Geoff Parker: One Standard for All - Why Race Has No Place in Modern Law

In a modern democracy, equality before the law should be more than a slogan — it should be the foundation upon which every citizen stands. Yet many of our laws and government policies contain references to race or ethnicity. What might once have been seen as a gesture toward fairness has instead become a barrier to it. Removing all mention of race and ethnicity from legislation would be a bold step toward a truly equal society — one in which citizenship, not ancestry, defines our rights and responsibilities.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We all know how this is going to end for Andrew Coster

Well, I think we can all see how this is going to end for Andrew Coster, and we could see that last night - he's gonna lose his job running a Government agency.

No one in charge can say that yet because of employment law, but it is absolutely going to happen - because there is no way that a man can do what he has done at the highest levels of police and then possibly continue to earn an income from the taxpayer. Him losing his job is the right outcome here.

Ryan Bridge: The clock for Coster is now ticking

Coster is a dead man walking at this point.

Anyone not completely brainwashed during Covid could see there was something a bit off about him - this IPCA report is proof they were right.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 9.11.25

Thursday November 13, 2025 

News:
National Iwi Chairs Forum files court proceedings over RMA reforms
The National Iwi Chairs Forum has filed court proceedings seeking clarification on how the Crown must uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements as it pushes ahead with major resource management reforms.

Dr Michael John Schmidt: This Will Mean More Victims, Not Fewer

NZ’s social media crackdown

New Zealand is poised to follow France and Australia down a regulatory cul-de-sac – one paved with good intentions and riddled with structural failure. The proposed Social Media (Age-Restricted Users) Bill, which seeks to bar under-16s from accessing social media without verified age checks, is not just ill-considered, it is a textbook example of enforcement-first governance that will generate new harms, empower criminal actors and criminalise the very youth it claims to protect.

Mike's Minute: Gun law debate ends in a whimper, not a bang

It seemed like a thing, until it wasn’t.

Guns are like fluoride and the MSM – they get people angsty.

Out of the Christchurch mosque attack came the idea that gun law needed amending. The amending got another look when ACT came to power because they are libertarians and people with, broadly speaking, a common-sense view of the world.

Melanie Phillips: Getting it

A moving message from a reader

In these very difficult times, when so many people seem to have lost their powers of reason along with their moral compass, I draw strength and comfort from the many people I encounter who remain sane and decent, who are horrified by the onslaught against Israel, the Jews and western civilisation and who understand the connection between them.

I was particularly moved to receive this message from a reader:

Roger Partridge: Heretics in the Temple of Educational Orthodoxy

A Moral Reckoning, Not a Culture War

When my colleague Dr Michael Johnston took the stage at a national education conference late last month, he didn’t expect applause. Johnston, a cognitive psychologist and Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, chaired Education Minister Erica Stanford’s Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing the primary-school English, maths and statistics curricula. He continues to serve on the Ministry’s Curriculum Coherence Group. He was speaking at UpliftEd, a conference organised by the Aotearoa Educators Collective.

Matua Kahurangi: Te Pāti Māori just proved tikanga Is nothing more than mumbo-jumbo

The latest crisis within Te Pāti Māori has exposed the uncomfortable truth. Tikanga talk is just mumbo jumbo. The moment the party’s leadership chooses to run roughshod over iwi voices and democratic process, the whole house of cards comes crashing down.

That 88 iwi apparently made a call for unity asking for cohesion and collective kōrero only for Te Pāti Māori’s national council to ignore, dismiss or override them. The headline tells the story. Iwi called for unity and the party decided to expel MPs instead. There is no illusion. When push comes to shove, tikanga means nothing.

Matua Kahurangi: The rāhui at Tongariro can get whakd’

Once again, the rest of New Zealand is being told to stay off land that actually belongs to all of us. This time it’s Tongariro, one of our most iconic landmarks, closed under a rāhui that nobody voted for and nobody knows when it will end.

Bob Edlin: The call for a mature conversation about asset sales....

The call for a mature conversation about asset sales – Luxon is up for it, but what about Hipkins?

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has expended some of his huff and puff today to rail against Christopher Luxon for wanting to discuss something that should be discussed.

David Farrar: IPCA slates Police cover up of McSkimming allegations

The IPCA has released a report so damning of the Police, that the Government has announced there will be an enhanced oversight body – the Inspector-General of Police.

This is not to do with the objectionable material that was found on his work devices. This is about the original complaint. I heard the basic details of this around six months ago, so it is good to be able to now write about it.

Wednesday November 12, 2025 

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Ryan Bridge: NZTA - the Grinch that stole Christmas

A few years ago, we had a bunch of stories about Santa parades getting cancelled because of red tape and traffic management.

NZTA was the Grinch that stole Christmas.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Expect this asset sales debate to get heated

Well, entirely predictably, the debate about selling state assets has already kicked off ahead of election year - with Winston calling the idea a 'tawdry, silly argument'.

And Chris Luxon then shooting back that Winston's view is not surprising, because he's been there for 50 years, for goodness' sake, he's got a lot of entrenched views.

David Round: Thoughts for our Time - Article 11

We are not in charge. We are being stitched up by a bossy professional class which is metastasizing at the rate of a runaway cancer. Every year there are more laws and regulations telling us what to do and not do. There are not just environmental regulations for farmers and foresters. They are the extra road signs and white lines and cycleways and bus lanes planted everywhere on roads, the physical searches at airports as security men with rubber gloves give us the once over, new regulations about everything, the continual attempts of government agencies to indoctrinate us and tell us what we may and may not think.... The Broadcasting Standards Authority’s bid to ban the description of tikanga as ‘mumbo-jumbo’ is just yet another unsurprising power grab by a handful of overpaid entitled self-righteous bullies.

DTNZ: Cabinet approves sweeping gun law overhaul

Cabinet has approved major reforms to New Zealand’s gun laws, transferring oversight of the Firearms Safety Authority from the Police Minister to the Firearms Minister in a move aimed at improving safety and simplifying compliance for licensed owners.

DTNZ, Social media ban for under-16s to begin before Christmas as petition gains momentum

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed the government’s plan to introduce legislation before Christmas to ban under-16s from accessing social media, signalling his strong support for age verification requirements.

Melanie Phillips: Defund the BBC

Recent revelations show it's betrayed its Charter principles and is a disgrace to journalism

The BBC has long been accused of left-wing bias. However, the revelation that it doctored comments made by US President Donald Trump to make it appear falsely that he promoted the attack on the Capitol on January 6 2021 takes this onto a very different level.

Kerre Woodham: Why put money back in the pockets of users?

So the government's Sunday sessions this year have involved announcements of all sorts of policies, ranging from ho-hum to meaningful.The announcement yesterday of the action plan against organised crime comes under the meaningful. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith released what he called a bold and comprehensive action plan that aimed to disrupt supply, go after those who profit from the drug trade and rebuild communities afflicted by meth, as he outlined to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning.