Ele Ludemann: Where’s the balance?

The Opposition, their allies and most of the media have seized on changes to improve pay equity legislation as a stick with which to beat the government.

News reports repeated speeches by opposition MPs and quoted union representatives and others who wouldn’t support anything the government does.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: There's a lot of remarkable things about yesterday's c-word column

There are a lot of remarkable things about that C-word column yesterday, and one of them is that it is still up online, and apparently no one is sorry for this.

If you haven't seen this column, let me get you up to speed on this:

Yesterday, Sunday Star Times columnist Andrea Vance did something that I would venture no other mainstream columnist has ever done in this country - she called a minister of the Crown a c-word in the newspaper.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 11.5.25

Tuesday May 13, 2025 

News:
Outgoing Auditor General wants better engagement with Māori from public sector
Auditor-General John Ryan will finish his seven-year term at the end of June, ending a tenure defined by a sharp focus on public sector accountability and outcomes for Māori.

Appointed in 2018, Ryan oversaw the release of thousands of reports scrutinising government departments, Crown entities, and state-owned enterprises.

Bob Edlin: Is this a gold mine? Iwi might need consulting....

Is this a gold mine? Iwi might need consulting (for a fee) before your development can be given RMA consents

West Coast Regional Councillor Allan Birchfield has whipped up a fuss in his neck of the woods by challenging the Ngāti Waewae representative Francois Tumahai over the iwi’s role in resource consenting.

The iwi – it seems – must agree to gold-mining consents in gold-mining country, presumably after appropriate consultation or engagement fees have been paid.

David Farrar: Real wages

This chart (below) uses data from the Quarterly Employment Survey which was just released this week. It is adjusted for inflation.

Matua Kahurangi: Thought crimes and ID checks

New Zealand’s alarming march toward digital censorship

A retired British cop got arrested in May 2025 for what the authorities called a “thought crime”. No threats. No inciting violence. Just a tweet that rubbed someone up the wrong way. It sounds like something out of Orwell, but it’s real.

And if you reckon that sort of carry-on couldn’t happen in New Zealand, you might want to think again. We’ve got a habit of copying what the UK and Aussie do, especially when it comes to tightening up laws that control what people can and can’t say.

Philip Crump: NZME’s New Chapter and the Six Challenges Undermining Media Trust

After months of negotiation, the path forward for NZME is now clear.

After two months of horse trading, the major institutional shareholders of NZME have reached a consensus on the composition of the new Board and the implementation of key initiatives.

Subject to shareholder approval, the agreement will see Steven Joyce join the Board as the proposed Chair, alongside Jim Grenon and existing directors Carol Campbell, Guy Horrocks, and Sussan Turner. Campbell will remain on the Board until a replacement director with audit expertise is identified, and Bowen Pan will join to provide technology expertise.

Kerre Woodham: You won't get your car seized if you don't break the law

The government sent a strong signal to boy racers that their days of running amok on the roads are over.

Car crushing is not new, it's been announced before - Judith Collins was police minister in 2009 when car crashing legislation was introduced for recidivist boy racer offenders, hence her sobriquet, Crusher. In fact, only three cars were crushed and Judith Collins wasn't the police minister by the time it happened, because he needed three strikes before a car was crushed.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: DownToEarth.Kiwi Closing Due to Threats from National & Labour Parties....

DownToEarth.Kiwi Closing Due to Threats from National & Labour Parties & Big Business NZ Incorporated

It'd be nice to think we've added something these past years to improve the prosperity of NZ. We were the only economic commentary source that regularly pointed out how the huge fiscal expansion, and money printing program, of the Covid years would end in high inflation and subsequently economic stagnation.

Mike's Minute: Why are we only just now getting the Waitangi Tribunal review?

Am I right to inquire just what it is that Tama Potaka has been doing for a year and a half?

How many times have you heard me ask the Prime Minister on a Monday, when is the Waitangi Tribunal decision being made? What is Potaka doing with this activist tribunal?

Well, on Friday we got the answer.

