THE GOOD OIL

If you’ve ever tried to debate a hardcore environmentalist, you’ll be sadly aware that the biggest hurdle is even getting them to live in the world of facts. That’s because there are any number of environmental ‘zombie facts’, completely false, that a great many people still believe despite having been debunked long, long ago. One of the most persistent is the ‘the Amazon is ...

There are, as the saying goes, three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. The last are the most devastating, because they carry the imprimatur of authority. Of course, statistics on their own aren’t bad. In fact, they’re one of the most useful tools we have for cutting through bullshit and getting somewhere near the truth.

So long as they’re used with honest...

Lucy Rogers

As readers may recall, in February 2025 the IPCA published a report about my arrest on 25 November 2023, finding that, while I was silently and peacefully counter-protesting an anti-Israel march on Queen Street, police officers wrongfully assaulted me, wrongfully took my sign off me, wrongfully arrested me and then told serious lies about me...

If Labour had another period in government, would the constitutional and institutional changes associated with the Ardern years return?

Would Labour again pursue greater Māori representation in government institutions?

Would it again pursue forms of co-governance?

Would it revisit the ideas contained in He Puapua?

Or has Labour genuinely changed?