NZCPR Newsletter: UNDRIP Disaster

At 4.45 am New Zealand time on 20 April 2010, then Minister of Maori Affairs, Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples, announced to the United Nations in New York that New Zealand would support the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Pee Kay: We are Funding the White Anting of Democracy!

Tureiti Haromi Moxon, or Lady Moxon, until recently was not a hugely well known name in New Zealand’s political activist arena, but she seems to be making sure that changes!

Lady Moxon is married to the Anglican bishop, Sir David Moxon, hence her damehood.

Professor Robert MacCulloch and Sir Roger Douglas: The Superannuation Debate

PRESS RELEASE

Professor Robert MacCulloch
Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics
University of Auckland

Sir Roger Douglas
NZ Finance Minister 1984-88

The NZ Initiative, which is funded by our largest corporates, has attacked super savings for all. One of its former staffers is Prime Minister Luxon's Chief Policy Adviser.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.11.25

Monday December 1, 2025 

News:
Researchers link Māori housing inequities to 180 years of restrictive building laws
For centuries, Māori built homes that were warm, dry, sustainable and centred on whānau.

Homelessness, damp houses and overcrowding were not part of te ao Māori.

Cam Slater: Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits.....

Exposed: The Hypocritical Nexus Between Otago University Academics and Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits in New Zealand’s Tobacco Wars

This leak exposes a rotten core in New Zealand’s tobacco control scene, where hypocrisy reigns and public health takes a back seat to agendas.

Dr Oliver Harwich: The long estrangement

It is strange to observe a nation act irrationally and against its own interests. Stranger still when that nation is your own.

I grew up in Germany. I still think in German. Yet Germany’s political psychology feels increasingly alien to me.

Mike's Minute: The govt shouldn't have touched the carbon market

If you follow the carbon market, and you should, it is yet another lesson in the abject failure that almost certainly results in gerrymandering markets.

Four times a year you bid for credits (offsets) to counter your polluting habits.

You do this because we signed up to Paris and made a bunch of promises we were never going to be able to keep.

Dr Benno Blaschke: House prices are the new birth control

The Economist, not known for hysteria, has quietly announced that advanced economies are halving their populations every generation. A demographic magic trick. Now you see your grandchildren, now you don’t.

Naturally, everyone blames “fertility.” As though biology suddenly went on strike sometime around 1992.

Nick Clark: Fast-Tracking the Fast-Track Bill

On Monday morning, Eric Crampton and I appeared before the Environment Select Committee to present the Initiative’s submission on the Fast-Track Approvals Amendment Bill.

It is well known that the Bill, and the fast-track regime more generally, is controversial among environmentalists. Our concerns are more about process, but they are no less important.

Dr James Kierstead: Manic compression

If you enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey (either the book or the movie), there’s no guarantee that you will enjoy Fifty Shades of Grades, the research note on grade distribution at New Zealand universities that I released earlier this week.

Still, I like to think that the latter has enough titillating detail, spanking new analysis, and breath-taking climaxes (if only of series of data) to satisfy most readers.

David Farrar: What should we sell?

Newsroom has an article on the 10 SOEs that a Government could sell.

I’ve done a matrix looking at which could be best to sell.
Asset Competitive Value Sensitivity Prospects

Kerre Woodham: E-scooters, cycle lanes, and public demand

The Government's move to shift e-scooter users from the sidewalk to bike lanes is being hailed as a win for common sense. Shame it's not coming in before the Christmas party season. ACC stats for e-scooter injuries this year are close to surpassing $14 million.

 Sunday November 30, 2025 

                    ⇩

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Reeves’ poison pill

UK

Reeves’ poison pill energy Budget

Rachel Reeves offered some relief on bills by shifting legacy green levies off household energy costs. Around £150 will be removed from the average bill from April 2026 as the Treasury takes on most Renewables Obligation costs and scraps the Energy Company Obligation scheme.

Karl du Fresne: What privilege looks like in 2025

Two weeks ago, in a blog post headlined What privilege sounds like in 2025, I made the case that the broadcasting organisation formerly known as Radio New Zealand is the embodiment of privilege. 

I argued that the dwindling number of New Zealanders who listen to the state radio station are in fact doubly privileged. Not only are they able to hear taxpayer-funded content that’s carefully curated so as not to offend their sensibilities or challenge their cosy assumptions, but they are spared the indignity of being bombarded with crass, intrusive advertising. That wretched fate is reserved for the proles who choose to tune into commercial radio (which, in this context, essentially means NewstalkZB). 

