Closing down the negatives is the name of the game for the opposition parties right now. It’s a form of negative politics, though not one usually associated with the term “negative.” Really, it means sending a message about what you are not.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/order-paper-left-lays-out-political-negatives-and-bureaucratic-economic-outlook

I was nonplussed to learn last year that a civil servant had had hundreds of my personal emails sitting on a laptop kept in a cupboard beside his desk. Indeed, he admitted to “looking at a few emails to and from Rodney Hide.”

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/hidesight-email-snoop-writes-law-text-then-breaks-it

After a decade of John Key’s selfies, you may have thought politics couldn’t get less substantial and yet here we are. Labour’s deputy leader Jacinda Ardern kicked off the week with an exclusive revelation to the Woman’s Weekly that her boss Andrew Little is “so funny.” “Honestly,” she exclaimed in a three-page feature called Jacinda & Andrew’s Growing Bond, “he’s all about the dad jokes. When he’s on fire, they just roll out of him.”

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/weekly-hit-more-meat-please

The late Potter Stewart, a judge of the United States Supreme Court, was fond of a pithy line. He got some coverage in a 1964 obscenity case when he declined to attempt a definition of hardcore porn, saying: “I know it when I see it.”

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/hunters-corner-npt-kiwi-augusta-and-salt-confounding-conundrum

The recent visit to New Zealand of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had local media and politicians squealing with excitement at all the goodies on offer. Not much critical comment was passed and it was interesting that Australia’s government, whom Mr Li visited first, had a somewhat different approach than New Zealand’s.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/money-two-paths-silk-road

The big news from Airbus from the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg this week was a new, narrower design for the front staircase of the double-decker A380, creating space for 20 more seats. The new design is one among a number of ways that Airbus is offering to fit up to 80 additional customers in a plane that now carries up to 497. Other changes include changing a spiral staircase at the back of the plane and removing some cabin stowage space.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/carry-new-cabin-fever-inflight-live-sport-laptop-ban-options-and-more-ng-p-201616

Probably the only thing giving Nicky Hager more headaches than the alleged activities of New Zealand troops abroad is the sober realities of the news business closer to home. The winds of change billowing through the media industry have toppled so many old certainties. The bigger they’ve stood in many cases, the harder they’ve fallen, and few have crumpled as much as the once-unassailable assumption that whatever the Wellington author produced like clockwork every three years would be endlessly picked over and analysed right up to Election Day.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/media-watch-news-cycle-tips-spin-machine-nicky-hager

2degrees has launched iPhone and Android Data Clock apps that let pre-pay customers buy chunks of data by time rather than amount. Rather than, say, buy one gigabyte of mobile data for $20, a customer can use all the data they want within a set period.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/2degrees-brings-time-based-data-plans-new-zealand-%E2%80%93-uber-style-surge-pricing-ck-p-201663

The merger between two medium-sized companies with a national presence in the IT sector will benefit people in the regions, says the soon-to-be-boss of the two companies. Early next month, NZ Technology Group will merge with Need a Nerd, a partly-franchised IT support company that was started in the Hawke’s Bay in 2004 by the Dunkerley family.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/better-one-need-nerd-and-nz-technology-group-merge-cg-p-201662

An employers' advocate says a new OECD report urging New Zealand adopt an redundancy insurance is “gilding the lily.” The report, Back to Work: New Zealand, says the government should also introduce a longer minimum notice period to help disadvantaged laid-off workers find a new job.

Read more($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/employers-reject-oecd-call-redundancy-insurance-levy-lift-re-employment-rate-ng-p-201657