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.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.2.26

Monday February 2, 2026 

News:
Ngapuhi's Chairman will be looking to see what the Prime Minister envisions for future relations, when he visits Waitangi [this] week
Christopher Luxon's confirmed he will be going to the Bay of Islands on Wednesday to meet the Iwi Chairs' Forum.

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.

Bob Edlin: NZ Post website informs us about 142 shops losing services....

NZ Post website informs us about 142 shops losing services – but it’s coy about the executive team (and the role of their marae)

Where can we find the people who have decided to remove services from 142 urban retail partner stores around the country this year.

On a marae, apparently.

That’s certainly the impression given by the picture of them featured on the NZ Post website.

David Farrar: Venezuelans support the US

The Economist commissioned a poll of 600 Venezuelans. The results are: (Click graphs to view)

Dr Michael Johnston: Road cones revisited

This week, 2026 got under way in earnest. Workers are back at work, children are back at school and New Year’s resolutions have faded into distant memory.

Our politicians are back at work too – and they have an exciting year ahead. As our more politically astute readers may be aware, 2026 is an election year.

Mike's Minute: America might be able to help in the Pacific

Forget Greenland – in our own backyard we have growing action in the Pacific between America and China.

This is not breaking news, but the US is trying to renew its strategic compact ties with places like Palau and the Marshall Islands, and testimony in front of the House Committee on Natural Resources suggests China is waging a sustained influence campaign aimed at weakening democratic institutions and strategic alignment in the Pacific.

Sunday February 1, 2026 

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Judy Gill: When Tree Removal Becomes Risk

Hawke’s Bay, Mauao, and the Consequences of Substituting Ideology for Environmental Science

Introduction

Natural disasters do not begin with storms alone.

They begin with decisions made years earlier — decisions about land use, vegetation, risk tolerance, and which knowledge systems are permitted to guide public policy.

Barrie Davis with Copilot: Using the Milton Model

In “Breaking the Spell of Political Frames” (here) I showed how to get a linguistic analysis of media politics by Copilot using the open sesame spell breaker of “Milton Model” language patterns. It also names a list of 27 such patterns so that you have the language necessary to converse with Copilot. Here I will explore an example to further illustrate how you can use them and also pass on a message from Copilot.

David Lillis: Banning Social Media to Younger Teenagers?

New Zealand has a Problem

Recently, Peter Williams has commented on Australia's social media ban for under-16s (Williams, 2025) and Joanna Grey has expressed her own views on the problem in New Zealand (Grey, 2026). Unfortunately, the results of online harassment of young people can be extreme; for example, see Leask (2024). The comments posted on a related website to Leask’s article provide very disturbing but compelling reading (Reddit, 2024), and here I reproduce several of those comments. Please read them in full.

Reynold Macpherson: An Open Letter to the Editor and to the Mayor and Councillors of Rotorua Lakes Council

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR AND TO THE MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS OF ROTORUA LAKES COUNCIL

In February 2025, Rotorua Lakes Council, under Mayor Tapsell’s leadership, transferred decisive influence over Rotorua’s long-term direction to the Te Arawa 2050 Vision Committee. Whether readers support or oppose that arrangement is not the issue. In a democracy, the threshold requirement is that significant shifts in power are transparent, contestable, and subject to ongoing and informed public consent.

Geoff Parker: Anti-Māori Talk, Pro-Māori Funding

Author’s note: This article is offered in the spirit of strengthening political credibility through honest engagement with the record, rather than as an argument against any party or leader.

Winston Peters and Shane Jones have built a political brand on railing against what they call “race-based policy”, “co-governance excesses”, and the supposed capture of the state by Māori interests. Their language is sharp, performative, and deliberately confrontational. It resonates with voters who feel alienated by identity politics and who believe governments should treat all citizens equally.

But there is a problem. A very large one.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 31 January 2026

Judith Collins, Mother of the House, announces retirement from Parliament

After eight elections, 12 years in Government, 12 years in Opposition, and countless examples of embodying political resilience, Judith Collins announced she will leave politics later this year to take up a role as president of the Law Commission. Christopher Luxon and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith both empasised that she is perfectly suited to the Commission’s work and that her considerable experience would strengthen the legal system.