Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.12.25

Wednesday December 17, 2025 

News:
Executive assistant resigns over mayor’s ‘disregard for Treaty principles’
Napier mayor Richard McGrath’s executive assistant has resigned, saying she can no longer work for him due to his “disregard for Treaty principles”.

Vanessa Smith-Glintenkamp, who was employed in the role under former mayor Kirsten Wise in May 2023, wrote to McGrath and the Napier City Council chief executive Louise Miller last Thursday saying she would resign.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Another fiscal result telling us what we already know

Well, of course you heard it here first last Monday - the surplus has been pushed out again.

It's like waiting for Christmas when you're a ten-year-old, the whole month of December feels like an eternity.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Bondi attack was a race relations problem

This business of Australia tightening up its gun laws feels like it runs the risk of distracting from the bigger problems over there.

I don’t think guns were the problem on Sunday. Australia already has some of the tightest gun laws in the world.

Pee Kay: DOC’s OIA Response

In late October I posted an article about Northland iwi, Ngatiwai, landing on one of the strictly protected Poor Knights Islands, raising a flag and concreting in a carved pou in protest at the amendment to the Marine and Coastal Area Act.

Click to view

Ani O'Brien: Bondi Terror - Can we look back in anger yet?

Tolerance must not be a suicide pact

If you were shocked by what happened at Bondi last night you have ignored every warning sign.

You might be horrified. In fact, if you are, you are human. But if you are surprised you have not been paying even minimal attention to what has been happening across Western cities for the past two years. The last twenty plus years really. This was the inevitable direction of travel.

Dr Will Jones: Right Wins Chile Election on Mass Deportation Platform

The Right has won the Presidential election in Chile, with conservative Jose Antonio Kast defeating his communist rival on a platform of cracking down on crime and deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. The Telegraph has more.

Philip Crump: The Architecture of a Capable State - Why Cuts, Cosmetic Fixes and Good Intentions are not enough

Keynote address to the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union AGM – 15 December 2025

This is the text of a keynote address I delivered to the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union AGM on 15 December 2025. It is offered in a personal capacity and reflects an institutional and structural analysis of how the State is organised to deliver outcomes. It is not an endorsement of any organisation, political party, or policy programme.

Bruce Cotterill: Christopher Luxon leadership - Why National would be ‘nuts’ to roll him

The past couple of weeks have seen plenty of conjecture about the future of Christopher Luxon as the leader of the National Party and hence, Prime Minister.

I don’t know if the rumbles about Chris Bishop rolling him are true or not. And I’m no political strategist. But let me say this. The National Party would be “nuts” to drop Luxon now.

JC: West Not Fit For Purpose

The world right now is probably in its most dangerous state since WWII. The West is showing that there is a reluctance to accept reality. Allowing situations to develop as they are is inviting more trouble further down the track. Talkfests that fail to produce the action required are largely a waste of time. The policies introduced will not solve the problems we are currently facing.

David Farrar: The ever growing black market

1 News reported:

The latest estimates put the market share for illegal tobacco sales between 25% and 65%, illicit tobacco and e-cigarette commissioner Amber Shuhyta told a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday night.

Tuesday December 16, 2025 

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Geoff Parker: Bastion Point, Rewritten History, and the Politics of Permanent Grievance

Hana Pera Aoake’s article in The Post reads less like history and more like advocacy presented as reflection. It leans heavily on symbolism and emotion while relying on selective memory and the omission of inconvenient facts—choices that serve a predetermined grievance narrative rather than an honest accounting of the past.

Start with Bastion Point itself. In 1886, 5.3 hectares of land were acquired under the Public Works Act for declared military purposes. This was neither a confiscation nor an unpaid seizure. Ngāti Whātua received £1,500 in compensation—roughly equivalent to about NZ$570,000 in today’s terms. On a per‑hectare basis, that payment was approximately twice the median value of today’s undeveloped New Zealand farmland. By any reasonable standard, the compensation was generous. Calling this “theft” obscures the basic facts: it was a lawful acquisition, accompanied by substantial payment.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Here's the worst part of the Bondi Beach terror attack

This terror attack in Sydney is what everyone else has been saying it is: absolutely horrific. Antisemitic terrorism.

Sadly, this type of attack is happening and will keep happening more frequently, according to intelligence agencies. And the worst part is that it's almost impossible to stop.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm confident for the economy in 2026

If you weren’t already feeling confident about 2026, I've got two reasons you should.

At least two major retail banks see signs of an economic recovery and we have a new Reserve Bank Governor.

John Robertson: Secularism by Exception - Why New Zealand Needs One Rule for All

New Zealand likes to tell itself a comforting story: that we are a modern, secular democracy where the state stays neutral and citizens are free to believe - or not believe - without pressure. In theory, that sounds right. In practice, it increasingly feels untrue.

