Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.12.25

Wednesday December 10, 2025 

News:
Takapuna beach sacred pōhutukawa tree faces removal after consent win
Takapuna community members are calling for a reversal of a decision to remove a 400-year-old pōhutukawa, considered a “living cemetery” by local iwi.

The ancient tree is one of the few remaining in Te Uru Tapu, Sacred Grove, near Takapuna Beach. It has been the centre of a long-running dispute since it fell onto the private lawn of The Sands apartment complex in 2022, yet it continued to grow. The Resource Consent lodged by Takapuna Sands Body Corporate and apartment owners was approved in September.

Chris Bishop, Simon Watts: A better planning system for a better New Zealand

New Zealand’s new planning system will make it easier to build the homes and infrastructure our country needs, give farmers and growers the freedom to get on with producing world-class food and fibre, and strengthen our primary sector while protecting the environment, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Under-Secretary Simon Court say.

“This Government’s central ambition is to lift growth, productivity and living standards,” Mr Bishop says.

Cam Slater: Explosive Leaked Documents Prove Jackson’s Wife’s Bullying Review Did Happen.....

Explosive Leaked Documents Prove Willie Jackson’s Wife’s Bullying Review Did Happen and Expose a Weapons-Grade Cover-Up

If you thought the stench around Willie Jackson and his missus Tania Rangiheuea at the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA) could not get any worse, think again. Over the past week, I have hammered Jackson with two exclusives exposing his alleged bullying, union-busting and cronyism to shield his wife from credible accusations of running a toxic workplace.

Dr James Allan: The Outgoing Tide of Freedom

John Mortimer’s memorable fictional creation Rumpole of the Bailey loved to quote the great lines of English poetry. One of Rumpole’s favourite recited retellings was Wordsworth’s poem that begins “It is not to be thought of that the flood of British freedom, which, to the open sea of the world’s praise, from dark antiquity hath flowed ‘with pomp of waters, unwithstood’… should perish.” And that claim was still true when Mortimer was writing about Rumpole in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Alas, it is not true today.

Chris Lynch: Haeata school named in audit concerns over $18,500 leadership team trip to Queenstown

A Christchurch school has been named in a national audit that has uncovered concerns about how public money was spent in schools, including cases where principals used funding tagged for coaching and wellbeing on overseas trips, family travel, tourist activities, and premium flights.

Peter Williams: The Dysfunctional Maori Health Trusts

First there was the Waipareira Trust, then the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA) and now there’s Te Kaika.

They have much in common.

They’re all Maori owned and controlled health and social service providers.

Matua Kahurangi: Seven tribes, one furniture store – The absurd racism of NZ’s consent regime

ACT MP Simon Court recently posted IKEA’s 2023 Resource Consent Requirements, and the document is a masterclass in how far New Zealand has drifted into full-blown, bureaucratised separatism. The whole thing reads like a cultural compliance manual rather than a straightforward building approval. If this is what a global company must wade through just to put up a furniture store, no wonder this country is falling apart.

JC: We Are Done With Ardern

The left media either don’t realise how far behind public opinion they are or they’re deliberately trying to annoy us. These lefty journalists who inhabit newsrooms for the sole purpose of inflicting their less than wholesome opinions upon us need to get a grip. They need to stop bombarding us with puff pieces about their poster child, Jacinda Ardern. Where, why and what is the need to keep focusing on this despised individual, now popularly regarded as the country’s worst prime minister EVER!

David Farrar: The silence of the media

Cameron Slater exclusively reported on allegations by long-time union leader Matt McCarten against Willie Jackson and his wife around bullying at the Manukau Urban Maori Authority. I blogged about this four days ago.

With the exception of The Platform, no media outlet has reported on the allegations. This is highly unusual. Even if you don’t think the allegations stack up, the fact a union leader is accusing a Labour MP of workplace bullying and locking a union out is newsworthy. You would expect the media would at least do a “He says, she says”.

David Farrar: A good poll for the Government

The latest 1 News – Verian poll is very good for the Government. The party vote is:

Tuesday December 9, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: Will Australia's social media ban actually work?

So tomorrow's the big day, isn't it? And it is, I think, not an overstatement to say that the eyes of the world, well, at least politicians around the world, are going to be on Australia and whether the social media ban will actually work.

And that is still a live question, isn't it? We're less than 24 hours from the thing taking effect and none of us can totally say for sure that we know it's going to work.

Geoff Parker: Courtesy Becomes Control

New Zealanders have a fatal flaw: we’re too polite for our own good. We don’t like conflict. We don’t like awkwardness. And we certainly don’t like being the one person in the room who says, “No thanks, I’m not doing that.” That national instinct - to keep the peace at all costs - is now being used against the public in a way few fully appreciate.

Polite New Zealanders quietly sit through public gatherings while an opportunistic orator addresses the audience in a language few understand. This isn’t about culture — it’s about control.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: We're not solving the big problems, and we don't want to

I’ve had it with people running around pretending we’re going to solve big global problems.

Australia’s banning kids from social media on Wednesday. They’re going to lead the world.

Sounds very appealing. Stop the brain rot, etc.

David Lillis: Fighting Online Harassment

Online Harassment in New Zealand

While most social media is relatively benign or even positive in intent, we do encounter not only bad language and slights of public figures, but online attacks on private people (Lillis, 2025).

Recently, in New Zealand, various people have attempted to call out online abuse and possible defamation on Facebook, including attacks on a person’s character, integrity and even physical appearance.

Pee Kay: A Curates Egg?

On the 1st of December, Prime Minister Chris Luxon, and Local Government Minister Simon Watts, announced Cabinet’s decision on how they will cap council rates.

The rates cap will be a variable target band, starting with minimum increases of two percent and a maximum of four percent. All good, so far.

Professor Kendall Clements, Dr Michael Johnston: The Irony Of Relativism

When new evidence emerges, scientists update their theories, sometimes radically. Good scientists actively seek evidence that could disconfirm their theories.

Scientific uncertainty owes a lot to cross-cultural encounters. For example, when Jesuit missionaries visited China in the 16th and 17th centuries, they were fascinated by Chinese astronomical records.

Matua Kahurangi: One rule for hikoi, another for Brian Tamaki

You know what I find genuinely strange in this country? When the hikoi stormed across the Harbour Bridge to protest David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, there didn’t seem to be any consultation, any endless list of hoops to jump through, any talk of “strict criteria”. The organisers basically said, we’re marching across the bridge, the rest of you can get whūkd if you don’t like it. Just like magic, it happened. No bond demanded at the eleventh hour. No threats. No “very high threshold” rhetoric. No police spokesperson clutching their balls about public safety and risk to infrastructure. Just straight on, off you go, kia kaha, block SH1 if you must!

Matua Kahurangi: Coster exposes Hipkins - The Minister who knew everything and said nothing

Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster’s interview with Jack Tame on Q&A is a bomb that has blown apart what little remained of Chris Hipkins’ political credibility. The timeline is clean, simple and devastating. It shows that Hipkins was fully briefed about Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming’s affair with a younger woman long before the matter erupted publicly. When the scandal finally broke, Hipkins reverted to his favourite political defence. He knew nothing. He remembered nothing. He was never told.

Coster’s account makes that position impossible to swallow.

Roger Partridge: Fake breath tests are bad - The police response is worse

This week, Commissioner Richard Chambers announced new targets for trust and confidence in police. They will mean little if the organisation continues to treat deliberate dishonesty as a minor employment matter.

That proposition may sound harsh. But what else should we make of a police force that discovers its officers have falsified thousands of breath test records and responds with little more than a warning?