Ryan Bridge: The numbers that tell us where we're heading

There's a reason we talk a lot on this programme about bond markets, growth, central bank decisions and wars in far-away places.

There was, and probably still is, a school of thought that people either don't want, or don't understand, financial markets, currencies and economics.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.9.26

Monday September 14, 2026 

News:
University launches new pathway for Māori-medium STEM teachers
A new graduate programme at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland will support the development of STEM education in Māori-medium settings, while contributing to the revitalisation of te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori.

Duncan Garner: Why Does Māori Officer Earn More Than Mayor?....

....$280k Council Salary Exposed

Wellington ratepayers are shelling out $280,000 for a Chief Māori Officer, which is $78,000 more than the city’s mayor takes home. Over in the regional council, there is another executive doing the same work for over $200,000. We look at why ratepayers are funding duplicate bureaucracy in a cost-of-living crisis and ask where the actual outcomes are. Former minister Maurice Williamson and Ani O'Brien join the show to break down council spending.


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Geoff Parker: Paid To Speak Māori - Is This What Equal Treatment Looks Like?

There is a question the Government needs to answer about the practice of paying public servants an additional allowance for proficiency in te reo Māori:

If speaking te reo Māori is not required to perform the job, why does proficiency in it attract additional remuneration?

This is not an attack on the Māori language or on those who speak it. It is a question about equal treatment, remuneration policy and value for money for taxpayers.

And this is not some obscure or historical arrangement.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: An auction of stolen goods

“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods,” H.L. Mencken wrote in 1936. Never has it been truer than in this campaign.

The parties are outdoing each other with ideas about what to take, from whom, and to whom to give it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is another way of putting it.

Brendan O'Neill: We are still failing the moral test of 9/11

Twenty-five years on from 9/11, I am sick of the disease of self-hatred. It’s time the West asserted itself.

Imagine if you had told someone on 11 September 2001 that in 25 years’ time the streets of New York City would ring out with sympathy for Islamofascism. Imagine if you had said to one of the startled souls watching American lives be incinerated by Islamist filth that one day the West would swarm with youths cosplaying as Islamist filth. Imagine if you had said that in a mere quarter of a century even our leafiest campuses would be awash with jihad chic, with silver-spoon students gushing over an Islamo-army (Hamas) every bit as hateful and medieval as the one that burnt New Yorkers alive.

Dr Eric Crampton: Gazing into the abyss is a choice

The four months before an election aren’t great for those who care about good policy.

Politicians’ competence at other times is questionable. During election season, it gets worse. Ridiculous policy proposals get airtime, with politicians hoping voters like the vibe. Just look at the past couple of weeks.

Bob Edlin: Sovereignty and The Treaty.....

.....the Maori Party aims to nobble Parliament while ACT wants to rid NZ of the Waitangi Tribunal

The Māori Party intends undermining the sovereignty of Parliament – if it can muster the support to implement such a policy – by establishing a “Tiriti Commission” empowered to stall or challenge Government policies and bills presented to Parliament.

Furthermore, it would establish a $220 million fund for “Māori-led constitutional transformation” discussions and working groups.

Kerre Woodham: What are you looking for from this Election?

With just 57 days to go till election day, which is not long at all, most parties are starting to come out with policies. Even Labour. Capital gains tax and free GP visits seems like an age ago, but at least they came out with something. Te Pāti Māori, major constitutional reform by entrenching Te Tiriti into lawmaking, so they've sort of rustled up a couple of election promises. ACT and New Zealand First are giving their party faithful more of the same. ACT are dishing up getting rid of the Treaty, New Zealand First are doling out sanctions against migrants – so far, so appealing to those who are already there. With National, there's nothing to see here, more of the same, stick with us, we'll come right. Look, the economy's improving already, while firing shots across Labour's bow with misleading attack ads around tax.

Centrist: Police called Te Pāti Māori inquiry ‘active’ 19 months after closing it

Police repeatedly withheld information about an Electoral Commission referral involving Te Pāti Māori by saying an investigation was active. Police now says that investigation had already been closed in January 2024 with no further action.

The referral concerned text messages promoting Te Pāti Māori before the 2023 election that allegedly did not include the legally required promoter statement.

Mike's Minute: Again, get housing out of fast-track

As an extension to the 5% first home buyer deposit policy the National Party has released and the Labour Party is backing, can we possibly learn from its practicality and apply it to areas that are increasingly fraught?

I cite fast-track.

Guest Post: The Myth That Is The Kahungunu Horse Ride From Waimarama To Parliament Exposed - It Is A Horsefloatkoi.

A Guest Post from No Minister by pdm

You might have read or heard about this proposed, mighty, feat by Kahangunu Iwi to deliver a Petition to Parliament.

A few minutes ago I stumbled across this information on Facebook and what I had thought to be at least a three or four or even six week expedition was going to be of much, much shorter duration.

 Sunday September 13, 2026 

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Duncan Garner: Auckland Transport Hires Māori Outcomes Executive

Aucklanders are getting hammered by rates, congestion, and failing infrastructure, yet Auckland Transport is advertising for a Head of Māori Outcomes reporting straight to the CEO. A passenger is a passenger, and standard public transport should deliver one service for everyone. We look at how bloated public sector bureaucracy keeps expanding while the basics remain broken.

Click to view

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: Will the CRL be worth the wait?

It's a massive weekend for Auckland as the much-awaited CRL, the City Rail Link, finally opens to the public. And there is excitement. Five and a half billion dollars and 10 years of chaos have come to this. The question will be asked: was it all worth it?

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 12 September 2026

Election 2026: Nobody told Willie Jackson there’d be a test

We are properly in the campaign now. Someone should tell Chris Hipkins who appears to have all the energy of a bloke who is only there because he has been promised there will be sausage rolls afterwards. Ready or not we have reached the point where candidates (or senior MPs) are misspeaking, protesters are turning public meetings into circuses, and everyone is starting to look more and more unhinged.

DTNZ: Saudi oil output crashes to 35-year low

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production has fallen to its lowest level since 1990 as escalating conflict across the Middle East disrupts the kingdom’s major export corridors, according to Bloomberg.

Riyadh informed OPEC that crude production dropped by approximately 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, bringing total output down to 6.238 million bpd, Bloomberg reported, citing OPEC’s latest monthly figures.

Roger Partridge: The Engine of Discontent....

....Why democracy’s defenders should pay more attention to the price of a house

There is a story that countries in the English-speaking world like to tell themselves about houses. Rising house prices made them rich. Not the speculators and not the banks – the ordinary families who bought a home, paid it off through recessions and redundancies, and woke one morning to find themselves wealthy. The equity in the family home funded the business, the renovation and the retirement.

Richard Prebble: Abolish the Tribunal, Preserve the Treaty

ACT will complete the historical Treaty claims filed before 1 September 2008, end the Waitangi Tribunal’s contemporary jurisdiction, and wind it up once its historical work is finished, announced ACT Leader David Seymour.

I was a member of the Lange Government that extended the Tribunal’s jurisdiction back to 1840. Despite the difficulties that decision created, on balance I think it was the right decision.

We should be proud that New Zealand was founded not by conquest, but by treaty.

Graham Adams: Decolonisation agenda drives race-based MAPAS

The elephant in the room when Guyon Espiner interviewed David Seymour last week about race-based entry to medical schools was the fact his former wife Emma began her career as a doctor via Auckland University’s Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme. And, according to Emma Espiner (as she was then), he had encouraged her to apply.

Act has pledged to abolish MAPAS and it would have been fascinating if Guyon had explained why he fully supported someone gaining a place through a pathway that offers preferential treatment based on ancestry.