Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We've got to stop nitpicking legitimate uses of Defence Force flights

Well, I've come back from holiday to find Christopher Luxon having the week from hell, haven't I? The small business comments, the Winston Peters "go back to where you came from" comments and now Choppergate.

The latest with Choppergate, by the way, is that the event Chris Luxon was telling Mike Hosking about on Monday, where he finished up in Whanganui at 10:30 and then had to get back to Auckland, was in fact a National Party fundraiser.

Ryan Bridge: Unemployment isn't as bad as it seems

A couple of things on the unemployment number that came out yesterday.

It looks worse than actually it is because a bunch of people decided they would start looking for work in the second quarter than the one before it.

So, there are a bunch of reasons for this happening, but basically you don't really know.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 2.8.26

Thursday August 6, 2026 

News:
Corrections Minister halts $9m ‘massage programme’ for prisoners
The Corrections Minister has halted a $9 million plan to provide rongoā Māori healthcare in prisons, including giving prisoners traditional massages, after questions were asked about the programme.

Corrections launched a procurement process for the services in all New Zealand prisons in July.

Dr Eric Crampton: Can culture drive innovation? The answer lies in the books

Everyone knows that culture matters, at least in a vague sense. But showing how it matters has been like pinning jelly to a wall.

I don’t know how many opinion pieces I’ve read blaming New Zealand’s ‘tall poppy syndrome’ for weak innovation and productivity growth. But how could you test whether it is true?

Eliora: They Are All Terrible, but Pick One.

Kiwis are being asked to vote in the November 26 election and some don’t trust any party.

Never has there been such cynicism about politics and the country’s direction. It cuts across many age groups,but the 65+ group includes those who say they are so fed up they don’t even want to vote in the next election. They recall how badly the government treated them at crucial times. They say they are sick and tired of the arrogance and shenanigans surrounding our politicians. The electioneering palaver, ‘Trust us, yes, we’ve messed up, we’ve misled you with our promises but (implied) we’re slightly less corrupt than the other parties,’ isn’t cutting the mustard any longer. One big negative looms large. Voters are ‘still burdened by the failures of the Ardern years’ and indicate it was so bad for them it has affected whether they will vote or not. More on that later.

JD: Will We Be Pākehā Freeloaders?

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

As a Kiwi would you pay a couple of dollars a week into an All Black Support Fund? Possibly. How about a couple of dollars a week to prop up The Wallabies, England or Les Bleus? Not bloody likely!

And so to the question of NZ pensions.

Kerre Woodham: It's getting harder to decide who to vote for

A friend of mine said to me the other day, “do you have the cliff notes of Labour's policies going into the election? I haven't heard much from Chris Hipkins.” I said, “well, you haven't heard much from Chris Hipkins because he doesn't need to say much.” The best tactic for Labour right now, and they've they copped onto that very early, was to stay shtum and let National and its coalition partners do their very best to lose the election. Christopher Luxon's suck it up cupcake to business owners in Rotorua and then the subsequent apology was yet another case of him having to explain himself. “I didn't mean it like that, you know what I'm saying.” He's done it so many times before. He did it with the bottom feeders comment, he did it with the sorted comment. He doesn't mean it, but it comes across badly, it's mischaracterised, it's misrepresented, he has to explain himself, and when you're explaining, you're losing.

David Farrar: CPI to move to monthly

Scott Simpson announced:

New Zealanders will have access to monthly inflation data from July 2027 as part of a major upgrade to the country’s economic statistics, Statistics Minister Scott Simpson says.

“Moving to monthly Consumers Price Index (CPI) reporting is one of the biggest improvements to New Zealand’s economic statistics in decades.

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: Will TOP ever be more than a sideshow?

Everybody's talking about the Opportunity Party and I'm not quite sure I believe they're anything more than a bit of a sideshow. They haven't cracked 5 percent yet but anyway, there we go.

