‘When we start equating donations as political participation we encourage political parties to think of donors as their stakeholders & we reduce citizens from voters to consumers’ - @bryceedwards.bsky.social speaking about why we need new institutional guard rails around donations for NZ democracy
NZ isn’t “immune” to corruption. We’ve just been bad at detecting it, and too comfortable with the myth of exceptionalism. Here’s my breakdown of tonight's Corruption Perceptions Index fall and the new Govt anti-corruption taskforce findings: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Why NZ’s integrity slide can no longer be ignored
New Zealand’s slide down the global corruption rankings has become so predictable it barely causes a stir.
democracyproject.org.nz
The Epstein files aren’t just a grotesque scandal. They’re an X-ray of how power really works, and why New Zealand’s weak integrity rules are a liability: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: What the Epstein scandal means for NZ politics
Politicians are under fire overseas.
democracyproject.org.nz
The big story at Waitangi wasn’t Māori vs Crown. It was Māori vs Māori, and an opposition misfiring: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The Quiet War at Waitangi 2026
Many expected fireworks at Waitangi this year.
democracyproject.org.nz
Another entry in what I’ve been calling “Broken New Zealand”: institutions hollowed out, contractors protected, warnings ignored, and the public left with the consequences - literally washing up on the beach: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Wellington’s sewage catastrophe exposes “Broken NZ”
At the height of summer, during the Waitangi Day long weekend, approximately 70 million litres of raw untreated sewage have been pouring into the sea off Wellington’s south coast every day.
democracyproject.org.nz
Why is the political system so reluctant to take on insurers? Follow the influence: revolving doors, lobbying muscle, and industry-funded relationship-building. That context matters when judging how “independent” this review will be: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing draft: A Weak review of a broken insurance market
Super profits are being made in New Zealand by insurance corporations.
democracyproject.org.nz
Monopoly isn’t just a board game. It’s our banking, groceries & building supplies. There’s a rare window right now to tighten competition law. We should take it, and resist the pushback from big law firms and business groups: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: A Chance to stop big business ripping off New Zealanders
New Zealanders are badly ripped off by profit-gouging companies in some of the country’s most important sectors.
democracyproject.org.nz
The public mood is increasingly anti-elite, anti-corporate, impatient, and increasingly climate-aware. In this article, I argue the Greens should stop drifting and ride the populist wave with a simple message: make polluters and profiteers pay: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Why the Greens should ride the populist wave
Where have the Greens gone?
democracyproject.org.nz
What is NZ's actual climate adaptation and disaster-resilience strategy? Mount Maunganui forces the question: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: A Nation with no plan
The bodies are being recovered.
democracyproject.org.nz
The Law Commission is meant to be above politics. So what happens when Cabinet installs one of its own to run it? This appointment should worry anyone who cares about independent law reform: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The Appointment of Judith Collins to head the Law Commission
When Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today that Judith Collins would become the next President of the Law Commission, he reached for familiar talking points about her “astute legal knowledg...
democracyproject.org.nz
Mt Maunganui is a case study in fragmented governance: siloed information, outsourced expertise, underpowered councils, and weak national frameworks for climate-amplified hazards. If we can't keep treating resilience as optional spending: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: How Authorities failed campers at Mount Maunganui
The picture is firming up, and it’s devastating.
democracyproject.org.nz
Labour is talking like a class-based party again – attacking wealthy donors, property speculators, and inherited advantage. But do the policies match the rhetoric? This article analyses Labour’s emerging 2026 campaign strategy:: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: How the Labour Party will campaign in 2026
This week Chris Hipkins gave us the clearest picture yet of how Labour plans to fight the 2026 election.
democracyproject.org.nz
290 days of campaigning; one exhausted electorate. NZ is heading into its longest election grind in ages. This article explores the risks of voter fatigue, the advantage of well-funded parties, & why it may become a contest of endurance rather than ideas: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The 290-Day Election Marathon
The starting gun has been fired on the 2026 general election.
democracyproject.org.nz
NZ likes to think it has a clean, merit-based system of public appointments. This shows how fragile that assumption really is. McKee’s firearms advisory appointments look less like good governance and more like textbook "regulatory capture": www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Jobs for mates in McKee’s gun advisory group
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee’s tenure as the government’s firearms regulator is fast becoming a textbook case of regulatory capture.
democracyproject.org.nz
Was this really a State of the Nation speech? Or a corporate progress report? Luxon’s address to business leaders signalled a cautious, low-ambition election strategy. Here, I examine the reaction, the omissions, and the risks of a trying not to excite: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Luxon’s very low key start to the year
Christopher Luxon is back from holiday.
democracyproject.org.nz
The Greens should be thriving right now. They’re not. This column explores why, examining polling collapse, staff departures, leadership rhetoric, and the growing gap between Green ambition and public support as election year kicks off: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Have the Greens lost their mojo?
