Geoff Parker: Tribalism Is Creeping Into New Zealand....

Tribalism Is Creeping Into New Zealand — And It Threatens Centuries of Hard-Won Democracy 

Democracy didn’t fall from the sky. It was built through blood, rebellion, struggle, and centuries of ordinary people refusing to live under systems where power belonged only to the few. It took generations to overcome monarchy, class hierarchy, feudal obligation, and tribal rule. What replaced them was the revolutionary idea that every individual is an equal citizen, and that government answers to all the people — not to clans, castes, or inherited elites.

Today, New Zealand risks sleepwalking backwards.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 16.11.25

Saturday November 22, 2025 

News:
EIT programme blends practical environmental training with kaupapa Māori learning
Students at EIT are gaining practical environmental skills through programmes that embed the principles of kaitiakitanga (Māori environmental guardianship).

The NZ Certificate in Primary Industry Skills (Level 2) and Primary Industry Operational Skills (Level 3) are delivered, combining predator control, native planting, fencing, and machinery training with a kaupapa Māori approach.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The talk of rolling Luxon is very real

Either Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is telling porkies, or he’s the most out-of-the-loop person in Wellington. His claim that there’s “no talk” of rolling Chris Luxon is complete nonsense. There is talk—serious talk.

Ryan Bridge: Can we rule out a NZ First/Labour coalition?

Can you trust Winston Peters not go with Labour next year?

No you can’t. He hasn’t ruled it out.

Despite National scoring a higher party vote in 2017, he went with Jacinda.

Roger Partridge: Police integrity failures expose gap in law on misconduct in public office

When serious allegations threaten an institution’s reputation or its leader’s credibility, the temptation to bury them may be overwhelming.

In New Zealand’s public institutions, a structural flaw makes this suppression not just tempting but rational.

JC: Right vs Left Media Viewers

Following on from my article earlier this week, I have done some digging, otherwise known as research, to get some recently released numbers on how the left versus the right are faring in the viewer stakes in television land. The figures I managed to unearth are unsurprising, bearing in mind the trend over the last five years or so. I decided to concentrate on Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA – their media landscapes being closely related to our own.

Mike's Minute: Richard Chambers is the Police Commissioner we need

Would we be asking the questions of Police Commissioner Richard Chambers if we hadn't been dealing with McSkimming and Coster and Co.?

From my dealings with Chambers, he is exactly the sort of person who the Police need leading them.

Centrist: After years attacking ACT as ‘colonisers.....

After years attacking ACT as ‘colonisers,’ ex-TPM MPs’ chaotic vote flip triggers allegations Parliament misled

After years of denouncing ACT and its bills as racist and colonial, newly independent MPs Takuta Ferris and Mariameno Kapa Kingi have suddenly reversed their votes to back ACT’s Medicines Amendment Bill in the House.

Peter Dunne: A Kids Kiwisaver scheme

The proposal advanced by the Institute for Democratic and Economic Analysis (IDEA) for a Kids Kiwisaver scheme raises interesting questions.

Under IDEA's plan, which is effectively a compulsory savings scheme by stealth, every child would be automatically enrolled in Kiwisaver at birth. There would be a government kick-start to each new Kiwisaver account and thereafter a government matching of small annual contributions by low- and middle-income families to a child's account.

Roger Partridge: Analysing Uber - the critical point the Supreme Court failed to properly consider

The Supreme Court’s Uber judgment (Rasier Operations BV v E Tū Inc [2025] NZSC 162) has delivered clarity of a sort. The Court dismissed Uber’s appeal, upholding the finding that drivers are employees when logged into the Uber app.

The decision was unanimous on the outcome but divided on reasoning. The majority judgment of Winkelmann CJ , Williams and Miller JJ and the separate judgment by Glazebrook and Ellen France JJ disagreed on fundamental questions, including whether the Court of Appeal had erred in the role of subjective intention in the analysis.

Bob Edlin: Is it modesty?.....

Is it modesty? Brown is coy when asked what he expected after funds and jobs were bled from Health NZ’s IT projects

When $330 million in funding was lopped from Health New Zealand digital work along with 400 staff and more than 132 IT projects – what did the Minister think would happen?

David Farrar: BSA did not talk to Crown Law

I sent in an OIA to Crown Law on the 16th of October asking:

any communication between Crown Law and the Broadcasting Standards Authority around whether a person who publishes audio and video over the Internet can be regarded as a broadcaster under the Broadcastings Act 1989.

If there is such advice, and it is legally privileged, I would still like to know whether such advice was sought and given, even if the actual advice can’t be provided.

Crown Law has responded:

Friday November 21, 2025 

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Ryan Bridge: Are we on the cusp of an economic turn around?

We've got a bunch of new economic numbers this morning.

The recovery is underway. Finally.

We've had false dawns before, so I'm not overcooking this, but things are moving in the right direction. Investor confidence is up for Q3.

Ani O'Brien: Parole Board called it "managed risk", now a woman is dead

Inside the offender-first justice system that keeps releasing New Zealand’s monsters

We can all see it. Our Government can see it. They’ve made legislative changes, but the judiciary digs in. Our justice system bends over backwards for offenders while the people they’ve terrorised are told to “trust the process.” Officials love to talk about “risk management” and “rehabilitation,” but for victims, in particular women living with the consequences of male violence, those phrases are code for one thing: he’ll keep getting second chances until he kills someone.

Craig Rucker: COP30 - The UN wants trillions more!

In Brazil, they call it a “mutirão,” meaning the community pitching in together to accomplish a common goal.

At COP30 in Belém, it means you do the paying, and the UN pitches in by doing the collecting.

Chris Lynch: Government move on puberty blockers follows strong push from New Zealand First

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has welcomed the Government’s decision to halt any new prescribing of puberty blockers, saying his party had pushed for the change throughout the election campaign.

Dr Eric Crampton: If this is employment law, the law needs to change

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that Uber did not merely facilitate connections between four drivers and their various passengers – as Uber has maintained. And that the four drivers were not contractors for Uber either.

Instead, those drivers were Uber employees while logged into the app.

If they were employees, it’s a strange sort of employment relationship.

Matua Kahurangi: It's time To abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority....

ACT’s Laura McClure is right: It's time To abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority

ACT MP Laura McClure has sparked a necessary debate with her member’s bill to abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority, calling time on what she describes as an outdated and unnecessary institution. After years of creeping overreach, ballooning levies, and increasingly irrelevant regulation, her proposal lands at exactly the right moment.

Kerre Woodham: What makes NZ workplaces so dangerous?

It's the 15th anniversary today of the Pike River mine disaster, and on this anniversary, unions are calling for a corporate manslaughter law to be enshrined in legislation, as it is in other countries like the UK, Australia, Canada.