Geoff Parker: Land Back? The Greens’ Dangerous Rewrite Of New Zealand’s History

The Green Party says “returning land to Māori is the right thing to do”. It sounds morally compelling — until you ask the obvious question: which land, taken from whom, and owned by whom today — and on what legal and historical basis?

There is no question that New Zealand's nineteenth-century land history was complex. There were land purchases, sales, disputed transactions, confiscations following the New Zealand Wars, and later changes in the way Māori land ownership was administered. Some transactions were contested then and remain contested today.

But that history cannot simply be reduced to a story of Māori land being “stolen” by the Crown and therefore remaining subject to an automatic claim for return.

Pee Kay: Claire Charters Calls Democracy a “Fairy Tale”

Meet Claire Charters an Auckland University law professor who has spent years climbing the ranks of the academic and bureaucratic elite.

She has bounced from an advisor to the President of the UN General Assembly to a stint as an “Indigenous Governance adviser” for the Human Rights Commission. But don’t let the fancy titles fool you—Charters has built her career on ideas that many everyday New Zealanders find completely out of touch.

Richard Prebble: Is the health system collapsing?

When I was in Labour Youth, a veteran MP explained that if the government owned bakeries, every time someone found a hair in a loaf of bread the government could fall.

Should the Greens ever establish their KiwiMart, television news will have a permanent slot for government supermarket horror stories.

We have a monolithic, Soviet-style, government-owned hospital system employing tens of thousands and treating hundreds of thousands of patients.

Expat: Unravelling the Fair Go or what have the Romans ever done for us

I never intended to leave New Zealand. I went to the US for a year with no plan to stay, and thirty years have somehow slipped by. Retired now from medical research I’ve been able to return home for a month or two each year, intervals that show my once prosperous and egalitarian country unravelling in real time.

Kerre Woodham: Is property still an investment, or just a home?

There's an old saying, "there's money in muck". And that still holds true – waste recovery contributed $3.3 billion to the economy last year. But another old saying, "safe as houses", doesn't ring quite so true. There were just over 6,500 property transactions across New Zealand in September, according to the latest CoreLogic report. And that's around 14% fewer than the same month last year. It's the ninth consecutive year on year decline.

David Farrar: Labour candidate campaigning for votes at Mongrel Mob fundraiser!!!!!

Stuff reports:

Video has emerged of Labour candidate Kerrin Leoni campaigning at what appears to be a gang event.

In the video, obtained by Whakaata Māori, a patched Mongrel Mob member talks about the gangs not needing to fight each other, but the government.

The footage then cuts to Leoni who is wearing a Labour party jacket.

Rodney Hide: Election Campaign Fact Check: Genocide

Chris Hipkins says there is "an unfolding genocide" in Gaza.

Here's what genocide looks like in numbers:

Mike's Minute: The Māori seats could be make or break

We now have a poll in all seven of the Māori seats, which gives us a chance to at least make some sort of observation.

It's more than fair to suggest these polls are even ropier than the major polls, which have been all over the place at the best of times.

Peter Dunne: Teflon Hipkins

Chris Hipkins must be the luckiest man in politics today.

Not only has he scored a magazine cover story just before the election about his forthcoming wedding, but his record as a senior Minister and then Prime Minister during the last Labour government has been overlooked by the media, and curiously also the National Party, when it comes to assessing his suitability to become Prime Minister again after this election.

When the issue of the $2.75 million his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, signed off on behalf of the government for the Mongrel Mob was raised, Hipkins glibly brushed it off, saying now it was a mistake and something he was not particularly interested in at the time.

Bob Edlin: What Rusty can teach the smaller parties about grabbing the attention of mainstream media

RNZ has reported on the headline-grabbing exploits of an independent candidate in the campaign to win the New Plymouth seat.

A red-faced New Plymouth electorate candidate has apologised for causing an accident between the SUV he was driving and a logging truck in the city last week.

The candidate, Rusty Kane, and a passenger were uninjured when their car collided with the truck at the intersection of Elliot and Leach streets.

RNZ tells us:

Friday October 23, 2026 

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Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 8 - English Skills 1877-1899

In the video below Episode 8 is about the skills that pupils need to engage with the quality content described in Episode 7. The main skills were speaking, listening, handwriting, reading and composition writing (that's stories, poems, letters, essays). Letter-writing was particularly important because it was the main form of communication in the 19th century. Telegram writing was taught as a way to develop precision and clarity.

Written work required correct spelling and punctuation. These writing conventions make sure that children pay attention to the selection and arrangement of words. Dictation was a common way to teach spelling. It also developed children's listening ability. Oral language was strongly encouraged. Words were to be pronounced correctly and enunciated clearly.

John Raine: Where to With Education and Research Policy

Cultural Re-Engineering through the Education System

The 2020s have been a period of cultural change in academia throughout the Western world. In countries such as the USA, Canada, the U.K. and Australia, where universities have been heavily captured by woke agendas, we have yet to see a marked loss of momentum in “progressive” left wing politics on campus. This embrace of postmodernism and identity politics has also pervaded the primary and secondary education system. It has also infected to some degree the country’s research system.

Ryan Bridge: My final election prediction, Qiulae's out

Nearly there.

Voting's already happening for Kiwis overseas.

Monday, we start in-country. Two weeks later it's all over and counting begins.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is the TVNZ strike politically motivated?

I'm surprised because TVNZ journos basically never strike. The last time they did was 20 years ago, in 2006. Yet, when they finally decide to strike, they choose to do it just nine days before an election.

Surely they're smart enough to realise how political that's going to look.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.10.26

Friday October 23, 2026 

News:
Government funding deal for Māori Wardens breached law, High Court finds
A $10.8 million government deal to directly fund Māori Wardens was unlawful because it bypassed the statutory body given exclusive authority to supervise the volunteer group, a court has ruled.

In a High Court judgment delivered on Thursday, Justice La Hood declared the multi-year funding agreement between Te Puni Kōkiri and Ngā Wātene Māori o Aotearoa Charitable Trust breached the Maori Community Development Act 1962.

Gary Judd KC: A Story Is Not Enough

Witchcraft and all that

In A Halfling’s View, The Tyranny of a Good Story, subtitled “In praise of guides who can prove what they say — and against the fashion that pretends it doesn’t matter,” retired Judge David Harvey contrasts An account you can check, or an account you must swallow. He says:

Strip away the sentiment and the choice is stark.

David Harvey: Labour’s Online Policy

The great thing about the Left is that they never fail to disappoint. Rather like Cassandra I have been predicting that Labour and the Left would develop an interventionist Online Policy. In fact in September I suggested that when Hipkins announced Labour’s AI policy it was something of a Trojan Horse. One of the elements there was the presence of an Online Regulator.

Richard Prebble: What can we read into the TVNZ poll?

I have a reputation for being able to read polls. Pollsters used to ask me for my analysis. My immediate reaction is to wait and see if it is a trend.

Having got the product warning out of the way, the TVNZ-Verian poll has a good record of predicting election results, with one proviso. The polls have repeatedly misjudged minor-party support.

Simon O'Connor: The Most Important Boring Election

Why New Zealanders seem strangely uninspired by one of the most important elections in years.

I was reflecting on my reactions to the recent leader and ‘minor party’ debates. I’ve found them dull, full of predictable talking points, and carefully rehearsed responses. They seem less a contest of ideas and more an exercise in political management.

Yet, at the same time, I am very aware just how close this election is and how critical the result will be for the future of New Zealand.