Owen Jennings: The Stark Choice – Country before Party

There has never been such a stark choice. Yeah, I know we said that last election and the one before that, but the country has never had the very real prospect of a left-wing coalition that has a recent record of doing huge economic damage and that is now, even more dependent on the sheer insanity represented by Labour’s likely partners.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.9.26

Sunday September 6, 2026 

News:
Real estate agent Janet Dickson is unrepentant, saying she would refuse course if given another chance
A real estate agent on the verge of losing her licence after being denied an exemption from a compulsory Māori tikanga course says if she had her time again, she would still refuse to do it.

“It’s totally irrelevant to the everyday work of real estate.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time - 5 September 2026

Election 2026: Promises, petrol, and public servants

There was a lot of policy and promises this week. Labour kicked things off by saying they will freeze planned fuel tax increases and National promptly decided it also rather liked the idea of not putting petrol tax up immediately too, but stopped short of a complete freeze. The 12 cent increase due next January is now gone. Instead, the Government intends to begin raising the tax by 5 cents in January 2028, followed by another 3x 5 cent increases every 6 months. This will reduce expected transport fund revenue by $1.476 billion over the forecast period. About $450 million can be found in an existing fuel crisis contingency fund, but that still leaves a bit over $1 billion to find and David Seymour and Chris Bishop have both acknowledged that unless equivalent spending is cut elsewhere, the money will be borrowed. Labour has an even bigger unanswered question as freezing the increases for the whole next term will cost around $4.6 billion.

Geoff Parker: Kotahitanga — Unity, Or Division By Another Name?

Metiria Turei's argument (Otago Daily Times, 4/9/26) for kotahitanga (unity) begins with a proposition few New Zealanders would disagree with: that people should work together, respect one another and build a better country for everyone.

So far, so good.

But then comes the sleight of hand.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: 'Putting up a wall of shame is an act of desperation'

Okay, do you want to hear something straight out of the "you would have been better off just saying absolutely nothing" file? This one's from the Privacy Commissioner.

Michael Webster has warned small retailers, such as dairies, about putting up "walls of shame" featuring people they say have shoplifted from them. You know the ones. You go into the dairy and there's a mood board of dodgy-looking people in trackies, snapped by CCTV, usually stuck up on a wall or window close to the counter.

Dr Eric Crampton: A bright spot in Parliament’s quest to drive housing affordability

Most news clips from Parliament are from Question Time. It is at least as much performance theatre as a mechanism for holding government to account. Late-night committee stages attract far fewer viewers and enable more important work.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, Housing Minister Hon Chris Bishop and former Housing Minister Hon Phil Twyford tried to work out how to make one of the planning system’s most important housing reforms survive long after either of them has left Parliament.

Kerre Woodham: Will move-on orders actually solve the root of the problem?

A cross-party committee of MPs has recommended the Government water down its move-on orders, concerned that the penalties and punishments would be disproportionate to the offences of rough sleeping and begging. Under the proposed legislation, police had the ability to move people engaging in specific behaviours, including rough sleeping and begging, away from the area for 24 hours. Breaching the rules risked a $2,000 fine or up to three months' imprisonment.

Bob Edlin: Professor to become a Tumuaki at NZ’s major science society....

....where the Treaty galvanises governance

The Royal Society of New Zealand seems to have been conflicted, when announcing its new president.

The headline on its press statement says: Next President of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

The first paragraph of the statement described her as the next “Tumuaki”.

David Farrar: A stupid plan, not a cunning plan

I have blogged previously on how the Te Pati Maori plan to deliberately engineer an overhang for the left is a very bad idea. It is basically trying to engineer a scenario where you can form a government despite winning fewer votes than the opposing parties.

Some people, such as Nick Mowbray, have said one should try and do the same on the right.

Dr Kelvin Kemm: Nuclear waste storage ….. no big deal

Nuclear power will be the future. There is no doubt about it. Nuclear is the cleanest, greenest, cheapest, safest, energy source ever. There is no doubt about that, no matter what anyone says. Also, just look at the energy density of sugar, coal, petrol, and uranium. Sugar contains about 20 megajoules per kilogram, coal 25, petrol 50, but uranium is 76,000,000. What this tells you is that you can carry your lifetime supply of electricity in a shopping packet, if you’re carrying uranium.

