Breaking Views Update: Week of 13.4.25

Wednesday April 16, 2025 

News:
Consultation Open On Changes To Emergency Management Legislation
The Government is seeking public feedback on options to strengthen New Zealand’s overarching emergency management legislation, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced today.

The proposed objectives for the new bill are to:

Penn Raine: It’s not the economy, stupid

Clinton’s ‘90’s strategist James Carville must have resented how often his quip is ascribed to his boss, and worse, that he is ever only partially quoted. Like so many memorable pronouncements that come in threes, the rest of his 1992 successful campaign message was that the electorate cares about healthcare, and that ‘more of the same’ policies might not cut it.

Barrie Davis: “Becoming Aotearoa” - a Book Review

We sometimes read that the history of New Zealand is being rewritten. The title of Michael Belgrave’s 2024 book Becoming Aotearoa: A New History of New Zealand leaves no doubt that is the case.

The first sentence of the Preface reads:

 

“This history of Aotearoa New Zealand is a response to crisis: the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch on 15 March 2019 and the ongoing uncertainty which has followed it.”

Richard Meade, Magnus Söderberg: Winter electricity prices are rising

Winter electricity prices are rising – how do we know we’re getting value for money?

Winter is coming to New Zealand and Australia, and with it come those inevitably higher power bills from heating our homes.

Dave Patterson: US-Iran Talks Pave a Path to Possible Peace

The first meeting in Oman between President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of Iran was business-like, exchanging messages through Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. This initial round of discussions aimed at American desires for Iran to give up nuclear ambitions was described as “positive” and “constructive.” Though the engagement was indirect, Witkoff and Araghchi met face-to-face briefly.

Yvonne Van Dongen: The Great Rainbow Heist

There’s Pride Day, Pride Month, Trans Visibility day, rainbow poppies for Anzac Day and even rainbow messaging for Pink Shirt Day next month, a movement intended to promote anti-bullying. These days I can’t even walk the dog along Ponsonby Rd without copping an eyeful of rainbow ticks plastered all over the window of a vape shop.

Some of us are beginning to feel bullied by the rainbow. Women based in material reality know that rainbow is a by-word for gender ideology which erases women and girls and bends the world to accommodate the fetishes of a few men.

John MacDonald: New sex ed curriculum is a great start

I’m liking the sound of Education Minister Erica Stanford’s approach to sex education. But it won’t be plain sailing, and she knows that.

But there’s a glaring gap in this new framework she’s put out for consultation, with ideas of what kids might be taught and when from year 1 to year 13.

Peter Williams: Trust in the Media is still dropping

Would ownership or management changes make a difference?

Only five short years ago over half of us said we trusted the media. That was 2020 in what was the first of the now annual AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy Centre surveys.

The baseline number that year was 53 percent, hardly a glowing endorsement of the country’s news industry.

JC: Media Still Not to Be Trusted

The 2025 AUT Trust in Journalism Survey has been released and it has once again found trust in the media is at an all-time low. This year it has fallen a percentage point from last year: 32 to 31. When the trust is already very low a huge drop is not to be expected but again, there has been no improvement in how people view the news and the outlets that produce it.

David Farrar: Will Nash stand for NZ First?

The Herald reports:

Former Labour Minister Stuart Nash is not hosing down rumours of a political comeback at the 2026 election, saying it is a case of “never say never”. …

Nash said he’s not a member of any political party, but he appears to be leaning in the direction of NZ First.

David Farrar: Greens now campaigning against prisons as well as police

Stuff reports:

Green MP Tamatha Paul has launched a fundraising campaign for a group wanting to “defund the police” and close the court system.

Paul has been attracting attention over recent weeks for her comments about policing and support of groups that call for the abolition of police, jails, and courts. While she and the Green Party have denied wanting to “defund the police”, Paul’s continued support for those pursuing that goal has led to further questions for her party.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Free Trade Hypocrites Becoming More Hysterical by the Day....