Geoff Parker: The Politicisation of Indigeneity and the Mythologising of New Zealand’s Past

In modern New Zealand politics, few concepts have been stretched, reshaped, and weaponised as dramatically as “indigeneity.” What was once a descriptive anthropological term has evolved into a powerful political label, invoked to justify constitutional preferences, resource allocations, and competing visions of national identity. But as the term has gathered political force, it has drifted further from the actual historical record — and further still from the material realities of when human beings first reached these islands.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 29 November 2025

Winston Peters has everyone getting jumpy

Every party leader was nervously and repeatedly refreshing their alerts to see what Winston Peters had said now. For a man in his late 70s, he continues to hold Wellington in a remarkable psychological headlock.

It began with his comments about repealing the Regulatory Standards Act which the government he is part of had just passed. Chris Hipkins responded saying:

Dr James Allan: Vance is Right - The West is Stagnating Due to Mass Immigration

Last week US Vice President J.D. Vance pointed out a home truth about the politicians who have run Canada and Britain this last decade or so. They’ve made some terrible calls, especially as regards mass inwards immigration. To start, Vance pointed to my native Canada and noted that it now has the highest foreign-born share of the population of the entire G7. And its living standards have flatlined.

John McLean: The Great Gaslights

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation. Gaslighters aim to make their victims doubt their own perceptions and memories, and reality itself. The term comes from the 1944 film Gaslight, in which a husband manipulates his wife into thinking she’s losing her mind by dimming their gas lights and, when she notices, denying he’s done so.

Kerre Woodham: Regional councils need to be streamlined

Regional councils are being abolished – or are they?

Thomas Coughan writing in the Herald makes a very good point, it's not the councils that are being abolished, it's the council laws.

Peter Dunne: "No" Zealand

For more than a century New Zealanders have prided themselves on their “can do” mentality. Our “number eight wire” approach to problem solving is legendary. It derives from the ability settlers developed in the early days of colonisation to utilise number eight-gauge fencing wire to fix all manner of things for which parts were either unavailable or too expensive. It was an ingenuity and resourcefulness necessitated by the country’s geographic isolation.

David Farrar: Could Te Pāti Māori lose two more MPs?

The Tamihere faction of Te Pati Maori may end up the victors, but a pyrrhic victory.

I understand that Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke is consulting her electorate over the next two weeks on whether she should remain with Te Pati Maori under its current leadership.

Mike's Minute: Why aren't more people excellent?

It’s the simple question with seemingly no simple answer: why aren't more people excellent?

Naylor Love reported this week they are cracking the $1 billion revenue mark. They are an old company that has never cracked a billion.

Saturday November 29, 2025 

                    ⇩

Dr Will Jones: Trump Halts Migration From all Third World Countries.....

Trump Halts Migration From all Third World Countries and Demands “Reverse Migration” After Deadly DC Attack

President Donald Trump has “permanently paused migration” from Third World countries and demanded “reverse migration”, ordering a green card audit of 19 nations, after the Washington DC terror attack that left a National Guard soldier dead. The Mail has more.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 23.11.25

Saturday November 29, 2025 

News:
Experienced Māori education leader appointed as EIT’s Pouārahi Māori
He joins EIT after more than 30 years in education, most recently as a Leadership Advisor for the Ministry of Education and previously as Principal of Tamatea High School from 2015 to 2024. His earlier roles include Deputy Principal at Te Aute College, Head of Māori at Napier Boys’ High School and Science Teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Hou.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Thanks to the big banks for not helping

I've reached the conclusion that when it comes to the banks and mortgage rates, the only option you've got left is to hustle.

You're on your own here.

It has been 2 days since the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate, and by how much do you think the big banks have cut their fixed rates?

Ryan Bridge: Our country deserves more than an economic recovery

The RBNZ update this week again made the point that yes, the economy's in bounce back mode.

We'll grow 2.5% next year, they reckon.

But this country needs more than that. It deserves more than that.

Roger Partridge: What Did New Zealand Do With Its Trillion Dollars?

A familiar lament has resurfaced in recent weeks: that Robert Muldoon’s decision to cancel Norm Kirk’s 1975 compulsory superannuation scheme cost New Zealand a trillion-dollar nest egg. The Government’s weekend signal of higher KiwiSaver contributions has given that argument new life, encouraging some to reach again for the comparison. New Zealand, we are told, might otherwise be an “Antipodean Tiger.”

Bob Edlin: Iwi leader calls for local government reforms to go further.....

Iwi leader calls for local government reforms to go further – but does he have race-based seats in mind?

