In 2015, Don began writing articles for elocal, a monthly magazine focused on the Franklin county/Karaka area of South Auckland. In recent years, it has been available both in print and digital editions (the latter at www.elocal.co.nz). In reverse chronological order, these are those articles.
A few weeks ago, the New Zealand Herald carried the story of a family of four having only $81. 30 per week to pay for food after covering the cost of rent, power, phone, petrol, insurance, etc.
Dear Minister,
A recent edition of elocal contained an open letter to you from historian Martin Doutre requesting that you commission an independent forensic investigation into the version of the Treaty of Waitangi signed at Port Waikato in April 1840.
For the third time in less than 18 months, I’m writing about house prices. And of course the reason is that in New Zealand generally, and in Auckland in particular, house prices have gone from wildly unaffordable to the utterly ridiculous.
A few days ago, a friend expressed doubt about whether democracy was really working in New Zealand. She had just watched the Speaker of Parliament throw Winston Peters out of the House, apparently for asking a question which embarrassed the Government.
For many years, the National Party has stressed its commitment to reforming the Resource Management Act (RMA), the piece of legislation which more than any other determines how we protect our environment and plan our cities. In the first term of this Government, some modest reforms were introduced.
Over the last couple of months, there has been a quite astonishing level of antagonism towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
During my time in Parliament between 2002 and 2007, I gave four speeches at the Orewa Rotary Club, on each occasion on the last Tuesday of January. The first was delivered before I became Leader of the National Party and generated some headlines at the time.
From time to time, an issue comes along which divides the community into warring camps which have little or nothing to do with conventional politics. When I was in Parliament between 2002 and 2006, one such issue was whether prostitution should be legalised.
Not long before Christmas, there was some discussion in the media about the fact that Auckland Regional Migrant Services (ARMS) was being careful to avoid using the word “Christmas”, and would instead be wishing people “happy holidays” and “season’s greetings”.
As most readers will be aware, the Reserve Bank has recently announced that it will be issuing new bank notes over the next few months, with new $5 and $10 notes being issued at the moment and new $20, $50 and $100 notes being issued early next year.
Six months ago, I wrote my first article for elocal.
One of the promises the National Party made when campaigning for the 2008 election was that it would raise the average standard of living in New Zealand to that in Australia, so that New Zealanders would no longer feel so tempted to move across the Tasman.
One of the standing jokes during the 14 years during which I was Governor of the Reserve Bank was that, every time the Monetary Policy Committee met to advise me on whether to tighten, ease, or hold monetary conditions, there was an “unusual degree of uncertainty” about the future outlook…
The great majority of New Zealanders – indeed the great majority of people in most countries – think they know the answer to this question.
Doris Munche asked two questions: Who exactly owns the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and who exactly owns the New Zealand currency? Both questions have straightforward answers, but perhaps a bit of elaboration would be helpful.
Last year, I published a book called “Incredible Luck”. The book covered a lot of issues, but at one point I criticised the present Government for its unwillingness to forewarn the public of the inevitable need to increase the age of eligibility for NZ Super.
Almost every time I pick up the Herald it seems to carry another story of rising house prices in Auckland.
Copyright © 2026 Don Brash.