Michael Laws On The Latest RNZ Poll And The Danger To Democracy

Michael Laws talks about the latest RNZ poll and the danger to democracy and Christopher Luxon's failure to connect with the voting public on The Platform


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Ryan Bridge: New Zealand needs a growth spurt

I’ve had it with people whinging about state of this county and people fleeing to Australia who then refuse to stop and ask why we got here and how we get out of it.

Chucking up a post up on TikTok or waving a banner at a protest won't cut it.

Productivity (that’s how much we get out for what we put in) is crap. It's been getting worse or flat-lining for decades.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does buying NZ-made ever work?

First of all, can I start by offering an apology to TVNZ? I gave them a bit of grief last night for starting the news bulletin with the peaches, but it turns out I was wrong and they were right.

This has sparked a flurry of debate over whether we prefer our Wattie's peaches from Hawke's Bay or whether we don't really care if it comes from China or not.

David Farrar: Tamihere backs Ferris

Stuff reports:

Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere says MP Tākuta Ferris was, in essence, correct when he hit out at non-Māori supporting Labour’s Māori electorate campaign.

Tamihere said Ferris could have worded his comments better, but added that he generally agreed with what the MP had said. That is despite Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer telling the Labour and Green leaders that his comments didn’t reflect her party’s views.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.9.25

Wednesday September 17, 2025 

News:
Te Pāti Māori president says ‘substance' of controversial Tākuta Ferris comment was 'right'
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere says MP Tākuta Ferris was, in essence, correct when he hit out at non-Māori supporting Labour’s Māori electorate campaign.

Tamihere said Ferris could have worded his comments better, but added that he generally agreed with what the MP had said. That is despite Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer telling the Labour and Green leaders that his comments didn’t reflect her party’s views.

Bruce Cotterill: NZ roads vs Australia - Why better highways could boost tourism

I’ve spent the last week travelling. A good old-fashioned road trip, to be exact. We’ve been driving from Queensland’s Noosa to Port Douglas, along the aptly named Bruce Highway. About 1900km over five days. It got me thinking about our roads.

Our roads fell apart on the last Government’s watch. Most of us will remember how the lockdown-enforced neglect turned our favourite roads into potholes quicker than many of us could imagine. Wheels and even axles fell victim to the highway damage.

Matua Kahurangi: A tale of two deaths

Yesterday, still reeling from the All Blacks’ embarrassing loss in Wellington, I scrolled through X and came across a video shared by
Bob McCoskrie. It exposed the raw truth about human behaviour in the face of death. The video compared the aftermath of two very different deaths. One was George Floyd, the other Charlie Kirk.

The difference could not be more stark…

Kerre Woodham: Allowing 24/7 hospital visitor hours is bonkers

Of the many, many insane, ideologically driven policies I have heard come from government departments over the years, this has got to be one of the most bonkers.

There have been times over the years, when I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, when I've fantasised about ending up in hospital. Nothing life-changing or dramatic, just a nice routine operation, five days in a lovely quiet ward. Crisp white sheets, view out to Cornwall Park, the scent of lush green grass carried by the gentle zephyrs of spring through the open window. Matron running the ward with a firm, but benevolent gloved hand. I can sleep and rest and be protected from the rigours of reality in a nurturing, safe environment.

Kevin: The Law Commission and Trans

Something I’ve noticed recently is that the more you deal with, in good faith, transactivists, the less intelligent you become. Case in point: The New Zealand Law Commission.

 

The Law Commission has recommended changes to the Human Rights Act to clarify how protections are applied to transgender, non-binary and intersex New Zealanders, although it says the reforms would not significantly change current practice.

Matua Kahurangi: Te reo Māori or just te reoish?

Bastardised English with a fancy spin

We are constantly told that te reo Māori is some kinda sacred language that must be preserved at all costs. Billions of dollars are being spent on government programmes, schools, and advertising campaigns to force the language into everyday life. When you actually look closely at modern te reo, a lot of it is not uniquely Māori at all. It is what you might call te reoish – English words simply rebranded to sound Māori.

Ele Ludemann: Fly the flag for Suffrage Day

Katrina Briggs’ request to fly the Suffrage Flag at parliament on on Suffrage Day, September 19, has been declined.

