MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Christmas in the Colonies

Dear all,

Thanks for reading the columns I have written in 2025 and for the helpful comments. In celebration of Christmas and the New Year, I am sending you an interesting and entertaining poem.

This poem was written by Thomas Bracken (1841–1898) – the Irish-born New Zealand poet, journalist and politician. He is best known for writing “God Defend New Zealand”, which was adopted as the country’s national anthem. He published several volumes of poetry celebrating the New Zealand landscape and identity and also served as a member of parliament.

John McLean: Axeable agencies of state

The Government and main stream media outlets have been doing their best to paint a picture of an economic upswing, just in time for Christmas. But the portrayed rosy economic future is a vision through rose tinted glasses. Inflation is at 3%, the highest it’s been since mid-2024 and unemployment, at 5.3%, is the highest since 2016.

More particularly, New Zealand’s core national debt had risen from $81 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2023 (the last quarter of the departed Labour Government’s term in office), to $170 billion at the end of Q3 2024, to $182 billion at the end of Q3 2025. The annual interest cost of NZ’s debt is about $10 billion. New Zealand’s debt will top $200 billion within the next few years (that’s $40,000 for every single man, woman and child in New Zealand). Nothing’s really changed, economically, since my Substack exactly two years ago:

Ani O'Brien: Brian Tamaki and the Sikh parade confrontation

Facts, fears, and the kimits of protest

The confrontation that occurred during a Sikh religious procession in South Auckland a few days ago has ignited condemnation and raised questions about protest, imported political conflicts, and national identity. While the incident itself was brief and not violent, it has alarmed many who do not want to see the cultural and religious disharmony that is rife overseas playing out in New Zealand. Anxiety over immigration levels and the challenges of multiculturalism have become more pronounced globally and this is creating tensions over public expressions of culture and belief.

Bob Edlin: Losing candidate has cause to rue spending $6426 on litigation rather than on her election campaign

We are wondering, here at PoO, what might have transpired in Porirua had a candidate who lost by just nine votes taken a different tack.

She should have done much better – we calculate – by spending more on campaigning and by taking advantage of Policy.nz’s efforts to broadcast policies to voters. See above to learn what it can tell us about the candidate in question, Jess Te Huia.

Matua Kahurangi: Free trade, open borders - The India deal New Zealanders never voted for

Even though I am on annual holidays, I thought it was right to write something on this topic, because in my opinion we really are losing our Kiwi way of life in some ways. If there is one thing New Zealanders should be alert to right now, it is the quiet habit of governments giving too much away in the name of “progress”, while ordinary people are left to deal with the consequences.

That is why New Zealand First is right to be deeply sceptical about the so called free trade deal with India. Not because trade is bad in principle, but because this deal looks neither free nor fair, and it once again treats immigration concessions as a bargaining chip rather than a national interest issue.

JC: Leftist Bias Is Here To Stay

The two public broadcasters in this country, Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand, both had a chance to redeem themselves recently and, unsurprisingly, neither of them took it. These two organisations, that we the taxpayers have the privilege of funding are forced to fund, appear reluctant to change their ways: they are hotbeds for left-wing journalist activism and seem happy to keep it that way.

Tuesday December 23, 2025 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.12.25

Tuesday December 23, 2025 

News:
Hipkins targets clean sweep of Māori seats, says Government driving a wedge with Māori
Upon reflecting on 2025, Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he is concerned about how the Government has operated over the past year, warning it is driving a wedge between Māori and non-Māori as the election draws closer.

David Farrar: NZ and India agree an FTA

I was sceptical when Christopher Luxon said prior to the election that he thought they could do a free trade agreement with India within three years. India has been a notoriously challenging country to do FTAs with, and the relationship between governments was quite poor under Labour. The thought of a comprehensive FTA so quickly was somewhere between ambitious and unlikely.

But Todd McClay, and no doubt many MFAT staff, have delivered and an agreement has been reached – in just two years. I have little doubt that the PM’s personal commitment to the FTA, alongside his trips to India, made a critical difference also.