Mike's Minute: Why didn't the Government drop the carbon auctions?

I'm not surprised. But because I'm not surprised, I am disappointed.

Papers released publicly for the first time reveal the Government considered axing their mad carbon auctions.

But, and here comes the disappointment, they didn’t.

Saturday September 5, 2026 

                   ⇩

Reynold Macpherson: A Social Media Ban May Solve the Wrong Problem

New Zealand’s proposed ban on social media for people under 16 starts from a serious concern. Children can be harmed online. They can be exposed to bullying, sexual material, grooming, misinformation and extreme content.

Social media can also disrupt sleep, concentration, learning and family life. Some platforms are designed to hold attention for as long as possible. Young people are especially vulnerable to those techniques.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.8.26

Saturday September 5, 2026 

News:
ACT pledges to stop millions being spent on roadside public art
The ACT Party will stop motorists' money from being spent on roadside sculptures, art, and monuments in a new transport infrastructure policy announced on Friday.

He listed several examples of public art that he claimed illustrated a “prioritisation problem,” including the $630,599 spent on the Te Manu Rangimaarie sculpture at the Piarere roundabout, $810,000 spent on the Te Waka sculpture on the Waikato Expressway and $3.7 million for 35 pou and two taonga artworks on Te Ara Tupua walk and cycleway between Wellington and Lower Hutt.

Rodney Hide: The watchdog comes last

I am grateful for Family First's Bob McCoskrie drawing my attention on X to a shocking result on the just released Quality of Life survey. The survey asked city residents how much they trust New Zealand’s institutions. Police came first. Then the schools, the hospitals, the courts. Then local government. Then Wellington.

Last was the media.

Geoff Parker: Ani O'Brien Is Right - This Isn't Co-Governance......

.....It's About Who Will Govern New Zealand.

There is a very important video doing the rounds from Ani O’Brien, and I think every New Zealander who cares about the future of our democracy should watch it.

Her message is remarkably simple.

It is about where political authority in New Zealand should ultimately reside.

Ani O'Brien: Answers to Stuff You Wanted to Know.

A couple of days ago I asked you what you wanted me to write about between now and the election. This was, in retrospect, dangerous. You could have jumped the shark and I would have had to politely ignore all suggestions. But my faith in the intelligence of my readership was justified!

You had a lot of questions. Some of them are enormous and deserve proper essays of their own. Quite a few of you want me to go back down the He Puapua and co-governance rabbit hole, others want a forensic examination of TOP, and several want me to work out what a Labour-Green-Te Pāti Māori-TOP government might actually look like. There was also interest in strategic voting, electorate races, and what the minor parties could extract from National or Labour in coalition negotiations.

I will endeavour to write essays covering as many of those topics as possible. But there were also lots of questions that have reasonably straightforward answers. So I thought I would begin with a kind of Q+A format.

Consider this the first instalment of Stuff You Wanted to Know.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is National's tax strategy really working?

Question for you: is National's tax strategy working?

What I'm talking about is the blatant strategy they have of swamping social media and traditional media with warnings about Labour, the Greens, and the Opportunity Party's taxes in a bid to freak you out so badly it drives you back to National.

Kerre Woodham: Does there need to be harsher penalties for careless driving?

18 year old Jade Evans was killed last year when a truck driver ran a compulsory stop sign and crashed into her car, leaving her with catastrophic brain injuries. She and her unborn baby Lily died three days later after Jade's family donated her organs to save the lives of others. Now her family's calling for stronger accountability for preventable road deaths following yesterday's sentencing of the truck driver. The driver, who pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death, was sentenced to two months community detention, disqualified from driving for one year, and ordered to pay reparation to Jade's family. Doesn't seem much for lives lost, does it?

Bob Edlin: Horowhenua – where the district council gives preferential treatment to iwi....

....on six properties it aims to sell

The Taxpayers’ Union is crying “foul” after yet another local authority has demonstrated it regards some citizens as more equal than others.

The authority in question is the Horowhenua District Council, which has voted to give iwi and hapū first right of refusal over six council-owned properties.