Matua Kahurangi: When protest crosses the line

The dangerous drift of the radical left in New Zealand

It’s getting really unhinged out there. What started as political protest is now turning into intimidation and violence, and it’s coming entirely from the loony left. The latest example is the madness that unfolded outside Winston Peters’ Auckland home, where a protester allegedly smashed a window during their useless pro-Palestine demonstration. According to RNZ, a 29-year-old man has been arrested and charged with burglary after the incident, which left glass scattered across Peters’ dog’s bed. That’s not activism. That’s aggression.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 5.10.25

Wednesday October 8, 2025 

News:
$50K grant for new Mauao project
A new initiative to protect and enhance Mauao has received a major funding boost, with BayTrust awarding a $50,000 grant to Mauao Trust to launch a community-focused kaitiakitanga project.

The Ngā Kaitiaki ō Mauao Project will deepen public involvement in caring for the maunga, with cultural practices, environmental stewardship, and education at its core.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are we asking too much in local body elections?

We need to talk about why we're persisting with having so many local body politicians.

We clearly have too many positions, don't we? I mean, just look at how many people are winning their seats at the moment.

The elections are this weekend - look at how many people are winning their seats without any elections, without anybody standing against them. With more than 200, that's 1 in every 7 council races.

Ryan Bridge: Complaining about councils, yet again

Just when you thought local council couldn’t get more absurd and extravagant, they’ve dreamt up a new way to not make decisions. To do less, with more.

Citizens assemblies. A crackpot idea the Romans once used. But Romans did lots of weird stuff we stopped doing, and this should be one of them.

Chris Lynch: The Greens have crossed a line they cannot take back

The activist class in New Zealand has perfected the art of playing the victim.

Every time they are challenged, they cry persecution.

Every time they are criticised, they claim oppression.

Kerre Woodham: A different view point does not permit you to invade someone's home

When I heard the Green Party co-leaders were holding a press conference yesterday, I thought fleetingly, ever the optimist, "Oh, they might be holding a press conference calling for the cessation of protests outside the home of a fellow parliamentarian."

DTNZ: French PM resigns hours after naming new cabinet

Sebastien Lecornu has stepped down after 27 days, making his tenure the shortest in French history.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has announced his resignation less than 12 hours after appointing a new cabinet. The French parliament is deeply divided over efforts to pass a new budget that would tackle rising debt.

Graham Adams: Compulsory Treaty courses tip of the iceberg

Last week, David Seymour enthusiastically welcomed the recommendation by Auckland University’s Senate to make the compulsory first-year courses on the Treaty and te ao Māori voluntary after Act had publicly campaigned on the issue.

He described the Senate’s “two to one” vote in favour of voluntary enrolment as a “massive victory for people… to make up their own mind”.

Matua Kahurangi: NZ Herald buys silence

Free speech champion gagged by contract

The New Zealand Herald has revealed itself as one of the biggest bullies in the media landscape, and the latest example is their handling of Jonathan Ayling, the recently departed chief executive of the Free Speech Union.

Ele Ludemann: The benefit burden

The superannuation burden as the aging population grows gets far more attention than the benefit burden.

The alternative to aging is death and some people receive benefits because of disability or illness which prevent them from working.

David Farrar: No the activists are not kidnapped

The purpose of the so called aid flotilla to Gaza isn’t to deliver aid (they could deliver it via the normal route). It is to get arrested.

It is worth noting Israel has failed at times to get enough aid into Gaza, which they have a responsibility to do. However it is worth noting that the worse appears to be over. The JP reports:

David Farrar: Criticising the PIJF was not disinformation

Roger Partridge writes:

Local journalism faces genuine crisis. Towns across New Zealand risk becoming “news deserts” where civic life unfolds without professional scrutiny. Dr Gavin Ellis’s comprehensive report for Koi Tū documents this decline with sobering thoroughness.