Across schools, councils, universities, hospitals, courts, public workplaces, environmental law, research funding, museums, and national ceremonies, a single belief system has been given a status no other belief enjoys. Māori spiritual concepts—tikanga Māori (customary rules), wairuatanga (the spiritual dimension), mauri (life force), tapu (sacred restriction), and related ideas—are routinely embedded into public institutions. Participation is expected. Opt‑outs are rare or non‑existent. Questioning it is discouraged. Compliance is assumed.

Bob Edlin: More Stuff and nonsense – this time about a rates cap

Check out the photograph above.

Published today by The Post and on the Stuff website, it shows the vice president of Local Government New Zealand, Rehette Stoltz, speaking to journalists.

It illustrates a report which the headline writer apparently did not read.

Ani O'Brien: What's the story? Willie Jackson and MUMA

Accusations have been flying for more than a week between independent or ‘new’ media and the legacy lot (mainstream media). Yours truly has been guilty of a few exasperated contributions to the outrage also so do not take this as Ani on a soapbox.

The argument is over what the media should report on. What is newsworthy? What is a story? And on the flipside, what is a cover up? Why are the media burying what appears to be a significant scandal? It has now descended into embarrassing levels of stupidity with one member of the mainstream media trying to characterise the story as an ‘attack on Māori’. A negative story featuring Māori is not an attack on Māori anymore than reporting on Trevor Mallard’s many examples of poor behaviour is an attack on old white guys.

David Harvey: The Elephant in the Room

The podcast “The Elephant” is an online video series that tackles the conversations New Zealanders often avoid.

It dives into big, uncomfortable questions, looking beyond the echo chambers in search of a fearless and honest debate. In episode 10, hosts recently released, Miriama Kamo and Mark Crysell ask ‘When does free speech become hate speech?’

The promotional material for the programme states:

John MacDonald: Another kick in the guts for our volunteer firefighters

I’m glad I’m not a volunteer firefighter. Because, if I was, I would be brassed-off that an attempt to get volunteer firefighters the same ACC cover as full-time firefighters has gone nowhere.

A petition calling for the change has been rejected by a parliamentary select committee because it doesn’t want to set a precedent. The committee is trotting out all the usual platitudes but the fact remains that volunteer firefighters have just had another kick in the guts.

Simon O'Connor: Blood on their hands

For too long, we have tolerated people calling for the very violence that occurred at Bondi Beach last night.

My heart goes out to the Jewish community in Sydney, and also across Australia and New Zealand – not to mention around the world. Hanukkah is one of the great high festivals of Judaism; a feast of light and yet last evening, the light was shattered – but importantly, it will not be broken or eclipsed despite the violence.

David Farrar: Haeata spent almost $20k on Queenstown trip

I blogged previously on the remarkable stats achieved by Haeata Community Campus, where school lunches is their special focus.

Well the Auditor-General has just revealed:

Monday December 15, 2025 

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Mike Butler: Councillors who prefer the local tribe

“Gross misjudgement and disrespect” was the lead headline in the Hawke’s Bay Today on Friday after a meeting of the Napier City Council when the new mayor proposed not to include “mana whenua voices and voting rights” on standing committees.

In response, a new Maori ward councillor, Shyann Raihania, proposed an amendment which would retain two “Nga Manukanuka o te iwi” councillors voting to represent tribal interests on those committees.

John McLean: Critical Social Justice "Criticisms Of Reforms

A Woke battle for victimhood supremacy drowns out mature debate on resource management reforms

The current Government has proposed legislation designed to reform New Zealand’s resource management laws. National Party Government Minister Christopher Bishop is leading the reforms.

David Harvey: Tikanga and the law - evolution or a quiet revolution?

In a recent paper, Ellis v R: A Revolution in Aotearoa New Zealand, Emeritus Professor Peter Watts KC argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Ellis v R marked a revolutionary break from New Zealand’s constitutional foundations.

By declaring tikanga relevant to any issue of common law or statutory interpretation, he says, the court has fundamentally transformed our legal system without democratic mandate.

Damien Grant: Outside the headlines, a cohort of outstanding ministers is actually delivering

When I am in the beating heart of Auckland, although it has a distinct atrial flutter these days, I like to admire the old Central Post Office. The CPO was built over a century ago; before electrification, cranes, building consents and Worksafe improved construction.

Across Quay St we have the Ferry Building, a similar vintage, but the real magic lies beneath.

Centrist: Government unveils app, but next year it becomes New Zealand’s digital ID platform

The government has launched its new Govt.nz app, marketed as a convenient place to find information, bookmark services, and receive emergency alerts.

However, the real transformation arrives next year. Minister for Digitising Government Judith Collins told RNZ’s Morning Report that digital driver’s licences and other identity credentials will be added once legislation passes early in 2026.

