Friday, December 5, 2025
Geoff Parker: The symbolic coup of New Zealand
Labels: Cultural constitutional rewrite, Equal Citizenship, Geoff Parker, Maori authority, SymbolismNew Zealand is witnessing a striking revival of Māori iconography (symbolism) - tattooed faces or chin, bone/greenstone pendants used as identity markers, the flag of the Māori sovereignty movement flying at public events and governmental buildings, carved posts (pou) appearing in places where no such markers ever stood before and Māori carved gateway entrances (waharoa) installed at school entrances. Supporters call this a cultural renaissance. But there is a deeper political message woven through these symbols, one that goes beyond cultural pride: a deliberate statement of rejection of European civilisation and the legitimacy of the country’s colonial foundations.
Caleb Anderson: Top prize at this year's prize giving goes to ...
Labels: Caleb Anderson, NZ education systemWithout delay the government initiated programmes and policies ...
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is taking long summer breaks a cause for concern?
Labels: Great Kiwi summer holiday, Heather du Plessis-Allan, Improving productivityAre we going to the beach and staying away from the office for too long?
There's a chap called Toss Grumley who thinks so, he's written a column about it. He's a young mover and shaker, business advisor, director, investor in multiple New Zealand entities.
Ryan Bridge: Is Coster really sorry?
Labels: Andrew Coster, NZ Police, Ryan BridgeIf you really felt that way, if you hadn't until yesterday realised what had gone on, which he had of course, he saw the report long before any of us did, then surely, you'd have come straight out starting blocks with an apology to Ms Z.
Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.11.25
Labels: Breaking Views Update: monitoring race relations in the mediaFriday December 5, 2025
News:
Māori Party expulsion: Judge reserves decision as Mariameno Kapa-Kingi challenges ouster in court
Justice Paul Radich will tomorrow [5/12/25] reveal his judgment regarding former Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi’s challenge of her expulsion from the party.
John McLean: Partisan Penfold
Labels: Disinformation Project, Fire and Fury, John McLean, Kate Hannah, Oliver Jull, Paula PenfoldPaula has stopped pretending...to be a proper journalist
Paula Penfold was once a pretty credible journalist. Her journalistic investigation of Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction for rape and murder was admirable and contributed to the quashing of his conviction and a multimillion dollar settlement for Pora.
Chris Trotter: Hard Choices.
Labels: Barbara Edmonds, Capital Gains Tax (CGT), Chris Trotter, Labour PartyIf she is serious about balancing the books, and restoring Pay Equity, Labour’s finance spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, cannot avoid imposing austerity on her party’s own voters.
LABOUR COULD WIN IN 2026, but the fiscal and monetary conservatism of its finance spokesperson makes victory increasingly unlikely. Barbara Edmonds promise to “balance the books” hasn’t just handed over Labour’s hopes of electoral victory to Fortune as hostages, it’s sold them into slavery.
Simon O'Connor: Now for the excuses
Labels: Attack on our Western traditions, New York Mayor, Simon O'Connor, Zohran MamdaniThere will be many excuses from Zohran Mamdani once his policies fail, yet until we appreciate the reasons why he won, these excuses will succeed.
As anticipated, Zohran Mamdani has won the New York mayoralty. He will be the 111th mayor, and while I am not remotely interested in numerology, this figure could well be seen - tongue in cheek - as an early sign of the emergency ahead.
Matua Kahurangi: Serious allegations against Willie Jackson and MUMA raise alarming questions
Labels: Labour Party, Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA), Matt McCarten, Matua Kahurangi, Willie Jackson.Tania RangiheueaExplosive allegations have emerged from veteran political figure Matthew McCarten, raising deeply troubling questions about Labour MP Willie Jackson and the Manukau Urban Maori Authority (MUMA). If McCarten’s account is accurate, Jackson has used his political influence to interfere in an employment dispute involving his own wife, Tania Rangiheuea, the CEO of MUMA. The allegations go far beyond poor judgement. They cut right to the heart of political integrity and proper governance.
Kerre Woodham: What would it take to get police trust to 80%?
