Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Can we find the money for the pay equity scheme?

So, the People’s Select Committee of former MPs has reported back today and, completely unsurprisingly, has slammed the Government for scrapping the pay equity law last year.

Which is fair enough in some ways, it was a shoddy process. The MPs say it offends the rule of law and they’re probably right.

Ryan Bridge: Businesses should be scared to take our data

This government has made fast-track a buzzword.

After yet another massive hack of private information on Sunday, it needs to put that buzzword into action sharpen up our privacy laws. Like, yesterday.

Especially if we're talking about your health information getting stolen and potentially posted online by hackers for a ransom.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.2.26

Wednesday February 25, 2026 

News:
Science, Maths and English resources rolling into classrooms - Erica Stanford.
The Government is rolling out new Maths, English, and Science resources and initiatives, helping raise student achievement and sparking discovery in primary classrooms with brand-new science kits, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced.

Ani O'Brien: Labour’s State of the Nation: Softer, smaller, safer

I went to the Labour Party State of the Nation

Today I found myself somewhere I have not been for sometime… A Labour Party event. I used to be a Labour Party member and in fact they still send me auto-emails asking me to renew. Before that even, I was a Greens member, but we were all naive and high once. In 2020, for the first time I cast my vote for the centre-right after being effectively excommunicated from polite progressive society over my insistence that humans cannot change sex and gender ideology activism was becoming a problem.

That political journey left me politically homeless for a while until I learned that politics is about tradeoffs. I needed to pick a side to work with and the centre-right was willing to at least talk about women’s rights, the left were not.

Graham Adams: Luxon Finds Merit In Treaty Principles After All

Ever since David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill was defeated in Parliament last April he has promised his campaign for “equal rights for all citizens” would be back on the political agenda for this year’s election.

He is certainly doggedly keeping the memory of the bill alive. He mentioned it in his State of the Nation speech on February 15; in his address at Waitangi on February 5; and on the same day in a column in Wellington’s The Post, in which he restated the proposed articles with a reminder that each had received significantly more support than opposition in polls at the time.

Harry Phibbs: The European Tiger Roars

How Poland forged its economic freedom.

Poland was pivotal to the fall of Communism in Europe. The Solidarity protests in the 1980s gave hope that political change was possible, even among those who feared that totalitarian states might prove permanent with their grim monolithic structures. Poland’s subsequent success as a free nation serves as an exemplar to others. What a contrast with Russia, which has also overthrown Communism and remains beset by poverty, tyranny, and an aggressive foreign policy.

Kerre Woodham: Chris Hipkins' underwhelming State of the Nation speech

Credit to those 120 business people who went along to hear Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation address yesterday, hosted by the Auckland Business Chamber. Credit to those few people who watched it live, like my colleague Mike Hosking. My word, it was dull. And that is not me being a lickspittle mouthpiece for the Tory overlords. Have a listen to this:

Bob Edlin: Epstein files, duty and service to the public ......

Epstein files, duty and service to the public – a British monarch and an American president have very different approaches

Simon Louisson, a Wellington journalist who briefly was a political and media adviser to the Green Party, has been prompted by the arrest of Prince Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office to press for overhauling our constitutional arrangements.

In a letter to the editor of The Post today, he has expressed an opinion that will be shared by many:

Karl du Fresne: Stuff's operating model: cheap and lazy

Last Tuesday’s edition of my local paper, the Wairarapa Times-Age, devoted an entire page to an Associated Press (i.e. American) feature story about affluent middle-class professionals taking extended career breaks.

The people mentioned in the story are representatives of an elite US metropolitan class who can afford to put their careers on hold while they spend months enjoying a “reset” in exotic locations such as Egypt and Brazil. It’s hard to imagine a story less relevant to readers of a paper in a New Zealand provincial town where many people are struggling.

Chris McVeigh: Clarity begins at home

I enjoy listening to Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand. There are a number of reasons for this. He has a pleasant manner and a calm , not to say soothing, quality to his voice. Neither declamatory nor strident, he chats away to his listeners and his guests as if we and they were sharing a quiet table and a couple of flat whites on an otherwise uneventful Sunday morning. He brings a sort of calm intelligence to the microphone, a quality which alas is sadly in ever short supply in the hectic, opinionated world of broadcasting today. He is also scrupulously fair in his interviews: probing but not dominating; conceding and not hectoring, in sharp contrast with others from the same stable, some of whom approach an interview as if it were the last fence in the Grand National, to be overridden at all costs.