Key aspects are:

Ramesh Thakur: Appeasement 0, Jew Hatred 15

As, slowly and painfully, we come to terms with what happened on Bondi Beach on Sunday, I divide my reactions into four parts: one question each addressed to the Prime Minister and the virulent anti-Israeli protestors, a comment on the Prime Minister’s leadership failings, and an anticipatory reaction to charges of Islamophobia.

Dave Patterson: The Greatest Threat in Western Hemisphere? Transnational Terrorists

The single largest threat to the US in the Western Hemisphere is transnational terrorist criminal organizations, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. This point of view is consistent with the US National Security Strategy that places the Western Hemisphere, America’s backyard, as a priority for geostrategic emphasis. To that end, the Trump administration has adopted a robust and many-faceted set of actions to address the threat.

David Farrar: Its very clear Tamihere is the true leader of Te Pāti Māori

The Post reports:

Indeed, she says in her sworn affidavit that Tamihere had been chairing the weekly caucus meetings of MPs in Parliament since September. And it was he who sent Kapa-Kingi an ‘ultimatum’ on her overspending that sent the simmering issue into overdrive.

To have the party president chair caucus instead of the leader or a co-leader is unprecedented. Chairing caucus is a major part of the role of the leader.

Kerre Woodham: Ask not what your country can do for you

New Zealand Inc. is in trouble and it's on us —you and me— to fix it. Not politicians, not economists, not even our blessed farmers who've got us out of trouble time and time again – it is on us, New Zealand voters.

It doesn't matter whether we vote left or right, red, blue, green, yellow, or black. We all have to give our political parties the cojones they need to enact the policies that will save this country. Treasury's been warning us for years now, decades. Current government policies —whichever government has been in— are not sustainable.

Kevin: Thoughts for the Year

As it’s the end of the year I’d thought I’d do a ‘thoughts of the year’ post – a list of things and events that were important to me. So, in no particular order:

The Murder of Charlie Kirk

Here, it’s not so much his murder, which was a tragedy, but the reaction of his detractors: from outright mocking to lying and taking what he said out context. I really have no words for the staggering level of vitriol, although I’m not sure if even vitriol is the right word.

Monday December 22, 2025 

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Damien Grant: New Zealand deserves better than Nicola Willis’ plan

It is four sleeps to Christmas. A time of make believe where we embrace the wonder of Santa Claus to delight children and ourselves.

Make believe is a powerful element of the human condition. The willingness to embrace an illusion is a pre-requisite to enjoy a movie, magic show or a marriage.

Insights From Social Media: Dame Anne Salmond.....

Dame Anne Salmond - Leading the Charge of New Zealand Romantic Thinking - by Colinxy

The Romantic Cloak

Few figures embody the Romantic impulse in New Zealand’s intellectual life more vividly than Dame Anne Salmond. Her writings, media appearances, and social media engagements reveal a deep commitment to cultural relativism and poststructuralist thought. She venerates the theorists of fragmentation and ambiguity, and in doing so, positions herself as a defender of what is known as the “Noble Savage.” Within this framework, behaviours that might otherwise be condemned are excused if they emerge from her preferred cultural narrative, while anything associated with European ancestry is treated with suspicion—except, of course, when it comes to herself and her academic circle.

David Farrar: Quite a few green shoots!

Business NZ says:

After a prolonged period of stagnation and negative per capita growth, the New Zealand economy is now expected to expand at just under 3% per annum through to 2027.

Both official and forward-looking indicators point to a steady improvement in the economic outlook as we enter 2026. Key indicators of growth include:

Graham Adams: Maori nationalism takes a hammering in 2025

At the end of 2024, Māori nationalists were riding high in their quest to assert a special place in the nation’s laws and policy.

In November, the video of Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clark leading a haka in Parliament and ripping up a copy of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill racked up hundreds of millions of views worldwide.

James Fite: Operation Hawkeye Strike - Trump Responds to ISIS Attack in Syria

The president promised there would be retaliation.

One week ago today, two American soldiers and a civilian translator were killed in an ambush attack in Syria, presumably perpetrated by an ISIS terrorist, according to intelligence reports. President Donald Trump promised “serious retaliation.” Yesterday afternoon, we found out exactly what that meant. At 4 p.m. Eastern on Friday, December 19, US Central Command launched Operation Hawkeye Strike. A combination of fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery bombarded more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria, targeting known ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites.

