Insights From Social Media: Dame Anne Salmond.....

Dame Anne Salmond - Leading the Charge of New Zealand Romantic Thinking - by Colinxy

The Romantic Cloak

Few figures embody the Romantic impulse in New Zealand’s intellectual life more vividly than Dame Anne Salmond. Her writings, media appearances, and social media engagements reveal a deep commitment to cultural relativism and poststructuralist thought. She venerates the theorists of fragmentation and ambiguity, and in doing so, positions herself as a defender of what is known as the “Noble Savage.” Within this framework, behaviours that might otherwise be condemned are excused if they emerge from her preferred cultural narrative, while anything associated with European ancestry is treated with suspicion—except, of course, when it comes to herself and her academic circle.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.12.25

Monday December 22, 2025 

News:
Supreme Court Rules on Climate Clinic Aotearoa Case
The Supreme Court has delivered its judgment in the landmark climate case Climate Clinic Aotearoa Incorporated v Minister of Energy and Resources, agreeing with the applicants on every major point of law – but ultimately dismissing the appeal on the final legal threshold.

David Farrar: Quite a few green shoots!

Business NZ says:

After a prolonged period of stagnation and negative per capita growth, the New Zealand economy is now expected to expand at just under 3% per annum through to 2027.

Both official and forward-looking indicators point to a steady improvement in the economic outlook as we enter 2026. Key indicators of growth include:

Graham Adams: Maori nationalism takes a hammering in 2025

At the end of 2024, Māori nationalists were riding high in their quest to assert a special place in the nation’s laws and policy.

In November, the video of Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clark leading a haka in Parliament and ripping up a copy of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill racked up hundreds of millions of views worldwide.

James Fite: Operation Hawkeye Strike - Trump Responds to ISIS Attack in Syria

The president promised there would be retaliation.

One week ago today, two American soldiers and a civilian translator were killed in an ambush attack in Syria, presumably perpetrated by an ISIS terrorist, according to intelligence reports. President Donald Trump promised “serious retaliation.” Yesterday afternoon, we found out exactly what that meant. At 4 p.m. Eastern on Friday, December 19, US Central Command launched Operation Hawkeye Strike. A combination of fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery bombarded more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria, targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites.

Gary Judd KC: Bondi, Tarrant, victimhood, faith, the primitive, relativism, cultural boundaries of knowledge

The attack on members of Sydney’s Jewish community by the father and son one writer has dubbed the Bondi Barbarians is a shockingly horrific event. It is emerging that the shooters were devotees of ISIS who had just returned from Mindanao, a Muslim outpost in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. It is supposed they may have gone there to be trained for the terrorist acts committed just days after their return to Sydney. Reports indicate possession of ISIS regalia and association with known ISIS members in Sydney.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: From blueprints to building

After many difficult years, 2025 felt different. It was not easier. The economy remained stagnant and the reform agenda demanded hard choices. But attitudes shifted. New Zealand stopped merely diagnosing its problems and started taking practical steps to solve them.

Bob Edlin: Here are the numbers the PM didn’t have at his finger tips....

Here are the numbers the PM didn’t have at his finger tips – but we are still looking for his immutable laws of economics

The PM – it is fair to suppose – did not have the latest stats by his side when he was questioned by Chris Hipkins in Parliament the other day.

On the other hand, he should have had a rough idea of what has been going on in the labour market but he was not of a mind to admit it.

And so he ducked the question.

DTNZ: NZ and Japan sign new defence and security agreements

New Zealand and Japan have signed two new agreements aimed at strengthening defence cooperation and information sharing between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins confirmed the arrangements following meetings in Tokyo.

Sunday December 21, 2025 

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Net Zero Watch Samizdat: All I want for Christmas is cheap power

UK

Miliband to miss clean power target by three years

Despite all the pain for British billpayers, a new report warns Miliband is set to miss his 2030 clean power target by three years. There’s not a hope in hell Miliband meets his target for 2030, or by 2033 for that matter.

Geoff Parker: Wai 1040 Isn’t History - It’s Politics Backdated

The Waitangi Tribunal’s Wai 1040 inquiry is presented as a long-overdue correction to New Zealand’s constitutional history. Its central claim is stark: that Māori never ceded sovereignty in 1840, and that the Crown has governed without legitimate authority ever since.

That claim may be influential in contemporary politics, but it does not withstand historical scrutiny.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 20 December 2025

🇦🇺 Naming the problem in the Bondi Beach Terror Attack

There is nothing I can say that has not already been said about the terror attack at Bondi Beach this week. The details are well known, the heroes, the victims, and the evil perpetrators have been named. What I will do is name plainly the things that unfortunately are not always named as explicitly as they should be…

Robert G Patman: Trump’s new security strategy exposes the limits of NZ’s ‘softly-softly’ diplomacy

President Donald Trump’s recently-issued National Security Strategy marks a decisive break in United States foreign policy. It also poses an uncomfortable challenge for New Zealand and other countries that have long depended on a rules-based order.

The document formalises the most significant shift in Washington’s global outlook since 1947. It confirms, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned earlier this year, that the “West as we knew it no longer exists”.

John MacDonald: Are we ready to accept the truth about NZ Super?

After yesterday’s half-year fiscal update from the Government, the canary in the mine is gasping for air and the elephant in the room is walking all over everything.

And economist Cameron Bagrie is saying that we can’t ignore either of them - particularly in relation to the long-term outlook and what it means for superannuation and retirement planning.

Melanie Phillips: The global intifada

How many wake-up calls does anyone need? The cliché that the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre was just that is singularly inappropriate.

Australia and the West have had one wake-up call after another. Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Australian synagogues have been firebombed; as elsewhere, anti-Israel marches have regularly chanted for the mass murder of Jews; and on campus, Jewish students and academics have been harassed and intimidated.

Kerre Woodham: Rejecting the Waihi gold mine project would've made no sense

You can take the girl out of Waihi, but you can't take the Waihi out of the girl, I tell you.

News that Oceana Gold's Waihi North project has been approved makes good sense, as far as I'm concerned. The permit that was confirmed yesterday guarantees the securing of 350 existing jobs, the creation of 100 plus new roles, the project to be in operation until at least 2042, so that gives some continuity, some certainty, which is fantastic, and a billion-dollar investment from Oceana Gold.

David Harvey: A Saucerful of Secrets

TVNZ Obfuscates Balance and Bias

In July 2025 it was announced that TVNZ was commissioning an independent review of its news. The focus was mainly on balance and bias. Concerns had been expressed by the Government that TVNZ needed to improve its trust levels.

Dr Don Brash: RMA Reform - A step forward. But concerns for equal citizenship

It is almost the end of 2025 and, as you may know, the Government has recently introduced to Parliament the two Bills it seeks to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) with.

The Bills were pushed through first reading under urgency and have been referred to the Environment Select Committee. We will shortly be able to make submissions.

We have already looked at the Bills and sought some initial legal advice. As you can anticipate, there is a lot to take in, but I wanted to give you some initial impressions.

Saturday December 20, 2025 

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