Tuesday October 7, 2025 

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Wendy Geus: Kids need to memorize tables, basic facts and spelling, not karakia and waiata

Do NZ's appalling attendance rates reflect parents' rejection of race mandated education?

Are the many women with their healthy, energetic kids I see in the supermarket during school hours rejecting Stanford's mandatory, Maori infused programme, or do they just prefer to home school their offspring? I am not talking about unattended school age thugs terrorising shop keepers, but respectable looking women with their school age kids in tow.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: These protesters are risking real goodwill to their cause

On these protesters who've been harassing Winston and his neighbours - even as recently as last night - they really have to call this nonsense off.

Turning up at someone's house in the evening, or as the Prime Minister said to Mike this morning, at 11 at night or 4 in the morning is not protesting. That's actually just intimidating.

Ryan Bridge: The power of protesting peacefully

Freedom is the thing I think we love the most about living in our country like ours: democratic, pretty liberal.

We fight, to protest, we argue, we debate. But unlike it seems most of the rest of the world, we don't get physical.

Chris Morrison: Met Office Deletes Huge Chunks of Historic Temperature Data After Fabrication Claims

Last August, the Daily Sceptic drew attention to the UK Met Office inventing temperature data at its fictitious ‘open’ weather station at Lowestoft. Figures were said to be compiled from “well-correlated neighbouring stations”, but research by citizen sleuth Ray Sanders found there were no such operations within a 40-mile radius.

Kerre Woodham: A tough but fair change to the benefit

On the face of it, it seems tough. Telling young people to get out there and get a job when the economy is tanked and unemployment is high, is you'd think, unrealistic.

From November of next year, young people wanting to get job seeker support or the equivalent emergency benefit will have to take a parental income test to see whether their parents can support them instead of the taxpayer.

Ani O'Brien: The media missionaries destroying NZ journalism

New Zealand’s press gallery doesn’t just fail to hold power to account, it is part of the power it’s meant to watch.

There was a tweet doing the rounds yesterday that I kept thinking about. It kept bugging me until I gave up trying to resist complaining about the media in New Zealand again and sat to write this. It’s from the anonymous account @Suitandtie9999. and summarises very recent examples of how New Zealand’s media class protects the political Left while pretending to be neutral.

David Farrar: Throw it out

The Local Government Commission has published a draft code of conduct for local authority members. The idea is to have a standard one as best practice, but what truely have come up with is so terrible it should be scrapped.

Andrew Moran: The Japanification of China

Will the world's second-largest economy be Japanified?

No country for old yen, or big trouble in little China? While the world’s two economic powerhouses can share movie title puns, they are also experiencing comparable economic conditions, albeit three decades apart. In the aftermath of the pandemic, there have been increasing signs of the Japanification of China, which could threaten not only Beijing’s influence but also President Donald Trump’s efforts to rebalance international trade.

Lindsay Mitchell: National trying but nowhere near hard enough

RNZ's headline reads:

"Jobseeker: Parents earning more than $65k must support 18-19yo children"

Inter-generational welfare dependence is a thing. A big thing.

2014 actuarial findings revealed:

Roger Partridge: The Discipline of Consequential Foreign Policy

Why Winston Peters Said No

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters did something unusual at the UN General Assembly last week: he chose discipline over gesture.


While Australia, the UK, and Canada announced recognition of Palestinian statehood with the solemnity of nations doing Important Things, Peters told the General Assembly that New Zealand would not follow. Not because we oppose a Palestinian state – we explicitly support it – but because recognition now “would serve as little more than an existential act of defiance against an unalterable state of affairs.”

Kevin: Yes Virginia, AI Is Coming for Your Job

 If you’re a middle manager, AI is coming for your job. Who is safe? Tradies and jobs involving some sort of human creativity or judgement beyond what AI can or will ever do. And we will always need people to work one step above AI. But overall, yes, AI is coming for your job.