Gary Judd KC: Bondi, Tarrant, victimhood, faith, the primitive, relativism, cultural boundaries of knowledge

The attack on members of Sydney’s Jewish community by the father and son one writer has dubbed the Bondi Barbarians is a shockingly horrific event. It is emerging that the shooters were devotees of ISIS who had just returned from Mindanao, a Muslim outpost in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. It is supposed they may have gone there to be trained for the terrorist acts committed just days after their return to Sydney. Reports indicate possession of ISIS regalia and association with known ISIS members in Sydney.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: From blueprints to building

After many difficult years, 2025 felt different. It was not easier. The economy remained stagnant and the reform agenda demanded hard choices. But attitudes shifted. New Zealand stopped merely diagnosing its problems and started taking practical steps to solve them.

Bob Edlin: Here are the numbers the PM didn’t have at his finger tips....

Here are the numbers the PM didn’t have at his finger tips – but we are still looking for his immutable laws of economics

The PM – it is fair to suppose – did not have the latest stats by his side when he was questioned by Chris Hipkins in Parliament the other day.

On the other hand, he should have had a rough idea of what has been going on in the labour market but he was not of a mind to admit it.

And so he ducked the question.

DTNZ: NZ and Japan sign new defence and security agreements

New Zealand and Japan have signed two new agreements aimed at strengthening defence cooperation and information sharing between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins confirmed the arrangements following meetings in Tokyo.

Sunday December 21, 2025 

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Net Zero Watch Samizdat: All I want for Christmas is cheap power

UK

Miliband to miss clean power target by three years

Despite all the pain for British billpayers, a new report warns Miliband is set to miss his 2030 clean power target by three years. There’s not a hope in hell Miliband meets his target for 2030, or by 2033 for that matter.

Geoff Parker: Wai 1040 Isn’t History - It’s Politics Backdated

The Waitangi Tribunal’s Wai 1040 inquiry is presented as a long-overdue correction to New Zealand’s constitutional history. Its central claim is stark: that Māori never ceded sovereignty in 1840, and that the Crown has governed without legitimate authority ever since.

That claim may be influential in contemporary politics, but it does not withstand historical scrutiny.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 20 December 2025

🇦🇺 Naming the problem in the Bondi Beach Terror Attack

There is nothing I can say that has not already been said about the terror attack at Bondi Beach this week. The details are well known, the heroes, the victims, and the evil perpetrators have been named. What I will do is name plainly the things that unfortunately are not always named as explicitly as they should be…

Robert G Patman: Trump’s new security strategy exposes the limits of NZ’s ‘softly-softly’ diplomacy

President Donald Trump’s recently-issued National Security Strategy marks a decisive break in United States foreign policy. It also poses an uncomfortable challenge for New Zealand and other countries that have long depended on a rules-based order.

The document formalises the most significant shift in Washington’s global outlook since 1947. It confirms, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned earlier this year, that the “West as we knew it no longer exists”.

John MacDonald: Are we ready to accept the truth about NZ Super?

After yesterday’s half-year fiscal update from the Government, the canary in the mine is gasping for air and the elephant in the room is walking all over everything.

And economist Cameron Bagrie is saying that we can’t ignore either of them - particularly in relation to the long-term outlook and what it means for superannuation and retirement planning.

Melanie Phillips: The global intifada

How many wake-up calls does anyone need? The cliché that the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre was just that is singularly inappropriate.

Australia and the West have had one wake-up call after another. Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Australian synagogues have been firebombed; as elsewhere, anti-Israel marches have regularly chanted for the mass murder of Jews; and on campus, Jewish students and academics have been harassed and intimidated.

Kerre Woodham: Rejecting the Waihi gold mine project would've made no sense

You can take the girl out of Waihi, but you can't take the Waihi out of the girl, I tell you.

