Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: How hard is it for Labour to check their texts?

So I don't know what's worse, the fact that Willow Jean Prime is a lazy, disinterested waste of space in Labour's team, or the fact that Labour's been busted almost lying about this. So let me get you across what happened, and you can decide for yourself.

In March, Willow Jean Prime took over the Labour Party education portfolio from Jan Tonetti, and her National Party counterpart, Erika Stanford, sent her a text to say congrats and I need to get you up to speed with the NCEA change process. It would be good if we could meet first and I can run you through where we're at. There is a policy advisory group of principals who are working on the details. You can have access to them as well as my officials and also NZQA.

Alwyn Poole: Erica Stanford’s solutions to the problems posed by her inner circle have positive aspects …

But they are not the highest priority problems.

I have a son who is a professional fire-fighter. I would imagine that they most basic advice they receive is to point the hose at the fire.

Stanford has done almost nothing on what all data and research show to be the most important aspects for the education of our children and young people. There is barely any water going on the flames.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 3.8.25

Saturday August 9, 2025 

News:
'Act of racism': Education Ministry cans children's school book for too many Māori words
The Education Ministry has canned a reader for junior children because it has too many Māori words, infuriating Te Akatea, the Māori Principals' Association.

The association's president Bruce Jepsen said the decision not to reprint "At the Marae" was racist and white supremacist.

Insights From Social Media:

Division by race isn’t justice, it’s regression - Dean Melkesideck

Ethnicity-based governance, even framed as consultation, undermines equal citizenship and national unity. Democracies succeed through shared identity and equal laws—not tribal division.

Chris Lynch: St John to axe volunteer hospital programmes.....

St John to axe volunteer hospital programmes, pet therapy, leaving volunteers devastated

St John is axing its volunteer-run pets therapy, hospital volunteers and community carers programmes, a move that has left many long-serving volunteers devastated.

An email sent to volunteers, seen by Chris Lynch Media, outlines the decision to wind down the programmes over the next 10 months as part of a broader restructure in St John’s community health directorate.

Peter Williams: Blurred Lines

It looked like a plea for help, a plea for someone, anyone, to do something about the content of Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) at Queenstown’s Wakatipu High School.

The email arrived from Rodney Hide, one time leader of the Act Party and before that an economics lecturer, now living a quiet life near Queenstown with his second wife and three children, the oldest of whom is a student at nearby Wakatipu High School.

Cam Slater: Labour’s Fiscal Fiasco - Treasury Exposes Ardern’s Economic Sabotage

This report is a wake-up call. Labour’s Covid tyranny wasn’t just about masks and mandates; it was about fiscal vandalism on an epic scale.

The New Zealand Herald dropped a bombshell this week, waving a Treasury report that rips the lid off Labour’s catastrophic mishandling of the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The verdict is in: Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson and their sidekick Chris Hipkins spent like drunken sailors, ignored official advice, and left our economy in tatters. This isn’t just a bad report card: it’s a scathing indictment of Labour’s fiscal recklessness, a legacy of debt and despair that’ll haunt Kiwis for generations. Ardern’s fairytale book might paint her as some saintly saviour but this Treasury report exposes her for what she really is: an economic wrecking ball.

David Farrar: Labour hypocrisy exposed

When Erica Stanford announced the scrapping of NCEA, Labour said that there hasn’t been proper consultation, and it was all too hasty.

Today we find out that Labour’s supposed Education Spokesperson, Willow-Jean Prime, turned down multiple offers to be briefed on the NCEA change programme. Chris Hipkins was complaining that the opposition wasn’t consulted, and in fact his own spokesperson turned it down!

David Farrar: The Press found to have breached Media Council rules with its school lunches article

The Media Council has upheld a complaint by David Seymour’s office against this article on school lunches. It was found to have breached both the fairness and conflict of interest principles.

The first issue was that they ran the article, and didn’t even ask the Minister for comment. They only quoted opponents of the new school lunch programme.

Mike's Minute: The Treasury report shows why Labour won't win the election

I said earlier this week that the Government will be re-elected next year because, all things being equal, history tends to show you get two terms.

