Matua Kahurangi: If Māori are the experts of the moana, why are their drowning rates so high?

The other day I wrote about Green Party figure Celia Wade-Brown, who claimed Māori wards are necessary because Māori “know the rivers, whenua and sea.” It was the usual Green Party sermon, Māori as the all-knowing guardians of nature and the rest of us as too colonised to understand a high tide.

Then I stumbled across an article about Ngātiwai rangatira Aperahama Edwards, claiming the Government has no authority to make it harder for Māori to win customary marine title to the foreshore and seabed. Another familiar refrain: we are the experts of the moana, so give us ownership and control.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 18 October 2025

Literacy and numeracy gains: good news that media seem reluctant to believe

This week an ERO review revealed that New Zealand’s primary students are showing early signs of improvement in maths and English. More than half of teachers reported higher achievement this year compared to last, a shift described as “unusual” given how slow systemic change normally is.

Centrist: New Zealand passport ranked strongest in the Five Eyes, ahead of Australia and the US

New Zealand’s passport has been ranked among the most powerful in the world, giving Kiwis visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 186 destinations.

The NZ passport comes out ahead of Australia and Canada, and well above the United States and United Kingdom.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: UK energy retailers turn on Clean Power 2030

UK

Energy bosses expose the lie behind Clean Power 2030

Britain’s biggest energy suppliers have told MPs that bills are on track to climb by a fifth in the next four years, even if wholesale markets plummet by 50%, because of the rising cost of government policies. Octopus Energy said household energy bills were likely to rise by 20% unless the government took radical action to address the burden of increasing “non-commodity costs”, which include levies paid through bills to support upgrades to gas and electricity networks, running the energy system and subsidising low-carbon power projects. The CEO of E.ON told Parliament that even if wholesale gas prices were zero in 2030, electricity prices would remain where they are today because of policy and systems costs.

Gary Judd KC: Are we experiencing another watershed event?

The BSA may be an unwitting catalyst for rolling back the administrative state

In 1966 there was a watershed event. A National government, under Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, tried to stifle nascent private radio. It failed: the government monopoly was broken.

Simon O'Connor: 'Broadcasting' too wide a net

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) attempted overreach is just another example of bureaucratic and judicial hubris, and it is time for Parliament to reassert its sovereignty.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has recently decided to go after Sean Plunket and his online radio show, The Platform. The BSA has unilaterally decided that they have the legal authority to oversee his online presence and consequently, I would argue, the work that Bob McCoskrie and I do via our social media platforms as well as the work of Reality Check Radio (which I also host a show on). In particular, the BSA is entertaining a complaint from someone who is offended that Sean said tikanga is “mumbo jumbo”.

Matua Kahurangi: The grift of good intentions

Is Mike King just another one cashing in on the charity gravy train?

When it comes to New Zealand charities, we have seen the same story play out again and again. Big promises, bigger pay packets, and little accountability. The latest example is Mike King’s I Am Hope Foundation, which somehow managed to boost executive pay by 80 percent while claiming to fight for struggling young people

Kerre Woodham: Should there be name suppression for child sexual abusers?

I can't think of much worse than being labelled a child abuser, a child pornographer. It's such an abhorrent, vile, aberrant perversion of a crime. All crime is evil. But when it involves children, there's something particularly sickening about it.

Ele Ludemann: Lots of little bits saved add up

The Broadcasting Standards Authority received $859,000 from the government in the year to June last year.

The previous year it received $759,000.

Those aren’t large sums in the big picture of government spending but the Authority’s secret decision to claim jurisdiction over internet media has led for calls for it to be disbanded and leave dealing with complaints to the Media Council.

Saturday October 18, 2025 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 12.10.25

Saturday October 18, 2025 

News:
Kaipara councillors to lodge complaint over mayor's vote irregularity claim
Kaipara District councillors have voted to lodge a complaint about what outgoing mayor Craig Jepson says are irregularities in the election process with the Department of Internal Affairs.

The final vote was taken behind closed doors after a tense, testy debate with about 20 members of the public present on Friday.

Ryan Bridge: We've been reminded our present day politicians aren't up to much

It's hard listening to all the tributes for Jim Bolger and not feeling like we're being short-changed by our current crop of leaders.

A few short generations ago, this country was a different place.

John McLean: Poor Goldsmuck

Paul Goldsmith shows why The Nats are doomed as a major political party

The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has launched a surprise attack on media channel The Platform, aiming to lynch Platform head honcho Sean Plunket.

The attack has taken the form of an unlawful assertion that The Platform falls under BSA’s umbrella, such that BSA can consider complaints against The Platform. BSA’s tactic is to open the floodgates in order to drown The Platform in upheld BSA complaints.

Craig Rucker: NO to the UN global climate tax!

The UN wants to raise the price of everything by collecting a carbon tax on shipping. The U.S. is working to stop them.

The International Maritime Organization is about to vote on a new “net-zero framework,” which would take the form of a tax paid by shippers into a gigantic UN climate fund.

Simon O'Connor: A ceasefire of silence ...

When I visited the Gaza envelope earlier this year, I took one critical question with me and now I think I have an answer.

There is a ceasefire.

After two long bloody years, Hamas has finally done what it should have done many months ago – release the Israeli hostages. As we tragically know, they did not, and many of the Gazans they claim to represent have died as a result.

JC: Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Trump

Christmas is not that far away. It will be upon us before we know it. It is the season of ‘peace on earth and goodwill to men’. Although the commercial aspect of Christmas appears to arrive earlier each year, in terms of merchandising, this year Santa has also made his presence felt earlier than usual. Donald J Trump was elected on a platform of, among other things, fulfilling the role of a peacemaker. He has proven to be more than true to his word.

David Farrar: Views on BSA power grab

Liam Hehir writes:

So lawmakers have looked at the gap and thought about the fact that what you watch or listen to on the internet may not be subject to any official standards regime. And, so far, they have decided to leave that gap in place. If the legislature considered and declined to extend the Broadcasting Act to the internet, should an appointed Authority do it via creative interpretation?

Mike's Minute: How miserable it is if you can't celebrate good news

Dr Hosking would diagnose a kind of "funk" as a result of observations this week.

There's been two very clear examples these past few days of good news, of uplifting events and of indisputable progress. Yet for too many it was not a reason to acknowledge, or accept, or congratulate, but rather moan a bit more or find a reason as to why it can't be so.

Ani O'Brien: The hidden cost of an ADHD diagnosis no one is warning about

The ADHD Epidemic: Disorder or Diagnosis Craze?

ADHD is having a moment. Diagnoses are exploding in New Zealand and right across the West. Waitlists are months long, private clinics are booked solid, and on TikTok, you’d think every slightly distracted middle class influencer has “finally found their answer.” Some of this is progress. Some of it is hype. And buried under the enthusiasm are a few uncomfortable truths about what a diagnosis actually means in the real world.

Kerre Woodham: State houses are a launchpad, not a permanent solution

Fewer state houses, more private rentals. The New Zealand Initiative believes that giving tenants vouchers to spend on rent could help more vulnerable people and save taxpayers money.

And Sir Bill English agrees. In a rare interview on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning, the former Prime Minister says providing state housing is not just about putting a roof over the head of a vulnerable family.