It seemed like a simple and uncontroversial request. I asked if the violet, green, and white striped Women’s Suffrage¹ flag could please be flown at Parliament on the 19th September each year. That day in 1893 was when New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to enshrine the right for women to vote in legislation.

David Farrar: Treasury vs Reserve Bank

The Herald reports:

It has been revealed just how unimpressed Treasury was with the Reserve Bank for pitching for a 50% funding increase shortly before Adrian Orr resigned as governor.

As they should be.

David Farrar: They’re crazy

Radio NZ reports:

Teachers and principals warn the government is scrubbing Māori words and ideas from education documents.

Tuesday September 16, 2025 

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Mike's Minute: Labour is watching the Māori Party closely

I see the plan.

Labour is sweating the current Māori Party meltdown, so they have rolled out Willie Jackson, who claims Takuta Ferris is handing political extremists ammunition to paint the Māori Party as too weird to ever do business with Labour.

There are several problems with the plan.

Ross Meurant: In Love with AI?

AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is computer systems or machines that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, decision-making, and processing data to recognize patterns and gain insights. (1)

Hatched mid 1950s in the UK to the point now where AI poses a major threat to employment of humans, my first question was, “Follow the Money”. That is, who owns this evolving beast?

Caleb Anderson: The Limitations of Free Speech

British psychiatrist, neuro-scientist, philosopher and writer, Dr Iain McGilchrist, is worth listening to.

Recently he commented as follows ...

1. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing

2. But if pushed too far it results in anarchy

3. And anarchy always results in tyranny

This is worth thinking about.

Ryan Bridge: Is funding major events a priority?

There's no doubt punters will like this new major events fund.

$70-million of new and old money.

Some for infrastructure like the cycleway network which needs an upgrade.

$10-million for regional tourism.

Dr Nicholas Tate: Is the Death of Reading Inevitable?

In France, the September return to school – la rentrée – is always accompanied by la rentrée littéraire – the publication of large numbers of new books – as people look ahead not just to all the literary awards later in the autumn but to their own winter of evenings and weekends sitting curled up reading a new book. Or do they? This year, the rentrée edition of France’s conservative monthly magazine L’incorrect led with an article, ‘Is the death of the book inevitable?’, suggesting that reading may be the very last thing that many French people are likely to be doing.

Ronald Stein: Africa is pioneering nuclear innovation as it faces a dire electricity crisis

Sub-Saharan Africa faces a dire electricity crisis. Over 600 million people—more than 40% of the continent’s population—lack access to electricity, a figure projected to rise to 657 million by 2030 without intervention.

The global nuclear renaissance is well underway—evidenced by companies like Oklo, which is now included in the Russell 2000 stocks list. The outlook is based on Oklo’s long-term vision, particularly with the Trump administration’s increased focus on AI revolution data center development powered by nuclear-generated electricity.

David R. Henderson: Free Markets Are Monopoly Busters

Competition does the work that regulators can’t—especially in a technological age.

In January 1969, two months after I had turned eighteen, I read that the last official act of Lyndon Johnson’s administration was to bring an antitrust suit against IBM for monopolizing the market for mainframe computers. I was angry. You might wonder why. Was it because the lawsuit would waste resources of both IBM and taxpayers? It did do that, but my anger was more fundamental. IBM had worked hard for its position, and it seemed to me that it was being punished for succeeding and for producing something that companies wanted to buy. “No one gets fired for buying IBM” was a well-known slogan at the time.

DTNZ: Government pumps $70m into events and tourism

The Government has announced a $70 million investment package aimed at revitalising New Zealand’s events and tourism sector, with Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston saying it will drive jobs, regional growth, and international competitiveness.

Dennis Wesselbaum: Around 900,000 Kiwis experience food insecurity......

Around 900,000 Kiwis experience food insecurity - it’s a quiet crisis that needs urgent attention

Most New Zealanders are feeling the effects of a seemingly relentless rise in the cost of living – at the supermarket, the petrol pump and in their household energy bills. For some, however, this tips over into what scholars call “food insecurity”.

Perhaps the best way to define this is to look at the internationally accepted definition of its opposite – food security.