 Monday May 12, 2025 

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Damien Grant: Banning under 16s from social media will prove popular. Foolish ideas often are

The perverse outcomes resulting from adults seeking to protect children range from the mildly idiotic prevalence of Gripe Water to the morally questionable failure to challenge the prevalence of puberty blockers.

Last week our current Prime Minister and the MP for Tukituki (Hastings), Catherne Wedd, added to this list with a proposal to prevent those under 16 from accessing social media.

Mike Butler: Tribunal review planned to fail?

The review of the Waitangi Tribunal that New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters secured as part of his coalition agreement is likely to achieve little and here are the reasons why.

The review is intended to refocus the "scope, purpose and nature" of the tribunal's inquiries back to its "original intent".

It will be chaired by legal expert Bruce Gray, KC, and will include career civil servant Kararaina Calcott-Cribb, lawyer David Cochrane, and Taranaki Te Atiawa leader Dion Tuuta, according to Maori Development Minister Tama Potaka on Friday.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: DownToEarth.Kiwi labelled "bitter & twisted leftists"....

DownToEarth.Kiwi labelled "bitter & twisted leftists", thereby achieving our non-partisan reporting aim, to the distaste of our National-Labour rulers.

This Blog has been frequently featured on Bassett Brash and Hide, as well as former ACT MP Muriel Newman's NZ Centre for Political Research. Many folks on the left of Kiwi politics dislike us, especially for calling Grant Robertson, now Vice Chancellor of Otago, "Worst Finance Minister Ever", and arguing he didn't deserve his current position. No government jobs will ever come my way from Labour. 

Matt Ridley: Humanity’s Fifth Copernican Moment

I expect to see the existence of extraterrestrial life confirmed within the next few years. When it happens, put down your phone, look up from your work, walk away from your computer, and let the moment sink in. Then we can go back to arguing about pronouns and tariffs.

Ani O'Brien: Open Letter to the Helen Clark Foundation

Regarding Professor Peter Davis' public comments justifying antisemitism

I will send the below letter to the Helen Clark Foundation. It is not intended to be aggressive or an attack. It is a good faith attempt at reaching out and asking them to live up to their values and demonstrate their commitment to social cohesion.

Centrist: Luxon calls for united NZ approach to deepen ties with India

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has called for a coordinated “all of New Zealand” effort to deepen ties with India, calling it a geopolitical heavyweight and rising economic partner.

Speaking at the India New Zealand Business Council summit in Auckland, Luxon said New Zealand must “dramatically lift its game” to seize opportunities in the world’s most populous democracy.

Dr James Kierstead: The importance of not being Donald

‘History doesn’t repeat,’ Mark Twain is said to have said, ‘but it often rhymes.’ And there could hardly be a better example of two events rhyming than the recent Canadian and Australian elections.

In both countries, the centre-right was flying high in the polls, with leads of up to 20% in Canada and 10% in Australia. In both countries, those leads had evaporated by the time the election took place, leading to victories for centre-left parties that had only recently been counted out. In both countries, hard-charging conservative leaders who had seemed on the cusp of becoming prime minister were instead out of parliament, having lost their seats.

What happened?

Dr Michael Johnston: Getting teaching standards up to standard

Effective policy reform often comes from seemingly minor initiatives. Small changes can lead to significant improvements if they incentivise the right things. The current revisions to the s for the Teaching Profession are a perfect example of this.

The Teaching Council, the professional body overseeing the teaching profession, sets the Standards. Teachers must meet all six to be able to practice in New Zealand. The Standards therefore, provide strong incentives for training providers to focus on course content that enables graduates to meet them.

Kerre Woodham: The party is well and truly over

There's bad news, really, and it's been coming and I think I've had my head in the sand for some time. I've been wanting things to get better quickly. I've wanted things to move out from grindy-ness, and a lack of fun, and excess, and nonsense. It's just been for four years of long, slow grind, it seems.

