David Round: Forest and Bird Drift Left

As you may know, I resigned as a member of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society a couple of years ago, dismayed that its enthusiasm for undefined but radical ‘Treaty principles’ was actually harming the conservation cause. F&B’s complete refusal to respond to any of my letters did not help.

Clive Bibby: Responding to a changing economy

Having just relocated to the Naki from our beloved East Coast, I am able to view the Government’s handling of a changing economy from a different regional perspective.

And while there appear to be similar debilitating pressures on the family budget, no matter which part of the country you regard as home, there are also distinct differences based both on how citizens are handling the hard times but also the remedies they are using in trying to accommodate them.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 20.9.26

Saturday September 26, 2026 

News:
Māori words in curriculum shouldn't be controversial, principals say
Principals and a Māori language advocate are angry and disappointed by the Education Ministry's treatment of te reo Māori and the secrecy that has surrounded it.

Multiple Education Ministry whistleblowers have told RNZ this week that managers told them to delete the term Aotearoa and other Māori words from official documents.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 4 - Secularism and Moral Instruction

In the video below, Episode 4 explains why public schools were secular. The purpose was to create a tolerant and cohesive civil society for New Zealand's liberal democracy. Secularism was neither pro-or anti-religion.

Mike's Minute: Council amalgamation – something else this Govt didn't deliver

Andrew Little had a good crack at the Government over council amalgamation.

He got interrupted by an alarm but made his point and his disappointment is well-founded.

My major criticism of this Government is they said a lot of stuff they simply didn’t deliver on.

David Harvey: Sunset for the Broadcasting Standards Authority

A Bill that is Better Late Than Never

The Broadcasting (Disestablishment of Broadcasting Standards Authority) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament on 22 September 2026 – one day before the House rises for the final time before the election.

It will not get a first reading in the current session and the plan is that it will remain, hopefully to be picked up and advanced by a returned version of the current coalition Government.

What this amounts to is a symbolic gesture and an expression of hope.

Rodney Hide: The model you can’t read

My earlier column was motivated by a Seek ad. This one is what that ad named and DOC will not publish.

A “new DOC Treaty Operating Model.”

Type those words into the department’s own website. Nothing. Search the last annual report. Still “Treaty Relationships.” Scoop, Beehive, Cabinet papers in the public domain: blank.

Roger Partridge: Your Business, Their Election Promise

The 2026 election campaign has not got off to a good start for business – or for the country. National, Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First have each made dangerous promises to intervene in private commercial arrangements. The tally so far includes supermarket ownership, retirement village contracts, commercial leases and the price of food.

None of these interventions rests on a finding that anyone has broken the law. No court judgment, no Commerce Commission determination, nothing.

That matters. Businesses invest when they can rely on owning what they build. Firms sign contracts when they can rely on the terms being honoured. Disregard either and the effect on the economy is chilling.

Geoff Parker: Wangarei, Wangaree Or Whangarei?

Who decided that the old spelling was wrong?

There is a fascinating question hiding in plain sight in the name of one of Northland's best-known cities:

When did Wangarei become Whangarei — and why?

The answer to the first question is reasonably clear.

The answer to the second is less straightforward.

Kerre Woodham: Time is running out for businesses that run on gas

Time is running out for the businesses that generate billions of dollars worth of GDP and that employ a quarter of a million New Zealanders.

They're the businesses that run on gas. Your bakers, your coffee roasters, your wineries, your wood processors, your ag sec. And that's not counting the schools and hospitals dependent on gas to heat their buildings.

Time is running out because the gas they operate on is running out. It's a finite resource. And as yet, they haven't found anything to replace it.

David Farrar: Super may consume 30% of the tax take!

The Post reports:

A new paper examining the future of New Zealand Superannuation has found that, if left unchanged, the scheme could consume more than 30% of the Government’s tax revenue every year by 2065 and will be unsustainable in its current form.