Labels: Kerre Woodham, Police trustIt's been 12 months since Richard Chambers became New Zealand's Police Commissioner. And by crikey, he's had a busy old time of it, a little bit of a poisoned chalice. There's been the clean out of the police hierarchy following the McSkimming scandal – or really, scandals. And two months after his appointment, police officer Lynn Fleming was killed in the line of duty in Nelson on New Year's Day.
Bob Edlin: Lenient judge in theft case says $360 is a “relatively small amount” .......
Labels: Bob Edlin, Parmjeet Parmar, Shoplifting, TheftLenient judge in theft case says $360 is a “relatively small amount” – but what can shoplifters expect under tougher legislation?
ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar emailed PoO today to whoop about “today’s introduction of a new law expanding citizens’ arrest powers and introducing infringement fees for shoplifters…” It shows her party’s continued commitment to standing up for retailers, she said.
Click on to her link and you will find it’s not yet a new law. It’s a bill.
JC: Labour and Left Media Have High Hopes
Labels: Election 2026, JC, Labour Party, Raising taxesLast weekend the Labour Party held their annual conference: their tax talkfest where they chew the fat and think about how many new taxes they can get away with imposing on us, the poor sods who are obliged to pay up. They believe the way to grow the economy is to tax the hell out of everyone, particularly the ‘rich pricks’ that rank as enemy number one. The irony is it is an illusion: the negative effects on the economy outweigh the positives.
Mike's Minute: Still more questions to answer for the Reserve Bank
Labels: Black Friday, GDP, Mike Hosking, OCR, Reserve BankThe mail I'm getting got a bit more official yesterday with Fitch suggesting they think the Reserve Bank isn't done.
A lot of people thought the Reserve Bank was done cutting because fill-in Governor Christian Hawkesby basically said as much last week.
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Ian Bradford: Some Arguments Against Climate Alarmists
Labels: Climate alarmism, Ian BradfordSea Level Rise
Alarmists continue to push sea level rise, plus the rise is accelerating as yet more propaganda. Let’s go back in time.
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Coster did nothing wrong, but still had to go
Labels: Andrew Coster, Heather du Plessis-Allan, NZ PoliceLook, you realize he's won a big victory today, don't you? Cause it's a big admission from the Public Service commissioner today that Andrew Coster didn't do anything wrong himself.
He hadn't committed any personal wrongdoing and it's a big admission also that there was no cover-up.
Ryan Bridge: How was a former Covid response lead able to steal $1.8 million?
Labels: COVID-19, Crime and punishment, Ryan BridgeThe headline? Former Covid response lead Alister Thorby stole $1.8 million from DHBs.
From us, taxpayers.
Chris Lynch: Food Safety pushes back again after principal disputed cause of mouldy lunches
Labels: Chris Lynch, Mouldy school lunches saga, Peggy BurrowsNew Zealand Food Safety has issued a new statement on the mouldy lunches at Haeata Community Campus, reiterating that the evidence points to a human error at the school as the most likely cause.
New Zealand Food Safety is a unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The follow up statement has been released after the school’s principal continued to publicly suggest the problem lay with the provider, appearing on multiple media outlets this morning.
David Farrar: Labour winning all the Māori seats would be good for NZ
Labels: David Farrar, Election 2026, Labour Party, Maori seatsRadio NZ reports:
“I think Te Pāti Māori has got themselves into a world of difficulty. They’re not in any fit shape to play a constructive role in the current Parliament, much less a future government,” he told RNZ head of Labour’s annual meeting in Auckland on Friday night.
Ani O'Brien: The lunatics are taking the government to court
Labels: Ani O'Brien, Medsafe, Ministry of Health, Puberty blockers, Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA), World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)PATHA to take the government to court over puberty blockers
A handful of activists, with a tenuous grip on reality and a plethora of mental health issues between them, are dragging the government into the courts over the puberty blocker ban.
On 1 December 2025, the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) filed an urgent injunction seeking to block the upcoming ban on new prescriptions of puberty-blockers for “gender-dysphoric youth” set to take effect on 19 December.
Cam Slater: Willie Jackson Accused of Bullying, Union-Busting and Cronyism....