Sir Ian Taylor wrote an opinion piece that was published by Stuff. In it, he said that throughout his life he's been a centre-left voter. That's been his political home. But during the whole Covid period, with the Labour Party's response to Covid and the way it wasted its supermajority when it had, you know, all the power in the House, he became disillusioned.

David Farrar: Who actually pays tax in NZ

The Taxpayers’ Union has released a report showing who pays tax in NZ. The findings include:

Owen Jennings: Tax is a means to an end, not an end in itself

Tax is likely to be the big policy divide in this coming election. No matter how you put the parties together, it seems almost certain that parties led by Labour will seek to increase taxes and conversely, those led by National are not suggesting any increases; even potential reductions.

The media’s current fascination with TOP conveniently overlooks their plans to raise taxes.

Mike's Minute: The gang patch ban vs the Bill of Rights

I think the majority of us would agree that the gang patch ban, along with the renewed police attitude to gang activity, has produced a pretty successful answer to what was previously a situation with gangs where they basically ran rampant, ruined a lot of people's lives and produced untold misery in a lot of small-town New Zealand.

I note as a watcher of Parliamentary Question Time that Minister of Police Mark Mitchell is very rarely peppered with questions these days because the Opposition know they were on the wrong side of history i.e. letting gangs run wild.

Wednesday August 5, 2026 

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Mike Butler: The treaty principles crossroads again

The Waitangi Tribunal’s declaration that the review of treaty principle clauses breaches treaty principles is both predictable and shines a light on the constitutional crossroads that 50 years of treaty policy have brought us to.

AI told me that evaluating whether the review is the "correct" course of action involves navigating one of the most significant, complex, and deeply polarizing constitutional debates in modern New Zealand history.

John Denton: TOP Pensioner Attack

Amid the current MSM hoopla about TOP, momentarily muted as the press pack rushed off to dig the dirt on Paul Henry and Stuart Nash, the one key TOP policy winning voter attention is seldom mentioned.

What’s driving TOP in the polls has nothing to do with them being ‘centrists’, offering a measured alternative to Labour or National and claiming to be willing to work with either of them, it is simply that TOP are offering free money, and who can resist that?

Clive Bibby: The wilful destruction of the New Zealand pastoral economy

Waking early to catch up on world and local news is becoming a bit of a habit for old blokes like me with nothing much else to do.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I do find at this time of the day, a useful number of interesting topics that could form the basis of a blog - which others may also enjoy debating.

Owen Jennings: FENZ – friends or fiends?

Our neighbours lost their home to a fire. There was no fire brigade in our small district. It was devastating and took a huge emotional toll as well as massive inconvenience. It was, however, the motivation to form a volunteer brigade and obtain a used vehicle suitable for a rural locality.

Guest Post: Good On Mt Albert Grammar Principal

A Guest Post from No Minister by pdm

I hope the Principal took the opportunity to enforce to the student that Moko are earned by deeds and actions and most certainly are not decoration whether scribbled on with a Marker pen or etched on as is the case with so many Maori these days. Particularly Maori women.

Mrspdm and I had an 80 year old or thereabouts Maori lady as a neighbour and very good friend for a few years and she was adamant on that matter and considered it a lack of respect when she saw young people in particular adorned by unearned Moko.

Here is the Herald story which features the boys mother going `full bore’ against the schools decision and I have no doubt from the tenor of the writing that the Herald is in support of she and her son as well.:

Bruce Cotterill: The risk behind Opportunity Party’s rapid rise in the polls

There once was a young woman. She had long dark hair and a nice smile. She was a politician. She came out of nowhere. She was bright and charismatic, communicated well, and the media adored her. The people adored her too, despite not knowing that much about her or the team around her.

She became our Prime Minister, with promises of kindness, more houses and less poverty.

Peter Williams: Who can be a racist?

It's not about ethnicity. It's about your politics.

In my not entirely successful career as a radio talk show host, a few encounters remain fresh in the memory.

One was with former Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira during the time of the Ihumatao land occupation near Auckland Airport in 2019.