OPINION: As I was putting the final touches on my column for last month, the hottest ‘breaking news’ was the Scott Robertson story from New Zealand Rugby.

OPINION: She's a bit damp on the East Coast. Hughie can't stop the rain, and the high temps in between weather events has got the flies on the front foot in the animal health stakes.

OPINION: A bumper season all around.

OPINION: A mate of yours truly reckons rural Manawatu families are the latest to suffer under what he calls the Government's "performative restraint" - penny pinching on needed community stuff while the bureaucrat head count and wasteful spending in Wellington charges on undiminished.

OPINION: If old Winston Peters thinks building trade relations with new nations, such as India, isn't a necessary investment in our future, he has rocks in his head.

OPINION: The proverbial has really hit the fan in Wellington and exposed a glaring example of a double standard in environmental accountability.

OPINION: Dark suited spin doctors exist to, well, spin, and the nice cuddly progressive types at Greenpeace Aotearoa practice this dark art with the same cynicism as your average corporate giant.

OPINION: This month Wellington’s Moa Point wastewater treatment plant failed catastrophically, sending an estimated 70 million litres of untreated sewage straight into the ocean each day.

OPINION: Farmers are the biggest investors in research in New Zealand. Whether through taxes, rates, co-operative company retentions, or industry-body levies… or the time they spend ‘in kind’ working with researchers, or the dollars they invest in start-up companies or their own ideas, the financial commitment is considerable.

OPINION: As the Northland Agricultural Field Days celebrates an impressive 40 years, Northland Regional Council (NRC) extends its congratulations to the current and past organising committees for reaching this milestone.