Ryan Bridge: The Taranaki LNG terminal is a good idea, depending on who you ask

This government's running into similar problems Jacinda's one did on energy - they're getting too much 'official' advice and reports.

The problem when you ask 'the experts' for advice on every thought that pops into your head is that they tend to agree with it. And if they don't. you tend to ignore them.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Will the Super Bowl weather the MAGA outrage cycle?

Is it possible that some sporting events are just so big that they can more or less do whatever they want politically without suffering any real consequences?

I’m asking this because of what happened during the Super Bowl halftime performance. Bad Bunny was everything the MAGA crowd expected - and perhaps feared - he would be.

Ryan Bridge: A debate on interest rates

I was having a good old debate with a mate at the weekend about interest rates.

We're of the age where, mortgages are a thing.

In Auckland, quote a big and annoying thing.

JC: Waitangi Day – A Day of Pride

Waitangi Day will never bring unity. New Zealand Day just might.

In keeping with good left-wing journalistic practices, I have purposely given you a misleading headline. Well, at least partly misleading, because when I was growing up (I’m about to enter my eighth decade) it was a day of pride. New Zealand in the 1950s, soon after the end of WWII, was pretty settled, with people living in peaceful communities and one could say, to all intents and purposes, unified. I remember when two races came together on the day at Waitangi in the cause of a celebration. Can the same be said today? No. Why?

David Farrar: The actual impact of India FTA on immigration will be tiny

The India – NZ FTA allows 1,667 three-year temporary employment entry (TEE) visas per annum (capped at a maximum of 5,000 at any point in time).

However 1,466 of those visas are for skilled occupations already on the green list. We already issue 28,000 or so of these a year, including 4,500 a year to Indian nationals. So those 1,466 a year will be zero increase on what we are already doing. It is a floor, but a floor at one third of the level we are already at.

Pee Kay: A mirror can only reflect what is standing in front of it!

New Zealand society is as divided on the issue of race as never before. From the 23rd of September 2017 until the 14th of October 2023 we were encumbered with a Labour government that for 6 years, set about dividing the country along lines based on ancestry.

To criticise was to be labelled racist. Critical analysis of the government by the MSM became a long forgotten process. Academics, they who rode extremely high horses, were free to revel in perpetrating the Treaty partnership myth and condemning anyone who questions the magnificence of Te Ao Maori.

Dr Bryce Edwards: The Quiet War at Waitangi 2026

Many expected fireworks at Waitangi this year. In an election year, with the Government’s record on Treaty issues still fresh and raw, the annual commemorations looked set to be a battleground. Instead, the week turned out to be remarkably calm on the surface. And deeply fractured underneath.

The real story of Waitangi 2026 wasn’t about Māori versus the Crown. It was about Māori versus Māori, and an opposition that seems incapable of getting its act together nine months out from polling day.

Bob Edlin: Two bodies blessed by kaumatua at crash scene (presumably in partnership with Police) were tourists

Another day has passed without an explanation from the Police Media Centre about the assistance provided by iwi at the site of a helicopter crash near Battle Hill.

A press release last Thursday, issued in the name of the Kāpiti-Mana Area Commander, Inspector Renée Perkins, said “a significant recovery operation” had taken place the previous day to recover both the pilot and passenger from the crash site.

It said:

David Harvey: Contending Approaches to the Treaty

Chris Hipkins’ Waitangi Day — or perhaps Waitangi Week — article in the Herald on 3 February 2026 is a short piece, mercifully so at 562 words, and one suspects it was written by Hipkins himself rather than a speechwriter. Brevity, however, should not be mistaken for simplicity. In an election year, the article deserves to be read carefully, not only for what it says about the Treaty, but for what it signals about Labour’s wider philosophical direction.

At first glance, the article presents as a familiar reflection on national values framed through Te Tiriti o Waitangi. But early on, Hipkins reveals more than perhaps he intends. In his opening substantive paragraph, he declares: “The Aotearoa I know today is a proud collective of believers.”

