Geoff Parker: Te Tiriti Is Not a Blank Cheque for Constitutional Transformation

Professor Carwyn Jones warns that the debate over Te Tiriti goes “to the heart of Aotearoa’s constitutional future”. He is right about one thing: this is a constitutional debate. But that makes the question of who gets to determine that future extremely important.

The problem is that Jones presents a particular modern interpretation of Te Tiriti as though it provides an established constitutional framework for New Zealand today. It does not.

Andrew Dickens: We need more dentists

There's an election promise to train more dentists in Otago – the first increase in training numbers in 10 years.

And if it comes to pass, you'll have to ask, why did this not happen earlier?

In John Key's day, economic policy supercharged our economy on the back of mass immigration and surging property prices.

David Farrar: IMF’s 2027 growth forecasts

The IMF has just published their forecasts for economic growth for 2027. They show that NZ is projected to have far better growth than many other countries. An extract:

Mike's Minute: Labour is fighting our memories - and time

Surely it's only one more day before Chris Hipkins gets to, just maybe, put the gangs in the rear-view mirror.

In his new found assessment that handing millions to the Mongrel Mob when last in government was "a mistake", he reveals the real issue he faces this election campaign;

Time.

The gap between what he did and what he now promises to do is too short. That is roughly why most governments get two terms.

JC: Good Luck Chippie – You’ll Need It

Hipkins’ bedfellows are bordering on the bizarre. If only we could have a leaders debate featuring Hipkins, Swarbrick, Waititi and Wong. Hipkins would find himself spending 90 minutes between three rocks and a hard place. The differences between Labour and the rest would be of such magnitude that split voting on the right, now vital to determining the outcome of the election, would become completely unnecessary.

The policy rubbish coming from the Greens, Māori Party and Opportunity Party can only mean they are not taking ‘thinking’ voters seriously – it’s more like they are taking us for fools. On election night they might just find out who the fools really are – themselves. They are certainly giving the impression they have absolutely no clue about the economy.

Thursday October 22, 2026 

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Anglo Saxon: Tax payer funded academic debunked on New Zealand's "illegal founding."

Anglo Saxon says Claire Charters is a radicalised academic with some outrageous claims and wild theories. Her salary comes out of our pockets.

Click to view

John Denton: The Tragedy of the Commons: Self-interest and NZ Politics

One of the more interesting paradoxes in economics is that individuals pursuing their own economic interests can collectively produce an outcome that leaves everyone worse off. This is the tragedy of the commons.

The idea was first clearly formulated in 1833 by William Forster Lloyd, an Oxford professor of political economy, as follows.

David Lillis: Education, Science and the Election

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...” Carl Sagan (1995).

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.10.26

Thursday October 22, 2026 

News:
Woman vows to continue occupation of abandoned school despite Treaty settlement
Alice Wairau has been occupying a closed school for four years, and vows she will never leave, despite the wishes of the Crown, which says she has no right to be there.

Wairau and several supporters have been occupying the former Ōpoutama school site near Māhia in Hawke’s Bay since it closed in 2005.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is this the moment National started to win the election?

All right, it was either a rogue poll, or it was the moment National started to win this election. I think there's a good chance it's the latter.

If National is now winning the election, it will be because they have finally started talking about the things they're good at: education and crime. Thank you very much to the Mongrel Mob for the latter. Not that annoying "nine new taxes" nonsense that wasn't working.

David Harvey: Not A Right to Silence Issue

How Politicians Misunderstand Highly Nuanced Legal Concepts

The National Party announced a policy that proposes to remove the right to silence that can be invoked by adults who may (or may not) have information surrounding the cause of death of a child under 12.

The term “right to silence” has a number of meanings at law.

Richard Prebble: Does Luxon know something we don’t?

Commentators are puzzled by Christopher Luxon’s determination to rule out a deal with TOP.

Perhaps Luxon knows something they don’t.

Political parties commission much more sophisticated polling that reveals who their supporters are and what might change their minds.

Andrew Dickens: A Government before Christmas is unlikely

The other day Christopher Luxon sent conniptions through the commentariat by saying we'll be lucky to have a Government by Christmas.

I'm not surprised.

So we have an election on November 7th. Writ day is December 3rd – that's the deadline for all the votes to be counted.

Peter Williams: How to fix the Overhang Problem

The Mixed part of MMP is the problem. Make our electoral system proportionately pure.

Ideas about how to negate the overhang in the MMP voting system have been punted regularly in the last week.

The Political Editors at both Stuff and the New Zealand Herald must have had a beer one night and decided together this dreadful, unfair, immoral and unfair tactic (sarc) must be stopped. The next day, October 17, both wrote columns decrying the concept and suggesting ways to ensure it can’t happen again.

Kerre Woodham: What issues are concerning you this election?

In light of the Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs' visit to the Mongrel Mob pad and their stated determination to restore the mana of the mob, I read Jamie Ensor's piece in the Herald with interest. According to Jamie, Labour hasn't proposed any specific new law and order policies with just days to go until the election.

Bob Edlin: The Parents’ Alliance - Post puts a spotlight on Jonathan Ayling....

.....but what are we supposed to see?

The headline on a report in the Post aroused PoO’s interest:

Former Free Speech head’s ‘useful skill set’ helped set up parent lobby group

The headline echoed the content of the first two sentences:

LilBaP: Shared Benefits and Personal Risk

Guest Post on GoodOil by LilBaP

The Greens’ business policy does not account for the difference.

The Greens’ business policy reads like it was written by people who have never signed a weekly wage bill, never had to scrape to pay GST because a client paid late and never risked their own house.

Their policy opens with “Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” The policy states that “Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga should actively shape the practices of all businesses operating in Aotearoa New Zealand, including their products, their practices, and their use of resources.” Let’s hope this only applies in Aotearoa.

Rodney Hide: Two votes, one brain

You have two votes. Make them count.

That is the secret of MMP. The party vote decides how many seats each party gets. The electorate vote decides who represents your electorate. Treat them as one vote cast twice and you likely waste half your say. Split them smartly and you can change the government.

I know. I have been the beneficiary.

Mike's Minute: Why the gang pad video hurts Labour the most

Only good thing about Oriini Kaipara and her gang video, which spent the better part of the day front and centre, starting with us yesterday morning as we played you the cringe-inducing audio, to be followed by the rest of the media, was that Oriini is from the Māori Party, not the Greens.

If it had been Marama, it would have been well and truly over. Not that Marama wouldn't agree with her any, it's just we don't have the video.

There she is for all to see, geeing them up, offering help and mana, seemingly some concern they haven't got some state houses as well.