Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.4.25

Wednesday April 16, 2025 

News:
Consultation Open On Changes To Emergency Management Legislation
The Government is seeking public feedback on options to strengthen New Zealand’s overarching emergency management legislation, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced today.

The proposed objectives for the new bill are to:

Penn Raine: It’s not the economy, stupid

Clinton’s ‘90’s strategist James Carville must have resented how often his quip is ascribed to his boss, and worse, that he is ever only partially quoted. Like so many memorable pronouncements that come in threes, the rest of his 1992 successful campaign message was that the electorate cares about healthcare, and that ‘more of the same’ policies might not cut it.

Barrie Davis: “Becoming Aotearoa” - a Book Review

We sometimes read that the history of New Zealand is being rewritten. The title of Michael Belgrave’s 2024 book Becoming Aotearoa: A New History of New Zealand leaves no doubt that is the case.

The first sentence of the Preface reads:

 

“This history of Aotearoa New Zealand is a response to crisis: the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 and the ongoing uncertainty which has followed it.”

Richard Meade, Magnus Söderberg: Winter electricity prices are rising

Winter electricity prices are rising – how do we know we’re getting value for money?

Winter is coming to New Zealand and Australia, and with it come those inevitably higher power bills from heating our homes.

Dave Patterson: US-Iran Talks Pave a Path to Possible Peace

The first meeting in Oman between President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of Iran was business-like, exchanging messages through Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. This initial round of discussions aimed at American desires for Iran to give up nuclear ambitions was described as “positive” and “constructive.” Though the engagement was indirect, Witkoff and Araghchi met face-to-face briefly.

Yvonne Van Dongen: The Great Rainbow Heist

There’s Pride Day, Pride Month, Trans Visibility day, rainbow poppies for Anzac Day and even rainbow messaging for Pink Shirt Day next month, a movement intended to promote anti-bullying. These days I can’t even walk the dog along Ponsonby Rd without copping an eyeful of rainbow ticks plastered all over the window of a vape shop.

Some of us are beginning to feel bullied by the rainbow. Women based in material reality know that rainbow is a by-word for gender ideology which erases women and girls and bends the world to accommodate the fetishes of a few men.

John MacDonald: New sex ed curriculum is a great start

I’m liking the sound of Education Minister Erica Stanford’s approach to sex education. But it won’t be plain sailing, and she knows that.

But there’s a glaring gap in this new framework she’s put out for consultation, with ideas of what kids might be taught and when from year 1 to year 13.

Peter Williams: Trust in the Media is still dropping

Would ownership or management changes make a difference?

Only five short years ago over half of us said we trusted the media. That was 2020 in what was the first of the now annual AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy Centre surveys.

The baseline number that year was 53 percent, hardly a glowing endorsement of the country’s news industry.

JC: Media Still Not to Be Trusted

The 2025 AUT Trust in Journalism Survey has been released and it has once again found trust in the media is at an all-time low. This year it has fallen a percentage point from last year: 32 to 31. When the trust is already very low a huge drop is not to be expected but again, there has been no improvement in how people view the news and the outlets that produce it.

David Farrar: Will Nash stand for NZ First?

The Herald reports:

Former Labour Minister Stuart Nash is not hosing down rumours of a political comeback at the 2026 election, saying it is a case of “never say never”. …

Nash said he’s not a member of any political party, but he appears to be leaning in the direction of NZ First.

David Farrar: Greens now campaigning against prisons as well as police

Stuff reports:

Green MP Tamatha Paul has launched a fundraising campaign for a group wanting to “defund the police” and close the court system.

Paul has been attracting attention over recent weeks for her comments about policing and support of groups that call for the abolition of police, jails, and courts. While she and the Green Party have denied wanting to “defund the police”, Paul’s continued support for those pursuing that goal has led to further questions for her party.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Free Trade Hypocrites Becoming More Hysterical by the Day....

US Senator Bernie Sanders Symbolizes The Free Trade Hypocrites Becoming More Hysterical by the Day

Want to know why the US left-wingers are looking stupid? This past week none other than US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has been hitting the streets of America trying to raise a revolution against the tariffs being implemented by the Trump White House. Our own leaders, the two Chris', Hipkins and Luxon, should join him. After all, as NZ First Leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters explained, they have become increasingly hysterical on the topic.

Mike’s Minute: A good example of why people don’t trust the media

I have a good example as to why so many people don’t trust the media.

Like most things it's got complicated and a lot of it is fuelled by emotion.

So a simple survey, the likes of which was published by AUT over the weekend, can never come close to capturing exactly what the relationship between the industry and the punter really is.

 Tuesday April 15, 2025 

                    ⇩

Professor Robert MacCulloch: A Solution to NZ's Richest Man, Nick Mowbray's, Awful Billion $ Problem.....

A Solution to NZ's Richest Man, Nick Mowbray's, Awful Billion $ Problem: Move your Factories to NZ and get a 10% Tariff, not China's 145% rate.

Oh dear, it must be keeping him up at night. Despite being worth over $20 billion, Zuru billionaire Nick Mowbray gave an interview with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking today telling him that he's being made to feel poor by the Trump tariffs. Mowbray says “it’s hard to say we’re not worried” about the US administration’s “chaotic” policy decisions. “We’ll ship about $2 billion worth of goods to the US this year. So, at that run rate, that makes our tariffs worth about $3 billion at the moment.”

Matt Ridley: Yet more proof of systematic deception on covid

Five years ago this week, based on a highly misleading “model” forecast from one academic, Neil Ferguson, the British government ditched its pandemic plan and locked the entire country down with disastrous and—as Sweden has proven—unnecessary consequences. It was the first of many dreadful mistakes the government made during the Covid pandemic: shutting schools at the behest of unions, assuming the virus was not airborne, vaccinating children, and overclaiming for vaccines and masks. Government thought it knew best and let us down.

Clive Bibby: New Zealand’s reputation is being questioned

At a time when the defence of the realm is more dependent than ever on strategic alliances based on trust, we need to show our partners that we are capable of punching above our weight when the proverbial hits the fan.

We need to show we can be relied upon to compliment the contributions of others doing most of the heavy lifting in a way that is consistent with our size and limited defence capabilities. 

Bob Edlin: LGNZ chief to step down in August.............

LGNZ chief to step down in August – but some councils have already left (because it’s ‘far left’, a councillor says)

Local Government New Zealand President Sam Broughton paid tribute to Susan Freeman-Greene’s leadership after she announced she will be stepping down as chief executive at the end of August 2025

She has been in the job for almost five years.

Lindsay Mitchell: Maori must take control

There were 17,028 Maori babies born in 2024.

According to an official information response from the Ministry of Social Development, 5,997 were dependent on welfare by the end of the year. That's 35.2 percent.

Most would have been born onto a benefit.

Mike's Minute: Waikato-Tainui is a wonderful success story

My ongoing advice to the Government is: don’t make big announcements on a Friday.

I watched the Prime Minister from Waikato at the Ruakura Superhub.

This is what the Government lives for. It's what they dream of. It's what they preach.