Ryan Bridge: Centrist voters will be confused so far this election

If you're a centrist, maybe softer, swing voter in this election, you're right to feel, so far at least, the whole thing's a bit of a ruse.

The left and right blocs are basically going to run campaigns against each other, rather than for something else.

How do we know this?

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Has Luxon made a mistake ruling out Opportunity?

You know what? I thought the Prime Minister was right to rule out working with Opportunity, until that One News-Verian poll. Now, I think he might have made a mistake.

I'm not 100 percent sure, but I'm starting to lean towards this being an error.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 9.8.26

Friday August 14, 2026 

News:
Ngāi Tahu unveils South Island council boundary plan
Ngāi Tahu has unveiled a plan to reorganise the South Island's council boundaries, replacing the 24 councils within its rohe with five bigger ones aligned to major river catchments.

The iwi has lodged a Head Start proposal after the government asked councils to submit amalgamation plans by 9 August or have one imposed on them.

Ani O'Brien: Chris Penk took the fall, but here’s what I know.

A fledgling coup nipped in the bud.

Forget “a week’s a long time”. A day is an eternity in politics. And yet consequences can arrive with brutal speed.

This morning Chris Penk was a Cabinet minister, ranked 14th on National’s newly released party list, with responsibility for Defence, Building and Construction, Veterans, Space, the GCSB and NZSIS, as well as an associate Emergency Management portfolio. Tonight he has announced that he will not contest November’s election.

Peter Williams: National's Bad (Really Bad) Day

The PM survives another bungled coup

The National Party is a shambles with a leader and senior MPs whose egos matter more than the good of the country.

That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the disaster that unfolded in Wellington on Wednesday, August 12.

Andi Cocroft: Forestry Slash: Who Should Set the Rules?

The Government’s decision to halt Gisborne District Council’s proposed forestry slash rules has reignited an important debate about environmental management in New Zealand. Local environmental groups have described the decision as indefensible, while the Government argues that national resource management reforms should provide a consistent framework across the country. Beneath the political debate lies a broader question: who is best placed to set environmental rules when local conditions differ so dramatically?

Colinxy: Appealing to Emotion - The Darling of the Media

If there is one informal logical fallacy that modern institutions have industrialised, weaponised, and normalised, it is the appeal to emotion (argumentum ad passiones). It is not new. The Greeks taught rhetoric precisely because they understood that human beings are not persuaded by facts, only occasionally by logic, but reliably, almost predictably, by emotion.

Two and a half millennia later, nothing has changed. What has changed is scale.

Peter Dunne: National Party leadership coup

This week's attempted National Party leadership coup quickly descended into disorganised farce. The immediate casualty was not Christopher Luxon as his Caucus detractors may have hoped, but Chris Penk. Despite his repeated denials and public pledges of loyalty to Luxon, he was widely reported to be the stalking horse for at least one of those wanting to depose the Prime Minister. However, he ended up not only failing to achieve that goal but destroying his own promising political career in the process.

Bob Edlin: The professorial push for local authorities to get rid of their rules on translating Te Reo

Only a tiny fraction of this country’s Māori people — estimated at around 9,000 individuals, or roughly 0.5% of the Māori population — speak exclusively in te reo Māori without speaking English.

This casts significant doubts on talk of “linguistic oppression” at local authority meetings.

JC: Media Have Got Their Man

The media in this country are a disgrace. There is nothing remotely professional in how they go about their business in respect of political coverage. They portray an unrelenting left-wing bias pure and simple. They might have the effrontery to tell us they are objective, but that is a falsehood and it is obvious to anyone with a masochistic streak driving them to sit through the six o’clock news hour that it is not the case. What emanates from the radio newsrooms is no better and a lot of what is written in the papers is nothing short of embarrassing.

David Farrar: The student services fee scam must stop

Stuff reports:

The ACT Party is proposing to make university student services fees voluntary if re-elected in November.

These are compulsory fees charged by universities to fund services and facilities that support learners, but aren’t directly related to academic learning.

Thursday August 13, 2026 

                   ⇩

NZCPR Newsletter: Insights from the Polls

With the 2026 General Election only three months away, let’s examine what the polls are telling us about who’s going to be running the country after November 7 and what the key issues are.

Ryan Bridge: Land, inheritance taxes incoming?!

Everything in this election's just been turned on its head in 24 hours for three reasons.

And it's not because of National.

Firstly, yesterday, Chris Hipkins was asked if he'd tell us how he would deal with TOP, what the caveats would be.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: National's in a worst of all worlds situation now

Chris Luxon stared them down and survived again.

Now, it sounds like both contenders, or at least both people who thought they were contenders, Erica Stanford and Chris Bishop, were reasonably confident they had the numbers to roll Luxon yesterday afternoon.

Geoff Parker: Freshwater - Who Should Control New Zealand’s Water?

Author’s Note: This article represents the author's research and interpretation of the historical documents, legislation and court decisions cited below. The purpose is to contribute to the public debate over the constitutional future of New Zealand's freshwater resources. The conclusions expressed are the author's own and are not presented as legal advice. The primary sources are cited so that readers can examine the evidence for themselves and reach their own conclusions.

New Zealand is facing an important question that deserves far more public attention:

Who should ultimately control New Zealand’s freshwater resources?

Ani O'Brien: The Greens are being remarkably honest. We should listen.

A plan for a very different New Zealand

The campaign policies of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand offer a vision for a very different country than the one we currently live in. The Greens are not just proposing cleaner rivers, cheaper buses, and nice ideas about fairness. Across their policy documents, the themes are much more revolutionary. The party wants a larger state, wealth redistribution, power transfer from the private sector to public, more iwi control, heavy market regulation, and constitutional reform based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Matike Mai.

David Harvey: When the State Breaks Its Own Rules

Unlawful Is Unlawful, Not Merely "Inappropriate"

There is a peculiar softness in the language we use when government breaks the law. A private citizen who takes what is not theirs is a thief. A company that ignores its contractual obligations is in breach and can expect to be sued.

But when a government department does the same thing, the vocabulary shifts. The conduct becomes “inappropriate”. It “appears to be contrary to law”. It reflects “systemic practice” that requires “strengthened compliance”.

Pee Kay: Is a Marae Near You Worth $2.44 Billion of Your Tax Money?

When a political party announces a $2.44 billion “social” policy in the lead up to a general election, you expect banner headlines and non-stop media fanfare. You expect political editors to dissect the spending and critics to demand accountability. If the current government dropped a multi-billion-dollar bomb like this, the usual suspects would be rushing to print with fierce condemnation.

Yet, the headlines remain small, the fanfare muted, and the critics silent.

Bob Edlin: Anti-vax protester and council candidate....

Anti-vax protester and council candidate – media highlight different aspects of the life of a benefit fraudster

When she stood last year as a candidate for the Waipā District Council in the Cambridge ward, she said she brought “honesty and integrity to ensuring council will get it right first time and stop the waste”.

This week, we learn that Hope Amy Spooner has been sentenced on benefit fraud charges totalling $107,000.