Kate Hawkesby: We've gotten complacent and happy with average

"It’s a fantastic place to grow up as a kid... and it’s also a great place to retire... it's the in-between bits that are tricky,” said Neil Finn when once asked what NZ was like.

It’s the same now I’d argue. He also said, and bear in mind this is many, many years ago, that it was "the worst place in the world to be if you had any ambition.” That’d be true now too I reckon.

Kate Hawkesby: Is Marc Ellis right about New Zealand?

After yesterday’s shooting in Auckland, those words are still hard to believe - 'shooting in Auckland', a lot of debate’s been thrown up around law and order, crime, people on home detention, discounts given to offenders and so on.

There are those saying this was only a matter of time given the state of law and order in this country these days.

I know the state of our country right now is enough to drive people out, I know many who are doing just that - upping sticks and leaving.

Bryce Wilkinson: The Beehive rebuts misplaced fears (Satire)

We in the Beehive are aware of some unfounded dissatisfaction amongst the great unwashed.

There are stories of a health system in crisis. This is not so. If it were, we would have told you.

The real emergency is, as everyone knows, climate change. Think not of hospital shortages today. Think instead of all those who are going to drown in 2100 because they did not notice sea-level rise. Subsidies for electric cars are more important than yet more money for hospitals.