Tilak Doshi: The Tide is Turning Decisively Against Net Zero

In the belief that atmospheric CO2 is the control knob of ‘dangerous’ impending climate change, Net Zero emerged in the 2010s as the global rallying cry to ‘save the planet’. By the time the Paris Agreement was concluded in 2015, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established the arbitrary 1.5°C limit on global temperature increase and established the ‘Net Zero by 2050’ policy target for developed countries around the globe.

Damien Grant: Are we living in the third pre-world war calm?

In 1919, after the calamity of the Great War, economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a pamphlet, The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Keynes was part of the delegation that formalised the Treaty of Versailles, of which he was critical for being too onerous.

Thinking back to the pre-war era Keynes wrote, “Very few of us realise with conviction the intensely unusual, unstable, complicated, unreliable, temporary nature of the economic organisation by which Western Europe has lived for the last half century. We assume some of the most peculiar and temporary of our late advantages as natural, permanent, and to be depended on, and we lay our plans accordingly.”

Are we living in the third pre-world war calm?

JC: A Turning Point Has Been Reached

Charlie Kirk’s organisation was called Turning Point. It was an organisation he started as an 18-year-old, having dropped out of college. It became a huge movement, particularly among young people on university campuses. It was a movement that encouraged debate on issues, it was a movement based on conservatism and it was a movement that encouraged young people to find Christianity and God.

Monday September 15, 2025 

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Pee Kay: Love is the Drug

“Love is the drug, got a hook on me…” so sung Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music in 1975.

“Politics is the drug got a hook on me…” could be the line Stuart Nash is singing in 2026?

When you stand back and objectively look at some the people who populate our parliament and have the effrontery to describe themselves as politicians, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask why they are pursuing that vocation because it appears –

A. They don’t seem to have a conviction of any consequence between the lot of them or,
B. They are merely party functionaries or, 
C. They have minimal (zero in the case of List MP’s) loyalty to their constituencies.

Judy Gill: Learning Lost in Facebook Reo-Lish Gobbledygook

Doggy Daycare Rights for Children

In New Zealand, “preschool” is Early Childhood Education (ECE). It isn’t babysitting — since 1996, when Te Whāriki (the national ECE curriculum) was introduced, the purpose has been education. Parents are supposed to get “learning stories” that record a child’s development. Secure apps like “Educa” and “Storypark” exist for that reason: private, child-specific updates for families.

Duggan Flanakin: Are we on the threshold of commercial fusion?

For how many years have we been told that nuclear fusion energy is just 20 or 30 years down the road? It is hard for the average guy to imagine human technology has advanced to the point that we are ready to generate the energy of the Sun and stars in much smaller doses – and control that energy without burning us in eternal fire.

But the ultimate alchemy (turning lead to gold is chicken feed by comparison) is, according to multiple private companies, much closer to reality than the timeline espoused by the myriad of international nuclear scientists building Europe’s ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) or even China’s artificial sun.

Dr Eric Crampton: Talk of meeting Paris target of 1.5C is hot air

The United Nations Environmental Programme’s latest Emissions Gap Report was called “No more hot air … please!”

Yesterday, I joined a panel at the Climate Change & Business Conference to talk about New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution – our NDC. Under the Paris Agreement, countries must produce targets for emission reductions, set policies consistent with their targets, and report on their progress. Those targets, chosen by each country, are their Nationally Determined Contribution toward reducing global warming.

Roger Partridge: An Open Society Requires Constant Vigilance

Who is responsible for defending liberal democracy when its norms come under attack? Karl Popper, writing as fascist armies swept Europe, understood this was not an abstract question. Popper championed societies that were fundamentally “open” – sustained by critical inquiry and peaceful disagreement, rather than imposed unity. But Popper grasped a paradox: openness could only survive if actively defended against those who would exploit its openness to destroy it.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: The invisible architecture of prosperity

More than half of New Zealanders think the country is going in the wrong direction. Trust in Parliament, the courts and the Reserve Bank has fallen sharply since 2021. What is broken?

The answer lies in the foundations we rarely notice. Prosperity rests on an invisible architecture. We notice air only when it is hard to breathe. We see institutions only when they fail.