Plus, the Opposition remain the same people who stuffed the place a year and a half ago and the pain of that, the closeness of that, is still real for too many of us.

Friday August 8, 2025 

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Ryan Bridge: the treasury's told us what we knew all along

The $66-billion question hanging over Labour's head has been answered.

This new Treasury report tells us what we all already knew about Labour's Covid response.

They went too far. Spent like a drunken sailor. Made it rain dollar bills.

When Treasury advised them to pull back, they didn't they kept going.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Wellington Council doesn't need to fence off the sea

Rare thing to be able to say- but Wellington City Council has just made a sensible decision and voted against erecting a fence along the entire length of Kumutoto and Queen's Wharf.

Now, if you know the part of Wellington that I'm talking about here, it's the area seaside of the TSB Bank Arena and Fergs and Shed 5 and Foxglove and so on.

That whole area at the moment has beautiful concrete walkways that have been laid, lovely seating and lighting and so on.

Matua Kahurangi: The nerve of Hipkins

Complaining about unemployment after mandating it

In a tweet dripping with faux outrage, former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said:

“So according to Nicola Willis people concerned about rising unemployment are ‘glass half empty’ and people who have lost their jobs ‘shouldn’t take it personally’. Could she be any more out of touch?!”

Michael Reddell: Still waiting for a Governor

Today, 5 August, is five months since the shock resignation – or, as now seems much the most likely, engineered exit – of the then Governor of the Reserve Bank, who disappeared from office that very day, getting generously paid for several more weeks but not working until the official date his resignation became legally effective, 31 March.

Centrist: ‘Aotearoa’ declining in popularity, as NZ First pushes name bill

New Zealand First vs Aotearoa first

New Zealand First’s new Member’s Bill to officially declare “New Zealand” as the country’s name has triggered media pushback and parliamentary squabbling. But polling shows the public mood is decisively against the growing use of “Aotearoa” in official settings.

Peter Dunne: Labour and Capital Gains Tax

Albert Einstein apparently once said "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

Earlier this week it was reported that the Labour Party's Policy Council is recommending the Party include introducing a capital gains tax in its policy for the next election. If that recommendation subsequently becomes part of Labour's policy, it will confirm the accuracy of Einstein's alleged comment.

Matua Kahurangi: Erica Stanford - Teachers will no longer mark student work

National’s Education Minister Erica Stanford has revealed a sweeping change that will see teachers relieved of one of their most time-consuming duties: marking student assessments. Speaking on The Duncan Garner Podcast, Stanford confirmed that by 2028, the responsibility for marking both internal and external NCEA assessments will shift entirely to NZQA, and much of it will be done using artificial intelligence.

Kerre Woodham: On the face of it, the RUC announcement makes sense

On the face of it, the announcement from Transport Minister Chris Bishop yesterday makes good sense. It's been signalled; it was National Party election policy to move away from a fuel excise duty to road user charges (RUC). Simeon Brown, who was the transport spokesman at the time, said it would be a fairer way to charge for the distance people drive rather than the amount of fuel they use, given the different nature of the way we drive these days and the vehicles we drive.

Tony Orman: Call to stop the Emission Trading Scheme’s ‘Green War’ on New Zealanders

The Conservative Party has called on the government to repeal the Zero Carbon Act and end the Emissions Trading Scheme and all other climate-focused taxes, subsidies and regulations.

Party leader Helen Houghton made her comments following the resignation of Molesworth Station manager Jim Ward over the uncertainty of the control of wilding pines on the iconic high country station.

Ele Ludemann: RUCs inevitable

Petrol tax will be replaced with electronic road user charges:

. . . Key legislative changes the Government is progressing include:

Mike's Minute: Shane Jones can help the Govt shift up a gear

Shane Jones is fast becoming my favourite politician.

And he might have summed up the Government's issues with one on of his increasingly famous quips.

"The Ruth Richardson bare austerity approach is not delivering the economic growth we need."

 Thursday August 7, 2025 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: How will RUCs change our driving behaviours?

So the Government just announced what they’re calling the biggest change to road funding in 50 years. Once these changes kick in, petrol taxes are out and RUCs - road user charges - are in, for everyone.

