David Harvey: Not A Right to Silence Issue

How Politicians Misunderstand Highly Nuanced Legal Concepts

The National Party announced a policy that proposes to remove the right to silence that can be invoked by adults who may (or may not) have information surrounding the cause of death of a child under 12.

The term “right to silence” has a number of meanings at law.

Richard Prebble: Does Luxon know something we don’t?

Commentators are puzzled by Christopher Luxon’s determination to rule out a deal with TOP.

Perhaps Luxon knows something they don’t.

Political parties commission much more sophisticated polling that reveals who their supporters are and what might change their minds.

Andrew Dickens: A Government before Christmas is unlikely

The other day Christopher Luxon sent conniptions through the commentariat by saying we'll be lucky to have a Government by Christmas.

I'm not surprised.

So we have an election on November 7th. Writ day is December 3rd – that's the deadline for all the votes to be counted.

Peter Williams: How to fix the Overhang Problem

The Mixed part of MMP is the problem. Make our electoral system proportionately pure.

Ideas about how to negate the overhang in the MMP voting system have been punted regularly in the last week.

The Political Editors at both Stuff and the New Zealand Herald must have had a beer one night and decided together this dreadful, unfair, immoral and unfair tactic (sarc) must be stopped. The next day, October 17, both wrote columns decrying the concept and suggesting ways to ensure it can’t happen again.

Kerre Woodham: What issues are concerning you this election?

In light of the Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs' visit to the Mongrel Mob pad and their stated determination to restore the mana of the mob, I read Jamie Ensor's piece in the Herald with interest. According to Jamie, Labour hasn't proposed any specific new law and order policies with just days to go until the election.

Bob Edlin: The Parents’ Alliance - Post puts a spotlight on Jonathan Ayling....

.....but what are we supposed to see?

The headline on a report in the Post aroused PoO’s interest:

Former Free Speech head’s ‘useful skill set’ helped set up parent lobby group

The headline echoed the content of the first two sentences:

LilBaP: Shared Benefits and Personal Risk

Guest Post on GoodOil by LilBaP

The Greens’ business policy does not account for the difference.

The Greens’ business policy reads like it was written by people who have never signed a weekly wage bill, never had to scrape to pay GST because a client paid late and never risked their own house.

Their policy opens with “Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” The policy states that “Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga should actively shape the practices of all businesses operating in Aotearoa New Zealand, including their products, their practices, and their use of resources.” Let’s hope this only applies in Aotearoa.

Rodney Hide: Two votes, one brain

You have two votes. Make them count.

That is the secret of MMP. The party vote decides how many seats each party gets. The electorate vote decides who represents your electorate. Treat them as one vote cast twice and you likely waste half your say. Split them smartly and you can change the government.

I know. I have been the beneficiary.

Mike's Minute: Why the gang pad video hurts Labour the most

Only good thing about Oriini Kaipara and her gang video, which spent the better part of the day front and centre, starting with us yesterday morning as we played you the cringe-inducing audio, to be followed by the rest of the media, was that Oriini is from the Māori Party, not the Greens.

If it had been Marama, it would have been well and truly over. Not that Marama wouldn't agree with her any, it's just we don't have the video.

There she is for all to see, geeing them up, offering help and mana, seemingly some concern they haven't got some state houses as well.

Wednesday October 21, 2026 

                   ⇩

Robin Grieve - Billionaires: Why Should Success Be a Moral Offence?

The question posed by Jack Tame in the TVNZ leaders’ debate was straightforward: “Is it morally acceptable for any one person to be a billionaire?” The responses from Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins were revealing because neither could give the straightforward answer anyone who champions aspiration would.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Erica Stanford doesn't need to apologise for raising standards

All right, we need to talk about a news story that has been written in such a way that you're supposed to be alarmed by the fact that nearly half of all Year 12 students might fail Erica Stanford's NCEA replacement.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.10.26

Wednesday October 21, 2026 

News:
National's marine reserve promise raises questions from frustrated locals
A National Party promise to set up a marine reserve off Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf is raising questions from frustrated locals.

Iwi say the party shouldn't be promising anything without their involvement, and a community group which has been asking for a marine reserve since 2021 wants to know why it's taken so long to get a decision.

Ani O'Brien: Scaremongering unions have a bad case of amnesia

What NZNO's own figures reveal about the health system crisis

I am not here to dispute the reality that New Zealand’s hospitals and wider health system is struggling. Nurses are burnt out, patients have to wait too long, and our resources are never enough. Nothing in this essay is intended to pretend this is not the case. However, I am going to challenge the particular political narrative that our health system has fallen apart all of a sudden under this government due to unprecedented underfunding and understaffing because that just isn’t true.

Pee Kay: We Get the Government We Deserve

Catching up with old friend Bruce recently and naturally, the conversation turned to politics but more specifically, the abysmal standards of our political leaders. Realising we weren’t going to fix the country, Bruce wrapped up the discussion with a grim, undeniable truth: “Sadly, we will get the government we deserve.”

Yes, we’ve all heard that phrase “we get the government we deserve.” While it’s often mistakenly credited to Thomas Jefferson, it actually belongs to the 19th-century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre, who bluntly penned in 1811 that “every nation has the government it deserves.”

Brendan O'Neill: How ‘Palestine’ conquered France

Saturday's violent desecration of the French Republic was a mob jihad against democracy itself.

I’m old enough to remember when we called it ‘conquest’ when a mob of masked men stormed a town hall or a parliament building to raise the flag of a foreign nation. I can recall a time when the violent invasion of a nation’s high seats of civic power by a faceless swarm draped in the standard of a distant land was considered an act of brazen, treasonous hostility. So why do so many insist on referring to the thuggish usurping of the streets of Paris and beyond by gangs flying the Palestine flag as a ‘protest’?

Richard Prebble: The other election

There is another election going on that may have far more influence than the election result.

The Kiwi is the world’s 10th most traded currency.

Every day up to NZ$140 billion is traded. Currency traders, every minute, 24 hours a day, are holding a referendum on New Zealand.

Caleb Anderson: Fascism - the uncomfortable truth

It is pretty standard for the far left to throw the accusation of fascism at the political or institutional right. This has become common currency when the left encounter something, or someone, they don't like.

It saves arguing the case. Just throw the insult, and assume it will stick. Throw it often, and it becomes orthodoxy.

Richard Prebble: It is bizarre

Every election one sees the bizarre, but Christopher Luxon’s actions are inexplicable.

I saw on TV Luxon campaigning in Epsom with Paul Goldsmith. Goldsmith was claiming he would be a good electorate MP. I laughed.

A friend of Goldsmith’s told me that Paul has often said how lucky he is not to be an electorate MP. Being National’s flag bearer in Epsom he gets a high list place, no one expects him to win, campaign seriously or do constituency work.

Kerre Woodham: Will changing the right to silence allow justice to be served?

National is promising to take away the right to silence in child murder cases if re-elected. Which might be an enormously popular move. Who doesn't want to see somebody held accountable for the deaths of so many babies and children in this country over the years? But I hope they've done their homework on how exactly they're going to force people to speak and what the unintended consequences might be.