The paper, published in the International Review of Public Administration in late August, was authored by outgoing National Party MP Andrew Bayly, his former adviser Leonard Hong, and Emmanuel Jo from the University of Auckland’s School of Medicine.

We must make it more sustainable.

Tim Donner: The Golden Age of Trump - The Future

From the moment Donald Trump made his grand entrance onto the political stage, one of the primary lines of attack against the bombastic outsider, among countless others, is that he “is only out for himself.” In fact, that was a core message of Democrats across the land and prominent commercials for both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that aired thousands of times during the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden/Harris care about the working man and woman, while Trump only seeks his own glory. It was a bookend narrative to Trump’s famously successful ad tying Harris to a purple-haired freak depicted as they/them, while Trump is for you.

Friday September 25, 2026 

                   ⇩ 

Rodney Hide: One job ad

The Department of Conservation is hiring a Principal Iwi Strategy and Partnerships Advisor.

https://nz.seek.com/job/94787886?type=standard&ref=search-standalone#sol=5dd0cb1365ceb02fd37ba1f0b885ce8dc67fed3c

Wellington. Permanent. $110,033 to $145,000.

The ad does not whisper. It shouts.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Let's hope the Government hasn't lost its nerve on amalgamations

It has been revealed the Government has pumped the brakes on the council reform it was rushing to get done. I think the councils and mayors who are angry about this have every reason to be really, really cross.

Dion Swiggs of ECan says he's 'disgusted'. Timaru's mayor says this is 'disappointing'. Mackenzie District's mayor says he's 'utterly disappointed'. Porirua's mayor says she's 'fuming' and has called the Government 'cowards'.

Ryan Bridge: Looks like the LNG deal's dead in the water, for now

Energy is everything, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.

The LNG terminal is on ice 'till after the election. Shane Jones told Ryan Bridge Today as much last week.

The Taranaki project hasn't been green lit by Cabinet and there's no way it will be pre-election. There's also no way a contract of that sort would be signed by what is basically a caretaker government.

Guest Post: An open letter to Prime Minister Luxon

Guest Post on No Minister by Hugh Perrett

Rt Hon Prime Minister Luxon,

Retailer-owned Co-operatives ( such as Foodstuffs ) with the ‘owner-operator members’ stores trading in ‘Groups’ under brand/banner names owned by the Co-operative (in Foodstuffs case New World , Pak’NSave and Four Square) are COMMON THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. In Foodstuffs case they also have ‘non-advertising’ members who trade independently outside of the Group banner system.

John McLean: The Do-Nothing Nats

How do we not love them? Let us count three ways…

At core, New Zealand Governments should be about orchestrating Parliament to pass new legislation.

Heated debates, hot air and empty promises change nothing. Enacted legislation is the only way Parliament can change New Zealand’s legal landscape. Enactments can comprise entirely new Acts of Parliament, or repeal or amend existing legislation.

Colinxy: How DEI Became the West’s New State Ideology

The Soviet playbook didn’t disappear — it migrated

Modern DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) is marketed as a moral breakthrough, a humane framework for justice, representation, and social harmony. But strip away the branding, and you find something older, darker, and unmistakably familiar.

DEI is not a new ideology. DEI is the Soviet nationalities policy reborn: Raznoobrazsiya and Korenizatsiia with corporate logos and HR departments.

The West did not invent DEI. It inherited it.

Yvonne Van Dongen: Butter Chicken Tsunami

Flood a nation with different cultures at warp speed and watch what happens

Twelve years ago I had an Indian flatmate on contract to an IT company. He’d already worked in the United Kingdom and the United States and found New Zealand to be the most welcoming country he had lived in. I doubt he would say that now.

Now we have reports of anti-Indian racist grafitti outside an Auckland primary school where over 60 percent of the pupils are Indian, police data shows South Asians are the group most experiencing racial abuse and, on rare occasions, this abuse has led to violence.

What’s changed?