RNZ reports –

An iwi representative on two West Coast councils has rejected the idea that mayors would represent Māori interests on the government’s proposed new boards, which replace regional councils.

David Farrar: Teaching Council conflicts

The Herald reports:

A probe into conflict-of-interest allegations at the Teaching Council was sparked by a whistle blower’s claims the agency spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds on an advertising firm run by the CEO’s husband.

Owen Jennings: Cop30 Ironies

France’s President Macron led the charge for putting taxes on aircraft flights at Cop30 in Belem, Brazil. Aircraft are “killing the planet” with their emissions, apparently. The same day Air France announced its new "La Premiere" cabin -- the first update since 2014. Designed for long-haul Boeing 777s, the "suites" will feature five windows, an armchair and a chaise longue that converts into a bed.

Jenny Ruth: Open letter to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith

Minister of Justice

P.Goldsmith@ministers.govt.nz

OPEN LETTER

Dear Mr Goldsmith

I’m writing to complain about my treatment, and the treatment of Helen Joyce, a former finance editor and international editor at The Economist, at the hands of the Human Rights Review Tribunal (HRRT).

Dr Michael Bassett: Chris Bishop and Simon Watts are correct

When I first heard of their plans to do away with regional councils and replace them with boards of mayors I thought the timing rather odd. After all, we have just had local elections, and telling the newly-elected they are redundant seemed needlessly insulting. But it quickly became clear that these were proposals, and not some sort of ministerial coup d’etat. Chris Bishop and Simon Watts seem to be proposing to use the next three years to fine-tune their ideas. The goal is laudable: to remove an expensive layer of authority from local government that is no longer necessary, thereby reducing costs for ratepayers.

Mike's Minute: Erica Stanford was right, the backlash is disgusting

I tell you what I like about all the educators whinging away over the curriculum redo and the Treaty treatment: they are at least standing their ground. They are having their say and that is no bad thing.

It struck me yesterday when I read Roger Gray's speech, Roger Gray of Auckland Port. When he talked of “No Zealand”, of the naysayers, of the cruise people in Miami and their view of NZ not wanting a cruise industry. Of Jacinda Ardern calling them Petrie dishes.

Where were the Roger Grays when she was actually in charge and wrecking the place?

Friday November 28, 2025 

                    ⇩

Clive Bibby: Rats leaving the sinking ship

The final COP30 report says it all really.

If ever there was evidence that the Climate Change zealots have lost control of their once universally accepted false doctrine, this is it.

Gerry Eckhoff: The past

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (F Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940)

The recent opinion piece from Anaru Eketone, associate professor of Otago University challenging the sovereignty of New Zealand cannot pass as having any credibility.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is there a positive side to this recession?

Can I give you a positive spin on the recession that we're just coming out of?

I mean, maybe it's not so much a positive spin, but maybe it's an explanation for why this recession was harder than it needed to be - but why it actually did need to be this hard.

Ryan Bridge: What we got from the RBNZ yesterday

So what do we know today that we didn't know yesterday after the big show from the Reserve Bank?

Well not much, really.

Matua Kahurangi: Te Urewera mismanagement.....

Te Urewera mismanagement: Tūhoe leadership failing the land and its people

For years, the Urewera’s have been celebrated as a showcase of iwi stewardship and environmental guardianship. But the reality is far bleaker. Tūhoe leadership is presiding over mismanagement, neglect, and a shocking lack of accountability, turning what should be a model of co-governance into a cautionary tale of waste and incompetence.

Ani O"Brien: The best education news in years and the media buries it

Warning: This is a very frustrated and ranty article!

Sometimes this country feels allergic to good news, especially when that good news comes from a government our media class has decided must never be allowed a win. This week, Education Minister Erica Stanford released some of the most extraordinary education data New Zealand has seen in decades…students are making between one and two years of maths progress in just twelve weeks. It should have led every bulletin. It should have been the headline splashed across every front page. Erica Stanford should be being hoisted above shoulders and paraded through the streets as a heroine. Chris Hipkins would have thrown himself a parade if he had done anything except drive our education system into decline when he was in charge. What Stanford’s reforms are achieving is nothing short of extraordinary.

Bob Edlin: The OCR is trimmed and Govt politicians are cheered....

The OCR is trimmed and Govt politicians are cheered – but savers won’t necessarily be whooping

PoO first heard the news from RNZ: the Reserve Bank had cut the official cash rate to its lowest level in three years – by 25 basis points to 2.25 per cent – to support economic recovery.

