DTNZ: Trump ends tariff talks for most nations

Washington will send out letters to some 150 countries instead of striking deals with each individually.

Washington will inform 150 countries of updated tariff rates with the US by post within the coming weeks, US President Donald Trump announced on Friday. It is no longer feasible to meet individually with every country seeking a trade agreement, he explained.

David Farrar: A good win for solidarity

The Herald reports:

Treasury has changed its tune at the last minute and given a handful of organisations the green light to attend next week’s Budget lock-up.

The move follows a legal threat and public pressure over why organisations that had previously been allowed to see embargoed Budget documents, were suddenly barred.

Matua Kahurangi: Hands off Anzac Day

Not long ago, I wrote about the Auckland War Memorial Museum selling rainbow poppies in the lead-up to Anzac Day. They called it a gesture of “inclusivity”. I wonder if they realize that homosexuality was illegal during both World Wars. Men caught engaging in same-sex relationships were dishonourably discharged, jailed, or worse. To now retroactively insert modern identity politics into the legacy of the Anzacs is not just misleading. It is a distortion of history.

Tui Vaeau: Crybabies with Greenstone - Why Te Pāti Māori Got Exactly What They Deserved

So the Maori Party have finally been suspended from Parliament. Good. About time someone had the stones to show these self-absorbed prima donnas the door.

This was not protest. It was petulance. These are elected MPs, not TikTok influencers doing a cultural flash mob. The chamber is for lawmaking, not half-naked theatrics and aggressive chanting masquerading as political speech. If a group of middle-aged accountants burst into a boardroom doing the Macarena over tax policy, they’d be sectioned. But slap the word 'haka' on it and suddenly we’re meant to stand in solemn awe? Bollocks.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 11.5.25

Saturday May 17, 2025 

News:
Walking together: Council, mana whenua and community deepen conservation relationships online
When you visit the newly updated Tiaki Tāmaki Makaurau | Conservation Auckland website, you’re stepping into more than just a page of information; you’re entering a space where mana whenua provides guidance for community conservation within their rohe (tribal area).

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Will we ever get order back into Parliament?

It sounds like Gerry Brownlee thinks that the Māori Party punishment is too harsh.

He started Parliament today with the Speaker's ruling and he dropped some pretty strong hints that he thinks that 21 days without pay for Debbie and Rawiri over that haka is too much.

He called the punishment very 'severe' and unprecedented because up til now, the harshest punishment has been 3 days, not 21 days.

Kerre Woodham: Are the Greens bonkers?

Are the Greens bonkers? The Greens have come out and criticised Judith Collins for tinkering with the Public Service Commission census – that's a voluntary survey run over three weeks and it's a follow up to the initial 2021 survey of the same name. Now Judith Collins and her office had a look at the 2021 survey, and they suggested a few changes. They had thoughts about the census, and they said we don't really need the questions about disability, rainbow identities, religion, te reo Māori proficiency levels, on-the-job training, and agencies’ commitment to the Māori-Crown relationship.

Roger Partridge: All Misogyny Is Bad — Except Ours

We’re told that language matters. That sexist slurs degrade all women, not just their target. And that the use of certain words — the worst words — is never acceptable.

Until, apparently, it is.

JC: Red and Green Make Brown

I was musing over the three colours that go to make up the opposition parties on the left: the terrifying triumvirate that, should they get into power, would bankrupt this country overnight.

I googled the colour you get if you mix red, brown and green and it is brown that is dominant. Mix green and red and you again get brown. Mix green and brown you get a grey-brown colour. Mix red and brown you get a maroon or chestnut colour. So, brown is the dominant colour: red is nowhere to be seen.

Ele Ludemann: PSA takes women back decades

The Public Service Association is shooting itself in the foot with legal action opposing the government’s restrictions on public servants working from home.

One of its arguments is that the move disadvantages women who do the bulk of work caring for children and the elderly and domestic duties.

Mike's Minute: I miss the good old days

I asked Judith Collins yesterday, just what has become of us?

The “us” I was referring to is this country. But I amended that in my mind yesterday afternoon when I read the first review of Jake Tapper's book on Joe Biden.

What's become of all of us, is now the question.

 Friday May 16, 2025 

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John Raine: Closing the Stable Door?

Do we want our children educated or indoctrinated? There has been widespread capture of universities in the Western world, not least in New Zealand, by identity politics and undermining of academic excellence by authoritarian diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agendas. There is now increasing public distrust in the culture of universities and the quality of the graduates that emerge from what were once highly respected institutions.

Peter Hemmingson: Pay Equity Racket

It is disappointing to see ACT’s Brooke van Velden going into bat for tweaking pay equity legislation rather than for blowing it out of the water altogether.

In the annals of modern political fiction, few narratives are more intellectually bankrupt—and more persistently weaponised—than the myth of the gender pay gap. 

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Capital Markets - The missing piece in New Zealand’s growth puzzle

Prime Minister Luxon has declared 2025 ‘the year of growth’, making economic expansion his government’s top priority.

This ambition is laudable, and the government has initiated many important reforms that will help. Changes to education, liberalising foreign investment rules and reforming resource management legislation all aim to enhance our economic performance. These reforms deserve support and, in time, should yield benefits.

Kerre Woodham: Slipping Parliamentary standards are a reflection of us

Well, what a to-do. The image of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters slumped in the House, head in his hands, summed it up really. Brooke van Velden dropped the C-bomb in the house, quoting a Stuff article whose author used the word in criticising the government's decision to amend the pay equity legislation. The coalition's female MPs are angry that Labour MPs, particularly the female MPs, have not condemned the journalist’s use of the word, which was used as a derogatory in the article.

Bruce Cotterill: Why the so-called Super City hasn’t delivered for Aucklanders

Do you remember the Super City? That gigantic failure of local government policy that saw Auckland’s suburbs surrender their decision-making and their character to the bureaucrats downtown?

By the time our local body elections roll around later this year, it will be 15 years since our seven regional councils were restructured into the so-called Super City under the Auckland Council. There was no referendum on the topic. Just a royal commission on Auckland governance and an enthusiastic Local Government Minister who championed its creation.

Point of Order: The 14-Year Temp Worker - IRD’s $21 Million Long-Term Consultant Spend Exposed

• The Taxpayers’ Union reports –

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal, through an Official Information Act response 12 contractors have been continuously engaged by IRD for more than five years, costing taxpayers a total of $20.8 million over just the past five years.

As Nicola Willis prepares to unveil Budget 2025, the Taxpayers’ Union is calling out the millions still being frittered away on long-term consultants, highlighting one Inland Revenue contractor who has been on the books for a staggering 13 years and 11 months.Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said:

JC: Why Do the Left Not Learn

The question is something of a conundrum. I am referring specifically to their behaviour and strategy. From their perspective politics is littered with examples of how these two things hurt them in all sorts of ways. They seem to have become obsessed with the nasty side of politics. They have a propensity to go after the person and not the policy. This fanaticism extends, unsurprisingly, to their comrades in the media who seem to think, irrationally, this is a good idea.

JD: We Want More

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Let’s start from this general premise: humanity is genetically programmed to want more.

To our ancient ancestors, the difference between no food in the cave and enough for one or several days’ supply was profound. Effectively a matter of life and death. More stuff to hand meant less need to venture out and less chance of succumbing to the many dangers lurking all around.