OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Crucial month ahead for new-look LabourThe big challenge is to articulate, both to the membership and the wider public, the shift in Labour thinking, mirroring much of what's going in UK Labour, writes Toby Manhire.31 Oct 04:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Key needs a new partnerWanted: allies for NZ's most popular political party. Neoliberal, neoconservative, Neolithic - anything considered, writes Toby Manhire.03 Oct 04:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: National may sneer, but their leader election rules look out of step12 Sep 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Grant, David and Shane ... in a nutshellShould you have missed any of the first week's cuddly contretemps, here, writes Toby Manhire, is a snack-sized digest of the candidates' pitches so far.29 Aug 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Chameleon Key delivers a masterstrokeThe alchemists in the National Party are at it again, turning a slap in the face with a snapper into a brave stand for ordinary, hard-fishing Kiwis, writes Toby Manhire.15 Aug 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Crisis a red flag to NZ's cow dependencyRoughly 70 per cent of NZ exports come from primary industries, writes Toby Manhire. Fonterra alone is about 10 per cent of the economy. When the sector sneezes, the country catches cold.08 Aug 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Spy furore brings Dunne back from deadIt was fun while it lasted. Before you could say Johnsonville Mall, Peter Dunne was back transacting with the PM on the spying law, writes Toby Manhire.01 Aug 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Oh baby, how the times have changed ...To many it seems inconceivable that such a strange royalist fervour might have been witnessed in 21st-century Aotearoa NZ, writes Toby Manhire.25 Jul 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Spy bill do-gooders get their comeuppanceHow would these so-called experts feel if their attitudes paved the way for the extermination of all the world's kittens by masked terrorist gangs, asks Toby Manhire.18 Jul 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Kim vs John - Will we see such drama again?Those of us who had visions of a bristling, moody collision, something like that De Niro-Pacino scene in Heat, were always going to be disappointed, writes Toby Manhire.04 Jul 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: At last, Devoy speaks out on raceWhat distinguishes this cartoon is its effort to get humour from a caricature of Maori and Pacific people as fat, greedy, selfish, alcoholic gamblers, writes Toby Manhire.30 May 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Election's shadow falling on halls of powerOver the next 18 months, expect to see Key, and David Shearer, too, hovering outside Peters' office, bottle of Scotch in hand, writes Toby Manhire.23 May 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: SkyCity smirking all the way to the casinoThe majority Australian-owned company will have a monopoly on casino operation in Auckland, writes Toby Manhire. It will be essentially impervious to regulation.16 May 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Spy bill papering over cracked masonryIt takes a special class of sleep-deprived conspiracist to imagine John Key would have welcomed, let alone engineered, the Aaron Gilmore brouhaha, writes Toby Manhire.09 May 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Cars versus trains... bring it onMaurice Williamson was transport minister for most of the 1990s, a decade in which Auckland's reliance on road became entrenched, writes Toby Manhire.02 May 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Politics spawns a truth stranger than fictionColin Craig is New Zealand's answer to Ali G, writes Toby Manhire. "Colin Craig" is a fictional character, a circus clown, a satirical device.25 Apr 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Public funds shouldn't line Simon Cowell's pocketsIf the X Factor website were a contestant on a TV talent show, it would face a humiliating exit in the first round, writes Toby Manhire.18 Apr 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: The GCSB - A comedy-thriller in six partsThe GCSB will make for thrilling, rambunctious, and wildly funny viewing, writes Toby Manhire. This is the kind of television you watch through your fingers.11 Apr 05:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Let marriage loose from the lawA genuinely secular state has no place in the finery and stresses of the weird and often wonderful ritual of a wedding, writes Toby Manhire.14 Mar 04:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: Perhaps now's a good time to sell off TVNZThe emasculation of the news and current affairs department, the shrinking of current affairs output, the saturation of primetime with cheap reality dross, imported formats for local talent shows.07 Feb 08:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireToby Manhire: The year in review in advanceI'm determined to be first, and thus present: 2013 - the NewZealand political year in review, writes Toby Manhire.(Disclaimer: Here and there I've had to extrapolate.)24 Jan 08:30 PM
OpinionToby ManhireManhire: Armstrong busy back-pedalingWatch as disgraced cyclist Armstrong loses himself in his host's deep, trusting eyes, writes Toby Manhire. Watch as the tears roll authentically down his contrite face.17 Jan 08:30 PM
OpinionKey: More than meets the eyeFor those who cheer the Prime Minister's common-man chutzpah number as many, if not more, than those who cringe, writes Toby Manhire.20 Dec 04:30 PM
OpinionToby Manhire: Man of the year? No...but Dotcom's still the starWhatever you think of the man - like him, loathe him, or just bored to tears by him - Dotcom has been the news motherlode of 2012, writes Toby Manhire.13 Dec 08:30 PM
OpinionRisks putting head above Pure parapetIt is not the first time criticisms of New Zealand's environmental performance have been cast as treachery, writes Toby Manhire.29 Nov 08:30 PM
OpinionToby Manhire: China Southern visa pact crosses ethical lineNo one seems to think it worth reflecting on the ethics of a government cutting a deal with a foreign business to provide their customers with a visa short-cut, writes Toby Manhire.22 Nov 08:30 PM
OpinionToby Manhire: David - here's 15 tips for your make-or-break speechI've counted more than 50 pieces this week on whether He Is Up To It, including those from the bloggers he assures us he doesn't read, writes Toby Manhire.15 Nov 04:30 PM
OpinionToby Manhire: Another year, another Key power summitAlmost a year later, another of the Prime Minister's high-level dialogues has been captured, probably by some intern or blogger, writes Toby Manhire.08 Nov 04:30 PM