Monday October 6, 2025 

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NZCPR Newsletter: Fighting Elections

Two years ago, we were counting the days to the 14 October General Election. With the left-leaning legacy media in overdrive – promoting the parties on the left and attacking those on the centre-right, New Zealanders desperate for change were anxiously wondering whether enough was being done to overthrow Labour.

The problem was that Jacinda Ardern and her ‘we are the sole source of truth’ ruling elite had not only crushed our rights during those Covid years but were radically changing our culture too. By forcing He Puapua – their secret agenda to replace democracy with tribal rule – onto the country without any public mandate whatsoever, Kiwis had lost faith in Government and were looking for parties willing to dismantle the political establishment and give them their country back.

Pee Kay: Remember Kelvin Davis?

Kelvin Davis, the former teacher was first elected as a Labour list MP in 2008 after being recruited by Labour MP, Shane Jones. But Kelvin was not re-elected in 2011. Kelvin hung in there and was, again, returned to Parliament as a Labour list MP in May 2014 and went on to win the electorate of Te Tai Tokerau that September. He retained the seat in the 2017 and 2020 elections, but was defeated in the 2023 election. After briefly returning to Parliament as a list MP that year, Kelvin announced he would retire from politics on Waitangi Day, 6 February 2024.

Matua Kahurangi: A National Embarrassment

NZ Cricket’s cringe-inducing cultural clanger

If you follow me on X, you might have seen the clip below, which I posted of the so-called “cultural performance” before the T20 cricket match between New Zealand and Australia. Honestly, it was one of the most humiliating spectacles I’ve ever watched – a waka-wreck from start to finish.

Chris Lynch: Government invests $42 million to turn natural resources into medicines and bio-based products

The Government is putting $42 million into new science research that will look at how New Zealand’s natural plants, animals and other resources can be turned into products like medicines, cosmetics, food supplements and advanced materials for export.

Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti said the money will fund a new Biodiscovery Platform, led by the Bioeconomy Science Institute, over the next seven years.

Matua Kahurangi: Ferris vs Labour

Te Pāti Māori is once again proving that it is its own worst enemy, and at the centre of the circus is none other than Takuta Ferris. His latest outburst - a video rant uploaded online, was nothing short of a racist tirade, this time aimed squarely at the media and Chris Hipkins. What Ferris is really doing is burning every possible bridge with Labour, and perhaps deliberately so. It feels calculated, as if he is intent on ensuring Te Pāti Māori will never be taken seriously as a potential partner in government.

Kerre Woodham: You need to know how to play the system to enact change

I've always thought that if you want to change the system, if you feel that the system, whatever it might be, doesn't work for you, the best way is to change it from within. When you live in a democracy, that is one of the beauties of a democracy. You don't have to riot in the streets, you don't have to depose tyrannical dictators, you can use the ballot box to effect change.

You can also enter the system and change it from within. But only if you take the time to learn how the system works, and only if you're prepared to settle for incremental change rather than spectacular seismic show-stopping change.

David Farrar: UK Police do it again

Stuff reports:

Police have become embroiled in a free speech row after officers told a cancer patient to apologise for a social media post.

Deborah Anderson, an American citizen living in Slough, was confronted by an officer from Thames Valley Police after someone complained about an offensive Facebook post. …

David Farrar: Cap rates now

Radio NZ reports:

An overwhelming majority of New Zealanders support the government putting a cap on the amount councils can increase rates each year, according to the RNZ-Reid Research poll.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: RIP the UK climate consenus (2008-2025)

UK

Badenoch: scrap the Climate Change Act

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, has calledto scrap Britain’s flagship climate change law if the Conservatives regain power. The Tory leader is vowing to repeal the “failed” Climate Change Act 2008, which sets legally binding targets to make the UK a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. It would pave the way for the Tories to scrap electric car targets, as well as plans to phase out gas boilers and replace them with heat pumps. Also watch Claire Coutinho’s interview on the party’s new policy here. 

Nick Clark: Council chambers of the absurd

The Local Government Commission has been consulting on a draft Code of Conduct for Local Authorities.

