Jonathan Milne

NZ does charge a few high duties on the likes of tobacco. We do sell America more wine than we buy. But the easiest way to wipe out the US trade imbalance would be for Defence and Air NZ to buy more planes. I've crunched the numbers at @NewsroomNZ Pro ($). https://t.co/qSR6Dlv8Vo

NZ's sacked High Commissioner Phil Goff speaks out, unapologetic, about Trump's 'bullying' and 'deceitful' tariffs on NZ. ‘We have never been afraid to challenge aggressors or to ask questions of our allies,’ he says. @newsroomnz https://t.co/Th8MvCq2wq

Liberation Day – or Obliteration Day? There are fears Trump's tariffs, to be announced in the Rose Garden on April 2 (ET), will wipe out many of the economic gains achieved by trade liberalisation in the past decades. @NewsroomNZ will report live in depth. https://t.co/g4gFUbDunT

Akld doctor Sapna Samant is believed to be the first person in Australasia targeted for denaturalisation by India’s conservative Modi administration, I report, for criticising the government’s treatment of Sikhs, Muslims and other minorities. @NewsroomNZ https://t.co/XGqGTDFUwo

How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb? Just the one; the lightbulb stays still and the opposition finance spokesperson spins … Out from the @Newsroom paywall today, I discover that Labour's reason for opposing PPPs is simply unfounded. https://t.co/K6l74xxyvQ

Akld Mayor Wayne Brown wants to lease a pair of pandas from China, for the city's zoo. "I went to Chengdu and I saw pandas, and they reminded me of the people who work in the Ministry of Transport," he tells me. "They sit around doing nothing." @NewsroomNZ https://t.co/Quk19ivpYm

Never mind the Gull Effect or the NPD Discount, Z Energy is set to makes its own budget fuel play (perhaps the beginning of the end for NZ’s century-old Caltex). I report the opening of 25 new unstaffed U-Go sites set to be 5c to 15c/L cheaper. @NewsroomNZ https://t.co/2YYzf3bFpU

Independent brewers are alarmed at news that Aussie-owned Konvoy Kegs, which has a near monopoly on the NZ beer and cider logistics market, has been put into receivership. My article is at @NewsroomNZ Pro this morning. https://t.co/G4D2quo5Uu

Ask not for whom Libelle tolls; the toll is NZ’s hungry school kids. I've talked to David Seymour, liquidator David Webb, and my kids' school principal Shameen Hayat for this comment. Am I being too harsh about the school lunches? Let me know. @NewsroomNZ https://t.co/Ugk2FbenAo

My morning @Newsroom Pro editorial is now available to all readers: Health Minister Simeon Brown is set to bring an end to Lester Levy’s enormously vexed term as Commissioner of Health NZ, and take the first steps to reinstating a governing board. https://t.co/RN7mafx5fQ

I liked Adrian Orr. But the previous National Government had criticised his $1m salary at the Super Fund; this Government could ill afford to hand him a $1 billion spending allowance at the Reserve Bank. I've dug deeper into the departure, at @NewsroomNZ. https://t.co/aT7TQKISjo

Barbara Chapman from NZME to lead Air NZ; Greg Foran to London as High Commissioner; Phil Goff to become Governor of the Reserve Bank; Adrian Orr to pick up the remnants of Jim Grenon’s JG4 investment fund. You heard it here first.

Adrian Orr has quit, 2 yrs into his second 5yr term as @ReserveBankofNZ Governor. The role is independent of Govt, but even a sage sitting atop a remote monetary mountain can read the political winds. Could Finance Minister Nicola Willis' be any more damning in her faint praise? https://t.co/sN6OXUH91z

A Rotorua hapū says the wastewater pipeline would run through the wahi tapu where up to 153 people were buried by the eruption of Mt Tarawera. There were 7 arrests last night as police arrived at the occupation site in big numbers, I report at @NewsroomNZ. https://t.co/KjAaFA1o2t

Former Health NZ exec team members speak out of the ‘incredible turnover’ making it harder to deliver for communities that need care the most. All 6 women gone; both Pasifika gone; both LGBT gone. My article at @NewsroomNZ is prompting questions in Parlt. https://t.co/nSCG3pUHU0

Here's my 2c on something we've discovered about Cook Islands' 2 boats. Taxpayers could pick up most of the tab to buy a new $5m ferry from China. Out from the paywall at @NewsroomNZ. https://t.co/O3WZkqwKnu

RT @HelenClarkNZ: 6. See @JonoMilne article on possibility of Cook Is extending seabed minerals sector exploration timeframe before issuing…