Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Would a move to the centre really help the National Party?

Well, it seems it's the season to line up and take shots at the National Party, particularly if you're a past or current member.

The latest, after Vanessa, Gerry, Don and Simon, is Sue Wood, a former National Party president. She's written an open letter to MPs, published in The Post in Wellington, calling on them essentially to revolt behind closed doors against the party powers.

Ryan Bridge: Why the vote count takes so long

People keep asking what is taking so damn long with the vote counting.

There are fewer specials to count this time round - the were expecting around 700k but only got 400k.

The problem is they need to send all the votes from people who voted outside their electorate back to that electorate for counting.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 8.11.26

Friday November 13, 2026 

News:
Foundation North commits $3 million to plan Waitangi’s future
Foundation North has committed $3 million over three years to support the development of the Treaty Grounds, in a new partnership with Waitangi National Trust.

The money backs the trust’s planning for 2040, the bicentenary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The agreement recognises the importance of the Treaty Grounds to New Zealand and supports the trust’s long-term vision.

John McLean: Queen Weenink

An ousted National Party MP returns to her happy place…Outer Space

Banks Peninsula voters have unceremoniously booted Vanessa Weenink from her National Party electorate seat in Parliament. When the counting’s done, she’ll lose to Labour’s Tracey McLellan by over 2,000 votes. In typical Leftist deflectionist fashion however, she’s taken not one iota of personal responsibility for her loss.

Instead, Vanessa has blamed her very own political party, National Party voters and the hordes of deplorable New Zealand bigots that - with her infinite wisdom and mad eyes - she’s uniquely equipped to see.

Ashley Church: A Open Letter to Christopher Luxon

"Please do the right thing for New Zealand"

Dear Mr Luxon,

By 2023, New Zealand had become a bitterly divided place – wracked by years of social engineering during which we were told how we could work, how we should raise our families and what we could say. Certainly some of this came about as an emergency response to COVID – but those measures quickly evolved into an authoritarian regime that sought to centralise control over everything from education to water. Our nation had become a very dystopian place where people who’d gotten along all their lives were suddenly at odds with each other. We were tired of being angry, we were tired of feeling defensive and we just wanted a government that would end the social engineering, ease the division and give the country a chance to breathe again.

Richard Prebble: Luxon is a caretaker

The law is clear. Christopher Luxon remains Prime Minister, but in a caretaker capacity. He should not make significant policy decisions or use his position for party-political advantage.

Ministers defeated at the election can remain in office until 4 December, when they must leave.

Dr Eric Crampton: The data centre opportunity our next government should embrace

Whichever coalition forms out of this past weekend’s election has a substantial opportunity ahead of it.

America’s midterm elections brought a Congress that may be more inclined to take back authority over tariffs from the President. Uncertainty over trade will hopefully decline. It would be good for Americans and good for us as well.

The elections also brought another shift that’s been less noticed.

Bob Edlin: The “hatred” which upsets Weenink.....

.....might reflect National supporters’ disappointment in a soft Treaty stance

PoO recalls suggesting – in an article about the passage of the English Language Bill – that National MP Vanessa Weenink should think about raising her profile.

Too late to keep her Banks Peninsula seat, she has been raising it this week.

David Farrar: Donald Hipkins

Radio NZ reports:

Chris Hipkins says National is only in pole position to form a government because it “manipulated the electoral system”.

“There are a lot of people very angry about the direction that the country has been heading under this government, and you actually see that in the fact that after only one term, National has lost the party vote in this election, they’re only holding on to the prospect of power because they’ve manipulated the electoral system.

Dr Don Brash: The Prime Minister's Task Will Be Tricky

As I write, it is just three days after the election. At this stage, it seems likely that there will again be a National-led coalition Government of some kind, possibly supported by Opportunity by means of a Confidence and Supply agreement.