News that Oceana Gold's Waihi North project has been approved makes good sense, as far as I'm concerned. The permit that was confirmed yesterday guarantees the securing of 350 existing jobs, the creation of 100 plus new roles, the project to be in operation until at least 2042, so that gives some continuity, some certainty, which is fantastic, and a billion-dollar investment from Oceana Gold.

David Harvey: A Saucerful of Secrets

TVNZ Obfuscates Balance and Bias

In July 2025 it was announced that TVNZ was commissioning an independent review of its news. The focus was mainly on balance and bias. Concerns had been expressed by the Government that TVNZ needed to improve its trust levels.

Dr Don Brash: RMA Reform - A step forward. But concerns for equal citizenship

It is almost the end of 2025 and, as you may know, the Government has recently introduced to Parliament the two Bills it seeks to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) with.

The Bills were pushed through first reading under urgency and have been referred to the Environment Select Committee. We will shortly be able to make submissions.

We have already looked at the Bills and sought some initial legal advice. As you can anticipate, there is a lot to take in, but I wanted to give you some initial impressions.

Saturday December 20, 2025 

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Karl du Fresne: Death Wish 2025

I did something last Sunday that I hadn’t done for probably a year or more. I listened to RNZ’s Mediawatch. 

There was a time when I tuned in to the show every week. But as with so much RNZ content, I grew disenchanted to the point where I simply decided I was better off without it.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: My politician of the year

It’s that time of the year where we pick our politician of the year.

For me, it's the same person as last year.

Political commentators, myself included at times, have an unfortunate tendency to sometimes choose politicians because they’re good at playing the political game.

Geoff Parker: Bastion Point - The Untold Context

Public discussion of Bastion Point is often framed as a simple morality tale: an unjust Crown taking followed decades later by righteous protest and inevitable redress. History is rarely that neat. When the full record is examined, Bastion Point looks less like a story of continuous bad faith and more like a sequence of decisions made — sometimes bluntly, sometimes imperfectly — but largely in good faith, according to the laws and public expectations of their time.

Compensation and the 1886 taking

Karl du Fresne: RNZ's boss gives New Zealand the fingers

A few thoughts on the announcement that John Campbell will take over next year as co-host of RNZ’s Morning Report:

■ RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson had a choice. He could make a polarising appointment or a non-polarising one. He chose the former. In doing so, he gave the fingers to the large (and I suspect growing) number of New Zealanders who neither like Campbell nor trust him as an impartial journalist and commentator. Disregarding RNZ’s obligation to serve all New Zealanders, Thompson made an appointment that he must know will alienate people and almost certainly lead to a further loss of faith in RNZ. He didn't have to do it; there were alternatives.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.12.25

Saturday December 20, 2025 

News:
Tribunal: Crown governance denied Te Raki Māori authority guaranteed by Te Tiriti
The Waitangi Tribunal has released a major new volume of its Te Paparahi o Te Raki inquiry, examining Crown governance in Te Raki (Northland) and finding the Crown systematically denied Te Raki Māori the tino rangatiratanga guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi by marginalising Māori authority in favour of Pākehā-led national and local governance structures.

David Farrar: Labour’s GP policy is even worse than I thought

I previously blogged:

Labour’s policy to have taxpayers fund three GP visits a year to every NZer aged 15+ will be costly and will also make it much harder for people to see a GP.

The policy is not targeted towards low and middle income NZers. It will apply to everyone regardless of income or wealth. So every Labour MP will get taxpayer funded GP visits despite earning around $200,000 a year or more.

Ani O'Brien: NZ Courts think its 2018 and declare puberty blockers reversible

New Zealand's activist judiciary strikes again

I have taken several deep breaths before bashing this response out, but do excuse me if my incredulity and rage is particularly evident. You can read the initial piece I wrote about the Puberty Blocker ban here. This piece was written in a rush so apologies for errors.

The New Zealand High Court has just handed down a judgment that effectively says because puberty blockers are being prescribed, they must therefore be safe. Pretty circular logic there, champ. Basically the reasoning is that because doctors are using them, they must be okay and the state should not interfere. And because harm has not yet been universally acknowledged by the medical establishment, the law should treat that harm as unproven, marginal, or speculative. Sounds a bit back-to-front.