US Senator Bernie Sanders Symbolizes The Free Trade Hypocrites Becoming More Hysterical by the Day

Want to know why the US left-wingers are looking stupid? This past week none other than US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has been hitting the streets of America trying to raise a revolution against the tariffs being implemented by the Trump White House. Our own leaders, the two Chris', Hipkins and Luxon, should join him. After all, as NZ First Leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters explained, they have become increasingly hysterical on the topic.

Mike’s Minute: A good example of why people don’t trust the media

I have a good example as to why so many people don’t trust the media.

Like most things it's got complicated and a lot of it is fuelled by emotion.

So a simple survey, the likes of which was published by AUT over the weekend, can never come close to capturing exactly what the relationship between the industry and the punter really is.

 Tuesday April 15, 2025 

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Professor Robert MacCulloch: A Solution to NZ's Richest Man, Nick Mowbray's, Awful Billion $ Problem.....

A Solution to NZ's Richest Man, Nick Mowbray's, Awful Billion $ Problem: Move your Factories to NZ and get a 10% Tariff, not China's 145% rate.

Oh dear, it must be keeping him up at night. Despite being worth over $20 billion, Zuru billionaire Nick Mowbray gave an interview with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking today telling him that he's being made to feel poor by the Trump tariffs. Mowbray says “it’s hard to say we’re not worried” about the US administration’s “chaotic” policy decisions. “We’ll ship about $2 billion worth of goods to the US this year. So, at that run rate, that makes our tariffs worth about $3 billion at the moment.”

Matt Ridley: Yet more proof of systematic deception on covid

Five years ago this week, based on a highly misleading “model” forecast from one academic, Neil Ferguson, the British government ditched its pandemic plan and locked the entire country down with disastrous and—as Sweden has proven—unnecessary consequences. It was the first of many dreadful mistakes the government made during the Covid pandemic: shutting schools at the behest of unions, assuming the virus was not airborne, vaccinating children, and overclaiming for vaccines and masks. Government thought it knew best and let us down.

Clive Bibby: New Zealand’s reputation is being questioned

At a time when the defence of the realm is more dependent than ever on strategic alliances based on trust, we need to show our partners that we are capable of punching above our weight when the proverbial hits the fan.

We need to show we can be relied upon to compliment the contributions of others doing most of the heavy lifting in a way that is consistent with our size and limited defence capabilities. 

Bob Edlin: LGNZ chief to step down in August.............

LGNZ chief to step down in August – but some councils have already left (because it’s ‘far left’, a councillor says)

Local Government New Zealand President Sam Broughton paid tribute to Susan Freeman-Greene’s leadership after she announced she will be stepping down as chief executive at the end of August 2025

She has been in the job for almost five years.

Lindsay Mitchell: Maori must take control

There were 17,028 Maori babies born in 2024.

According to an official information response from the Ministry of Social Development, 5,997 were dependent on welfare by the end of the year. That's 35.2 percent.

Most would have been born onto a benefit.

Mike's Minute: Waikato-Tainui is a wonderful success story

My ongoing advice to the Government is: don’t make big announcements on a Friday.

I watched the Prime Minister from Waikato at the Ruakura Superhub.

This is what the Government lives for. It's what they dream of. It's what they preach.

Tarik Cyril Amar: Here’s why the AfD is destined for the German government

The right-wing party has taken the lead in a nationwide poll for the first time. It won’t be the last – and the establishment only has itself to blame.

Germany has an undeserved reputation for dour rationality and lacking an appreciation of the absurd. In reality, however, Germany is a – for want of nicer terms – very counterintuitive country.

Michael Reddell: What was the story re Orr’s resignation?

It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been (controversially) reappointed in late 2022 to a second five-year term that still had a little over three years to run.

DTNZ: Trust in mainstream media in NZ falls to new record low

The 2025 Trust in News report reveals trust in legacy mainstream media in New Zealand has continued its sharp decline, falling to just 32%, down from 53% in 2020.