The exact shape of that Government is by no means clear. Indeed, it is not even clear that it will be led by Christopher Luxon who, right to the very end, seemed sincere in his belief that the best way of returning a National-led Government to power was to give two ticks to National in order to reduce the risk of too many “numpties” from coalition parties sitting around the Cabinet table. At very least that was insulting to the parties which National is inevitably going to need to form a Government, but it also suggested that Mr Luxon could not count because it was clear from an early date that National was likely to hold most of the 44 electorates it won in 2023 but most unlikely to attract a commensurate party vote; hence the logic of “strategic voting”.

But assuming for the sake of this commentary that Mr Luxon continues as Prime Minister, one of his key tasks will be choosing the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Speaker, arguably the most important positions in the new Government.

Rodney Hide: Here are Opportunity's opportunities, none of them good

There are two possibilities for the Opportunity Party following the specials. The first is bad for them. That is that the centre-right can form a government without them. The second is even worse. That is that the centre-right needs them.

Let me explain.

Mike's Minute: A rort of the system or what we voted for?

Here's a simple question, or two, around MMP.

Why is it a couple of billionaires who have supposedly destroyed the system? Which, by the way, they haven't. But that's the question being asked.

Why is it a couple of billionaires and not the Māori Party?

 Thursday November 12, 2026 

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Clive Bibby: We need to get real!

What should we take from the election night results that remain too close to call?

Those of us on the Right should use the next couple of weeks to reflect on "what might have been" so that - whatever the final result - we are in better shape to avoid the mistakes we made, when we get the next chance in three years’ time.

Andrew Dickens: Is MMP broken? Is there a way to fix it?

As we wait for bated breath for the results of special votes to finally determine the result of the election, I think there is a big question that is just sitting there waiting to be asked and waiting to be answered: what's wrong with MMP? And is there any way we can fix it?

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Harry Mowbray's not wrong about women voters

Jeez, Harry Mowbray's clearly not afraid of poking a bear, eh? Fresh from publicly arguing with the National Party over vote-splitting, he's now complaining publicly that elections are decided by women who vote emotionally and pull politics to the left.

Now, I'm 100 percent sure he's going to cop it for this, but I actually don't disagree with him. I think he's almost, almost entirely right.

Geoff Parker: Co-governance Is Not The Same As Democracy.....

......The Distinction Claire Charters Overlooks

Dr Claire Charters argues in her Newsroom article, Co-governance seen as undemocratic when Māori are involved, that power-sharing is common in Western democracies and that arrangements involving Māori should therefore not be treated as unusual or undemocratic.

She points to coalition governments, judicial checks and balances, and Treaty-settlement arrangements involving iwi and the Crown. But this overlooks a fundamental distinction: not every form of shared authority carries the same democratic mandate.

Ani O'Brien: Grand Coalition - Stabiliser or Suicide?

Cautionary tales from overseas

Businessman Guy Haddleton would like Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins to sit down together before either of them starts negotiating with any of the smaller parties. While I have no objections to the two major parties hashing out some of the gnarlier long term challenges we face, like infrastructure, our ageing population, and housing, the suggestion of any kind of Grand Coalition gives me the heebie jeebies. I know that many political tragics of either side feel similarly. We did not just endure a brutal election campaign in order to shack up with the guy we have desperately been hoping will be kept out of office.

Pee Kay: Doesn’t it make you want to scream ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

Farmer questions iwi conditions on effluent consent

Is this type of ridiculous situation only going to get worse under any new Luxon-led government or a Hipkins created, road to ruin?

When you read about a North Island farmer stalled for ten months over an effluent consent; a consent process hijacked by bizarre iwi demands to ban palm kernel feed and host mandatory karakia, doesn’t it make you want to scream ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?

Kerre Woodham: The RNZ blowout epitomises the public service's problems

Well, isn't the taxpayer funded radio station the absolute epitome of all that is wrong with the public service? I'm not talking about their journos or producers. There are some excellent journos down the road trying to do some excellent work in extremely trying times. But boy, have they been let down by their masters, their paymasters in particular.