David Farrar: Bill to reinstate prisoner voting ban

Paul Goldsmith announced:

The Government has agreed to reinstate a total ban on prisoner voting, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

“Cabinet’s decision will reverse the changes made by the previous government in 2020, which allowed prisoners serving sentences of less than three years to vote.

Ani O'Brien: A response to KiwiBlog on defining sex in law

A Response to "A Less Simplistic Bill Would Be Good": Why Clarity on Sex Matters More Than Ever

The recent Kiwiblog post responding to Winston Peters’ Member’s Bill, which seeks to define "woman" and "man" in biological terms, suggests the Bill is too "simplistic" and proposes a legal framework that recognises both sex and gender. While this may appear balanced on the surface, it continues to entrench a conceptual muddle that has had tangible and regressive effects on women’s rights and protections.

Sunday May 11, 2025 

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Zoran Rakovic - Operation Bubblewrap: Parliament Declares War on Teenagers

Let it be known: the greatest threat to our nation's future is no longer inflation, climate change, or potholes on State Highway 1. No, it’s 14-year-olds with TikTok accounts.

The other day, Member’s Bill Ballot Cake Tin became richer – a Social Media (Age-Restricted Users) Bill was submitted.  A name which, like most things coming out of Wellington these days, sounds like it was generated by a mildly concussed AI intern on a sugar crash.

Cameron Slater: The Waitangi Tribunal’s Day of Reckoning - Time to Clip Its Wings

Well, well, well, it looks like the Waitangi Tribunal’s ivory tower is finally getting a shake-up. The government has announced a review into the tribunal’s role, and ACT’s David Seymour isn’t mincing words, calling it ‘activist’ and out of control.

About bloody time! For too long, this unelected, self-important body has strutted around like it’s the ultimate arbiter of all things Māori – lording it over New Zealand with a sanctimonious air that’d make even the most pious preacher blush. The truth is, we reached Peak Māori years ago, and the public is fed up with the endless pandering to what the late, great, Sir Bob Jones called “Māori wonderfulness”. The tribunal’s had its day – it’s time to wind it up and send it packing.

David Farrar: A nonsense issue

The Herald reports:

Senior Minister Erica Stanford sent official briefings to her personal email account – an action discouraged by Parliament’s Cabinet Manual.

Stanford says she forwarded the emails so she could print them at home or at her electorate office, often while being away from Wellington for work.

Alwyn Poole: Pulling Every Lever??

As the budget nears National/Act/NZF are at pains to say that they are “pulling every leaver”.

Prior to the election they made significant promises to reduce the size/spend of bureaucracy. So far they have completely failed.

Dr Michael Bassett: Make your local elections meaningful

Now that candidates are gearing up to contest the coming local elections on 11 October, it’s time to ask them serious questions before you vote. The cost of local government has been rising steeply; ratepayers are being treated like milch cows. What are the candidates prepared to do to control costs? In particular, are they prepared to run a slide rule over staff numbers at the council they are standing for? Are they sure that they couldn’t make the council work with fewer employees who, collectively, are the greatest cost every council has to carry? If they aren’t prepared to do that, then threaten not to vote for them.

Chris McVeigh KC: Radio NZ

The brick wall has yet to be built that will yield to the pressure of the beating heads complaining over Radio New Zealand's lefty bias.

You will wait in vain to hear on RNZ any semblance of support for a policy or idea promulgated by the National Party. I venture to suggest that a devout believer awaiting the arrival of the second coming would have a greater chance of success.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson ONZM: Budget 2025 - The next step in a long, dogged, uphill fiscal trudge

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is condemned to spend eternity rolling a massive boulder uphill, time after time, for no lasting gain. Every time he gets it uphill, it escapes his grasp and rolls back to the bottom.

National Party Ministers of Finance, from Ruth Richardson on, could be forgiven for feeling like Sisyphus. Each spent most of their years in office struggling to turn fiscal deficits into surpluses, only to see the next government turn them into deficits.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Beware the landslide - Ardern’s lesson for victorious Albanese

Watching Australia’s 2025 federal election from Wellington gave me an uncanny sense of déjà vu. As Labor swept to power with a commanding parliamentary majority and the Liberal-National Coalition suffered its worst defeat in generations, I could not help but think: “I have seen this movie before.”

