Professor Robert MacCulloch: Paying for cycleways

Did Labour's Hipkins & National's Willis & Bishop bust the Ferries & break NZ's State Highway 1 System Linking North & South to pay for pork-barrel-politics cycleways in their own electorates?

Contrary to popular belief, NZ always did have the money to pay for state-of-the-art rail-enabled ferries linking the North & South Islands, even at a cost of several billion dollars. It is not a matter of finding the funds, its a matter of using the scarce resources the country already has to maximum effect & not wasting them on stupid projects. Are there tools to help make these decisions? Yes, they go by the name of cost-benefit analysis.

Karl du Fresne: Labour and NZ First - a shared fondness for pork-barrel politics

In a memorably pungent turn of phrase, former Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox said of Maori support for Labour in the 2017 election that it was like a battered wife going back to her abuser.

Okay, she was bitter at Maori voters turning against her party. Sour grapes, her critics would have said. But you could see where she was coming from.

Labour has traditionally commanded support from Maori, dating back to its alliance with the Ratana Church in 1936.