Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: You know what's ironic about Hipkins' State of the Nation speech?

Listening to Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation speech today, I found it really hard to take him seriously.

The speech was mostly just a list of things wrong with the country right now, most of which anyone who can remember back five, six, seven years, knows were caused by him, Grant, Jacinda and Adrian Orr.

Ryan Bridge: Kindness has its limits

Kiwis are known around the world for their kindness.

We open doors, we say please and thank you, we help out our neighbour. We leap in to help when help is needed.

It’s one of the traits we’re most proud of.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.2.26

Tuesday February 24, 2026 

News:
Ōrewa College welcomes new Taipari Rumaki Reo programme
More than 250 people, including mana whenua, community leaders and students from Ōrewa College, gathered at dawn on January 28 to celebrate the opening of the college’s new te reo Māori programme.

Rumaki Reo is an immersive environment that encourages communication in te reo Māori and is the first initiative of its kind at the college.

Kerre Woodham: You can't lump the homeless into one group

I am torn on this one because I know somebody needs to do something. That classic old talkback quote, Somebody needs to do something." Well, somebody has. The government is giving police new powers to crack down on beggars, rough sleepers, and basically nasty oiks. Yesterday, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, Police Minister Mark Mitchell announced the new move on orders and details around when they'll be issued and who they will target.

Colinxy: The Duplicitousness of Leftist Freedom

The False Banner of Liberty

From its inception, the Left has proclaimed itself the champion of freedom. Its rhetoric is filled with promises of liberation, equality, and fraternity. Yet history reveals a darker truth: whenever Leftist movements seize power, their definition of “freedom” collapses into coercion, censorship, and violence. The banner of liberty becomes a mask for tyranny.

Pee Kay: Or is that just STUPID!

“Agile, adaptive and lethal.” Those are the qualities New Zealand needs to become combat-ready, says Chief of Army Major General Rose King.

To meet those requirements our New Zealand Army leader has devised a new blueprint that she believes will “create a fighting-fit force for the future!”

Simon O'Connor: Control, curate, and censor

The motivations to stop using X - be it media or now the Clerk of New Zealand's parliament - are couched in moral terms by opponents, but it's all really about control, curation, and censorship.

In what I can only describe as a rather poorly considered, and mostly likely politically motivated action - unconsciously or otherwise – the Clerk of New Zealand’s Parliament has decided that the Parliament will no longer use the social media site X (formerly Twitter).

Mike's Minute: It's about time we had move-on orders

It's taken a while but we got there at last.

Move-on orders.

Clear lines of responsibility and delineation for police to actually fix a problem that has existed for too long in our central city areas.

DTNZ: Trump raises global tariff to 15%

The US Supreme Court has struck down most of the president’s earlier tariffs.

US President Donald Trump has announced an increase in his new global import tariff from 10% to 15%. The move came a day after the US Supreme Court struck down most of the tariffs he had imposed earlier.

David R. Henderson: Why Economic Freedom Matters

A global status report on the elements of broad well-being.

Each year the Economic Freedom of the World report does something important: it measures whether ordinary people are allowed to make economic choices—work, save, start a business, trade, invest, and keep what they earn—without being pushed around by the government. The newest edition, published in 2025 by the Fraser Institute’s global network, compiles data through 2023 and ranks 165 jurisdictions.

Matua Kahurangi: A brand new home for unemployed immigrants while Kiwis rot on the waiting list

Over the weekend, AppleBear on X shared an RNZ story meant to showcase compassion in action. Instead, it ended up highlighting exactly why so many New Zealanders see the system as completely broken.

The article tells the story of the Tuiletufuga family, who “moved here from Samoa a year ago”, struggled to find housing, and for a period “lived in a van” before entering transitional accommodation. Now, after working with the Salvation Army, they have moved into a “new four-bedroom home” in Flat Bush, settling in just three weeks ago.

David Farrar: Who wants a world Parliament?

An interesting poll of 117,000 people in 101 countries on whether they support or oppose their being a World Parliament. They say 40% support it, 27% oppose and 33% undecided.

The question design is very important. The question was:

Monday February 23, 2026 

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Joanne Nova: China goes gangbusters building 52 big coal plants in 2025

It’s almost like China doesn’t give a toss about climate change, eh?

Just quietly, while everyone was gushing tears over a two year extension to a fifty year old Australian plant, China added a gargantuan number of brand new coal plants.

Australia’s total coal fleet stands at 26 gigawatts in capacity. Yet China added three times that capacity in a single year.

Roger Partridge: Everything is not relative - The world votes with its feet

If there’s one thing every humanities student learns, it’s that everything is relative. Morality is culturally constructed. Truth is a matter of perspective. Values are power dressed in philosophy. To claim that one political system or way of life is better than another is naïve at best, imperialist at worst.

Except, of course, for that claim itself – which is treated as unquestionable.

This self-refuting orthodoxy has become the West’s intellectual auto-immune disease. In seminar rooms from Auckland to New York, students learn that to judge another culture is to oppress it.

Dr Eric Crampton: Legislative fail-safes

No straight thing can be built of our crooked timber. We can and will err, even with best efforts and intentions.

In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature that, when something goes wrong, forces the system toward a safer state.

Getting everything right in a new resource management system, and all the national direction that follows from it, seems impossible. The job is too big.

Dr Michael Johnston: A question of priorities

It is more than two weeks since the catastrophic failure of Wellington’s sewage treatment plant at Moa Point. Massive quantities of raw sewage continue to flow into Cook Strait. Many of Wellington’s beaches will likely be closed for months.

The immediate cause of the failure appears to have been a blocked pipe. The inside of the facility was flooded, badly damaging the plant.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Happy Social Justice Day

If this is the first you have heard of ‘social justice day,’ do not feel bad. Few people have heard of it, despite it having featured on the United Nations’ calendar for nearly two decades.

The day exists to promote social justice at national, regional and international levels. It sounds splendid – until you try to work out what it actually means.

Dr Eric Crampton: Problems with visa settings not solved by targeting foreign students

The furore over immigration settings in the trade deal with India provides an excellent reminder about a basic policy principle. You’ll have a hard time getting a policy right if you’ve misdiagnosed the problem.

Last week Newsroom’s Sam Sachdeva covered the political ruckus.

Matua Kahurangi: Rockpool ban is a start, but New Zealand says the problem is everywhere

After I posted my piece on NZ First implementing a rockpool ban around the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, the response was immediate and loud. People came forward from well beyond Auckland, including as far south as Banks Peninsula, saying the same thing is happening there too. Rockpools being stripped bare, intertidal life disappearing, and locals left staring at empty rocks where there used to be movement, colour, and abundance.