John MacDonald: My question to you about the economy

Do you feel better off than you did three years ago?

With it being election year, that’s the question politicians are going to be asking you. It’s the question I’m asking you too in light of the latest unemployment numbers - which are the highest in more than a decade.

David Farrar: Maybe give Whales the vote also?

Radio NZ reports:

A Green MP wants tohorā/whales to be recognised as legal persons.

In New Zealand, laws have been passed to grant legal personhood to natural features, allowing them to be represented in court and have rights similar to those of individuals.

Monday February 9, 2026 

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New Zealand Taxpayers Union: Hung Parliament as cost-of-living concern soars to highest level since May 2024

The Taxpayers’ Union reports –

Neither the Centre-Right or Centre-Left blocs have enough seats to form a Government in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll.

Damien Grant: Winston Peters, and why this is his moment

Within the corridors of commerce, at least those I am permitted to tread, exists a confident assumption Christopher Luxon’s coalition will be returned in much the same configuration we enjoy today. If this is your expectation best reach for the antacid.

Chris Hipkins is likeable. Faster on his feet. He enjoys being in front of the microphone and this translates into a perception of authenticity. His stocks will rise as the campaign progresses.

Peter Bassett: Wellington’s Sewage Crisis Wasn’t an Accident. It Was a Vote — and Everyone’s Pretending Not to Remember

When Wellington Mayor Andrew Little announced he would raise the city’s “catastrophic” sewage failure with the Prime Minister and senior ministers, he struck the solemn tone of a man confronting an unforeseeable calamity.

That tone would be more convincing if the cause of the calamity were not already sitting, neatly itemised, in Wellington City Council’s own records.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 8.2.26

Monday February 9, 2026 

News:
Green Party celebrates decision to decline Taranaki seabed mining
In a draft decision on Thursday, the fast-track approvals panel declined Trans-Tasman Resources’ (TTR) bid to mine 50 million tonnes of seabed a year for 30 years in the South Taranaki Bight.

Larry Bell: Trump freeing U.S. from UN health, energy, and climate tyranny

The Trump administration has severed fealty and bondage to United Nations programs that compromise American sovereignty and subordinate national interests and policy autonomy to globalist agendas.

Two recent actions address disentanglements from dysfunctional and exploitive world health authority and unwarranted and climate alarm-premised energy policy fiascos.

John McLean: Judith Collins - Worthy Law Commission President In Waitaing

Criticisms of Collins’ appointment as Law Commission President are selective and hypocritical

On 28 January 2026, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced that sitting Government Minister Judith Collins  will be appointed President of the New Zealand Law Commission in the first half of 2026. On becoming Law Commission President, Collins will retire from politics. Collins currently holds a number of Cabinet portfolios, including Attorney‑General and Minister of Defence.
Under the Law Commission Act 1985, the Commission’s President is also its chief executive and has an express duty to “supervise and direct the work of the Commission”. Under the Act, the Commission’s principal functions include to:

Colinxy: The Myth of the Māori Elite — Rebutted

Dr Harpreet Singh continues to be a gold‑mine for demonstrating just how low the bar has fallen in New Zealand’s tertiary sector. His recent Substack entry, “The Myth of the Māori Elite,” introduces a new term — the “Elite Wedge.” In theory, it sounds like a promising analytical tool. In practice, it becomes yet another exercise in ideological evasion.

Singh’s central move is simple: deny that hierarchy exists within Maoridom. This is an extraordinary claim, and one that collapses under even the most cursory glance at history, sociology, or contemporary politics.

Centrist: ‘Better for Māori than Labour’ - Duncan Garner praises coalition government record

In a wide-ranging podcast discussing Waitangi week, Duncan Garner argues for the coalition government’s record on Māori-related issues.

“The record says they are better for Māori than Labour,” he remarks, “but nobody wants to talk about it.”