New Zealand’s 2026 credit reforms seek a more proportionate regime. Simplification is defensible only if lenders still test suitability, disclose clearly and detect harm before arrears become a crisis.
Tag: Opinion
Health targets should be dashboards, not destinations
New Zealand’s amended health law requires six targets in the Government Policy Statement. Targets can focus effort, but narrow numbers must not displace quality, equity and the patients who are hardest to count.
Monthly CPI will improve New Zealand’s eyesight, but frequency is not certainty
Monthly inflation data from 2027 should improve New Zealand’s economic picture. The gain will be squandered if politics and markets treat every monthly movement as a definitive change in direction.
Cutting Total Mobility support asks disabled New Zealanders to pay more for an incomplete transport system
The Total Mobility subsidy fell from 75% to 65% on 1 July 2026. Treating the change as a fare adjustment ignores that many users have no workable bus, train or walking alternative.
New Zealand should set a minimum standard for waiting at a bus stop
Public transport begins before the bus arrives. Shelter, seating, lighting, accessible kerbs and reliable information should be basic service components, not postcode luck.
New Zealand footpaths should be managed as a continuous mobility network
A good footpath is not a decorative strip beside a road. Width, surface, crossings, driveways, vegetation and construction detours determine whether people can complete an ordinary trip.
New Zealand needs a public-toilet standard people can actually use
A town can advertise walkability while quietly requiring people to plan their day around a toilet. Parents with young children, older people, pregnant peop
New Zealand should treat libraries as resilience infrastructure
A library is easiest to undervalue when measured only by books issued. On an ordinary day it offers internet, warmth, bathrooms, study space, printing, loc
Healthy homes must be safe in summer as well as warm in winter
New Zealand’s housing-health debate has been shaped by cold bedrooms, condensation and mould for good reason. The healthy homes standards require heating,
New Zealand needs a right to repair that works after the warranty ends
When a household appliance fails just outside warranty, the real choice is often not repair versus replacement. It is an expensive assessment with uncertai