Colin James is a New Zealand political journalist of 35 years experience who writes a weekly column in the New Zealand Herald and a monthly column in Management magazine. He is the New Zealand correspondent of Oxford Analytica.

When the media want to know what's going on in politics they ask Colin James. He has correctly forecast which party would be or lead the government in 12 of the past 13 elections.

He analyses and forecasts the policy environment in which businesses and other organisations must operate and runs a forecasting service which has 100 medium and large corporate members at CEO level. He makes presentations on the strategic environment to companies, industry associations, government departments and other groups.

He is a senior associate of the Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, where he runs roundtables — recent topics include sustainable energy, post-2012 climate change policy options and Parliament in transition. He is a fellow of the Institute of Public Administration.

He has written six books, including New Territory: The Transformation of New Zealand, 1984-92. He has written or edited several books for the Institute of Policy Studies and many chapters for other books.

He has given many papers at conferences, seminars and symposiums in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. He has an honorary doctorate of literature from Victoria University.