Not just truckies, not just EV drivers, not just diesel users, every single one of us.

Steven Mark Gaskell: Chisels, Carvings & Cash: How Your Tax Dollars Are Funding the “Traditional Arts Revival” Industry

Ever wondered where your hard-earned tax dollars go? Roads? Hospitals? Teachers? Silly you. The real action is in carving workshops, cultural wānanga, and Toi Ake grants - where Māori artists and carvers are busy keeping “ancient traditions” alive, with a little help from Creative New Zealand’s million-dollar wallet... and you.

Ryan Bridge: There's a new space race kicking off, I'm here for it

Is there anything more thrilling than watching two countries battle hammer and tong to achieve something we all dreamed impossible, until it happens.

Like going to he moon in the 60s (provided, of course, you think they actually went there).

It's like the science olympics crossed with geopolitical hunger games.

Matua Kahurangi: Hobson's Pledge billboard image......

Aukaha News and Ellen Tamati embarrass themselves over legally used stock photo by Hobson's Pledge

In the latest instalment of people outraged by things they clearly don’t understand, Aukaha News and a woman named Ellen Tamati have launched a social media tantrum over a billboard image used by Hobson’s Pledge in one of their campaign against Māori Wards.

Kerre Woodham: Should AI be utilised more in schools?

You might remember a month or so ago we had Justin Flitter, an AI expert, in the studio for an hour talking about the fact that AI is here, it's already being used by numerous early adopters, it's not going away, and you'll have to get on board or you'll be left behind. And as you can imagine, the calls were a mix of oh no, it's a disaster, stop it now and King Canute trying to turn back the tide, and others who were saying it's brilliant, already using it, been using it for over a year. A woman in her 70s who was working with disadvantaged kids found AI enormously helpful in terms of teaching tools.

DTNZ: Unemployment rises to 5.2%

New Zealand’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in the June 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.

This compares with 5.1 percent in the March 2025 quarter and 4.7 percent in the June 2024 quarter.

Dr Michael Johnston: Calling time on NCEA – and not before time

Ever since its progressive implementation between 2002 and 2004, NCEA has been under nearly constant revision. Its first major crisis came in 2005. Massive variability in pass rates heralded a political crisis. NZQA’s Chief Executive resigned and the organisation was restructured.

Matua Kahurangi: They’ll do anything to lock him up

Tommy Robinson arrested again

Any time Tommy Robinson is involved in anything, the establishment rushes to paint him as the villain, no matter the context, no matter the facts.

Ele Ludemann: Bureaucratic sabotage

Alan Eggers, chief executive of Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) in conversation with Leighton Smith:

. . . This is a major commercial project where we have invested over ninety million. I’m sorry, over eighty five million, nearly ninety million dollars and we are now being frustrated by a bunch of bureaucrats. . .

I think bureaucrats and the bureaucracy here and particularly the civil service around Wellington, are like road cones.

Mike's Minute: Linear TV in NZ is in trouble

The stark reality of linear TV in New Zealand, if Irene Gardiner was right on yesterday's show, is fairly simple.

Here is how the calculation works: you make a product, you stick it on air, you get an audience, and you sell advertising based on that audience.

Matua Kahurangi: Digital cash and digital ID

A dangerous step towards government overreach

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is continuing to explore the introduction of “digital cash”, a central bank issued form of currency that would exist purely online. If tied to a digital ID system, this proposal could give the government unprecedented control over how, where, and when New Zealanders use their money.

 Wednesday August 6, 2025 

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Ryan Bridge: are we taking it too far with AI?

The future's here. AI is taking over.

A team of robots kept alive in some giant warehouse with tonnes of electricity are right now whirring away, beavering away on the world's problems.

AI will soon be marking our students' exams. The Swedish Prime Minister overnight admitted he uses AI for a second opinion on running the country.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why have we had such a bad run of child abuse incidents?

I want to talk about kids being bashed by their families.

We've had a really bad run of it - I don't know if you've realized - in the last few weeks. As far as I can see, just in the last 8 weeks, we've had the toddler in the suitcase, and we've had the baby in the bin in Auckland.

