John Raine: The Left is Up for Co-Governance – Could this Mean a Future Ethnocracy?

In an Ideal World……

Most New Zealanders want to live in a unified country where all have equal rights under the law, while respecting the cultures and traditions of the many ethnicities that make up our population - over 200 in the 2023 population census. Of these, the four major groups self-identified as:

• European – 67.8%
• Māori – 17.8%
• Asian – 17.3%
• Pacific Peoples – 8.9%

Wendy Geus: Luxon refuses help to save the Coalition, prefers political oblivion

…. and left wing media panic as it becomes clear their guys might lose

'We need to inject more ACTness into the Coalition' reads a comment on David Farrar's Kiwiblog. Yes, I thought, this is truly a watershed moment, when voters can give ACT (and NZ First) the power to stop the hushed up marxist tyranny in the public service, operating under the guise of eliminating racism and threats to diversity. Ardern would be proud.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Greens and Te Pāti Māori are committed to digging this hole deeper

Unbelievably, the Mongrel Mob drama is still rolling on. It's been six days.

A video has emerged from the hui at the gang pad in which Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara tells the Mongrel Mob that Te Pāti Māori's policies would reinstate what should have existed all along.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.10.26

Tuesday October 20, 2026 

News:
Ngāpuhi economic future in focus as Treaty settlement remains unresolved
Ngāpuhi uri gathered at Waitangi last week to discuss the iwi’s economic future, with hapū representatives, academics, international leaders, Crown officials, Treaty negotiators and Ngāpuhi working across business and government among those attending.

The three-day hui, Te Aurere Kura (Ngāpuhi Economic Leadership Symposium), was organised by Te Māia o Kaharoa, a group of young Ngāpuhi Leaders who are tasked with developing tools to assist Ngāpuhi as they navigate the government’s settlement process.

Chris Penk: Central and local government love blaming each other. Voters don’t care

What’s the difference between local and central government?

While that might sound like the start of a joke – and some would maintain it is – actually it’s a pretty serious question this election.

Both tend to maintain that they alone are true representatives of the people. And, in fairness, each would have some justification for that claim. Councils are closer to action on the ground, so might just be more in touch with citizens. On the other hand, ministers and other MPs are scrutinised much more closely, so we may feel more responsive in that sense.

Damien Grant: We escaped the whims of kings....

.....Did we just create a new kind of dependence?

Henry II had four legitimate sons. His heir and namesake, Henry, died before he could ascend to the throne. His second would rule as Richard the Lionheart. The third, Geoffrey, pre-deceased his father but had a son, Arthur of Brittany. And then there was John.

When gangrene from a crossbow wound took the life of King Richard outside the town of Châlus, there was uncertainty as to who had the greater claim to the throne: Arthur or John.

Peter Williams: The Teaching Council Disgrace

Teacher registration has been fraught since it was introduced nearly 40 years ago

Among the understandable outrage over the Timothy Fisher scandal and the Teaching Council there was one incident which doesn’t inspire much confidence for the future of this organization which is responsible for the registration and regulation of the country’s 124,000 teachers.

Fisher was the sexual deviant who was finally sent to prison last year for crimes committed while he was a teacher, crimes the Teaching Council knew about as far back as 2015 but it never intervened or cancelled his registration, thus allowing him to continue working as a teacher.

Guest Post: It’s Time for Direct Citizen Led Democracy for Our Country

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Tony Argyle:

In 1440 Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press and heralded in a silent revolution that would change the world. It is unlikely he realized the full significance of his creation nor would he have seen it’s impact before his death in 1468.

Rodney Hide: Raw data that isn't raw - Australia catches up with what we were told to ignore

Australians woke last week to a story I knew well. The Australian's Graham Lloyd reported that a forensic audit had found chunks of the Bureau of Meteorology's "raw" temperature data copied and pasted from one period into another.

The standout example is Sydney Observatory. The minimum temperatures shown for August 1867 are the same as those for August 1907. The paper checked the handwritten logbooks at the National Archives. The 1867 numbers online are simply wrong.

