Trade negotiations by their nature tend to teeter on the brink of failure and TPP at Maui proved to be no exception, says Stephen Jacobi.

Should we be dismayed or relieved at the disarray the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations are in? Sorry, but on the information to hand it is impossible to say.

We live in a beautiful, peaceful country. The Prime Minister has us designing a new flag. Labour leader Andrew Little wants a new national anthem. We truly are blessed.

The Labour leader is walking a tightrope in delivering trade messages, writes Claire Trevett.

Knowledge should not be a restricted property and its applications shouldn't be patentable, writes John Roughan.

The TPP has the potential to transform the economies of the 12 Asia-Pacific nations - but the devil, as always, is in the fine print, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Winston Peters clearly got some momentum from the Northland win. The question is whether he's made the most of it, writes Claire Trevett.

"Free market" theory has a lot to answer for, writes Bryan Gould. Charter schools? Privately run prisons? What about the wacky idea of selling bonds to finance social services?

National's latest bit of tinkering with its immigration policy will not solve the Auckland housing crisis. It will barely touch it.

$100,000 a year to imprison a person is a lot of money. That's the striking figure at the centre of the current prison scandal and debate.

Having watched John Key's obviously flagging campaign for a new flag, Andrew Little had some advice for the PM in Parliament yesterday.

Those expecting fireworks in John Key and Andrew Little's first encounter since the Chinese-sounding-surname debate broke out were sorely disappointed, writes Claire Trevett.

We are in awe of the discoveries in outer space but sceptical about climate change - and with good reason, argues John Roughan.

For all intents and purposes National was done like a dog's dinner by Labour this week, writes John Armstrong.

If the party's key researchers are made of stern stuff they will now further test their analysis, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

The state was paying unwarranted attention to Nicky Hager when its low-wage citizens needed it more, writes Dita De Boni.

Labour could learn a thing or two from the adaptable, influential, and canny businesswoman Taylor Swift, writes Claire Trevett.

Public pressure needs to be harnessed if the ban on assisted deaths is to be axed, writes John Armstrong.

After a range of World Cups and test matches in his seven years as Prime Minister, Key could now rival Usain Bolt in his sprint to the changing room, writes Claire Trevett.

Barack Obama's Charleston speech could come to rank with Martin Luther King's at the Lincoln Memorial as an inspiring moment of modern times, writes John Roughan.

The Finance Minister is fuelling claims that privatisation is the Government's end game, writes John Armstrong.

A sugar tax is out according to Dr Jonathan Coleman who says there's no evidence it works. That's wrong, writes Dita De Boni.

Auckland Council's bean counters are trying to make a buck out of public lavatories.

It's one thing to use our own money to bank with the Australians as most of us do, but taxpayer money on social services to foreigners is entering a new realm, writes Mike Hosking.

There are many who appear to believe they are qualified to step up to the role Sonny Tau has vacated and act as bridge builder, writes Claire Trevett.

Some MPs given the call to speak who try to be funny end up failing miserably. Brownlee never disappoints, writes John Armstrong.

John Key, Bill English, Paula Bennett and Simon Bridges all know Len Brown is a lame duck mayor, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Colin Craig has made a nonsense of his enemies' pigeonholing of him as a political neophyte, writes John Armstrong.

Like any soap opera the Colin Craig saga is full of shadowy villains, unrequited feelings, vengeance, wrath, and wronged wives, writes Claire Trevett.

You hum it; Nathan Guy will sing it. Frank Sinatra may have crooned about there being an awful lot of coffee in Brazil, John Armstrong writes.