We've also had a 2-month-old go to hospital with serious injuries that happened today, we've had a 3-month-old taken to hospital in Wellington in June, and we've had a 6-month-old critically injured at a Foxton Beach house in July.

Ryan Bridge: Coal keeps the lights on

We need to be a bit practical about this business of importing coal.

Yesterday Genesis, Mercury, Meridian, and Contact announced they're going to stockpile up to 600,000 tonnes of coal to keep the lights on at Huntly power station.

The deal needs Commerce Commission's approval so it doesn't look like they're colluding on price, but the idea struck a deal, which still needs Commerce Commission approval, to keep the lights on at Huntly.

Guest Post: On the long-term costs of New Zealand Superannuation: more affordable now?

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Michael Littlewood:

As New Zealand’s population ages and, in particular, as the proportion of over-65s increases, the cost of New Zealand Superannuation (NZS) is rising. We know that and it doesn’t help us understand the issues to create headlines that catastrophise the expected costs.

The pensions payable in the future, public and private, will be claims on tomorrow’s economy, so the best way to express the expected cost of NZS is as a proportion of tomorrow’s economy. At present, this is probably best measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is not a perfect measure, given the number of factors that bear on its calculation, particularly for long periods into the future. But it’s the best we have.

Mike's Minute: My thoughts on the NCEA changes

Several interesting bits out of the NCEA changes for me.

Firstly, the "New Zealand Certificate of Education” actually sounds like something, doesn’t it? The same way an “A” tells you something.

The New Zealand Certificate or Advanced Certificate of Education is a “thing” you can get your head around, as in do you have one, or do you not?

Dave Patterson: Trump Not Cowed by Russia’s Nuclear Saber Rattling

America doesn’t tremble just because some flunky in Russia pushes threatening rhetoric.

Unlike his predecessor, when a Russian flunky threatens nuclear consequences, President Trump does not back down. He calls his bluff. Dmitry Medvedev tried to do just that. Who is Medvedev? He’s the former Russian president. Or, rather, he played the role while Putin pulled the strings and Medvedev’s mouth moved. In Texas, they refer to this as all belt buckle and no cattle. However, just so there is no mistake about who is who in the world, if you want to talk big, then you’d better understand your audience.

Brendan O'Neill: The West is complicit in Hamas’s torture of the hostages

The recognition of Palestine is a sick reward for Hamas’s anti-Semitic atrocities.

We know why Hamas would drag two Jews underground and starve them: because it is an army of anti-Semites founded with the express intention of persecuting Jews. We know why it would humiliate the Jews further by taunting them on film, forcing one to dig his own grave for the cameras and capturing the other weeping in ravenous pain: because it revels in the psychological torment of what it views as a ‘lesser people’. And we know why it would marshal these two skeletal men – Evyatar David, 24, and Rom Bravslavski, 21 – to the end of horrifying the people of Israel: because its sole motivation is to wound, ideally fatally, the Jewish State.

Bruce Cotterill: Butter backlash overlooks farming’s crucial economic role

It seems that we’re going batty over butter.

In case you’ve missed it, it’s the price of the stuff that has everyone’s attention. That price has rocketed upwards over the past 12 months as global demand for our product influences the price point at home.

Matua Kahurangi: Time's up for Luxon

Christopher Luxon was supposed to be the circuit breaker. The man who would bring real-world business sense and a no-nonsense leadership style after six long years of Labour's social engineering and tyranny. New Zealanders didn’t vote for him out of love. They voted for change. Now, with the gloss well and truly worn off, it is becoming clear he was the wrong man for the job.

Ele Ludemann: Validating evil

Several Arab states are calling for Hamas to disarm and end its rule in Gaza:

Arab countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt joined calls Tuesday for Hamas to disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

Ian Bradford: Climate and Weather Are Not the Same - and thinning clouds cause the warming.

A number of weather events have been happening lately that have been associated with climate change by the climate alarmists. Weather events do not in general, signify climate change.

