Now is the time to stop creating regulations and start to create a building industry that works, writes Victoria University of Wellington's Dr Nigel Isaacs for Newsroom.

That Donald Trump has upended the world of diplomacy is not up for debate. Yet the New Zealand embassy’s decision to engage a US lobbying firm with no prior foreign experience raises questions about the state of our affairs in Washington, as Sam Sachdeva writes for Newsroom today.

In a pre-Budget speech Jacinda Ardern took her critics head on, telling the crowd of business leaders that flagging business confidence didn’t match reality, Thomas Coughlan reports for Newsroom.

The more the unrelenting US-China competition foreshadowed in contemporary US planning becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, the more New Zealand and its partners need to encourage a regional environment less dominated by the ambitions of the big two, writes Robert Ayson for Newsroom today.

Last Thursday a 72-year-old man used his time at the most-watched podium in the land to make a rather extraordinary ideological statement about the state we find ourselves in and, it seems, to swing a hammer at what has felt like a layer of thick ice between New Zealand as it is and New Zealand as it will be writes Anna Connell for Newshub. "Far too many New Zealanders have come to view today's capitalism, not as their friend, but as their foe” said Winston Peters "That is why we believe that capitalism must regain its responsible - its human…

One of the striking things about New Zealand in recent times has been the deepening disconnect between our traditional security partners, and the trading partners that increasingly underpin our prosperity. 50 years ago security and trade went hand in hand. Then things started to change with the UK joining the EU. NZ had to seek new partners, new arrangements, and new friends. Things have greatly improved over the last 30 years Partly thanks to some welcome – though very slow – agricultutal policy reform in the EU and US. But also due to the opening of massive new markets on…

These are difficult times in Saudi Arabia. The long slump in the price of oil is eviscerating the economy. Neighboring countries are plagued by violence and extremism. Saudi Arabia’s air force has been raining death and destruction on Yemen for 19 months, with no end in sight. The kingdom’s regional struggle with Iran shapes every decision in international affairs. Inside the country, the Islamic State has been recruiting so intently that the police have established a direct emergency phone number, 990, for families to call when they think one of their sons is about to go to Syria to join…