The Code addresses what bureaucrats see as local government’s biggest crisis: councillors saying unpleasant things. Never mind that rates rose 12 percent last year and will rise another 9 percent this year. Never mind crumbling infrastructure. The real problem is hurt feelings.

Roger Partridge: The hidden cost of excessive regulation

Every time New Zealanders apply for a mortgage or business loan, they pay the price for the Reserve Bank’s controversial 2019 bank capital decision to increase capital requirements for major banks by almost 100%.

The decision made our banks much more heavily capitalised than most of their international peers. This extreme conservatism targeted a novel “one-in-200-year” risk of bank failure. The standard benchmark is one-in-100-years.

Sunday October 5, 2025 

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Lindsay Mitchell: A Confused Country

New Zealand is a hopelessly confused country where people talk past each other, use the same words to mean different things, and can't distinguish between sentimentality and sanity. It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad and dangerous.

TV and social media imagery is overloaded with couples of mixed ethnicity. We cling to that old desire to see-ourselves-on-the-screen, a hangover from the days when our TV content was all imported. Who remembers New Zealand's early efforts like Pukemanu, described as portraying "the lives of rural, bi-cultural townsfolk, earning praise for its authentic depiction of boozy, blokey characters in swannie attire"?

Steven Gaskell: Tikanga First, Law Vs Lore - Common Sense Later

Only in New Zealand could a former politician-turned-lawyer march into court arguing that deportation decisions should hinge not on immigration law, not on residency rules, not even on public interest but on whether Immigration New Zealand paused long enough to burn incense to “tikanga Māori.”

Judy Gill: Teaching Children to Think — or Teaching Them What to Think?

New Zealand: Indoctrination in the Classroom

From early childhood onwards, New Zealand children are not being taught to question. They are being taught to accept.

Three powerful narratives dominate their schooling:

Clive Bibby: The way ahead for Maori

Given my 45 year involvement as a community worker here on the East Coast, I can claim to know a reasonable amount about Maori beliefs, aspirations and day to day concerns.

Unsurprisingly, the things that matter most to them are much the same as the values held by the average Kiwi - albeit there are a few marked diffences when it comes to things like land ownership and spirituality.

Barrie Davis: Trump Boy Marries Trad Wife

Regarding a report he had written for the PPTA annual conference, “Responding to Extremism in the Classroom: Online Lies and Real World Harm”, art teacher Paul Stevens was reported in The Press (“'Trump boys' in NZ classrooms: Teachers warn of rising student extremism,” 24 September 2025, here), as follows:

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time - 4 October 2025

“Lettergate” reveals the worst in Luxon and Hipkins

Christopher Luxon’s decision to send a letter to Labour leader Chris Hipkins, calling for bipartisan support for offshore gas exploration should have been a good one. It backfired however, because his media team are incapable of managing a basic embargo process and sent a copy of the letter to the New Zealand Herald who immediately contacted Hipkins for comment before he even knew of the letter’s existence. Hipkins refused to sign, accusing Luxon of grandstanding, and the leaked letter became the story, turning what could have been a moment of consensus into a messy political sideshow. Media were typically more interested in the letter than the future of New Zealand’s economy.

John McLean: Parliament's Words Still Don't Matter

The Catch-22 inherent in addressing New Zealand’s rampant judicial activism

New Zealand’s Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has issued a warning. He’s warned that the current Government will legislate “over the top” of Court decisions involving concepts such as tikanga and Treaty of Waitangi obligations, where required for legal clarity.

“Judicial activism” is the term often used to describe what Minister Goldsmith is concerned about - judges ignoring the literal meaning of legislative wording and Parliament’s intentions, and violating established common law principles in favour of…well…making Māori things up, to suit their ideological biases. “Judicial invention” might just be a better term.

Caleb Anderson: Freedom and Responsibility

I recently re-read Viktor Frankl's much acclaimed "Man's Search for Meaning".

