The recent announcement by John Key swinging government political and financial support behind the City Rail Link – starting 2020 – was great news. The decision was a political masterstroke by the PM, though...
The Auckland Council draft unitary plan has drawn an enormous amount of submissions from concerned Aucklanders – 22,700 in all. But rather than pause to give public submissions the time and attention they deserve, the...
There has been a lot of heat and emotion about the issue of street begging in recent days – but unfortunately not much light. So what is going on? The proposed Public Safety and Nuisance Bylaw...
The public have responded to the Auckland Council Unitary Plan with a massive 22,700 submissions. . I must confess there is still a lot about the Unitary Plan that doesn’t make sense to me. ...
I suppose I’ve been round long enough to take a rather cynical view of things like ‘Housing Accords’. Previous governments back in the 20th century when faced with major housing shortages, just got on...
It was a great privilege to attend the final Beating of Retreat of the NZ 24 Battalion at the Auckland War Memorial on Saturday 21 April. On a beautiful Autumn evening at the...
My stepson Zhao Yu (Joe) and his sweetheart Zhang Qin (Ivy) were married on Waitangi Day in a lovely ceremony at St Mathews-in-the-City officiated over by the popular Reverend Clay Nelson supported by Elspeth...
When the American writer Stephen Ambrose referred to the young men and women who served in World War ll as ‘the greatest generation’, he could not have more aptly described Jim Holdaway as the...
As the famous poet and essayist of the 18th century Dr Johnson once wrote: ‘Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or for not having been at sea.”
Last Friday we commemorated the 93rd anniversary of the Armistice between the combatant powers which ended the Great War of 1914 -1918. The Armistice brought an end to the fighting – though the consequences of...