That led us to check the announcement on the RBNZ website. This expressed confidence that inflation would ease from where it now sits, at the top of the 1 – 3 per cent target band for monetary policy:

David Farrar: 27,000 fewer Maori are victims of violent crime

The NZ Crime and Victims’ Survey has released its latest data to August 2025, and it is staggering how much violent crime has dropped. When you declare war on the gangs, instead of funding them, the results can be amazing.

Centrist: A well-paid ecosystem takes its grievance to Geneva

Lady Tureiti Moxon travelled to Geneva to ask the United Nations to intervene in what she calls the “political discrimination” of Māori by the coalition.

However, the pattern running through Moxon’s combative narrative, which outlines more than a dozen grievances, is that she starts in the middle of the story.

Brendan O'Neill: The Guardian’s hitjob on Nigel Farage is a sinister new low

Dredging up things he allegedly said when he was 13 years old is despicable and immoral.

The Blob is panicking. It can feel the flames of populism licking at its cankles. How else to explain the latest – and hands down the maddest – smear campaign against Nigel Farage? Now they’re coming for Farage not for anything he’s said or done in his 30 years in the bruising world of politics but for his alleged bikeshed ‘banter’ at school 50 years ago. Trying to drag down a 61-year-old bloke over things he supposedly said when he was 13? That thing you can smell is the rank desperation of a conceited elite worried its world is about to be turned upside down by oiks warming to Reform.

Richard Prebble: When Everything Is Called Corruption, Democracy Suffers

I admire Dr Bryce Edwards. Our universities like to proclaim themselves the “critic and conscience of society” while remaining silent on almost everything. In contrast, Dr Edwards is industrious. His daily email round-up of commentary often alerts me to articles I would otherwise have missed. For that, I am grateful.

His larger venture — the so-called Democracy Project and the accompanying “Integrity Institute” — is less admirable. Both portray themselves as experiments in democratic renewal. In reality, they are sustained polemics premised on a single idea: that politics, business, and the interaction between them in New Zealand are fundamentally corrupt.

Dr James Kierstead: 50 Shades of Grades - Grade Compression at New Zealand Universities

A grades are now only a few years away from becoming the most common grade awarded at New Zealand universities.

The research note, ‘Fifty Shades of Grades: Grade Compression at New Zealand Universities’, builds on the Initiative's August report, ‘Amazing Grades’, which identified a substantial rise in A grades as well as rising pass rates. This new analysis examines what has happened to all grades – not just As – revealing how the entire grading scale is shifting.

Thursday November 27, 2025 

                    ⇩

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Does Roger Gray have a point about our 'no' culture?

So the Ports of Auckland boss Roger Gray is onto something, isn't he? Because we are a country that loves to say no.

He said in a speech to a crowd at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland that he went to Miami to speak to four major cruise liners to find out why the cruise ships aren't coming here as much as they used to.

Insights From Social Media: Maori - An entire money driven industry

Stuart Bennett Clarke writes > The debate surrounding the endless demands and complaints of so-called Maori are all utterly Fallacious and pointless…

These people do not exist. It's a giant con job and a scam.

Maori is merely a name for an outlook and a lifestyle ONLY. ALL other political considerations are a preposterous farce.

Ryan Bridge: We've taken parenting to a level beyond useful

I'm part of the generation that grew up pre-cell phones.

Gifts were usually clothing you needed. Toys were chatter rings, marbles, maybe a skate board.

There was no 'picky eating', as we've heard about this week. If you didn't finish what was on your plate at dinner, you didn't get a treat afterwards.

Ani O'Brien: Government axes Regional Councils in historic overhaul

A necessary reset for Local Government

The Government’s announcement yesterday that it will abolish regional councils and replace them with new Combined Territories Boards, which will be regional bodies made up of mayors, is the biggest shake-up of local government in decades. And it’s about time. Regional councils have been probably the most invisible and least accountable tier of government in the country.

Peter Williams: Replacing Regional Councillors with Mayors Isn’t Reform

It’s a Shortcut

The government’s sudden decision to replace elected regional councillors with panels of district and city mayors has been sold as a bold stroke toward streamlining local government. But bold is not the same as wise, and decisive is not the same as thoughtful. In its rush to simplify a system that undoubtedly needs reform, the government has swung the axe at the wrong trunk.

Rather than fixing the machinery of local government, it has removed the very people elected to oversee that machinery — and installed a group already burdened with full-time jobs of their own.

Pee Kay: Christopher Luxon or someone else?

Heather du Plessis-Allan, in the article below, states, “But if they choose to stick with Luxon, they have to figure out how to limit his damage to the party’s polling.”

What about National asking themselves this question, “If we do stick with Luxon, how can we generate a rapid increase in his popularity?