NZCPR Newsletter: Who Really Runs the Country?

Voting for the 2026 General Election is well underway. At the last election, 60 percent of voters had voted by Election Day. It looks as if it could be higher at this election.

There is no doubt the contest between the left and centre-right blocs remains too close to call.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Will National's vote-splitting strategy just confuse voters?

Jeez, I reckon it'll be panic stations in National that we're yet again talking about the vote-splitting strategy because this, I think, is now definitely confusing voters.

I don't know if the people pushing this strategy realise how confusing it is for a lot of people, particularly those who don't engage with politics all that often. These are the low-interest voters who tune in only when an election rolls around.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.11.26

Tuesday November 3, 2026 

News:
Pahīatua Medical Centre, which suffered staff exodus sold to iwi
Tararua Health Group has reached an agreement to sell Pahīatua Medical Centre to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua Trust, with the change of ownership taking effect immediately, Omni Health says in a statement.

The decision followed months of turmoil at the medical centre with staff leaving the operation that served almost 5000 patients in the Tararua district. Many said they had left over safety concerns.

Geoff Parker: Te Tiriti And The Battle Over New Zealand’s Constitution

Māni Dunlop’s Policy Spotlight is right about one thing: New Zealand is engaged in an increasingly important debate about its constitutional future. Where the article becomes problematic is in presenting that debate largely through the assumption that the country’s constitution should move towards a more deeply Treaty-based system, while giving comparatively little attention to the democratic case for retaining one Parliament, one law and equal citizenship.

There is certainly nothing illegitimate about debating constitutional reform. New Zealand has no single written constitution, and questions about the relationship between Parliament, the courts, the Treaty and fundamental rights deserve serious public discussion. Those are legitimate constitutional questions.

But something considerably bigger has emerged in recent years.

Pee Kay: The Maorification Virus - Part 2

A Satirical look at New Zealand Politics, 2017 – 2026

Can Democracy Be Saved

Though St Christo promised us remedies for the pathogen called the “Maorification” virus, would be found and administered in 2023, democracy’s ardent could see there was little doubt St Christo and Potaka the Provider, his specially selected agent, were actually and actively delivering more virus spores throughout the country.

Putting Potaka the Providor to great use, more of the virus was distributed via financial largess, empowerment and dispensed control. Agents of the state from public service, education, judiciary and academia willingly volunteered and were weaponised with the “Maorification” virus and Democracy was subjected to an ever wider attack!

Mike's Minute: Are we out of charismatic leaders?

John Key not only appeared on our show Friday, having put out a video reminding us all what is at stake this Saturday, he also appeared on a podcast suggesting Luxon has been the victim of a hit job by the left and the media.

I think he is right. I would also suggest the media is the left, and the left is the media.

Peter Williams: National still refusing to accept the obvious

Is there a more sinister reason they don’’t want vote splitting?

One week to go until the votes start being counted and National remains as staunch as ever in its opposition to the only voting tactic that will keep Christopher Luxon as Prime Minister and National as the main party of a governing coalition – tactical vote splitting.

The New Zealand Herald is reporting that Luxon is calling the promotion of such a strategy “disappointing” and his party says recent advertising placed by RCR Media and approved by Act and New Zealand First is “trying to confuse” voters.

Barrie Saunders: Voter suppression?

Some media and academics are claiming that the requirement for voters to enrol at least 13 days before the election is a form of voter suppression and will impact young people, Maori and PIs in particular.

I look at this failure to enrol in two quite different ways. The first is, if those not enrolling are too lazy or dumb then so be it, we are all better off if they don’t vote.

Alwyn Poole: For New Zealand to Thrive, We Must Recognise the Value of Every Human Life

When the election is over it would be good to begin to consider how to actually improve NZ society for all.

As a parent of three now-adult children, the main thing I would want every new parent to understand is this: you haven’t simply had a “baby”. You have brought a new human being into the world, and your life will be invested in theirs from that moment on. Imagine what children born today may see in their lifetimes: in all likelihood, they will spend the latter part of their lives in the 22nd century.

Dr Nathan Peres: A French lesson for New Zealand

Violent protests have a long history in the French Republic, going back well before the student revolt and general strike of May 1968. What sets this month's unrest apart is the scale of the damage. Thousands of shops, businesses and public buildings were hit in a single weekend.

