Richard Prebble: Interesting election races - Chris Bishop

Some electorate races matter not because they will decide the government, but because electing an outstanding candidate will make for a better Parliament.

Frankly, many MPs are third raters whom you would not employ to take out the rubbish.

It is not often I agree with Winston Peters, but Chris Bishop is a remarkable MP.

Penn Raine: The irrelevant peaceful majority

'France To Deploy 70,000 Police For Halloween Protests Amid Violence Fears’

Headlines like this continue to dominate Europe’s news as French riots inspire Italians, Spanish and Germans to throw wheelie bins at police, loot branches of Front Runner and firebomb heritage sites.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.11.26

Sunday November 1, 2026 

News:
Owners regain whenua after more than half a century under perpetual lease
Owners of Māori blocks in Otorohanga regain control of their whenua following a momnumental perpetual lease deal.

Through support from the Māori Trustee, owners of Waikowhitiwhiti F1 and Waikowhitiwhiti F2B1 in Ōtorohanga have regained control of their whenua following the purchase of a perpetual lease.

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

Election 2026: Pick a poll, any poll

The polls are arriving almost daily and depending which you prefer National is either out in front or doing worse than we were when I worked for Judith Collins as leader (they were challenging times). On Tuesday 1News-Verian had National on 29% and Labour on 27%, but on Thursday RNZ-Reid Research had National on 24.8% and Labour on 30.6%. Two very different pictures. There wasn’t quite such a dramatic difference for the smaller parties with the Greens getting 15% and 14.5% respectively, ACT 12% and 10.1%, New Zealand First 10% and 9.9%, and Opportunity 6% and 7.2%. And let’s just round Te Pāti Māori down to zero.

Richard Prebble: TOP’s Circus Act

For TOP to be kingmaker, the party must persuade at least one voter in twenty to vote for it. Not easy.

I identify four very different TOP voters.

First, the protest voter. I have been a scrutineer. Some people go to the trouble of voting only to cross out every candidate. There were 16,252 informal party votes in 2023. TOP offers another way to register a protest.

Kerre Woodham: What do you do when your lifesaving treatment isn't funded?

What would you do? I've been thinking about this ever since Paul's phone call yesterday. You might have been listening when he rang in. We were talking about the cost of living and how you can make economies and you can get an extra job and you can do all this and all that and try and get through, unless life throws you a curveball.

Matt Ridley: Can we make photosynthesis more efficient?

We human beings could succeed where nature has failed

An economy is also an ecology. Society is fuelled mostly by hydrocarbons, which are derived from carbohydrates synthesised by plants and turned into coal, oil and gas. A typical coal seam a metre thick was formed by 2,000 summers of plant photosynthesis 300 million years ago.

Bob Edlin: No, Luxon can’t boast a Budget surplus – not yet.....

....but NZ First’s fiscal plan is murkier

An email from Sir John Key, which landed in the PoO in-tray this morning, obviously aims to whip up votes for a National Party which desperately needs support if Christopher Luxon is to remain Prime Minister.

The latest poll shows support for the Nats at a parlous level while businessman Harry Mowbray is encouraging vote-splitting, to discredit MMP and “show people how bad it is”.

David Farrar: Verrall vs Hipkins

Radio NZ reports:

Labour has confirmed it will keep the coalition government’s health targets if elected, while admitting some of its “three free GP visits” could be with a nurse practitioner rather than a GP. …

Verrall confirmed Labour’s approach to the targets while discussing its plan for emergency departments, released on Tuesday.

David Farrar: TPM rorting charities again

The Herald reports:

MP Takutai Kemp was under investigation at the time of her death last year for funnelling thousands of dollars of charity money into Te Pāti Māori electoral campaigns, official documents show.

Details of the investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs into support provided in 2023 to Te Pāti Māori (TPM) by registered charity Manurewa Marae, for which Kemp served as chief executive at the time, were obtained by the Herald under the Official Information Act.

Rodney Hide: The Future

Somewhere this week a team of consultants are finishing a business case for Council for a car park building. It will rest on careful traffic modelling and solid historical data. And in fifteen years it will be empty while the cars that should have filled it are out working.

That's the problem with all government. It drives by the rear-vision mirror.

Mike's Minute: One week to go, and the winner is...

So, the winner in week... what is it, five or six?

The winner in week five of the election campaign was the polls. Not the pollsters. The polls.

They were far from winners. The spread, the margin of error in some, is now so absurd they're writing articles about it.

 Saturday October 31, 2026 

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Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 9: Arithmetic 1877-1899

In the video below ( The arithmetic episode) Elizabeth describes the content and how it was taught. Children were taught numbers, how to add, subtract, multiply, calculate, weigh, measure, and count money.

Practising numbers and chanting the times-table were crucial teaching methods. They were justified by the latest psychological ideas about automatic retrieval and the importance of memory for cognitive development. Resources may have been limited but what mattered was the teacher's ability to use resources well. The times-table chart, pinned to each classroom wall, was the most important resource of all.

Nathan Smith: You Don't Need To Defend Frivolous Speech

Come on, guys. We have to get smarter at this.

Complaining about the end of free speech every time someone gets a visit from the police for writing a few words online is childish. Just because you have to say something doesn’t mean you have something to say. And just because you have something to say doesn’t mean you know how to say it. Simply offering a blanket defence of free speech makes everyone dumber. Quality over quantity, every time.

Steve Gaskell: Opportunity - Five Unnegotiable Demands, One Big Headache!

Opportunity's price of admission to forming the next government.

The Opportunity Party (TOP) has arrived at the coalition negotiating table with five non-negotiable demands. Nothing quite like laying down the conditions before the negotiations have even started.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 25.10.26

Saturday October 31, 2026 

News:
New Zealand First commits to introducing bill forcing Ngāpuhi to sign Treaty settlement if in government
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones has committed to introducing a bill forcing Ngāpuhi to sign a Treaty settlement in the first 100 days of the next government, if re-elected.

Jones made the commitment during TVNZ's Kaupapa Māori Debate on Thursday night, where he said he would "deal to it in the first hundred days after the election".

Peter Dunne: Political Polls

“National is now in a fight to save the furniture” screamed Radio New Zealand’s headline following the release of its latest poll this week.

The facts, however, tell a rather different story. We all know that individual opinion polls count for very little. They are but a snapshot in time, and not an indicator of a likely election outcome. And we should all know that the trend of polls over time is a much more reliable informant and indicator of a likely election outcome.

Richard Prebble: We need a new plan

National issued a press release headed “National’s plan is working”, welcoming the Reserve Bank’s decision to hold interest rates.

The Reserve Bank predicts inflation will reach 4.4 per cent by Christmas.

If that is National’s plan, we need a new one.

Kerre Woodham: Can you see a light at the end of the cost of living tunnel?

There's a story in the New Zealand Herald this morning about a young couple in Hawke's Bay who are earning good coin, above the average between them, but they're barely able to make ends meet. This is the cost of living election – at least that's what the media outlets are telling us. But I don't know if you heard Enda Brady on with Mike this morning. Have a listen to what he had to say around the British budget.

"People are worried about energy bills, cost of living, food. I went to the petrol station earlier on to get petrol, so I looked at the prices specifically for you, Mike. We are looking at $4.02 a litre for diesel, and I pay $3.52 for unleaded."