Two acts of political crassness marked the holiday break.

The Government would be very unwise to progress its proposed changes to the Resource Management Act relying solely on the vote of the ACT Party.

We are in that slide towards the Festive Season where everyone suddenly becomes nice to each other, where the year’s problems no longer seem as grim or pressing, and where we start to think about our plans and hopes for next year.

UnitedFuture leader and Ohariu MP Peter Dunne says Wellington has been over-governed for too long, and change is needed to best shape the region’s future.

Now, while most will know about the G20 and will have followed its recent meeting in Brisbane, probably few (if any) will have heard of the D5.

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says that while the revised Countering Foreign Terrorists Bill is an improvement on the Bill originally introduced to Parliament, it is still just a temporary measure which will need to be replaced.

I have thought for many years that the State Services Commission was redundant and should be abolished.

The case of Phillip John Smith raises broader issues regarding individual privacy in age of increasingly joined-up government.

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says the Party needs to “go back to basics” and “focus afresh” on its core principles, if it is to regain voters’ trust and support.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice in Wonderland in 1865. “I don’t much care where – just so as I get somewhere.”

A couple of recent events remind me that nearly 150 years later, Alice’s plea still has a great deal of relevance.