Dr James Kierstead: Deflating grade inflation

Grades have been inflating at universities across the English-speaking world, including in New Zealand. That was the message of my first two columns in this series.

But why has grade inflation taken hold at our universities? And what can we do about it? That is the subject of this final instalment.

Kerre Woodham: The consequences of Stuart Nash's ill-advised one liner

Now, long-time listeners will know that I have said, I do say, and I will undoubtedly in the future say stupid things. In a career spanning decades, we are talking live on stage or live on air, television or radio. When you're going for the snappy one-liner and you're pushing the language out and you're trying to be clever and you're trying to be funny, a lot of the time you're operating on instinct. You have to speak without thinking. I know you're not supposed to, but when you're doing live radio, live television, live on stage, you have to speak without thinking. So the potential for saying something offensive or stupid or both is very real.

Dr Benno Blaschke: Yes (but we can’t) Minister!

Once upon a time, “Yes Minister” gave us Sir Humphrey Appleby, scheming, obstructive, magnificently verbose, but above all, competent. He could bury a reform in procedure without breaking a sweat. A master of his craft.

If we made that show today, Sir Humphrey’s successors would barely understand what they are obstructing. They’re not cunningly verbose. They are genuinely confused. Welcome to the modern public service, where we have replaced magnificent scheming with bewilderment.

Ele Ludemann: Change starts with us

The ugliness and danger of political violence and intolerance were shown this week, first with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and then in the reaction to it from people who couldn’t look past views with which they disagreed; people who reacted to the death with gleeful he-deserved-its; people who couldn’t see past their own ideology to the common humanity.

Sunday September 14, 2025 

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NZCPR Newsletter: Losing Trust

The latest polls show the Coalition is failing to capture the hearts and minds of voters. Roy Morgan tells the story: support for National was down 2 percentage points from a month ago to 29 percent, ACT was unchanged on 10.5 and New Zealand First dropped 2.5 to 7.

In comparison, Labour increased 3 to 34, the Greens were up 2 to 13.5, while the Maori Party dropped 1 to 2.5 percent.

In other words, if an election was held tomorrow, Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party would be in government with 50 percent of the vote - up 4. The Coalition would be relegated to the opposition benches with 46.5 percent, down 4.5 to its lowest level of support this year.

So, what’s going on? Why aren’t the Coalition’s efforts to repair the damage created by that disastrous two-term Labour Government resonating more strongly with voters?

More importantly, why aren’t voters terrified of the prospect of being governed by the toxic trio - the grossly incompetent Labour Party, the extremist Greens, and the racist Maori Party?

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: UK public opinion turns against costly Net Zero policies

UK

Public opinion turns against Net Zero policies

New polling and focus groups for The Times show a surge in climate scepticism. One in four Britons now say global warming is exaggerated, while support for net zero measures — petrol car bans, heat pumps, higher gas bills — has collapsed. Voters increasingly see climate as a low priority beside crime, the NHS and the cost of living, as the political consensus on net zero frays.

Lindsay Mitchell: The other side of the story

The Latu family first appeared at RNZ pleading poverty. Their household consists of mum, dad, eight children and two relatives.

They have now reappeared in the NZ Herald. You can read the details at those two links.

What frustrates is that the two reporters who have written up the Latu family's plight have seemingly asked no questions about how much income the family actually receives and how they budget it.

John McLean: New Zealand left's extreme difficulty with violence

Radio New Zealand’s highly selective approach to violence

I’ve just listened to Radio New Zealand’s 6pm news. That news segment covered various items; flooding in Bali, the Maori Party disingenuously purporting to distance itself from Takuta Ferris’ brazen racism…other minor stuff.

What RNZ’s news bulletin studiously did not cover is the killing of a prominent American political and social commentator named Charlie Kirk, a decidedly newsworthy event in the Western world. Kirk has been shot dead within the last day.

Ryan Bridge: What a week of news

This week NASA found the clearest sign yet of ancient life on Mars.

We learned that for the first time in human history, there more obese children on earth than underweight children.

In the Middle East, missiles bomb peace talks.

Brendan O'Neill: Charlie Kirk was a better anti-fascist than most of the left

His rage against Hamas and its barbarous Jewphobia was moral clarity in action.