Olivia Pierson: Politics at the Bottom of a Cliff

When a culture becomes unmoored from its philosophical roots, the politics of that culture will amount to little more than an ambulance waiting at the bottom of a cliff.Political wrangles are the very endgame of a nation’s broader philosophy. The culture of that nation is the atmosphere that reveals which ideas have been digested. When the late conservative media guru Andrew Breitbart proffered his famous line: “politics is downstream from culture”, this flow of ideas from philosophy to politics is what he underscored.

Centrist: ‘Distance is no longer any protection’: NZ commits to $9B defence upgrade

New Zealand’s National-led government is doubling defence spending over the next eight years, aiming to modernise its navy, upgrade surveillance networks, and strengthen regional deterrence in response to rising global instability – especially from China.

Matu Kahurangi: Tamatha Paul’s radical alliance

Why New Zealanders should be alarmed

Green MP Tamatha Paul has just given New Zealand a clear view into the dystopian underbelly of the far-left. In a move that would make even the most hardened radical blush, Paul has chosen to use her public platform, not to support her constituents, not to advocate for safety in our streets, but to fundraise for People Against Prisons Aotearoa (PAPA), an extremist group openly calling for the abolition of both police and prisons.

David Farrar: Major changes to driver licenses

Chris Bishop has announced some major changes to driver license testing. On the surface they look like very good ideas that will reduce costs and hurdles, but increase safety. The changes are:

 Monday April 14, 2025 

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Point of Order: Auckland Council tosses $128,000 at Circus School

• The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance reports –

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance can reveal through a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request that Auckland Council gave $128,352 to Te Kura Maninirau, New Zealand’s first kaupapa Māori circus school.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Stripping Wronged Bank Customers of their legal right to sue....

Who in the PM's National Party Caucus, including Luxon, is trying to Pervert the Course of Justice, Stripping Wronged Bank Customers of their legal right to sue to make the Big Banks Pay?

Why do we have a high cost of living? Because even when you break the law in NZ at the expense of your customers, the penalties are so small its worth doing. White collar crime pays here. The best policy for a government on matters of economic wrong-doing by powerful interests is, "Talk quietly & carry a big stick", attributed to Teddy Roosevelt. It was promoted in a paper of mine, which Nobel Laureate, George Akerlof, husband of former US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, called "important".

Damien Grant: Rising meth busts make our drug policy feel more like insanity

There is a saying, falsely attributed to Albert Einstein, that repeatedly doing the same task and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Where the saying originates from isn’t clear but it might be from a 1980 Narcotics Anonymous book with the quote; “Insanity is using day after day knowing that only physical and mental destruction comes when we do.”

Mike's Minute: Free trade will survive these tariffs

Keir Starmer is fast becoming a new political hero.

For a bloke who stumbled into office not on his brilliance or a nationwide passion for the Labour Party, but more because the Tories had spent 14 years slowly messing the place up, he turns out to be quite the operator.

David Farrar: 2025 Trust in Journalism survey

The 2025 AUT Trust in Journalism Survey has just been released. Key aspects are:

Dr Will Jones: Ethnic Minority Student Teachers Offered £5,000 More Than White Peers to Train Under ‘Anti-Racist’ Scheme

Ethnic minority students have been offered £5,000 more than their white classmates to become teachers in Wales as part of an ‘anti-racist’ scheme. The Mail has more.

All training teachers are eligible to receive a £15,000 grant from the Welsh Government if they specialise in a subject most needed in the country’s schools.

This includes biology, chemistry, physics, IT, design and technology, Welsh, modern foreign languages as well as maths.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A world trade policy for grown-ups

There is something tragic about watching the United States deliberately harm itself – especially when the damage spills over to everyone else.

President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ trade tariffs are a disaster for America and the world. In the name of “fairness” and “balancing trade,” the United States is slapping double-digit tariffs on all imports (except from Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Cuba!).