He is also commendably free from the taint of partiality, which sadly infects some others from the RNZ school of broadcasting. I recall hearing him interviewing an old friend of mine some years ago on the subject of Captain James Cook. My friend was something of an expert on the topic, having written a number of books about the 18th Century seafarer and had researched his subject thoroughly. This compared unfavourably with some of the neophytes on the subject at hand, most of whom seemed to have gleaned what little they knew about Cook from the back of a weetbix packet, vacuously parroting the latest lame and shallow critical incantation without the faintest idea of its authenticity.

Mora approached the interview in a spirit of curiosity, wanting to learn about the explorer rather than wishing to sully his memory. We came away knowing more about the transit of Venus than we probably needed to but we were rather better informed as a result.

I hope he won't mind me saying so but I think he is the closest we have in this part of the world to Melvyn Bragg, the celebrated English broadcaster and author. That may be stretching it a bit but he certainly comes close.

All that is by way of introduction to a topic which, accidently in a way, surfaced in Jim Mora's show last Sunday. He was running through the guests who would be appearing on his show that morning, one of whom was to be the well known singer and cabaret performer Engelbert Humperdinck.

As an aside, I once heard Engelbert interviewed on air some years ago from his dressing room. He was asked whether he still enjoyed live performances to which he replied, with a refreshing absence of irony, that he was in Las Vegas. The interviewer then asked him what songs he most enjoyed singing, as to which he responded, again without a hint of modesty, that he was 83, at which point the interview terminated, whether by accident or design we shall never know but I rather think that the interviewer came to the view that Engelbert's preferred métier was live cabaret and not searching interrogation and that well enough should be left alone.

Anyway, back to Jim Mora and his Sunday morning programme. We were told that Jim would be interviewing Engelbert who was (and I quote) "...touring across the motu." I wonder whether anyone had bothered to pass on this intelligence to Mr. Humperdinck who would, I am sure, be somewhat perplexed by the observation, not having the faintest clue what the motu was. And therein lies the whole problem with this fastidious insistence on peppering one's conversation with non-english words. There may be some who know what is being said and there will be others who assuredly will not (Engelbert will, I'm sure, have been in the latter category). To the listener therefore it is important because he or she will not know what is being said, and thus the whole purpose of the conversation may be lost. The communication of information will be thwarted by the idiosyncratic insistence on the importation of unknown sounds into the exchange of facts and ideas.

To the speaker this should also be of some concern because he or she will be uncertain as to whether the correct meaning of what is being said is being conveyed and therefore understood. But apparently this is of little moment to those who practise this manner of communication, be it on air or elsewhere. The speaker rarely, if ever pauses to enquire whether his audience is able to translate what is being said. On the contrary they usually proceed with a breezy lack of concern, bordering on contempt for the niceties of polite discourse.

This is bad enough when one is listening to the radio but it reaches absurd heights of indifference in the public sphere. We have probably all been to some sort of exhibition or opening recently where there is an introduction or preliminary address in Te Reo. This can sometimes last a short while or, more usually these days, for quite some time. With a cavalier lack of sympathy for either the audience's comprehension or their feelings the speaker (or speakers) will usually plough on unconcerned and unstoppable: thus achieving in the audience the perfect trifecta of incomprehension, bewilderment and resentment.


To those practitioners of this folly it is pointless to ask for either remedy or resolution. If a mild criticism is voiced then that person will either be told that Te Reo is an 'official language' as if this somehow absolves the speaker of any responsibility for clarity of communication or, worse still, will be accused of racism, which is almost certain to shut down any further debate and to cause yet further resentment.

I don't know how long this fashionable and annoying practice will last. If those who wish to signal their good intentions and erudition want to persist with a mixture of plain english and pidgin maori to the continued bafflement and irritation of their listeners then I suppose it will eventually peter out as more and more people reach for the off switch or leave the room. It can only be a matter of time.

Chris McVeigh is a retired KC living in Christchurch. He was previously President of the Canterbury District Law Society and, in an earlier life, a scriptwriter and performer for the satirical TV programme ‘A week of It’. This article was first published HERE

Mike's Minute: Good or bad story at university?

What's in the numbers?

Well-known economist Shamubeel Eaqub has crunched a few figures. It turns out if you want to see it, being a student at university is a miserable experience.

And boy does the media love a story of misery. Being a student is pricier than ever, they tell us. "Does it pay off?" was your headline.

Tuesday February 24, 2026 

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NZCPR Newsletter: The Future of the Maori Seats

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program

– Milton Friedman.

The future of the Maori Seats has once again been raised as an important issue for New Zealanders to consider.

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.

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.