Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Has Fire and Emergency NZ overreacted here?

So, Fire and Emergency New Zealand has launched an investigation into the firefighter in the video with the Prime Minister. You’ll know what I’m talking about, you’ve probably seen it already. It’s been doing the rounds since Friday.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.2.26

Tuesday February 3, 2026 

News:
Blessing at Ngā Mokopuna school as work progresses - Erica Standford.
Work is set to proceed on the significant redevelopment of a Kaupapa Māori kura in Wellington following the whakatō mauri event at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngā Mokopuna this morning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says.

Construction has been supported through a $50 million investment in Budget 2025 to deliver up to 50 classrooms for Māori Medium and Kaupapa Māori Education.

Pee Kay: Decolonisation

Recently, CXY posted an excellent article, The Case For Colonisation.

“Therefore, acknowledging Māori as historical colonisers becomes politically inconvenient. The narrative must be protected, even at the expense of historical truth.”

I want to have a look at the other side of the coin – Decolonisation.

Geoff Parker: From shelter to sovereignty?

K Gurunathan’s recent Post column praises marae for their role during recent North Island storms and condemns critics of Māori governance arrangements. What it avoids, however, is the uncomfortable but necessary distinction between community charity and political authority.

No one disputes that many marae opened their doors during emergencies, offering shelter, food, and care — just as churches, schools, clubs, and private citizens routinely do in times of crisis. Decency in an emergency is not unique to any culture, nor does it confer constitutional status.

Ryan Bridge: FTA'S need to be done

Those opposing our FTA with India have got to be guilty of economic treason, don't they?

We're a small trading nation with lots of food, and world markets who need our red meat and our milk.

The closer the country, the better. The higher-value-add, the better.

Kerre Woodham: Are 12-month prescriptions too much for community pharmacies?

We thought we'd start with the new 12-month prescription rules. They came into force this weekend and are designed to save time and cut GP visits for patients. But community pharmacists say this could be the straw that breaks the camel's back because it's the latest in a raft of changes in a sector that is fighting to survive. 

The rules mean that people with long-term stable conditions can now get prescriptions of up to a year from their prescriber. And the government says this could save you up to $100 and more in GP fees annually. So that's got to be a good thing and you would think that the GPs would be in support of this too because if they have concerns about their patient's health and well-being, then they can say, well no, I'm not going to give you the one-year prescription, you'll have to come back more regularly. So they can decide. But if they do have an otherwise healthy patient, they can do the year-long prescription, then that frees them up for other patients.

David Farrar: Free fees is very badly spent money

Susan Edmonds writes at Radio NZ:

Eligible students can now apply for funds to help with the cost of their final year of study.

But one economist is asking whether it’s the best use of the money.

David Harvey: Erosion

Cause or Contribution

I recall when I was at school we were taught about erosion. That was a particular problem in the Gisborne and Hawkes Bay areas. Much of the problem was exacerbated by the removal of ground cover and of trees which lent a certain stability to the land.

Tree roots mechanically reinforce soil, increasing its shear strength (“root cohesion”) and helping soil layers act more like a single, stronger mass. Large roots can anchor through the soil into weathered rock, tying the shallow soil mantle to more stable material beneath and across potential slip planes.

Kevin: Now No Separation of Church and State

That’s racist!

A Hastings District councillor refused to attend a council strategic planning session because it was held at a marae.

First term councillor Steve Gibson posted on his Facebook page that he refused to attend the council’s strategic planning session on Wednesday because he was “not comfortable participating in council business where religious or spiritual practices form part of official proceedings”.

He said the meeting venue had changed “at the 11th hour” from a “neutral civic venue to a marae”.

Raaaacist!

Melanie Phillips: The emergence of Holocaust erasure

Unspeakably, the Final Solution is being weaponised against the Jews

International Holocaust Memorial Day has become a spur to write the Jews out of their own history.

