Ryan Bridge: The problem with Tama Potaka's conservation bill

Most kiwis have an environmental bent to them that most of the rest of the western world just doesn't have. At least, not to the same extent.

Most people, left and right, use the outdoors here. We have quite a close relationship to it.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Did the Government botch their conservation announcement?

National probably has the right intention with underused conservation land but they completely botched the communication of the plan and its implications.

There’s a little bit of green in every New Zealander - and I could not agree with that more.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.6.26

Friday June 26, 2026 

News:
Rotorua seeks answers on Māori wards as six council merger options considered
Rotorua Lakes Council is seeking urgent clarification from the Government over the future of its Māori ward if local government reforms were to lead to the creation of a new unitary authority.

Paterson said millions of dollars had been spent nationally on referendums after legislation required councils to put Māori wards to voters.

John Robertson: The Secular State Under Seige

We are bearing witness to a profound, state-sponsored betrayal of the secular contract, a calculated metaphysical coup where a gutless managerial elite has allowed Māori spiritual beliefs to aggressively colonize our legal system, our policy frameworks, and our classrooms under the dishonest camouflage of "culture." Let’s drop the polite, cowardly euphemisms and name the rot with absolute precision: by embedding explicitly theological concepts like tikanga, wairua, and mauri into central government statutes, local regulations, and corporate policy frameworks, the state has established a toxic, selective soft theocracy.

John McLean: Immigration Biometric Project Exposed

On 16 June 2026, Minister of Immigration Erica Stanford angrily highlighted that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has repeatedly and deliberately misled her about an information technology project purporting to improve biometric capability at Immigration New Zealand. Immigration NZ is part of MBIE. The project, which wasted at least $38 million of public money in less than 10 years, has been abandoned after achieving nothing.

Mike's Minute: Why hasn't fast-track helped the Port of Tauranga?

Let me ask you this: if fast-track is the answer, then why do we still have the Port of Tauranga problems?

Surely I don’t need to go through the fine detail of what is one of this country's most embarrassing modern travesties.

David Harvey: A Regulator's Impulse

Hasten Slowly on Social Media Restrictions

This article is a companion piece to that entitled “A Regulator’s Reflex” which can be found here. It deals with the issue of social media access restrictions and explains the danger inherent in the proposition - to paraphrase an old saying - “Legislate in haste; repent at leisure”

Stuff reported on 16 June some interesting comments by Education Minister Erica Stanford, who now seems to be leading the charge for what has been described as a social media ban for under 16 year olds.

Dr Kumari Valentine: NZCCP Sets a Precedent of Censorship

When a professional body removes a peer-reviewed article because it conflicts with organisational values, the issue is no longer a single publication, but the future of open inquiry, editorial independence, and professional disagreement.

A few days ago, members of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (NZCCP) received an email informing them that a published article (He Wero Ano: Don't Just Tell Me, Show Me How Science and Psychology Are Racist in New Zealand by A. Mitchell) had been removed from the Journal of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists. This article had been submitted in 2024 and been peer reviewed and then published in later 2025.

Ashley Church: Are we sliding towards civil war?

Warning signs from an unexpected source

Spend enough time on social media and it’s hard not to conclude that a large number of people are deeply angry about the direction of Western society.

That anger is particularly obvious on the centre-right where many believe that the institutions and values which sustained the West for generations are being steadily dismantled. They see faith, family, national identity, freedom of speech and equality before the law giving way to identity politics, cultural guilt, group entitlements and an increasingly intrusive state.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Half a Turnaround - Why ACC's recovery must be built on rehabilitation, not exits

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which funds injured New Zealanders’ care and recovery, has halted a decade of decline. But a New Zealand Initiative report warns its recovery rests on tighter decisions and exits, not proven rehabilitation.

After years of injured people waiting longer, more getting stuck on long-term support and liabilities roughly doubling, the government ordered a review, demanded a turnaround and installed a new chair. The long-term claims pool, once growing by nearly 15 percent a year, stopped growing by April.

Kerre Woodham: How do you know what's real and what's not?

Do you know what's real and what's not when you're scrolling through your news feeds? When you're scrolling through your social media? AI generated “news” pages and political deepfake ads are swamping social media feeds. They've been around for a while, but there's more and more and more of them and they're becoming harder to detect as the technology gets more sophisticated, as people understand how to use the tools they're discovering.

David Farrar: Meet the Greens – Animal Welfare Policy

Policy No 3 is Animal Welfare. Some extracts:

• Ban cats from roaming outdoors (mandatory catios!)

• Establish a Parliamentary Commissioner of Animal Justice

Thursday June 25, 2026 

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The Co-Governance Charade And $8m Taxpayer Funding to Ngai Tahu - Otago Marine Reserves

Michael Laws exposes the co-governance charade and $8m taxpayer iwi funding that has gone into the Otago marine reserves

Click to view  

Karl du Fresne: Camp Freedom revisited

Where should the balance be struck between public safety and individual freedom? At what point should the latter be curtailed to protect the former? More than four years after the anti-vaccination encampment that ended in mayhem outside Parliament, the answer isn’t clear.

New Zealand in 2020 was threatened by a global pandemic. No one knew how serious it might be.

Clive Bibby: Politicians and Your Money

As the general election draws nearer, politicians of all persuasions are hitting the streets in an effort to bribe us with our own money.

For the rest of the year, we might as well not exist.

I accept that this appearance on street corners is part of the ritual we must endure in order to get a handle on who is promising value for money but it would be so much easier and a less debilitating process if they all actually did what they promised when in charge of the Treasury Benches.

Gerry Eckhoff: Santana Gold Mining

I recently came across the following verse of the American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) which is a perfect analogy for the Santana gold mining debate, here in Central Otago.

“It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined 

Who went to see an elephant (though all of them were blind)

That each by observation might satisfy his mind “

Andrew Dickens: Reality lost in conservation bill rhetoric

The hub bub yesterday over the Conservation Amendment Bill brought to light 3 issues for me

Firstly, how bad much of our law is and that stems back to how it’s written and processed. Secondly that many concerned organisations are not afraid to scaremonger and exaggerate to win their way. And thirdly how many New Zealanders rely on social media to keep informed on the issues of the day.

Geoff Parker: Marine Reserves Or Co-Governance By Stealth?

This week we were told to celebrate the launch of five new marine reserves along the Otago and South Canterbury coastline.

Protecting marine environments is a worthwhile goal. Most New Zealanders support conservation, sustainable fisheries, and preserving unique ecosystems for future generations.

But buried beneath the environmental language is something else entirely: another example of race-based governance quietly becoming embedded in New Zealand's public institutions.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ Media - Celebrating brown success, airbrushing brown atrocities

In the nightmare which unfolded in a quiet Swedish village, a father allegedly pumped bullets into his two young daughters before blowing his own brains out. One girl clings to life in hospital. The other is critically wounded.

In the nightmare which unfolded in a quiet Swedish village, a father allegedly pumped bullets into his two young daughters before blowing his own brains out. One girl clings to life in hospital. The other is critically wounded.