Independent Analysis and Reportage
Auto Added by WPeMatico
Keynesian economics tells us that the most reliable circuit-breakers are exports and government spending. New Zealand's exports are booming, and have been for a while. But for New Zealand that's still far from enough; New Zealand needs a government spending circuit breaker as well.
I cannot imagine the age for KiwiSaver entitlement staying at 65 – what today is loosely called the 'retirement age' – while the age of pension entitlement is raised to 67 or higher. Requiring people to wait until they are 67 before they can access their retirement savings may prove to be even more unpopular than raising the pension-entitlement age.
ANALYSIS: By Robert Reich On Saturday, Trump took revenge on Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy for Cassidy’s vote five years ago to convict Trump, in his second impeachment, for instigating an attack on the US Capitol. Cassidy thereby became the first GOP senator defeated by a Trump-endorsed candidate in a Republican primary. (Other Republican senators who ... <a title="Robert Reich: Has Trump’s Republican Party become a criminal enterprise?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/20/robert-reich-has-trumps-republican-party-become-a-criminal-enterprise/" aria-label="Read more about Robert Reich: Has Trump’s Republican Party become a criminal enterprise?">Read more</a>
Tehran believes Trump will attack in the next 48 hours — and is ready to counter-escalate, writes US-Iran affairs analyst Trita Parsi. ANALYSIS: By Trita Parsi The Middle East is once again teetering on the brink as Trump appears poised to reignite war with Iran. Press reports indicate he will convene military advisers on Tuesday, ... <a title="Trita Parsi: Is Trump poised to restart the Iran war?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/19/trita-parsi-is-trump-poised-to-restart-the-iran-war/" aria-label="Read more about Trita Parsi: Is Trump poised to restart the Iran war?">Read more</a>
ANALYSIS: By Laurens Ikinia in Jakarta The eighth floor of the Tempo building in Jakarta became the setting for a gathering rich with meaning. What brought together community leaders, politicians, academics, religious figures, journalists, and the family of the late Thom Beanal was not merely a book launch. It was an earnest attempt to revisit ... <a title="Thom Beanal – saluting a human rights legacy for Papua’s ‘father’" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/18/thom-beanal-saluting-a-human-rights-legacy-for-papuas-father/" aria-label="Read more about Thom Beanal – saluting a human rights legacy for Papua’s ‘father’">Read more</a>
PROFILE: By Campion Ohasio The Solomon Islands has entered a new political era. In a historic morning at Parliament House yesterday, Matthew Cooper Wale was elected as the nation’s new Prime Minister. His victory marks the culmination of a dramatic week in Honiara and signals a potential shift in both the country’s internal management and ... <a title="New chapter for Hapi Isles – Matthew Wale takes the helm as PM" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/17/new-chapter-for-hapi-isles-matthew-wale-takes-the-helm-as-pm/" aria-label="Read more about New chapter for Hapi Isles – Matthew Wale takes the helm as PM">Read more</a>
ANALYSIS: By David Robie, Pacific Media Watch When the Paris-based global watchdog Reporters Without Borders released their annual World Press Freedom Index dossier online three days before World Press Freedom Day, journalists in the Asia-Pacific region were quick to check out their ranking. Overall the prognosis wasn’t very flattering. No country in the region was ... <a title="Improvements in Pacific media freedom, but a shameful silence on Gaza ‘death trap’" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/17/improvements-in-pacific-media-freedom-but-a-shameful-silence-on-gaza-death-trap/" aria-label="Read more about Improvements in Pacific media freedom, but a shameful silence on Gaza ‘death trap’">Read more</a>
ANALYSIS: By Alison Broinowski of Declassified Australia Most of the Western media refuse to join the dots and explain Israel’s decades-long obsession with defanging Tehran. The war in Iran is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has planned for four decades. He has always wanted Israel to extend from Egypt to the Euphrates and in the ... <a title="Media miss: The questions never asked behind the US-Israel war on Iran" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/16/media-miss-the-questions-never-asked-behind-the-us-israel-war-on-iran/" aria-label="Read more about Media miss: The questions never asked behind the US-Israel war on Iran">Read more</a>
COMMENTARY: By Frances Palmer While appreciating certain points in Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s speech “Securing NZ’s Future in a more Volatile World” on current challenges to international law, enshrined “rules” and “order”, we must take a hard look at the solutions he offers to enhance security. Security now clearly is shaped in a global context. ... <a title="Defending NZ values in a volatile world – but in what kind of a world?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2026/05/16/defending-nz-values-in-a-volatile-world-but-in-what-kind-of-a-world/" aria-label="Read more about Defending NZ values in a volatile world – but in what kind of a world?">Read more</a>
Keith Rankin - Is it possible that an unintended consequence of moral compliance in relation to pay equity – of attempts to equalise pay by gender, within firms and other employing organisations – has been to create more young adult female NEETs? It's a hypothesis that at least deserves to be investigated further.
Keith Rankin - We can easily see that the United States 'national' debt is on an upwards, not a downwards, trajectory; the Department of War can loosen Treasury's guard-rails more easily than the Department of Health. (This is true in Germany too, with last-year's partial removal of that country's debt-brake.)
Keith Rankin - A lethal transmissible disease which is asymptomatic for six weeks, and which is infectious before symptoms occur, is one of our worst public health nightmares. The present scare should remind us of that.