Duggan Flanakin: The U.S. re-enters the rare-earths race

Hardly anyone in 1972 saw President Nixon’s decision to reopen diplomatic relations with the Peoples’ Republic of China as the beginning of a half-century of America surrendering its mining and manufacturing superiority to the fledgling Communist regime.

Successive administrations did little or nothing to halt the export of American skilled labor jobs, or even to promote skilled American labor as vital to national security. Unlike his predecessors, President Trump determined to promote American labor and restore mining and manufacturing as the pathway to a stronger nation and a prosperous economy.

Melanie Phillips: The humanitarian front against Israel

Mass murder has been branded as conscience to mess with people’s minds

Amazing news: Amnesty International has now acknowledged that night follows day!

Well, almost. In a report just published, Amnesty has stated for the first time that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, on and after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Brendan O'Neill: It is not racist to tell the truth about Britain’s rape gangs

Why is the left so hell-bent on burying the truth of what was done to working-class girls?

Here’s a surefire way to know if you’ve lost the moral plot – you get angrier about the public discussion of mass rape than you do about the mass raping itself. Your moral conscience gets more fired up by people talking about the industrial-scale abuse of working-class girls than it does by the abuse itself. You’re more horrified by the phrase ‘Pakistani rape gang’ than you are by the existence of Pakistani rape gangs. If any of that applies to you, then your morals have been well and truly shattered on the wheel of cultural relativism, classism and cowardice.

James Alexander: America’s National Security Warning to Europe

There is value in following Trump’s comments. I wanted to see the recent interview in which he said “Europe is weak”, and this led me to something more serious, more apparently serious, I should say (since they are related): the recent publication of the ‘National Security Strategy of the United States of America‘. A primary document. I found it, and printed it out: 30 pages. And it is a good read: well-written, lacking the sort of matron-in-the-asylum-in-denial tone that afflicts the style in which HM Government documents are written.

Sunday December 14, 2025 

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Geoff Parker: New Zealanders Aren’t “Leaving the Government Behind” - They’re Pushing Back

Jack McDonald says voters are “looking forwards, not backwards.” He’s partly right. New Zealanders are looking forward — but what they’re leaving behind is a decade of cultural and ideological overreach that crept into public policy with little public consent.

Peter Williams: The Silence After the Scoop

One of the curiosities of modern journalism is not how often stories are missed, but how often they are found, laid bare — and then quietly abandoned.

A week ago, the Otago Daily Times published what I regard as the most substantial piece of investigative journalism produced by a New Zealand newspaper this year. Across four full pages, with a front-page splash, the ODT examined allegations of serious governance and financial failings at Te Kaika, a Dunedin health hub operated by Otepoti Health Limited, a Māori health and social services trust. The sums involved run into many millions of dollars of taxpayer funding. The issues raised went to conflicts of interest, board oversight, accountability, and the blurred line between public money and private control.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Net Zero is structurally doomed

UK

New NZW reports: Net Zero is structurally doomed

This week, Net Zero Watch published two new reports and fresh polling that exploring public attitudes towards Net Zero.

Insights From Social Media: Compulsory Tikanga In Law School - When Cultural Ideology Replaces Legal Education

Tom Henry re-writes > New Zealand’s law schools have been re-engineered. All law students must pass a dedicated course on Tikanga Māori as a core component of their law degree to meet the requirements for legal practice. Advocates call it progress, a justice system “reflecting us all.” In reality, it’s an ideological project packaged as reform.

Tikanga Isn’t a Legal System — And Never Was.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time - 13 December 2025

Could RMA reform being the defining moment of this term of parliament?

The Government’s unveiling of the twin laws to replace the universally loathed Resource Management Act: Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill, could end up being the defining policy legacy of this term.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Greyhound racing law change is legal overreach

Let me state this clearly at the outset: I have never placed a bet on a greyhound. I have never owned a greyhound. If I were a dog, I would likely prefer a soft sofa to a hard track.

I am not writing this because I have a passion for racing, either. I am writing this because I have a passion for the Rule of Law.

Kerre Woodham: Willis and Richardson debating would be a pointless waste of time

Do you see any advantage or benefit to the country in having a former Finance Minister and the current one debating fiscal policy?

The current Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, has challenged the former Finance Minister, Ruth Richardson, to a debate. Now, that is misguided in my view, but to be fair, she was grievously provoked. Ruth Richardson is the chair of the Taxpayers' Union. The Taxpayers' Union is a pressure group, a ginger group, founded in 2013 to scrutinise government spending, publicise government waste, and promote an efficient tax system.

Bob Edlin: Kaipara champions the rights of Māori women in prison....

Kaipara champions the rights of Māori women in prison – and is given a reminder of what our voting laws demand

Māori Party MP Oriini Kaipara went out to bat for democracy – hurrah! – at Question Time in Parliament yesterday. But her mission, more pointedly, was to expose the discrimination against Māori which (she would have us believe) will result from government proposals to change electoral legislation.