Labels: Bullying, Cam Slater, Matt McCarten, Tania Rangiheuea, Willie JacksonExclusive: Willie Jackson Accused of Bullying, Union-Busting and Cronyism to Protect His Missus
Matt McCarten, once one of Labour’s closest allies, has laid a formal complaint with Speaker Gerry Brownlee alleging that Willie Jackson MP used his political muscle to:
Professor Jerry Coyne: Three Royal Societies abandon their mission to promote global and universalist science
Labels: Indigenous knowledge, Matauranga Maori, Professor Jerry Coyne, Royal Societies, The Taikura SummitA Kiwi who wishes to remain anonymous (of course) sent me this link to an announcement of a meeting of three Royal (Scientific) Societies: those of New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. The screenshot below also links to two other short documents, a communiqué and a statement by the Presidents of all three Societies.
The object is severalfold: to eliminate “structural racism” and inequities in science, to tout “indigenous knowledge systems” as not only different and distinct from normal science, but as having contributed valuable knowledge to science in unique indigenous ways, and to assert that indigenous people have a right to “maintain, protect, and develop indigenous knowledge systems, intellectual property, and data.”
Click below (or above) to access the three statements.
Kerre Woodham: A rates cap or an erosion of services and facilities?
Labels: Erosion of services?, Kerre Woodham, Rates capAuckland households face a 7.9% rate rise next year, primarily to fund the operating costs for the $5.5 billion City Rail Link, which is nearly finished. It's a reality, it's going to open for passengers next year – woo! The increase will cover the $235 million annual cost of operating the new underground rail service. It's the largest rates rise since Auckland Council as a super city was formed in 2010. For the average household wondering what on earth to do with all the extra money that comes into their bank accounts, annual rates will climb from $4,023 to $4,341.
David Farrar: The wagons are circling
Labels: David Farrar, Te Pati Maori leadership1 News reports:
Speaking in Māori, former party president Dame Naida Glavish said Te Pāti Māori was not established to belittle people, but rather for the betterment of all Māori.
She said that had not been evident this year.
Mike's Minute: I'm confident for 2026
Labels: Consumer confidence, Economic turnaround, Mike HoskingIt probably came out on the wrong day to get the coverage it deserved, but one of the last pieces in the economic turnaround told us we are basically there.
Consumer confidence is back, up six points to 98. It needs to be 100 or more for expansion, but it’s the highest figure since June and backs the business confidence, which last week was up a lot.
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
David Farrar: Another school lunch beauty
Labels: David Farrar, Mouldy free school lunches, Unfrigerated stored mealsReaders will no doubt have seen the numerous stories about mouldy lunches served at Haeata Community Campus. There were multiple stories on all media platforms reporting that these mouldy meals were the result of Compass, the meal provider.
Radio NZ, and other media, failed to ask any questions at all, as it fit the narrative that the revised school lunch programme was bad that the left love. They didn’t ask:
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government should not fund Ozempic
Labels: Health New Zealand, Heather du Plessis-Allan, Weight loss drugs, World Health OrganisationSo basically, make it not just for the rich, but for the poor as well.
Ryan Bridge: Rate caps are happening, but will they work?
Labels: Local council, Rates caps, Ryan BridgeBut does a 2-4% band simply mean we're going to pay more in other fees?
Rates aren't the only way these guys make money off us, we also pay for specific things like resource and building consents, LIM requests, dog registrations, and campgrounds.
Ani O'Brien: Dirty Politics 2.0 - Labour’s covert influencer says what Chris Hipkins can’t
Labels: Ani O'Brien, Attack dog, Jordan Rivers, Labour PartyJordan Rivers has failed to disclose his employment in the Labour leader's office
When Nicky Hager published Dirty Politics a decade ago, he exposed a political ecosystem in which government insiders supposedly used independent bloggers to wage smear campaigns, break stories, and launder political attacks through channels that looked organic. Hager argued that politicians fed attack lines to bloggers like Cameron Slater. Slater published the hit jobs and ministers kept their hands clean.