Frankl is considered one of the truly great psychotherapists, in the line of Freud, Adler and Jung.

An esteemed neurologist and practising psychiatrist, Frankl was imprisoned by the Nazis for simply being a Jew. He survived four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and went on to write many books and lecture throughout the West.

Mike's Minute: The Tom Phillips info injunction is useless

You wondered how long it would take for someone to work out that the injunction over Tom Phillips and the various bits and pieces we are not allowed to talk about, would be talked about.

Maybe this is widely understood. Maybe it isn't.

Richard Shaw, Chris Eichbaum: Who wrote the cabinet paper recommending NZ not recognise a Palestinian state?

In the controversy and debate following Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ announcement at the United Nations last week that New Zealand would not yet recognise Palestine as a state, it was easy to overlook a small but telling detail.

The relevant cabinet paper containing the policy background and options, and recommending no change in the country’s current position, was “drafted by the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs”.

Saturday October 4, 2025 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 28.9.25

Saturday October 4, 2025 

News:
Signing of Deed of Acknowledgement marks milestone for Waitākere Ranges
After more than 17 years since the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act 2008 was passed, a significant new agreement was signed yesterday between Te Kawerau ā Maki, Auckland Council and the Crown.

The Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Deed of Acknowledgement recognises the deep, ongoing relationship between Te Kawerau ā Maki, as tangata whenua, and the Waitākere Ranges. It also reaffirms the shared commitment of Auckland Council, Te Papa Atawhai | The Department of Conservation and Te Kawerau ā Maki to protecting the natural and cultural heritage of the area for generations to come.

JC: For God’s Sake Mr Luxon, Stop It!

Christopher Luxon, we have had enough! You can’t keep acting against your voter base: the ones you rely on for your bread-and-butter votes that will get you over the line in next year’s election. On matters of race, we are in last straw territory. There are thousands of us now seething as we witness this never-ending pandering to Māori. I’m not talking about the majority of Māori who live like the rest of us, I’m talking about the continual pandering to the likes of the fella in the cowboy hat.

Mike's Minute: We need more bipartisan politics on key issues

"Every three years the political goalposts move".

Indeed, we call it an election. But the quote is from the infrastructure industry.

Their report out this week tells you the usual tale – that the pipeline, or lack of it, is an issue and politics gets in the way. It holds the country back.

Matua Kahurangi: Electoral Commission under fire for promoting pro-Māori wards messaging

ACT MP Cameron Luxton has raised concerns that the Electoral Commission is failing in its duty of neutrality by directing voters to a website that promotes pro-Māori wards messaging.

In a video released this week, Luxton walked viewers through the Commission’s official site, vote.nz, where voters might naturally expect impartial information on upcoming local elections and referendums. When clicking through to a section titled “about Māori wards and constituencies,” users are redirected to another page.

Kerre Woodham: Give the firefighters a pay bump

More than 11,500 allied health staff —the physios, the social workers, the health assistants— will strike on the 23rd of October, later this month. The same day as tens of thousands of primary school teachers and workers go on strike. And a week before, well, six days before, firefighters across New Zealand are set to strike over a dispute about pay and conditions (tell me there's a centre-right government in office without telling me). Although, bless, the firefighters are already striking for an hour because of public safety concerns.

Bob Edin: Kiwis in the Gaza protest flotilla might keep our diplomats busy....

Kiwis in the Gaza protest flotilla might keep our diplomats busy but the Luxon Govt is unlikely to send a gunboat

A press statement posted on the Scoop website yesterday prompted PoO to check on the deployment of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s fleet to see if our Government could respond positively to the request.

The headline read:

Peter Dunne: Unsafe Buildings

In the wake of the Christchurch, Seddon and Kaikoura earthquakes a new lexicon and culture developed about earthquake damaged and prone buildings. Red and yellow stickers became pervasive, and across the country many buildings, old and new, deemed to be earthquake risks were summarily demolished.