In the upshot, she was reminded of what the law now requires.

Saturday December 13, 2025 

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NZCPR Newsletter: A Counter-Revolution

The National Party has performed poorly in opinion polls for the past two years. The question has been whether this would improve once their major policy platform of economic recovery became more apparent, or whether their slump is indicative of a wider malaise affecting conservative parties globally.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.12.25

Saturday December 13, 2025 

News:
Ngāi Tahu set to take 33% stake in Milford Sound Tourism
Mana whenua are set to take a major role in running Milford Sound, with Ngāi Tahu joining Milford Sound Tourism as a shareholder.

From 31 March, Ngāi Tahu Holdings and several Papatipu Rūnaka are set to take a 33 percent stake in the company that owns and operates Milford Sound's key infrastructure and visitor services.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why are we resisting AI?

Time Magazine has just named its Person of the Year for 2025.

And it’s not a single person. It is "the architects" of AI.

The magazine says "no one" had as great an impact this year than the people “who imagined, designed, and built AI".

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Win for truckies, loss for coastal shipping

On the face of it, this coastal shipping decision from James Meager seems like an odd one.

It's a win for truckies, like it or not, we're about to get 500 extra trucks filled with 15,000 tonnes of bulk cement on the road each month.

But it's bad for coastal shipping, even though the Minister says it's actually good for coastal shipping.

Ani O'Brien: New Zealand’s Planning Revolution - bye bye RMA

Inside the reform that will change how New Zealand is built

If you’ve ever tried to build a deck, subdivide a section, or watched a major infrastructure project slowly suffocate in a decade of “consenting hell,” you already know the RMA is New Zealand’s great productivity killer. For over 30 years, it has been the bedrock of New Zealand’s environmental and planning law. It is also, by almost universal agreement, broken.

Peter Williams: Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban

By coincidence, I find myself in Australia this week watching my 15-year-old grandson play cricket against boys his age—precisely the cohort targeted by the new national ban on social media use for under-16s.

The timing could not be better for observing how this “world-first” policy is landing among the teenagers it is meant to protect. And based on the conversations circulating through the junior cricket community, Australia’s lawmakers may have overestimated the willingness of adolescents to quietly accept the sudden disappearance of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and the rest of the digital ecosystem that forms such a large part of their social world.

Matua Kahurangi: Elon Musk is right - The world is waking up to trans ideology madness

Elon Musk has once again said the thing everyone else is too scared to say. On The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk laid out a story that is shocking, disturbing and sadly believable in today’s climate. His message was simple. The institutional push to transition children is not compassion. It is ideological madness that has captured schools, governments and entire cultural institutions. And Musk is absolutely right to call it out.

Kerre Woodham: Beyond the headlines of the cancer report

Whenever I hear or read news headlines these days, I know that the headlines will be just that for so many people. Headlines. People won't hear or they won't read beyond the headline, and then they'll form their own opinions based on nothing more than 20 words or fewer. I've got numerous examples of that. Even people that I would have thought would understand the media, like journalists, they'll look at a headline and think, "Oh, you know, subscriber only, I'm not going to pay. I'm just going to draw my own conclusions from the headline," which they know is flawed and ridiculous.

Bob Edlin: Lake will be drained to tackle the gold clam threat but (psst!....

Lake will be drained to tackle the gold clam threat but (psst! – we are thinking of Parliament) what else could be emptied of pests?

PoO’s monitors of who has been doing what to whom were fascinated to read that “an infestation of invasive clams has forced the draining of a lake in New Plymouth”.

Forced?

JC: No Bias in Two Recent Polls

Looking ahead to 2026 election year, my money is on the re-election of the coalition.

Nobody could honestly say the two polls released this week reeked of bias. The first, the normally left-leaning 1News-Verian poll was good news for the right. The other, the normally right-leaning Taxpayers Union-Curia poll had better news for the left. As we all know polls do bounce around, some more than others. There are many variables contributing to this, including the time the poll was conducted, the questions asked and how they were framed. To quote the late Jim Bolger: “Bugger the polls.”

David Farrar: Flag cowards

Radio NZ reports:

A controversial piece of artwork that prompted 101 complaints in a week has now been stolen from a Hastings art gallery.

The installation, Flagging the Future, at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery asked gallery visitors to “please” walk on top of a quasi-NZ flag.

Friday December 12, 2025 

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Perspective with Ryan Bridge: What will Trump's border crackdown do to tourism?

Donald Trump has every right to crack down on the American border. There are problems there that we, down here in little old New Zealand, just don't understand.

Illegal migration sounds to us like a far away and non-threatening concept because, well, it is. Thank you, ocean.