Chris Morrison: New Scientific Findings Expose the Hoax Behind Meat Eating Climate Alarm
Labels: Chris Morrison, Climate change, Methane emissions, Net ZeroSensational new scientific findings have blown holes in the climate hoax opinion that humans need to give up eating meat to save the planet. The effect of methane (CH4), a minor ‘greenhouse’ gas, have been grossly exaggerated to suggest that animal farming poses a significant threat to the global climate. But the invented threat relies on multiplying by around ten the length of time that CH4 stays in the atmosphere – an invention under Global Warming Potential 100 know as GWP100 that is in widespread use in activist circles, including the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At current emission levels, five Italian scientists predict 54% less warming than under GWP100, while small decreasing emissions, possible with some changes in animal diets, produce only tiny amounts of claimed warming.
Chris Lynch: Government moves to cap rates and curb cost pressures on ratepayers
Labels: Chris Lynch, Rates cappingThe Government has announced plans to introduce a national rates cap, saying the move has been designed to help councils control rates increases and reduce pressure on household budgets.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts said rising rates were becoming unsustainable for many residents, with some communities facing repeated double digit increases.
Dave Patterson: What to Do About Venezuela?
Labels: Dave Patterson, Drugs, Nicolas Maduro, VenezuelaThe war on drugs wasn’t a real war until President Trump made it one.
President Trump has made Venezuela a special project, presenting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the face of the evil visited on America by drug and human traffickers. Maduro does not personally run the cartel’s transnational criminal operations, of course, but he facilitates. In some cases, he may actively support and protect them. Trump has taken a multi-pronged approach to stopping this.
Trump’s Venezuela Strategy Is Three-fold
David Farrar: The maths results show why people hate the media
Labels: David Farrar, Education reforms, Maths acceleration trial resultsHow many stories have you seen in the Media where some group is complaining about there being less of a focus on the Treaty of Waitangi in the education system? I’ve lost count, but it is scores and scores.
How many have you seen about the results of the maths acceleration trial?
Kerre Woodham: Labour makes big promises, but can they deliver?
Labels: Government expections and obligations, GP general practice loans, GP shortage, Kerre Woodham, Labour PartyHundreds of the Labour Party faithful gathered over the weekend in Auckland to begin the march back to Parliament's government benches. Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray was preaching to the converted when she told the crowd that New Zealand's Pavlova paradise has been eaten up by the rich. She said Labour needed to give workers a reason to vote for them and to deliver fundamental and systemic change. Yay! Cue loud rapturous applause.
Bob Edlin: Minister is admonished for not mentioning the muting of Maori media.....
Labels: Bob Edlin, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Hate Speech, Human rights, Lady Tureiti MoxonMinister is admonished for not mentioning the muting of Maori media – but budget cuts have been bruising for ALL media
Remember what Budget 2025 did for the news media?
The government provided $6.4 million over four years to hire journalists in heartland New Zealand for reporting on councils and courts.
JC: Will Winston Go Right or Left?
Labels: Election 2026, JC, Winston PetersAn article in the Weekend Herald by political reporter Jamie Ensor discussed the growing ties between NZ First and Labour. Factually, I could not fault it but I also sensed that it was written with a modicum of hope that Winston would go with Labour. I think Jamie might be disappointed. The possibility Winston will is, however, forever present and I suspect Jamie’s article is a vehicle to get people to think this might be a good idea. Jamie is trying to sow the seed that it realistically could work.
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Judy Gill: What “Giving Effect To Te Tiriti” Means in Schools
Labels: Commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to Māori as a Te Tiriti partner, Judy Gill, NZ education systemAcross New Zealand, schools are declaring that they will “give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
Many parents assume this means teaching New Zealand history or acknowledging Māori culture. In reality, in modern policy language, it means something far more structural.
Caleb Anderson: The American Founders and the lessons we refuse to learn
Labels: American history, Caleb Anderson, NZ education systemHumanity, irrespective of time, place, beliefs, or any other point of difference, seems incomprehensibly blind to the experiences of those who have gone before us, even (and sometimes especially) where these are amply documented, as well as somewhat indifferent toward those who will come after us, and who have to deal with the messes we make.
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are local councils competent enough to meet rate caps?
Labels: Heather du Plessis-Allan, Local council, Rates capsRyan Bridge: Labour should pay attention to the housing market
Labels: Housing Market, Ryan BridgeYes, a recovery is underway.