The protesters were not marching against pension reform. They were protesting against the cost of living and the state of French schools.

Colinxy: How Modern Movements Erase Personal Responsibility

The ideology that turns offenders into victims and victims into footnotes

One of the most disturbing trends in modern moral discourse is the systematic erasure of personal responsibility. It is not accidental. It is not organic. It is not compassionate. It is ideological; a worldview that treats human beings as passive vessels acted upon by “systems,” “structures,” and “forces,” rather than as moral agents capable of choice.

The Lindsay Clance case is simply a recent example of this rot. But the pattern extends far beyond one courtroom.

Monday November 2, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Would it be a bad thing to have David Seymour as Finance Minister?

So the prospect has been raised of David Seymour as Finance Minister if the centre-right is re-elected.

He was on Newstalk ZB with John MacDonald in Christchurch and said it was very possible he could have the job after the election, given, I suppose, that Nicola Willis might not be there because of the projected National Party overhang.

Ani O'Brien: Who gets to run your life?

Forget the policies, what political philosophies separate our parties?

November the 7th is fast approaching and we are drowning in often bizarre and ill-thought out promises from almost every party. Te Pāti Māori seems to only put out press releases to call everyone else racist, but the other parties are dropping policies left, right, and centre. There are subsidies, taxes, schemes, and a lot of pledges to make things “free”. But stepping aside from the minutiae of quickly dreamt up policies, New Zealanders face the fundamental question of what kind of country we want to live in. Both sides seem to view this election as existential, as if we are standing on a precipice and one outcome spells disaster.

In this essay, I want to explore what I see as some of the core philosophical differences between the two futures we are to choose from.

Colinxy: The Green Party’s Staggering List of Promises

When the numbers get so large that nobody is supposed to ask where the money comes from.

One of the easiest ways to understand a political party is not by what it says, but by what it promises.

And by that measure, the Green Party is either the most generous party in New Zealand history, or the least economically grounded.

Guest Post: A Respectful Reminder Regarding National’s Constitutional Legacy

Guest post on No Minister by Ivan Barnett

Dear National Party Leadership,

I recently received Sir John Key’s message encouraging voters to continue supporting National and to trust the Party to complete the work it has begun.

Damien Grant: Electorate candidates deserve your vote on merit, not tactical gaming

I’ve spent this election hauling myself around remote electorates hosting debates with former Labour MP Anna Lorck, thanks to the excellent folks from the Taxpayers’ Union, and interviewing political leaders with fellow Stuff columnist Verity Johnson.

I’ve met a retired All Blacks captain, a Certified Parrot Behaviour Consultant, a couple of mayors and, with some trepidation, a former police detective. Let me tell you, those who are running for an electorate seat put in the mahi. Hard, relentless, grinding hours spent debating, door knocking, presenting, memorising party lines and talking to potential voters, random strangers and other candidates.

Richard Prebble: Interesting electorate races - James Christmas

National is winning so many electorates that taking Tāmaki back from ACT could leave it with no list MPs.

ACT’s James Christmas is seventh on its list and will be an MP regardless.

But Tāmaki matters because our electorate vote lets us choose the best candidate.

Bob Edlin: Rongo Wetere’s stance on discrimination suggests ACT should recruit him...

....in promoting needs-based govt policies

PoO has been alerted to the “impassioned speech” of Rongo Wetere, founder of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, which he delivered after award-winning historian Vincent O’Malley spoke in Te Awamutu last week about the 1864 Invasion of Waikato.

Wetere described the invasion by British forces in 1864 as a land grab that had never been fully compensated for.

Dr Eric Crampton: The pricey and perversely unexpected outcomes of parties’ social media controls

Whatever government manages to form after 7 November seems likely to bring substantial new restrictions for online freedom of speech, including social media age limits and an online regulator.

Experience with similar regimes overseas does not suggest that this will end well. And it will be difficult for any online age-verification regime to keep kids off social media without also imposing substantial encumbrances on adults or threatening privacy.

Let’s look first at what each of the parties has proposed, and what the different coalitions might then bring.