Brian Rudman asks, how many buildings does the panel think can penetrate a viewshaft before the view becomes as extinct as the volcano we can no longer see?

The Auckland house market has been a speculator's goldmine long before New Zealand opened the doors to widespread immigration from Asia, writes Brian Rudman.

The resignation of Ports of Auckland chairman Graeme Hawkins for health reasons gives Mayor Len Brown the chance to do what he should have done a long time ago.

Len Brown's recent cuddle-up to Transport Minister Simon Bridges reminds me of a poor Whanganui chap banged up in Bali for being willing to believe anything in his quest for a little love, writes Brian Rudman.

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

What remains unclear in this long, drawn-out "make-an-offer" phase is what the Government considers is the going price for a state house, writes Brian Rudman.

I'm a little nervous about supporting Watercare's desire to bury a large watermain along the outer fringes of Cornwall Park.

In a democracy, if the executive can't get a majority to support its plans, the accepted course is for the rulers to go away and prepare a budget the majority will support, writes Brian Rudman.

The idea of an urban development authority, touted by experts for at least a decade, may again fall on deaf ears, writes Brian Rudman.

Just over two years ago, Housing Minister Nick Smith announced that "this year" the Government was developing a housing warrant of fitness, writes Brian Rudman.

Auckland councillors have agreed to lessons to improve their governance skills - a more urgent need is for them to learn how to be better politicians, writes Brian Rudman.

Now I'm totally confused. John Key has nominated Auckland for the Lee Kuan Yew World City prize, named in honour of the leader who nanny-stated Singapore.

Former Auckland Mayor John Banks is screaming blue murder, demanding the Solicitor-General stand down after the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction for filing a false electoral return after the....

The New Zealand Transport Agency is adding two lanes, plus a cycleway to a 9.5km stretch of the Southern Motorway between Manukau and Papakura.

With rates going up again to pay for Mayor Brown's vision Brian Rudman is a little nervous about being stuck with funding the cycling lobby's cross-harbour vision as well.

At the Istanbul Peace Summit last month, Prime Minister John Key rejected Turkish pleas for others to share the burden of the flood of refugees from the Iraqi-Syria bloodbath next door.

With another three and a half years of wallowing in World War I gloom to look forward to, thank God for Princess Charlotte, writes Brian Rudman.

The security Jeremiahs will be most put out. Not one sword-wielding ninja, or explosive-belted suicide bomber, shattered the peace of Anzac Day commemorations. Anywhere.

Fairfax Media's decision to ship up to eight million historic NZ news photographs and negatives to Little Rock, Arkansas, for "digitising" has proved perilous.

NZ's an increasingly secular country, writes Brian Rudman. The 2013 Census recorded 41.9 per cent of us as having no religion.

Whichever of Cameron Slater's demons encouraged him to humiliate and endanger himself, a responsible boxing promoter should have said no, writes Brian Rudman.

Since the early days of European settlement, Auckland politicians have been dreaming up ways of dumping spoil in the harbour to create more land.

Any business case prepared before the Waterview bypass is completed will have to rely on notoriously inaccurate modelling to predict its effect on the harbour bridge, writes Brian Rudman.

Forgive me for not being my usual liberal self when I read that a group of local Sikhs are getting over-excited about not being allowed carry ceremonial daggers.

The film clip of Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee striding into the bowels of the $250 million Boeing C-17 Globemaster for a test drive this week was scary.