But the brutal truth of 2025 was summed up rather well, I thought, by Sir Bill English in an interview about the current state of play.
Eliora: This Conservative Man Has the Experience
Labels: Election 2026, Eliora, Winston PetersThink strategically folks! Which leader will conservative Kiwis vote for next year? Luxon, Seymour or Peters or...waste a vote on a very minor party? Conservative Kiwis are smart. Labour, the party that folded and became very unpopular at the last election, has astonishingly, overtaken National in recent polls. Voters are unpredictable and have gone all over the place in the last eight years with their votes. Labour won in a landslide with Ardern as leader and then quickly took a massive hit under her disastrous leadership.
David Farrar: KiwiSaver moving to 6%
Labels: David Farrar, KiwiSaver, NZ SuperannuationNational announced that if re-elected they will increase the default KiwiSaver contribution rates from 3% to 4% (already announced as government policy) and then to 6%. The rates will be:
Lindsay Mitchell: Boosting birth rates with benefit payments is a very bad idea
Labels: Benefit payments, Birth rates, Lindsay MitchellLast week the UK government gave in to the growing pressure from activists to scrap their two child cap on welfare benefits - this despite polling showing majority support for the cap. Glancing through commentary in response to this move, there is an increasingly common theme appearing. That governments should not curb welfare payments for children when the fertility rates are heading south. Or, put another way, birth rates should be incentivised - not discouraged. Who cares where the money to raise children comes from?
Mike's Minute: I think we should get rid of some jury trials
Labels: Jury trials, Mike HoskingIn the UK the Justice Secretary has suggested the end of the jury trial, except for rape, murder, manslaughter, or what he calls "cases that pass a national interest test".
The idea has received the sort of reaction you would expect from the usual quarters you would expect it from.
Alwyn Poole: How to Improve Attendance in New Zealand.
Labels: Alwyn Poole, School attendanceSchool attendance in NZ is in deep trouble. Not just in reference to our historic levels but also compared to other OECD countries.
New Zealand’s school attendance is lower than the OECD average, especially in upper secondary ages, with rates dropping from 70% to 50% between 2015 and 2025.
Dr Don Brash: At the end of year two, how are they doing?
Labels: Coaliton Government, Dr Don Brash, Foreign policy, Gov't debt, Housing, Productivity growth, Racial equalityWith less than a year to go to the next general election, polls suggest that the current Government could well lose to a Labour-led coalition, despite the mess which the last Labour Government left just two years ago. Is that negativity warranted?
There are all kinds of criteria one might use to assess the Government but in recent years I have consistently used just five.
Henry Johnston: The GDP myth - What it really shows, and what it doesn’t
Labels: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Henry JohnstonThe most-often cited metric of economic success more often than not simply tells us what we want to hear – or what the West wants us to hear.
A few weeks after the Russia-Ukraine war began, Belgian economist Paul De Grauwe penned an article for the website of the London School of Economics with the title ‘Russia cannot win the war’. No military specialist, De Grauwe based his conclusion on some simple math: Russia’s GDP was roughly equivalent to the combined output of Belgium and the Netherlands. Therefore, he claimed, Russia is an “economic dwarf in Europe.” Its military operation was thus doomed.
Monday, December 1, 2025
NZCPR Newsletter: UNDRIP Disaster
Labels: Dr Muriel Newman, NZCPR Weekly Newsletter, UNDRIP DisasterAt 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!
Labels: Claire Charters, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), Human rights complaint, LadyTureiti Haromi Moxon, Pee Kay, Roimata Smail, Te Kōhao Health, United Nations (UN), Whanau OraTureiti 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
Labels: Professor Robert MacCulloch, Sir Roger Douglas, SuperannuationPRESS RELEASE
Professor Robert MacCulloch
Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics
University of Auckland
Sir Roger Douglas
NZ Finance Minister 1984-88
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.
Cam Slater: Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits.....
Labels: Cam Slater, Human Rights Commission (HRC), Ministry of Health, Monopoly profits, Otago University, Tobacco, Very-low nicotine content (VLNC)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.
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