John Robertson: Unlegislated Theological Mumbo-jumbo

When government ministers parade through military graduation ceremonies to applaud our service personnel, they conveniently ignore the elephant standing right on the parade ground: a defense force quietly being converted into an ideological branch office for traditional tribal cosmology.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 19 September 2026

Parliament’s final weeks descend into farce

My goodness gracious. This term of Parliament has been one marred by poor behaviour in the House unfortunately, and in this second to last week the people we elected to represent us have outdone themselves.

On Tuesday, Labour’s Ginny Andersen and ACT leader David Seymour were both booted out by Speaker Gerry Brownlee. Andersen went first and was somewhat hard done by given she was just one heckler among many who were raucously interjecting (after having been warned to pipe down) during an answer from Revenue Minister Simon Watts. Her seat in the front row in the Speaker’s line of sight was probably to blame for her being the scapegoat of her party.

Mike's Minute: Leadership and proportionality speak to credibility

It turns out fanciful and quite possibly nutty and dangerous thinking isn't limited to the Greens and Government-run supermarkets.

Dame Angela Eagle, who is Environment Secretary in the UK, has announced the need for people to take the burgeoning El Niño so seriously that we need to start stocking up on food.

Mohadeseh Salari Sardari: “Woman, Life, Freedom”—and Undying Resistance

This article is part of Liberty Amplified, a series produced in partnership with the Hoover Institution’s Human Security Project and the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, featuring voices that challenge authoritarianism in pursuit of freedom. Today marks four years since Jina Mahsa Amini died in Iranian custody after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. The “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, which followed Amini’s death, speaks to the Iranian desire for freedom from a terrorist regime.—General H. R. McMaster

Ryan Bridge: Important things happening in the world and our pollies are fussing over the C-word

AI's going to kill us all – unless Putin gets there first. More drones and flare-ups from him, allegedly, in the skies above Europe.

Trump's pushing Carney into the arms of another lover in Ursula von der Leyen. It was all hugs and kisses in Strasbourg.

Lipton Matthews: Slavery Was Not the Difference.....

....How Legal Innovations Made America a Superpower While Brazil Stagnated

On the American Left, a familiar idea has taken root: that slavery was not just one feature of the young republic’s economy but its actual engine, the true source of the wealth that later carried the United States into industrial preeminence. This argument, once confined to specialist debate, has since moved into the mainstream, most visibly through the New York Times’ 1619 Project, and it draws further support from a cluster of historians writing under the banner of the New History of Capitalism. These scholars argue that the productivity of enslaved labor and the credit markets built on slave-backed collateral were foundational to American growth rather than incidental to it.

Melanie Phillips: The malignancy of the left

An astonishing ovation revealed the importance of anti-Zionist Israelis to the global campaign to destroy the Jewish state

Sometimes, a curtain draped across a mirror is torn aside, and a horrified public suddenly glimpses what it has become.

Two things happened this week which briefly interrupted the smooth acceleration of pathological Jew-hate in the West.

Kerre Woodham: This report is vindication for firefighters

Now for some time, I'd say this would be over a number of years, I've been receiving texts from firefighters who are extremely unhappy with the way their organisation is being run. It hasn't just been over this latest pay dispute and the strikes. This has been ongoing for a couple of years now.

There haven't been outright accusations per se, but a deep-seated uneasiness, and in some cases anger, about the way FENZ is running the organisation and the way they're treating firefighters. Now a scathing report has confirmed what they have been saying.

Bob Edlin: Lawyer’s concerns about the Waitangi Tribunal’s future....

.....raises good questions about who should govern

The PoO team, busily digesting news reports and opinions each day, inevitably encounters headlines that raise great questions about the way we are and should be governed.

That, in turn, raises questions about which party we should vote for.

An example pops up in The Post today –

If the Waitangi Tribunal is scrapped, who will do its job?

Richard Prebble: Supermarket Policy at Warp Speed

On 19 April, New Zealand First announced that it was campaigning to separate PAK’nSAVE from New World.

