JC: What Is up With Willie ‘Wonky’ Jackson?

And where’s the mainstream media?

There’s an old proverb ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’. It first became popular in the English language in 1546, meaning that rumours or signs of trouble usually point to some kind of underlying truth. This appears to be very much the case with the current situation Willie Jackson is in. Here we have another classic case of a member of the ‘Māori elite class’ thinking they can exert power in any way they see fit and get away with it.

Mark Angelides: Blockade - Venezuela Gets the Terror Treatment

A total blockade of oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuelan waters has been imposed by the Trump administration, ratcheting up tensions that came to a head Tuesday evening, December 16. Ordering a “total and complete blockade,” President Donald Trump has escalated the South American situation in an effort to disrupt and destroy the flow of illegal drugs into the US. And yet, the political and economic ramifications go far beyond the drug cartels.

John MacDonald: What needs to happen because of our terrorism complacency

You would think that, having had a major terror attack here, we’d be the last people that needed to be told after what happened in Bondi on Sunday night that we’re too complacent.

But that’s what security experts are saying. That New Zealand remains complacent and naive, despite 51 people being killed in the mosque attacks in Christchurch in March 2019.

Kerre Woodham: Auckland is far behind the eight ball when it comes to trains

For those who have been here over summer, Auckland is a lovely place to be. A lot of residents push off, and it feels like the city is yours to explore, and visitors are very welcome and make a welcome addition to the city, new people with new energy and seeing things that you don't see, seeing the city through new eyes.

But it's going to be a little bit tricky to get around, unless you fancy a bus on a sweltering day or you bring your car, because Auckland trains have announced that they're delivering the last big push on the rail network rebuild and other critical city rail link preparations.

David Farrar: The UK Labour crisis

The latest YouGov poll is brutal for UK Labour. Don’t even look at what all voters think. Let’s just look at what voters who voted Labour in 2024 say.

Friday December 19, 2025 

                    ⇩

Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is why postal voting needs to go

Surely that judge throwing out the election result in Auckland has started the clock ticking on postal voting.

This case may not seem a big deal given that it involves just 79 votes, in just one subdivision, in just one relatively small local board election in Auckland.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.12.25

Friday December 19, 2025 

News:
Far-reaching forestry agreement for Ngāumu Forest
Sealed with feathers in tōtara, an agreement on the future of one of Wairarapa’s most significant productive forests was made this week.

With a contract that spans generations, Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust and Japanese-owned Juken New Zealand (JNL) held a ceremony at Pūkaha on Thursday to lock in at least 60 years of commercial forestry right from Ngāumu Forest in eastern Wairarapa.

John McLean: Bondi Barbarians

Bad or bonkers? The role of bad ideas in abominable behaviour

I rarely comment on events outside of New Zealand, because I almost never have anything to say. Oodles of others, closer to the action and with deeper insights and inside sources, do to death big overseas happenings, including mass killings.

But in the wake of the Bondi Beach Barbarity*, I’ll offer a few thoughts from my New Zealand perspective.

Nick Clark: Finally, RMA replacement worth the name

For over three decades, the Resource Management Act has been a significant hindrance to New Zealand's economic growth. It promised sustainable management but delivered housing crises, infrastructure delays, stifled productivity and environmental decline. Successive governments tinkered while the fundamental problems festered.

This week, the Government introduced legislation to finally address the disease.

Dr Michael Johnston: The story that did not count

In many countries, an educational study claiming a radical improvement in mathematics learning would receive considerable media attention. But not, it seems, in New Zealand.

Two weeks ago, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the results of a trial involving Year 7 and 8 students who were at least a year behind in maths. Nearly 1,400 such students received small-group tutoring four times a week for 12 weeks. In that time, they made an average of two years’ progress.

Roger Partridge: A plan that isn’t really a plan

A plan typically answers straightforward questions: what is needed, what should be done first, and why.

This month, Ministers will receive the Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year National Infrastructure Plan. It will not answer those questions – although not because the Commission has failed. It will have done exactly what it was tasked with doing.

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Why the Quiet on This?

Australia’s renewable energy sector has recently been jolted by the discovery of asbestos in the imported components of wind turbines. The material identified is ‘white asbestos’, banned in Australia since 2003. It is found in the brake and clutch pads used in the internal service lifts of turbine towers – the elevators that carry technicians up for maintenance. While the contamination is confined to a specific subsystem rather than blades or towers, the implications are serious. More seriously, ‘white asbestos’ was banned in New Zealand in 1984. It has long been recognised in this country that the substance is harmful.

Gary Moller: Digital ID and Its Impact on Free Speech and the Future of Our Children

Today, we are wrapping our children up in digital cotton wool! What are the implications?

Freedom and privacy are cornerstones of any democratic society. In New Zealand, recent discussions led by the Taxpayers Union and the Free Speech Union have brought urgent attention to two critical issues: the rise of digital ID systems and the increasing control over children's exposure to the digital world. Both developments raise serious questions about the direction our country is heading and the kind of future we want for our children.

Kerre Woodham: The Finance Minister is charting a tough course

We're going to start this morning with the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, which was actually the Three-quarter Year Economic and Fiscal Update. It delivered news we all expected, and that is that we're getting there as a country. It's just taking longer than we thought.

Treasury's half-year update, published on Tuesday, predicted a return to surplus in 2029/30, a year later than it forecasted in May. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she'd continue to aim for 2028/29 and said we're on target to return the books to surplus faster than they will in Australia, the UK, Canada, and many other advanced economies, while maintaining a prudent debt position.

Bob Edlin: Treaty principles, unelected Māori with voting rights and a letter of resignation....

Treaty principles, unelected Māori with voting rights and a letter of resignation – what would Mandela make of this?

PoO was somewhat bemused to learn that Napier mayor Richard McGrath’s executive assistant had quit her job, saying she could no longer work for him due to his “disregard for Treaty principles”.

According to Stuff:

Thursday December 18, 2025 

                    ⇩

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Nicola Willis needs to be braver and cut more

It's no surprise that Nicola Willis has pushed out the surplus by another year.

That now makes it three years in two years, as in she has delayed surplus by three years in just the space of the two years she’s been at the Finance Minister’s desk.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Can we appreciate the good economic news coming out?

I know you shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch, but can we just take a minute to look at the good economic news coming out?

Government books aside, tomorrow's GDP read will show we bounced back with a spring in Q3 - close to 1 percent growth, they reckon.

Pee Kay: An Open Letter to Simeon Brown

They slap us in the face, call us racists, condemn “white privilege” and at the same time they have the effrontery to abuse taxpayer generosity with mismanagement of government funded Maori Health Providers!

This is my follow up to PDM’s posting last week of Peter Williams article, The Dysfunctional Maori Health Trusts, by way of an open letter sent to the Minister of Health, Simeon Brown.