Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 6 June 2026

King’s Honours: A rebel gets a Damehood

The King’s Birthday Honours list was released this week, recognising 178 New Zealanders. Among them were former Chief Ombudsman Sir Peter Boshier, literacy expert Sir James Chapman, journalist Barry Soper, New Zealand Initiative education researcher Michael Johnston, former Rangitoto College principal Patrick Gale, and a host of community leaders, educators, sportspeople, and volunteers.

But one recipient stood out to me in particular. Professor Elizabeth Rata has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education.

Colinxy: The Genealogy of New Zealand’s Education Decline

How a world‑class system was slowly hollowed out by ideology, bureaucracy, and bad theory

New Zealand once had one of the strongest education systems in the world. High literacy. High numeracy. High trust. Minimal bureaucracy. Teachers who taught. Students who learned. Parents who understood what schools were for.

That world is gone.

Melanie Phillips: President Trump - a second Obama?

For the Iranian regime, the purpose of negotiations is to force America to surrender

From the start of the war with Iran, it was clear that the stakes couldn’t have been higher.

If the United States and Israel were to succeed in neutralising the Iranian regime, the outcome wouldn’t just have been the removal of a monstrous threat to Israel, the Iranian people and the world.

Lindsay Mitchell: Colonisation blamed for Maori Meth use

Here is yet another example of a taxpayer-funded health professional teaching that self-destructive behaviour by Maori is the fault of colonisation: land dispossession, loss of language, attack on family structures, attack on belief systems etc.

Kerre Woodham: How can you have faith in a system in which the punishment never matches the crime?

It's just so infuriating when you see criminals who are given sentences that in no way reflect the heinous nature of their crime. It would be lovely, well not lovely, but it would be admirable to have faith in a justice system, not simply have to endure a legal system.

The Aussies know how to do it. There was a particularly ghastly pack rape of a young woman who had the misfortune to be walking home from a bus stop at the wrong place at the wrong time, and a gang of young men and one woman said, “Let's go and get ourselves a Sheila". And so this pack of homeless kids assaulted her, tortured her, gang raped her and murdered her. And they were sent to prison forever, until such time as they were physically incapacitated to no longer serve as a threat to the community or until they were dead.

Bob Edlin: There has been lots of counting the costs of opening new library....

There has been lots of counting the costs of opening new library – but has anyone counted the books?

Wellington’s newly refurbished central library has cost heaps. As well as building costs (estimated at $217.6 million in an RNZ report last September), there have been Maori blessing costs, opening ceremony costs, and the costs of “a glitzy website”.

The website, The Post reports, cost nearly $600,000, pushing the costs associated with the library opening to more than $800,000.

Guest Post: Political Advertising....

Guest Post by Lucy Rogers on Kiwiblog

The Free Palestine party shows that political advertising for parliamentary parties should not be taxpayer funded

A new political party “Palestine Free from the River to the Sea” are explicitly saying that “Our purpose in creating a party is not to seek power, but to raise awareness. If we can reach 500 members quickly we will qualify for government funding to be used in campaign advertising. Every cent will go towards supporting the cause of Palestinian liberation.” See: https://www.psna.nz/news/newsletter-no-242

David Farrar: The beat up about so called NZ freeloading

1 News reported:

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says New Zealand is “freeloading” off the American military because of its low level of military spending.

Multiple media have reported along these lines, but the truth is that Hegseth did not target New Zealand. It only came up because of a question by a journalist that was designed to generate a headline.

Saturday June 6, 2026 

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Barry Brill - NZ Climate Policy: A Conspiracy of Silence

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" – J M Keynes

Back in 2022, I wrote about "The overdue retraction of a giant lie" – the UN's quiet admission that its future global temperature forecasts had been wildly exaggerated and needed to be halved.

A.E. Thompson: Racist Control of New Zealand Psychologists

I draw your attention to public documents from the New Zealand Psychological Society, the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists and the New Zealand Psychologists Board.