National was unenthusiastic, but commissioned consultants to report on the proposal.

The report arrived in June. The consultants found there could be a price advantage but conceded their calculations could be wrong.

Rodney Hide: Who gets beaten up?

The crime debate starts with the offender.

Always.

We hear the Māori incarceration rate. Then the explanations: institutional racism. Intergenerational trauma. Colonial hangover. The courts are the problem. The cops are the problem. Society is the problem.

Saturday September 19, 2026 

                   ⇩ 

Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.9.26

Saturday September 19, 2026 

News:
Tribunal releases report on the reform of the national curriculum
The Tribunal found that the Crown, through its actions related to developing a ‘knowledge-rich curriculum’ informed by the ‘science of learning’, breached a number of Treaty principles. Specifically, it found that the Crown:.....

The Tribunal found that the claimants have suffered prejudice as a result of these breaches. This prejudice included damage to the Māori–Crown relationship; the clear signal to Māori students and whānau that Māori knowledge is somehow less important; a reduction in the Crown’s commitment to supporting the transmission of mātauranga Māori; the diminishment of mana for iwi and hapū that have contributed much effort to working in partnership with schools; and the undermining of the mana motuhake of Ngā Kura ā Iwi.

JC: I Know What’s Best for You

So, by his public utterances, says Christopher Luxon.

Well, no, you don’t. This article attempts to explain why he [Christopher Luxon] and a minority of his liberal henchmen and women are leading National to a poor election result and why the trajectory these people have put the party on must change. When I use the term ‘the party’ or ‘National’, I’m excluding those conservative MPs in the party who themselves are clearly not happy with the direction of National.

Don’t Let The Left Rewrite NZ History

Michael Laws on The Platform says Don’t let the Left rewrite NZ history - the now-hidden story of the killing and cannibalism of French explorer Marion du Fresne.


Click to view

DTNZ: NZ-India FTA clears Parliament

New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India has cleared its final hurdle in Parliament, passing its third reading by 93 votes to 29. Trade Minister Todd McClay said Parliament has “overwhelmingly backed” the deal which the Government argued would deliver major gains for Kiwi exporters.

Gina Rinehart: AO Keynote Address to the 2026 National Bush Summit, Dubbo

Fellow Australians,

I have always wanted to believe that the Australian people, when told the truth, will meet it with the courage that has never yet failed our nation.

I have looked to inspiration from great leaders I admire – Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan – leaders who not only did so much for their own countries, but the free world. Their battles through very difficult times, I hope can continue to inspire us today.

Major General John G. Howard: $12 billion defence rebuild needs future governments behind it, new report warns

New Zealand's prosperity depends on open sea lanes and a stable Pacific, and a new report from The New Zealand Initiative argues the country cannot secure either without a defence force able to contribute alongside its partners.

In Worth Defending: Freedom, prosperity and the case for a stronger New Zealand Defence Force, Major General (Retired) John G Howard, MNZM, a Senior Fellow of the Initiative and the inaugural Chief of Defence Intelligence, argues that a credible, combat-capable Defence Force is not discretionary spending but the foundation on which the country's security, sovereignty and economic prosperity rest.

Kerre Woodham: I am perplexed by National's supermarket plan

Well, I don't know. I've listened to all the commentary; I've listened to Nicola Willis. I'm absolutely perplexed. Stumped. I thought after all this time and having taken a lifelong interest in politics that I understood a wee bit about it. Turns out I know absolutely nothing, because if I was a National Party advisor, and let's face it, a lot of you think I am, but if I was a National Party advisor, I would not be saying to National, "look, you're languishing in the polls. You might have done some good work, you're not selling it well. We need a little something, something, something, something.

Bob Edlin: Todd McClay can see a difference between Air NZ and supermarkets....

....but Luxon ducked the question

Gerry Brownlee – who has ordered three MPs from the House of Representatives this week – seems to have lost the sense of humour that has been a feature of his term as Speaker.