Dr Eric Crampton: The Iowa Car Crop

Many economists make international trade seem more complicated than it needs to be. Stephen Landsburg had a simple way of explaining it all.

Landsburg’s version goes as follows:

Sunday April 13, 2025 

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Sean Rush: Acknowledging Tamatha Paul’s Concerns...

Acknowledging Tamatha Paul’s Concerns: A Balanced Perspective on Police Visibility

Tamatha Paul and I served together as Wellington city councillors from 2019 to 2022. Despite our differing political affiliations, we found common ground on several issues and developed a warm relationship that continues to this day. Recently, Tamatha, now a Green MP, expressed concerns about the heightened police visibility on Wellington streets, suggesting it causes more anxiety than security for some community members. As someone who worked as a criminal defence lawyer in Hawkes Bay back in the early 1990s, I can acknowledge Tamatha’s concerns.

Dr. David Lillis and Professor Brian Jones: Indigenous Calendars in the Twenty-first Century?

The Historic Value of Indigenous Knowledge

Dr. Robert Bartholemew published a thought-provoking piece in Newsroom last week, in which he made several worthwhile points (Bartholemew, 2025). Indeed, today we do see greater awareness of the wealth of accumulated knowledge that allowed Indigenous people to adapt and thrive - from star maps for navigation - to recognition of celestial patterns that marked the passage of time. Surely, Indigenous knowledge systems (perhaps, “belief systems” is a more appropriate term where the embodied “knowledge” has not been verified) are part of the great history of humankind and retain cultural, social, historic and religious significance even today. 

Ross Meurant: Organised Crime - Bring Back Buck!

According to the “experts”, Organise Crime (OC) is out of control in New Zealand. (1)

One explanation for this claim lies at the doorstep of the Courts failing to impose deterrent sentences. Another has been the myopic belief that using police resources to issue traffic infringement notices (especially in Fendalton, Karori and Remuera where transgressors pay the fines and don’t get out of the car and smash the cop), rather than stakeouts at potential ram raid sites, is the most efficacious form deployment. (2)

Dave Patterson: Trump Arranging the Chess Pieces for Upcoming Talks With Iran

During an Oval Office visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 7, President Donald Trump announced that talks were set between the United States and Iran. It was the first anyone had heard of a Tehran-Washington meeting. Tensions have been high between the two countries, particularly since the US chief executive has made it clear that America has no more patience with Iran trying to build a nuclear weapon and fomenting conflict in the Gulf region.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: How does NZ Labour compare to National on State Size?

Some readers of ours are writing to say that even though Prime Minister Luxon could not be bothered turning up to the single most important day in Parliament these past fifty years to debate the constitutional foundation stones of our country, we shouldn't give him such a hard time. The consensus seems to be that the thought of having Lock-Down Labour, Lost-Their-Moral-Compass Greens, and State-within-a-State Te Pāti Māori back in power next year is so unthinkable that by comparison Mr Luxon looks pretty good. They have a point.

DTNZ: Tariffs personally cost Trump $500m – Forbes

The US president’s wave of duties on imports has roiled stock markets.

US President Donald Trump’s net worth has fallen by half a billion dollars in less than a week after he implemented a sweeping wave of tariffs, according to estimates by Forbes.

Roger Partridge: Willis holds a trump card for RBNZ’s capital review

The Reserve Bank has finally acknowledged it must review its controversial 2019 bank capital decision requiring large banks to increase their capital reserves from 10.5% to 18% by 2028. The timing is revealing. It came on former Governor Adrian Orr’s final day as Governor, just four weeks after his shock resignation.

Dr Prabani Wood: Failing to get frontline healthcare right comes at a huge cost

The primary care package recently announced by Health Minister Simeon Brown tackles our GP shortage with overseas doctor placements, more GP trainees and digital healthcare. These welcome initiatives recognise the critical challenges facing general practitioners nationwide.