The Green Party should be flying high right now.
democracyproject.org.nz
This is the 7th and final column in my MisManageMyHealth series. After 6 pieces analysing how this disaster happened (privatisation, monopoly power, weak regulation, lobbying) this essay asks the unavoidable question: what would real reform look like? www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The reforms NZ needs after MisManageMyHealth
After six columns dissecting the MisManageMyHealth debacle, the diagnosis is clear.
democracyproject.org.nz
This 6th piece in my MisManageMyHealth series follows directly from my earlier columns on privatisation, monopoly power, and watchdog failure. Here, the focus is lobbying: how industry actors shaped the policy environment: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: How Tech lobbying enabled MisManageMyHealth
Fifteen years of warnings from three Privacy Commissioners.
democracyproject.org.nz
The Manage My Health breach wasn’t a tech failure, it was a policy failure. This column traces how 30 years of privatisation, light-handed regulation and “high-trust” governance left NZ’s most sensitive health data in private hands, with no real oversight: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: How Privatisation built the MisManageMyHealth disaster
Why don’t we have a single, secure, government-run system for health records?
democracyproject.org.nz
"Now it’s time to look at who built this house of cards in the first place. Who is Manage My Health... This breach wasn’t random bad luck. It was baked into the architecture... www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The Monopoly behind MisManageMyHealth
Vino Ramayah, the CEO of Manage My Health, couldn’t have summed up the contradiction at the heart of this mess any better.
democracyproject.org.nz
Who built the MisManageMyHealth house of cards? In this 4th analysis in a series on the scandal, I examine the company behind the breach: its ownership, its monopoly position and the offshoring decisions that left millions of NZers’ health records exposed: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The Monopoly behind MisManageMyHealth
Vino Ramayah, the CEO of Manage My Health, couldn’t have summed up the contradiction at the heart of this mess any better.
democracyproject.org.nz
NZers were encouraged — sometimes required — to use digital health portals. But when that system catastrophically failed, the state shrugged and said: “Not our problem.” My latest article on the MisManageMyHealth scandal and the problems of privatisation: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The Watchdog that didn’t bark in the MisManageMyHealth scandal
In June 2025, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner received an anonymous tip.
democracyproject.org.nz
This is the 2nd column in my series on the ManageMyHealth debacle. The most damning fact isn’t the hack, but that clear warnings were issued months earlier and ignored. This breach was foreseeable & symptomatic of a hollowed-out regulatory state: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Why the MisManageMyHealth debacle was preventable
In my previous column, I argued that the Manage My Health breach revealed a hollowed-out state.
democracyproject.org.nz
This isn’t just a data breach. The Manage My Health hack is a case study in how NZ governs itself: hollowed-out oversight, light-touch regulation, and politicians who rush to condemn failures they quietly designed: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The MisManageMyHealth scandal
When hackers stole 430,000 medical documents from Manage My Health on December 30, the initial response followed a familiar script.
democracyproject.org.nz
As we head into an election year, voters should ask a simple question: "Does NZ still believe international law applies to everyone, or only to countries we’re comfortable criticising?" My analysis on NZ's craven response to the US invasion of Venezuela: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: NZ’s timid stance on the US invasion of Venezuela
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, New Zealand responded with unusual speed.
democracyproject.org.nz
NZ urgently needs stricter rules on taxpayer-funded political advertising. Until then, expect more billboards, sponsored “news” articles, and digital ads — all paid for by the public, all technically “allowed”. My latest analysis: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: How Politicians campaign with your money
How much taxpayer funding will politicians spend this year on election advertising?
democracyproject.org.nz
Can knighthoods be bought in NZ? Today’s New Year Honours include multiple major political donors. Once again, the proximity between large donations and royal honours raises uncomfortable questions about whether our honours system rewards merit or money: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Honours for Sale?
Can the wealthy donate money to politicians to get a knighthood in New Zealand?
democracyproject.org.nz
2025 was a bad year for NZ politics. Not just for the Govt, or Opposition, or any one party, but for the political system as a whole. If you’ve felt that politics this year has been more dispiriting than usual, you’re not imagining it - my latest column: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: The Year of Our Discontent
Veteran political journalist Richard Harman summed up 2025 in one bleak line: “This has been the year of our discontent.
democracyproject.org.nz
My end-of-year analysis about the biggest hitter in parliamentary and ministerial politics in NZ, and what it says about NZ democracy: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
Democracy Briefing: Chris Bishop – Politician of the Year 2025
At the end of the year, commentators across the spectrum have crowned Chris Bishop as 2025’s “Politician of the Year”.
democracyproject.org.nz
Who funds local democracy — and what do they expect in return? My latest column analyses the newly released local election donation data and finds a familiar pattern: developers, corporates and the wealthy dominating the megaphone: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...
