RNZ-Reid Research poll: National crashes, Greens surge, Opportunity kingmaker

National has plunged below 26 percent in a new RNZ-Reid Research poll, while the Greens have surged about a month out from voting day.

The poll - published on Tuesday - puts the Opportunity Party once again in the kingmaker position.

NZCPR Newsletter: The Battle Over the Waitangi Tribunal

When the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process was introduced by Norman Kirk’s Labour Government in 1975, it was framed as a means of dealing with ongoing injustices.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 4.10.26

Tuesday October 6, 2026 

News:
Houkura says Government voting rights ban unfairly targets Māori participation
Auckland’s Independent Māori Statutory Board has hit back at the Government over moves to ban voting rights for non-elected committee members, saying it has been unfairly targeted by the decision, which diminishes Māori participation.

But Houkura chairman David Taipari is urging the council not to pull out of the Auckland Deal in response – a threat made by Mayor Wayne Brown, who earlier advised Wellington to “butt out of our business”.

Pee Kay: Tertiary Education, an Expensive Political Battleground.

Student Debt: Crown Asset or Financial Fiction?

Last week it was supermarkets, this week it is Student debt/University Fees! It seems there is absolutely no systemic crisis that our politicians can’t fix with a sweet, shiny new election campaign spreadsheet tweak.

Last week political parties all painted supermarkets as the whipping boy and took to flailing them with gusto. This week they are scattering lollies in front of a very receptive audience who, no doubt, will be very happy to trade debt for vote!

Last Sunday Chris Hipkins unveiled Labours plan new election proposal on student fees during the Labour Party’s official election campaign launch.

Damien Grant: New Zealand’s books are burning....

.....but where are the hard decisions?

On September 2 1666, the 330th Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, was summoned to a small conflagration. A fire had taken hold and the alderman required his permission to contain it.

The prescribed means of containment was to destroy the adjacent buildings but, well, the owners of these adjacent buildings were unhappy at this violation of their property rights.

Melanie Phillips: Those amazing and heroic Israelis

An averted catastrophe in the air shows how the Jewish state chooses life while Britain and the West embrace a culture of death

On Monday, Britain’s foreign secretary Ed Miliband delivered a diatribe against Israel, accusing it of ethnic cleansing and war crimes, and vowing to punish it for the crime of allowing Jews to “settle” in their own historic land.

On Wednesday, four ordinary Israelis on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv averted a new 9/11 by overpowering the co-pilot who was attempting to crash the plane, possibly in Israel.

Kerre Woodham: There must be a way to keep public servants accountable

I talked about accountability this time last month, specifically about MBIE boss Nick Blakely. You'll remember that the Privileges Committee found Blakely and former Immigration New Zealand head Alison McDonald deliberately misled —what you and I know as lying— Parliament. The Privileges Committee said their conduct was an insult to the public service, and yet who's the current head of MBIE? Nick Blakely. Doesn't seem to have bothered him. Sure Alison McDonald's gone on to a nice board somewhere. She won't be locked up at home, covered in sackcloth and ashes, rueing and repenting.

David Farrar: Labour’s Fiscal Fraud

Labour’s so called fiscal plan is a fraud. First here is what Barbara Edmonds said on Newstalk ZB:

Well, for example, a choice that we would not make is $300 million for a tobacco excise tax cut. Okay. That means there is $300 million more that is a choice. So only $12.7 billion more to find?

Andrew Dickens: Cost of living's become an election issue and supermarkets are getting the blame

The cost of living is once again a key issue in the election.

But what seems strange to me is that somehow New Zealanders believe it’s a problem that only affects us. A cursory skim through international papers shows it’s an issue for every market on earth.

Here much blame has been heaped on supermarkets.

David Farrar: BSA legislation introduced

Paul Goldsmith announced:

Legislation which disestablishes the Broadcasting Standards Authority has been introduced to Parliament today, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

“Our Government promised to get this legislation into the House before we rise. Today we’re delivering.

Colinxy: Why the Naturalistic Fallacy Dominates Modern Politics

When politicians invoke “nature,” it’s never about nature; it’s about power

The naturalistic fallacy — the belief that whatever is “natural” is automatically good, right, or morally authoritative — has become one of the most pervasive intellectual errors in modern politics. It is everywhere: in environmentalism, in social policy, in identity politics, in public health, in education, and in the rhetoric of every party that wants to appear morally pure without doing the hard work of moral reasoning.

Politicians invoke “nature” because it is the easiest way to shut down debate. Nature cannot argue back. Nature cannot be questioned. Nature cannot be held accountable.

Rodney Hide: Help! Parliament wants to define a woman, and the freezing works may never recover

Hat tip to Katrina Biggs. Her Substack, A B'Old Woman, waded into the select committee submissions so the rest of us didn't have to. She came back with treasure.

The Definition of Woman and Man Bill does something radical. It writes down in law what a woman is and what a man is. Every farmer, midwife and five-year-old already knows. Corporate New Zealand, it turns out, does not, and the news has hit hard.

 Monday October 5, 2026 

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Kerry Butler: Did Maori Cede Sovereignty to The British Crown

Cede means relinquish. Sovereignty is supreme authority, i.e. power to govern.

Certain members of the Waitangi Tribunal are claiming that the Māori chiefs did not cede sovereignty … by alleging that it was not the intent of the British to have them do so. And, by misinterpreting the Māori text in the Treaty as meaning they had agreed to self-determination; or to govern in partnership with the Crown.

Nicholas Kerr: Living Better Than Kings

Alex Tabarrok recently posted something on X that stopped me in my tracks:

“I bought a Tesla. The choice was simple; do I want a car or do I want a car + driver.”

He was referring to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology. His framing captures something much bigger and more interesting.

Caleb Anderson: What's really at stake in this election?

One of the preeminent features of humanity is its capacity for contemplation. Interesting things happen when that contemplation reaches the boundaries of the known (or certain).

There is a very real sense in which postmodernism operates like a cult. It has a breathtaking propensity for making claims that are neither rational nor scientific—claims that openly affront reason and common sense.

Nick Clark: Terms and conditions apply

Five weeks out from an election, bottom lines are everywhere. Almost every minor party has one. Some have several.

The bottom line is a strange beast. A party leader announces it with a stern face, and it tells voters, 'On this, we will not move.' Then it is released into the campaign dressed up as a binding contract.

Dr Michael Johnston: The liberal roots of New Zealand education

Imagining 19th-century schooling might bring to mind characters like Thomas Gradgrind from Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times. Gradgrind was a disciplinarian, obsessed with drilling facts into pupils' resistant brains. He had little time for art or poetry.

Like any caricature, Dickens' portrayal of Victorian English schools no doubt contains truth. But a close look at New Zealand's early school system reveals a rather different picture.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Why is the New Zealand dollar falling, and what could it mean for prices?

Might the plunge in the value of the New Zealand dollar in the last five weeks make you poorer?

The reason for asking is that, on 29 September, a New Zealand dollar bought 5.1% fewer US dollars than on 24 August, 3.1% fewer Australian dollars and 4.6% fewer units of the Reserve Bank’s basket of currencies.

What does this mean for you, what is behind it, and what, if anything, should be done?

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: The first Minor Leaders debate was a waste of time

So let’s talk about the Stuff "Kingmaker" debate.

Hated the name. Just call it the minor parties debate. It is what it is.

I’ve never liked the minor party debates because there are just too many talking heads. It’s always a mess as the moderator tries to herd cats. But I haven’t figured out a better way of doing it other than a week of one on ones and who’s watching that?