David Farrar: Strange alliances on alcohol vote

The House voted on the first reading of the bill by Kieran McAnulty’s bill to allow businesses that are allowed to open on public holidays to have normal alcohol sale conditions apply.

Saturday April 12, 2025 

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NZCPR Newsletter: Winds of Change

US President Donald Trump’s tariff policy is changing by the day, as international investment markets experience unprecedented volatility.

It all started last week in the White House Rose Garden, when the President revealed his tariff plan to address US trade imbalances and protect American economic interests.

The tariff rates reflected a combination of economic, political, and strategic objectives, with the specific methodology based on trade deficits.

Mike Butler: State racism, dysfunction exposed

ACT leader David Seymour has done New Zealand a huge favour through his Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill – he has exposed the racial divide that has been created by successive governments.

The debate and referendum that Seymour courageously pushed for should have taken place decades ago, before former Justice Minister Geoffrey Palmer launched the treaty settlement never-ending story that has apparently not settled anything.

Ele Ludemann: National’s alternative to Treaty Principles Bill

National has been roundly criticised from one side for allowing the Treaty Principals Bill to go to the select committee and the other for not letting it proceed beyond the second reading.

There might have been less criticism from those concerned about the proliferation of undefined Treaty principles in legislation has the party been more clear about its reasoning and explained its alternative, as Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith did on Thursday:

Dr Don Brash: NZME can get stuffed - the ad they rejected

Written by Don Brash in his capacity as Hobson's Pledge trustee

This morning, you were meant to open the New Zealand Herald and see a full page ad calling out Christopher Luxon and the National Party for their failure to support democracy, equality, and a New Zealand based on unity – not racial division.

Instead, NZME is clearly making up rules on the hoof and introduced new creative restrictions at the very last moment (literally yesterday afternoon) and refused to print it unless we complied.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.4.25

Saturday April 12, 2025 

News:
Air NZ ensures new uniform honours Māori heritage without appropriation
Air New Zealand has revealed its new cabin crew uniform, emphasising they ensure the latest designs honour Māori heritage without crossing into cultural appropriation.

Brendan O'Neill: The insane campaign to decriminalise Hamas

A UK legal firm says it’s an abuse of ‘human rights’ to brand Hamas a terrorist outfit. Pull the other one.

It’s safe to say Britain did not cover itself in glory this week. We’ve had legal bigwigs warning that we risk resurrecting the crime of blasphemy following the charging of a man for burning the Koran. We saw the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, announce that the UK government can’t be ar*ed with inquiries into the industrial-scale abuse of working-class girls by gangs of mostly Pakistani Muslim men. And now, the icing on this rancid cake: British lawyers are agitating for Hamas to no longer be designated as a terrorist organisation.

Matu Kahurangi: Kids strike for climate change hoax

Across New Zealand today, thousands of students are walking out of classrooms in yet another nationwide climate strike organised by the far-left, Strike 4 Climate. Supporters claim this protest is about demanding urgent action on climate change and environmental protection, but really it's more about political theatre than practical solutions.

JC: Trump Is in Winning Mode

Donald Trump was not elected to please the rest of the world. The bulk of Americans like what he is doing.

Domestically, Donald Trump campaigned on Making America Great Again and the latest figures show that he is. It’s not just the tariffs but also the other actions he is taking on the economic front that are improving the situation he inherited. His strategy of putting America First is causing some problems globally, particularly when it comes to the share markets. Trump’s message is there will be some short-term pain for long-term gain. His message is to hang in there for wealth like we’ve never seen before.

Ele Ludemann: Bill down but debate will continue

The Treaty Principles Bill has been voted down at its second reading.

Act, which prompted the Bill and was the only party to support it yesterday, has lost this fight but while the Bill was voted down, the debate will continue.

Some 90% submissions to the select committee opposed the Bill but that doesn’t reflect public opinion.