JC: What Is up With Willie ‘Wonky’ Jackson?

And where’s the mainstream media?

There’s an old proverb ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire’. It first became popular in the English language in 1546, meaning that rumours or signs of trouble usually point to some kind of underlying truth. This appears to be very much the case with the current situation Willie Jackson is in. Here we have another classic case of a member of the ‘Māori elite class’ thinking they can exert power in any way they see fit and get away with it.

Mark Angelides: Blockade - Venezuela Gets the Terror Treatment

A total blockade of oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuelan waters has been imposed by the Trump administration, ratcheting up tensions that came to a head Tuesday evening, December 16. Ordering a “total and complete blockade,” President Donald Trump has escalated the South American situation in an effort to disrupt and destroy the flow of illegal drugs into the US. And yet, the political and economic ramifications go far beyond the drug cartels.

John MacDonald: What needs to happen because of our terrorism complacency

You would think that, having had a major terror attack here, we’d be the last people that needed to be told after what happened in Bondi on Sunday night that we’re too complacent.

But that’s what security experts are saying. That New Zealand remains complacent and naive, despite 51 people being killed in the mosque attacks in Christchurch in March 2019.

Kerre Woodham: Auckland is far behind the eight ball when it comes to trains

For those who have been here over summer, Auckland is a lovely place to be. A lot of residents push off, and it feels like the city is yours to explore, and visitors are very welcome and make a welcome addition to the city, new people with new energy and seeing things that you don't see, seeing the city through new eyes.

But it's going to be a little bit tricky to get around, unless you fancy a bus on a sweltering day or you bring your car, because Auckland trains have announced that they're delivering the last big push on the rail network rebuild and other critical city rail link preparations.

David Farrar: The UK Labour crisis

The latest YouGov poll is brutal for UK Labour. Don’t even look at what all voters think. Let’s just look at what voters who voted Labour in 2024 say.

Friday December 19, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: This is why postal voting needs to go

Surely that judge throwing out the election result in Auckland has started the clock ticking on postal voting.

This case may not seem a big deal given that it involves just 79 votes, in just one subdivision, in just one relatively small local board election in Auckland.

John McLean: Bondi Barbarians

Bad or bonkers? The role of bad ideas in abominable behaviour

I rarely comment on events outside of New Zealand, because I almost never have anything to say. Oodles of others, closer to the action and with deeper insights and inside sources, do to death big overseas happenings, including mass killings.

But in the wake of the Bondi Beach Barbarity*, I’ll offer a few thoughts from my New Zealand perspective.

Nick Clark: Finally, RMA replacement worth the name

For over three decades, the Resource Management Act has been a significant hindrance to New Zealand's economic growth. It promised sustainable management but delivered housing crises, infrastructure delays, stifled productivity and environmental decline. Successive governments tinkered while the fundamental problems festered.

This week, the Government introduced legislation to finally address the disease.

Dr Michael Johnston: The story that did not count

In many countries, an educational study claiming a radical improvement in mathematics learning would receive considerable media attention. But not, it seems, in New Zealand.

Two weeks ago, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the results of a trial involving Year 7 and 8 students who were at least a year behind in maths. Nearly 1,400 such students received small-group tutoring four times a week for 12 weeks. In that time, they made an average of two years’ progress.

Roger Partridge: A plan that isn’t really a plan

A plan typically answers straightforward questions: what is needed, what should be done first, and why.

This month, Ministers will receive the Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year National Infrastructure Plan. It will not answer those questions – although not because the Commission has failed. It will have done exactly what it was tasked with doing.

Dr Michael John Schmidt: Why the Quiet on This?

Australia’s renewable energy sector has recently been jolted by the discovery of asbestos in the imported components of wind turbines. The material identified is ‘white asbestos’, banned in Australia since 2003. It is found in the brake and clutch pads used in the internal service lifts of turbine towers – the elevators that carry technicians up for maintenance. While the contamination is confined to a specific subsystem rather than blades or towers, the implications are serious. More seriously, ‘white asbestos’ was banned in New Zealand in 1984. It has long been recognised in this country that the substance is harmful.