Weather is real and observed as well as being chaotic and non linear. There are no regular patterns with weather. Weather is part of our physical world, climate is not. You can look out your window and see weather. You cannot see climate by looking out your window. Climate is an abstract concept. That means it exists in thought or as an idea, but does not have a physical existence. We know most climate predictions are made using a computer. So clearly there is no physical existence. In fact, it is likely no one living at present will notice any climate change. When scientists talk about global warming they are talking about 1.1 deg C since the Industrial Revolution in 1850. We don’t know whether it is true or not, but the alarmists say most of the warming has occurred in recent years. So to get around this let’s take 80 years from year 1900. 80 Years is an average life span. So for someone who lived from 1900 to 1980 the temperature increase was just 0.5 Deg C. Given a lifespan of about 80 years can anybody detect a rise of 0.5 deg C over their life? No of course they can’t.

Clive Bibby: Breaking the dependency cycle for good.

After studying the background to our national dependency stats, any reasonable observer will come to the unmistakable conclusion that the real problems lie with a relatively small minority who are genuinely in need of care that the State is almost always capable of providing.

In other words, many of the seemingly tragic examples of families forced “through no fault of their own” to be living in cars or sub standard shelter while suffering from the health issues associated with those environments, are to a large extent a political construct exacerbated by a party (or parties) desperate for power and a blatantly anti-government MSM.

David Hill: Local Government spending out of control

With the local body elections due in October this year we are once again seeing aspirational individuals coming forward to throw in their names for election of local councillors and Mayor.

All have a list of important issues that they are enthusiastic and compassionate about that they truly believe are the key issues facing ratepayers and individuals. However particularly over the last 10 to 20 years in New Zealand we have had councils that have been more and more influenced by left wing ideology and as Prime Minister Luxon alluded to “nice to have” projects rather than sticking to the basics of roading, water, rubbish collection and other core services.

 Tuesday August 5, 2025 

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Insights From Social Media:

Referenda 2025 - Halting Māori Wards To Protect Equal Democracy - Te Kahu

In October 2025, 42 New Zealand councils will hold referenda on Māori wards, yet many Kiwis are unaware of their threat to equal representation.

These wards give Māori disproportionate influence, undermining democratic fairness.

Karl du Fresne: On objectivity, balance and honesty in journalism

Several weeks ago I listened to a discussion on America’s National Public Radio network about objectivity in journalism. The three participants included Adam Reilly, the politics reporter for the Boston TV station GBH, and Callum Borchers, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal.
The third guest on the panel, Juliette Kayyem, was not a journalist, but a politically well-connected former Democratic Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts and occasional columnist for the Boston Globe.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Our kids' education is too important to muck around

You can't accuse Erica Stanford of mucking around, can you?

NCEA is gone. Marks out of 100 are back, grades from A to E are back, needing to pass 4 subjects at least in order to get the qualification is back.

Now, how long have we been talking about the need to do this? About the fact that NCEA is rubbish, that it's been gamed, that it's not respected by employers, that it's not understood by parents? How long have we talked about this?

Ryan Bridge: The economic freeze has no end in sight

It’s about that time of year when it feels like winter really starts to drag.... and it must be feeling that way for Christopher Luxon, too.

It‘a cold and dark and we just want to be at the beach like our poser friends in Bali or Europe.

But we endure this gloomy season safe in the knowledge that one day, in a month or so, springtime will come, the days will get longer and everything about life will just feel easier. Easy, breezy and warm.

Matua Kahurangi: My proposal - KFC vouchers for sterilisation

A bold new welfare policy idea

Remember when the New Zealand Government handed out KFC vouchers to encourage people to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic? A little taste of the Colonel, all in the name of public health. That got me thinking. If we were happy to bribe people with junk food to take a vaccine, why stop there?

So here’s my proposal.

Kerre Woodham: The ward for people with nowhere to go shouldn't exist, but I can see why it does

I was struck by a story from Radio New Zealand.

North Shore Hospital, it has revealed, has an entire ward of people who are stuck in hospital, but they have no medical reason to be there. The 20-bed ward was created in May for patients who were effectively medically discharged but didn't have anywhere to go, such as an aged care facility.