Eric Ness: The 4% Rates Cap — Now We Find Out What Councils Really Think Is Essential

For years the council rates debate has followed a familiar pattern. Council announces another increase, ratepayers choke on their coffee, and council explains that everything costs more. Insurance is up, interest is up, construction is up, infrastructure is ageing, roads need repairing and pipes need replacing. Much of that is true.

But there is another part of the story that gets less attention. Councils are also doing far more than they used to.

Lindsay Mitchell: If welfarism matters, the choice is clear

Benefit numbers are out for September. The last before the election. Up again. There are now 417,000 working age people on a main benefit.

Christchurch, New Zealand's second largest city, has a population of 411,000. Think about that.

Up till the mid seventies the percentage of 18-64 year-olds on a benefit never exceeded two. One person in fifty. Right now it's 12.9 percent or one in eight people.

Richard Prebble: Gangs and politics

Commentators cannot understand the Greens and Te Pāti Māori’s courting of gang support.

The association between organised crime and political parties is hardly new. Politicians and organised crime have done deals from New York to Sicily, from Chicago to Mexico.

Politicians have done deals with gangs because they saw an advantage.

Peter Dunne: Politically Homeless

With just over three weeks till election day I am feeling increasingly politically homeless. None of the parties currently in Parliament, or aspiring to be, entice me to vote for them. Their policies are either too much of a muchness, too dislocated and small focused, or in some cases too downright crazy to attract my support.

Having previously been a member of the Labour Party for 22 years, and a Labour MP for over 10 years, I still have some residual interest in its activities. But any passing thought that I could vote for them again vanished during the first leaders' debate when Chris Hipkins made it clear that the teachers' unions, not parents, would be calling the shots on education policy if he were to lead the next government. It reminded me of one of the reasons why I quit the party all those years ago. The constant fixations of imposing higher taxes and always doing what the unions wanted had become just too much for me.

 Monday October 19, 2026 

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Graeme Spencer: Election 2026 - What Sort Of Country Do We Want?

Remember the Treaty Principles Bill?

More than 300,000 submissions were made. Whatever your opinion of the bill, the campaign demonstrated something that every New Zealander should recognise: organised political movements can mobilise significant numbers of people - it was defeated by the volume of submissions, not the content and the quality.

Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have supporters who are highly committed to their political causes. They organise, campaign, protest and make their voices heard.

Colinxy: The Left and Their Lust for Power

One of the great myths of modern politics is that the Left opposes power. They oppose your power. There is a difference.

For more than two centuries, Left-wing movements have presented themselves as enemies of hierarchy, privilege, wealth, authority, and oppression. Their rhetoric is full of liberation, equality, justice, democracy, and empowerment.

Yet whenever one examines their history, a strange pattern emerges: the problem is never power itself. The problem is who currently possesses it.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: The false economy of aged care

Last week, we co-hosted a dinner with the Selwyn Foundation. Its chair, former Labour health minister David Cunliffe, led the Government's aged care advisory group and presented their report, A place to grow old.

The report describes an underfunded, fragmented system facing more than twice as many over-85s by 2047. It recommends paying providers enough to build beds, more home care, an independent pricing authority and higher contributions from people with assets.

Roger Partridge: The bank of the children

We hear a great deal about the Bank of Mum and Dad. The Bank of the children gets rather less attention, although we have been drawing on it for years.

The Bank's terms are simple. Voters choose what they want, politicians arrange delivery and Treasury does the paperwork. Anything the adults would rather not pay for goes on the kids' account.

Nick Clark: Deals without the devolution

Greater Manchester's 2014 devolution agreement included powers over transport, housing and skills, with matching funding.

That was my model for New Zealand two years ago, in a research note for The New Zealand Initiative. I urged the Government to strike City and Regional Deals that live up to the name.

New Zealand's centralisation leaves councils with weak incentives for growth. Wellington takes much of the tax revenue, while councils and ratepayers bear infrastructure costs. Devolving powers and sharing revenue would help.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: NZ’s mixed-up electoral system threatens to blow results out of proportion

Here is a paradox that ought to trouble ministers more than any single threat named in the NZSIS’s 2026 Security Threat Environment report, released in August.

The New Zealand Government has never had more useful intelligence available to it than it does today. Yet it is not digesting that intelligence quickly enough to matter.

The problem is not what we know. It is how we decide.