There was a clip doing the rounds a few months ago from Charlie Kirk’s clash with students at the Cambridge Union. It featured Kirk going head to head with a fidgeting posh oddball whose ginger bouffant defied gravity. Anyone who’s ever visited Cambridge will be familiar with this kind of kid: woke, pompous, his arrogance entirely out of proportion to his intellect. Tell me this, said Kirk: ‘In the conflict of Israel vs Hamas, who’s the good guy?’ His diminutive adversary twitched and stuttered, then finally spoke. ‘Both Hamas and the Israeli government are evil’, he said, giving perfect voice to that bourgeois pusillanimity that falsely calls itself ‘activism’.

David Farrar: Some sense from Hipkins

Law News reports:

Opposition leader Chris Hipkins says he has learned from past mistakes and will avoid wholesale repeal of coalition policies if Labour wins next year’s election, ending the economically damaging stop-start cycle that incoming leaders typically follow. …

Mike's Minute: Here's the truth on working from home

Hasn’t working from home become funny?

Seek have produced a thing called Money Matters, and they look at work-life balance.

Actually, hasn’t that become a thing as well – work-life balance. I can't place it exactly, but it seems like a Covid thing. The world changed and so did we.

Bob Edlin: Simmonds wriggles when quizzed about spending cuts and apprenticeship numbers

Penny Simmonds, Minister of Vocational Education, was asked this week if she stood by her statement that there is “more concern that we need to be focused on around the actual completions of apprentices”?

Simmonds did stand by it:

Ele Ludemann: Not paid to campaign

What are we paying these MPs to do?:

As a small party (six MPs), made up entirely of electorate MPs with large electorates to cover, Te Pāti Māori MPs were often absent from the House during sitting days.

They are also often absent from select committees and size is not an excuse MPs of large general electorates use for absence from the house.

Saturday September 13, 2025 

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Matua Kahurangi: 13 September 2025

Thank a Coloniser Day

This year, a new commemorative day has been announced: 13th September 2025 is officially “Thank a Coloniser Day.”

The purpose is simple – to give Māori the opportunity to reflect on the undeniable benefits that colonialism brought. While Māori supremacists like to claim colonisation was nothing but destruction, the reality is that without it Māori would still be living in a Stone Age society, never having invented basic technologies such as the wheel.

Steven Gaskell: Whānau Ora- When “Family Wellbeing” Means Political Ads and Rugby Sponsorships

The long awaited independent review into Whānau Ora has finally dropped, and it makes for eye watering reading. For years, critics have whispered that Whānau Ora’s “by Māori, for Māori” funding model lacked the kind of accountability expected of public money. Well, the whispers are over. The review lays it out plainly: money that was meant to lift families out of poverty, improve health, and deliver frontline services was instead funnelled into political campaigns and professional rugby.

Ross Meurant: What Ever Her Faults

Whatever the faults of their mother precipitating Tom Phillips abduction of their children and subsequent estrangement from their peer group, natural evolution through 4, now lost years, there was no justification for Tom Phillips to have done what he did.

There were other options Tom Phillips could have taken.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The police did the right thing by agreeing to the bridge march

Weather aside, I actually think police did do the right thing saying yes to that march taking place across the harbour Bridge, which will now not take place tomorrow but at a later date.

My biggest problem with it would be that it would set a precedent, but it's actually not setting a precedent because the precedent was probably already set last year by the anti-Treaty principles Hikoi, which happened in November.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.9.25

Saturday September 13, 2025 

News:
Cultural markers along trail recount iwi’s history
Ten tohu whenua (cultural markers) have been installed along Te Aka Ōtākou, the walking and cycling path that follows Otago Harbour's edge from Portobello to Port Chalmers.

The markers tell stories about important landmarks and provide insight into the "rich and layered" Kāi Tahu history and world view - similar to the tohu whenua in George St.

Peter Dunne: Putting Children First

When relationships break up, it is frequently any children involved who suffer most. They often become pawns in a wider game – the struggle between parents over custody and access rights, or questions of responsibility for their financial upkeep, for example. Sometimes, the struggle goes beyond the parents, and involves the wider family, or even the community in which they live. But whatever the circumstances, the innocent children at the centre of the dispute generally have the least say in its resolution.