The United Nations chose January 27 — the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp — to commemorate the Holocaust, the term that developed specifically to describe the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

David Farrar: The great climate climbdown

Matt Ridley writes:

I first wrote a doom–laden article for the Economist about carbon dioxide emissions trapping heat in the air in 1987, nearly 40 years ago. I soon realised the effect was real but the alarm was overdone, that feedback effects were exaggerated in the models. The greenhouse effect was likely to be a moderate inconvenience rather than an existential threat. For this blasphemy I was abused, cancelled, blacklisted, called a ‘denier’ and generally deemed evil.

Monday February 2, 2026 

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Damien Grant: A feel-good slavery bill that won’t catch the worst offenders

Children being sold into slavery is a terrible thing. And if New Zealand firms are involved in such activity Kiwis would want to minimise this evil.

So it was with delight that I read two outstanding lawmakers, National’s Greg Fleming and Labour’s Camilla Belich, have picked up the mantle of William Wilberforce in taking action to prevent not just slavery, but servitude, sexual exploitation, indentured labour and other similar evil.

Gerrard Eckhoff: The RMA

First of all -the good news. The Resource Management Act (RMA) is gone for good. After reaping destruction over our productive sectors - of all hues for past thirty-five years, the RMA is to be finally to be consigned to the scrap heap of history. The former National Party Minister for the Environment and Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment from 2017 - Simon Upton - apologized for the Act in his valedictory speech in 2001. It’s taken 30 odd years for Parliament to finally realize just how torturous the RMA was on the economy. The experiment in environmental socialism - where everybody and their pet dog had the chance to delay, obstruct, hinder and otherwise impede the productive sectors’ desire to grow the economy, is now reaping a failed harvest. 

Ross Meurant: Evolution of Politics

Darwin was damned for his version of Evolution.

Feel free to damn me for my version of Political evolution.

Rt Hon Winston Peters appears to have come up with a match winning serve.

Dr Will Jones: UN “On Brink of Bankruptcy”, Says Secretary-General

The United Nations is on the brink of bankruptcy after Donald Trump cut funding, its Secretary-General has said. The Telegraph has the story.

Benjamin Liu: NZ’s finance industry is required by law to treat customers fairly....

– but how do we define ‘fair’?

Most of us would agree fairness is a good guiding principle in life. Actually defining and applying it in the law, however, isn’t quite so simple.

Since March last year, New Zealand’s financial sector – including banks, insurers and credit unions – has been governed by the Conduct of Financial Institutions regime.

John McLean: Hipkins, from political grave to commie cradle?

A real prospect that’s nothing to be chipper about

New Zealand’s latest political polls have spoken. Labour Party leader Chris “Chippy” Hipkins, currently languishing in the political wilderness, is the person whom New Zealanders would most prefer to be New Zealand’s Prime Minister. The same polls indicate that the Labour Party is New Zealand’s most popular political party.

Jeffery Degner: How Many Work-Hours Does a Car Cost? The Model T to Today

The Model T brought mobility within reach of ordinary workers. Despite huge improvements, affordability has eroded as real costs climb.

While most of my fellow Michiganders like to think of Detroit as the birthplace of the automobile, we have to remember, the Germans have us beat.

German inventor and entrepreneur, Carl Benz submitted his patent application on January 29, 1886, and as car buffs know, this represented the advent of the world’s first production automobile, the Motorwagen. The story goes that its maiden roadtrip was taken by Benz’s wife, Bertha and their two sons, Eugen and Richard, supposedly without letting the inventor know! That Model #3 topped out at two-horsepower and a blistering 10 miles per hour. Despite its humble specs, Bertha took it out on an arduous 121-mile route now named in her honor, running from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back.

Matua Kahurangi: Brian Tamaki, the march, and the word the media keeps dropping

If you mention Brian Tamaki in New Zealand, you get two reactions instantly.

One side sees a polarising agitator who thrives on controversy. The other sees someone saying out loud what plenty of people think but feel they are not allowed to say. That split was on full display today at the March for New Zealand. I’m not pretending everyone has to like the man. Plenty don’t. But I do agree with one part of the message that gets conveniently blurred by mainstream coverage.