Max Rashbrooke

Wellington

Writer and Journalist at Freelance

Senior research fellow, Victoria University. @the_postnz and @TheSpinoffTV columnist. @TEDTalks speaker. Interests: economic and democratic renewal.

Articles

The Post

1 week ago | thepost.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke
The Post

1 week ago | thepost.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke
Is political trust ‘in crisis’? It depends

2 weeks ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke

Is it as bad as has been suggested? Probably not. But how do we ensure the current weather of distrust doesn’t become a climate of toxic disaffection? A few years ago, trust in New Zealand’s government was higher than at any other time in the last 35 years. Why, then, do we hear so much about a “crisis” of political trust? Obviously, trust matters: it is the glue that holds society together. Communities become dysfunctional when people cannot, as a rule, rely on their neighbours to behave predictably.
The Post

3 weeks ago | thepost.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke
The Post

4 weeks ago | thepost.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke
Note to ministers: cutting services doesn’t make need go away

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke

From emergency housing to employment dispute resolution, the government’s cutbacks are a misguided attempt to shrink our sense of what constitutes the public good – and it’s not an issue that solely affects the poor and the weak. When even employers are complaining about public service cuts in the National Business Review, the organ of the country’s corporate elite, it’s a sign that the shortcomings of the government’s cost-cutting agenda are spreading far and wide.
The Post

1 month ago | thepost.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke
Luxon’s epic unpopularity in one chart

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke

Comparing our current prime minister’s net favourability to the first terms of Helen Clark, John Key and Jacinda Ardern shows the extent to which new depths are being plumbed. Everyone knows Christopher Luxon is unpopular. National’s polling is poor, and his preferred prime minister rating is now below that of his opposite number, Chris Hipkins, despite the latter’s deliberate strategy of being largely invisible for the last 18 months.
We need to stop shadow-boxing on competition

1 month ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke

How many times do supermarkets and banks have to be put ‘on notice’ before something actually changes? When, earlier this month, finance minister Nicola Willis warned our uncompetitive supermarket duopoly that they had been put “on notice”, Foodstuffs and Woolworths must have been trembling with fear. Indeed they can barely have recovered from the shock incurred the last time they were – according to RNZ – put “on notice”, in August last year, for routinely over-charging customers.
My ancestor were colonisers

2 months ago | thespinoff.co.nz | Max Rashbrooke

A stunning essay from Max Rashbrooke examining his ancestors’ role in the shaping of Aotearoa, and what that means for his own role in its future. Our Waitangi 2025 coverage is possible because of the over 13,000 Spinoff members who regularly pay to support our work. If you aren’t supporting our work as a member yet, now is the time. Charles Wilson Hursthouse IIt is a beautiful object, and yet it holds something ugly.