The New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (NZCCP) is currently pushing workshops called 'Te Tiriti O Waitangi Informed Psychology in Aotearoa' (see https://nzps.gecco.co.nz/event-manager/ViewEvent/220).

Caleb Anderson: Postmodern mischief and the dismantling of truth

Postmodernism has turned the world as we know it on its head, it has unsettled the western political order, compromised our institutions, contaminated our universities, and undermined objectivity and reason.

Postmodernism's greatest danger is its denial of a universal human nature, seeing this, in spite of compelling historical and scientific evidence to the contrary, as primarily socially, rather than biologically, determined.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are we a bit harsh on Gen Z?

Unusually for me, I feel like I should come to the defence of Gen Z.

These are the kids aged 14-29. We complain a lot about them, about how soft they are, how they lack resilience, and what a bunch of complainers they are.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 31.5.26

Saturday June 6, 2026 

News:
Iwi owing DOC $2m in campground revenue welcomes external review
A North Island iwi estimated to owe the Department of Conversation (DOC) nearly $2m in campground revenue says it welcomes an external review.

RNZ revealed last week that DOC had launched an external investigation following concerns regarding relationships with iwi and processes such as procurement and debt management.

John McLean: Performative Parsimony

Pretending to care when squandering others’ money

The latest thespian to act as if he’s outraged about public service wastage of ratepayer and taxpayer money is the Wellington City Council’s Deputy Mayor, Ben McNulty.

Peter Dunne: Post Budget

Parliament rose late last Saturday evening after a marathon period of Urgency passing legislation relating to last week's Budget and other matters. This was not unusual – Parliament usually goes into Urgency for a couple of days after a Budget.

Brendan O'Neill: We are right to feel rage over the death of Henry Nowak

The elites want to crush the working-class fury over this vile murder – don’t let them.

Are you raging over the death of Henry Nowak? Has the horror of that boy’s slaying, the lynching-like savagery of it, incensed you? Did you feel molten fury as you watched the bodycam footage of those lowlife officers dragging Henry across the harsh gravel? Were you consumed by wrath seeing this dying boy be libelled as a racist by his killer? If so, then according to the chattering classes you are tantamount to a fascist. It is you and your febrile emotions that pose the truest threat to the nation, even more so than knife-wielding scum like Vickrum Digwa.

Roger Partridge: Why the Left Keeps Misdiagnosing Populism

This column was first published by CapX, the online newspaper of London’s Centre for Policy Studies, on 3 June 2026. It was written for a British audience, but the diagnostic mistake it identifies is universal.

Andy Burnham has one prescription, and he means to fill it, whatever the patient walks in with. The man with the broken arm, the woman with chest pains, the child with a fever: each leaves the surgery with the same pad of repeat scripts, which call for higher taxes on the rich, more generous benefits, and the nationalisation of something.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: The performative politician who paved Ardern’s way

When I read last week that Tony Blair had published a 5,600-word essay on everything that ails Britain, every instinct told me not to read it. But I could not help myself and read it anyway.

The essay, published by Blair’s own institute, covers the world order, AI, China, the transatlantic alliance and the Labour Party’s future. It is a grand “world explanation” piece, just as one would expect from Sir Tony. His arguments are lucid, his diagnosis sharp, and the prose, as always with Blair, elegant.

Simon O'Connor: China's bullying on full display

China's decision to sanction New Zealand MPs for visiting Taiwan is outrageous, yet how New Zealand's parliament and political leadership responds will be even more insightful and important.

This is a joint opinion piece written by myself and Louisa Wall. She and I are both former Members of Parliament, and the founding co-chairs in New Zealand for the Interparliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

As I share on Substack today, The Post have kindly shared our thoughts while other legacy media outlets have chosen to ignore.

The sanctioning of four New Zealand Members of Parliament for visiting Taiwan is a matter of serious concern, not simply for those individuals, but for the integrity and independence of New Zealand’s democratic institutions.