: The Interislander incompetence

Georgina Campbell reports:

The Government's position on the mega ferries was reinforced this week after Marlborough Harbourmaster Jake Oliver set limits for the maximum size of new vessels using Tory Channel to access ports at Picton and Shakespeare Bay.

Bryce Edwards: Political donations, Lobbying, Labour Party recovery, the media’s performance, and National’s questionable reforms

Have political donations and lobbying from the natural health sector led to the incoming government’s decision to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act? That’s the question asked today by RNZ’s Farah Hancock, who looks at the long-running relationship between the NZ First party and industry group, the Natural Health Alliance – see: What is it about Winston Peters and the natural health products industry?

The lobby group ran election advertisements, together with the mysterious S.B. Group, calling for a vote for NZ First. Hancock points out that the party then shot up in the polls, got into power, and included a promise to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act in the new Government’s 100-day plan.

Francesca Rudkin: Let's just get it done and get it done properly

Only last Friday I think it was, we were talking about infrastructure and how New Zealand is one of the most expensive countries in the world to build new infrastructure, and the importance of having a bipartisan approach with a long-term vision, a pipeline that's going to deliver what the country needs over the next 30 or even 50 years.

We had a really good discussion about this.