Rob Paterson: Māori Wards RORT - A Reversal of Democratic Principles

Michael Laws’ recent commentary “On the Rejection of Māori Wards” (13 October 2025), viewed by many viewers , signals how contentious this issue remains. However, unlike Don Brash ( Hobson’s Pledge 16 October 2025), I do not believe the recent outcome is cause for celebration.

Until 2021, only three councils in New Zealand had Māori wards:

Ryan Bridge: The climate change message from the Government

Don’t expect a handout.

That’s basically the message to homeowners hoping the Government will swoop in and buyout houses after the next big cyclone.

Watts is the climate Minister. He took a paper to cabinet. I had a read in the weekend.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.10.25

Tuesday October 21, 2025 

News:
Ban application heads to Shane Jones
Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust has applied for a two-year ban on the harvesting of all shellfish and seaweed from rockpools along Auckland’s eastern coastline, from the Rodney Local Board area through to the Hibiscus Local Board area.

This is in response to extensive overharvesting of the shoreline for many years. (Hibiscus Matters, August 11).

Matua Kahurangi: Debbie Ngarewa-Packer

Failure to declare properties Is blatant and shameful

Once again, members of Te Pāti Māori have proven that following the most basic parliamentary rules is not exactly their strong suit. Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has failed to properly declare her property interests, flouting Parliament’s transparency rules.

David Farrar: Do not believe the lies

The left and many media claim that large rates increases were necessary due to under-investment in core infrastructure such as water. Now while it is true more needs to be spent on water infrastructure, they overlook that there is a huge amount of spending on discretionary and wasteful stuff.

Here’s the list I have been keeping, just for Wellington City.

Lindsay Mitchell: National's problem epitomised

Why did National pick two former welfare-dependent sole mothers to be Ministers of Social Development?

Because National is woke. They buy into the leftist public service fetish for 'lived experience'.

New Zealand's unique welfare problem isn't disability or unemployment. Other developed nations can match us.

Chris Lynch: Judith Collins’ open letter to New Zealanders

Open letter to the people of New Zealand

by Judith Collins

To the patients, students and families affected by this week’s planned strike,

The Government regrets the impact on you, your children and your families that is expected on Thursday because of a strike planned by a number of unions.

Pee Kay: Less Than Civil, Service

In 2022 Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) spent $40,000 to farewell boss Leauanae Laulu Mac Leauanae. Leauanae was moving from head of MPP to the head of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, (MCH).

This farewell must have been a pretty lavish do, having cost the taxpayer around $40,000!

Melanie Phillips: The Birmingham jihad

The ban on away-fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv football club coming to Birmingham next month to watch their team play Aston Villa has nothing to do with football. It’s about the UK government and police surrendering the safety of Britain’s Jewish community to a mob that believes it now has Israel and the Jews inexorably in its sights.

Matua Kahurangi: While Kiwis wait weeks to see a doctor......

While Kiwis wait weeks to see a doctor, the Government rolls out the red carpet for migrants’ parents

Within days of opening the new Parent Boost Visa, nearly 200 applications flooded in, a canary in the coal mine. The government expects between 2,000 and 10,000 applications annually, with a working model of around 6,000. What the official spin frames as a meaningful way for families to spend extended time together is more than that. It is a gamble with our social fabric, our hospitals and the day-to-day lives of everyday Kiwis. In my opinion it is a recklessly optimistic policy that risks degrading the New Zealand many of us still want to live in.

Damien Grant: I don’t know how to fix NZ’s fertility crisis, but I can do the maths

Last Saturday, I wandered along to the West End Tennis club to celebrate the re-election of Wayne Brown. I like Wayne. I contributed to his campaign - not enough to make a difference, but enough to get an invite to the victory party.

Whilst there, I ran into a couple of current and future Labour MPs, the perennially ageless gossip columnist Simon Wilson and a coterie of property developers of indeterminate vintage.

Monday October 20, 2025 

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Rod Kane: One Year To Go And Coming Down To The Wire

The coalition is two years in and now getting ready for a big marketing campaign to get back in, come October 2026. It is just around the corner. Have they learnt anything..?

If I have to say anything positive about Luxon and the Nats, he has done a great job of keeping the team together and the in-house bitching out of the hands of the feral media.

DTNZ: Israel launches new strikes on Rafah citing ceasefire violations

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have launched large-scale airstrikes in Rafah, southern Gaza, following what they claim were ceasefire breaches by Hamas.

According to the IDF, militants fired an anti-tank missile and opened fire on Israeli troops operating in the area, prompting retaliatory strikes on more than 20 suspected “terror targets,” including tunnel shafts and military structures.

Professor John Raine: Waipapa Taumata Rau University Course Now Optional for Some – Don’t Take a Victory Lap Yet

Exemptions to the Ruling

On October 15th 2025, the University of Auckland Council voted to make its compulsory Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) paper optional. Act Party MP, Parmjeet Parmar, said, “This is an enormous victory for student choice over ideology”, and “The compulsory nature of this course was always about pushing Treaty ideology onto students, with no regard for their interests.”

David Round: Thoughts for Our Time - Article 1

Let us ask ourselves an absolutely serious question.

What are our world, and our country, going to be like in ten years’ time?

Or, for that matter, twenty years; or for that matter, even five?

Very few of us ask this question. Our imaginations are very limited; it is impossible to imagine any future that is very different from the present. It is very easy to confuse the status quo with the natural order of things.

Barrie Saunders: The BSA power grab - Post 1

In April 1990 the TVNZ “Frontline” programme broadcast a true block buster: the 46 minute “For the Public Good”. This gripped the nation for months and led to TVNZ receiving eight formal complaints including one from the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR), The Treasury and then Prime Minister David Lange.

Duggan Flanakin: Japan tries out osmotic energy

Residents of the Japanese coastal city of Fukuoka are pioneering the world’s first full-sized osmotic power plant — which generates electricity by mixing fresh water with saltwater. The plant, which opened on August 5, generates about 880,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to run a nearby desalination facility and supply about 220 nearby homes.

Andrew Moran: Trump Endorses Javier Milei in Argentine Midterm Elections

If the Peronists return to power, no money for Argentina.

Argentine President Javier Milei went to Washington on Oct. 13 for a second meeting with President Donald Trump in a month. During a bilateral lunch meeting between Trump and Milei, the US administration reaffirmed its $20 billion commitment to the anti-establishment leader who has transformed the Latin American nation through a series of sweeping economic reforms.

Can Milei make Argentina great again? Trump and senior White House officials certainly believe so – and the numbers support the hope of resurrecting the adage of “rich as an Argentine.”

Bonner R Cohen: Tropical forests in Indonesia ravaged by push for EV batteries

The wanton destruction of tropical rainforests in Indonesia by predominantly Chinese mining companies eager to extract nickel for EV batteries is the price the world must pay in the transition to “clean energy.”

“Indonesia is the world’s biggest nickel producer, and has the largest reserves on earth, most of which are in Sulawesi and Halmahera islands,” Climate Home News noted last December.