New Zealand’s Labour Party swept to power in 2020 with the first single-party majority under our proportional representation system. Ardern secured 50 percent of the vote while National collapsed to 26 percent – their worst result in decades.

Three years later, Labour was unceremoniously ejected from office.

Saturday May 10, 2025 

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Anglo Saxon: Auckland local govt wants a tribal council co-governing public park (Waitakere Ranges)

In this video Anglo Saxon sets out the background to the proposed tribal council for the co-governance of the Waitakere Ranges, and the reasons why this arrangement is a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Click to view

Nick Hanne: Keep calm and carry on speaking

As commemorations of the 80th anniversary of V.E. Day occur this week, it is worth remembering not only the 46 million lives that were lost, but also how close fascism came to permanently erasing liberal democracy in Europe. Until recently, the West found this commemoration of the end of WWII a comforting reminder that our forebears secured an unrivalled period of prosperity and peace. Liberal democracies for a good two generations have lived off the afterglow of that victory.

Clive Bibby: Dealing with realities

I have recently returned home after a couple of days in the local regional hospital. 

In the latter 24hours after the health professionals had diagnosed what was wrong with me and taken the initial steps prescribing medicines that would put me on the road to recovery, time began to drag while waiting for an honourable discharge. 

Breaking Views Update: Week of 4.5.25

Saturday May 10, 2025 

News:
Waitangi Tribunal review to begin mid-year - Govt
A review into the Treaty of Waitangi Act - which established the Waitangi Tribunal - will begin in the middle of the year, the Government confirmed today.

The review was part of the coalition agreement between National and New Zealand First, which included a commitment to "amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation".

Ian Wishart: Science Minister Reti, NIWA needs an intervention

Last week’s storm damaged more than cars and houses, it ripped away what little credibility the newly merged NIWA MetService had left on climate change.

What do I mean by that?

Bob Edlin: UN can’t curb human rights abuses in war zones....

UN can’t curb human rights abuses in war zones – so why would it fret much over child shoplifters in NZ?

The PoO team was fascinated by a headline which read: Government forged ahead with citizen’s arrest revamp despite UN breach warnings.

UN resolutions and rules are being breached every day, in relation to the strife in Gaza, the Sudan, Ukraine and a raft of other war zones.

Roger Partridge: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Remedy?

Donald Trump returned to power with America’s highly politicised universities squarely in his sights. Within weeks of his inauguration, his administration launched a sweeping campaign targeting dozens of institutions nationwide.

Point of Order: The empire that endured

It was once said the British empire was so vast that the sun never set on it. But as time marched on, the red faded from the maps, the Union Jacks came down and independence rang across continents.

Ele Ludemann: $60,000 more for what?

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s speech to Business NZ yesterday put a number on the damage done in six years by Labour:

. . . Since 2017, net core Crown debt has risen by around $120 billion.

Put another way, that’s $60,000 in additional debt for every household in New Zealand.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Incriminating evidence now points to Finance Minister Willis forcing out Governor Orr....

Incriminating evidence now points to Finance Minister Willis forcing out Governor Orr to take over the Reserve Bank of NZ on behalf of the Big Banks

What on earth has Finance Minister Willis been up to? Secret meetings. An unexplained resignation. Refusals to talk to the media regards the former Reserve Bank Governor's departure. A sudden, unexpected review of (Big) Bank Capital Requirements with the (hidden agenda) aim of loosening them, to be completed under urgency to prevent a future Governor from undoing that decision.

Mike's Minute: Despite record revenue, NZR is still losing money

In the NZR press release yesterday, Chairman David Kirk and CEO Mark Robinson did their best to infer that life financially for the sport is sensational.

Despite the fact it isn't.

They lost money, almost $20 million. And they lost money the year before that as well.

Friday May 9, 2025 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We knew the Lundy pictures would be out sooner or later

Mark Lundy has divided our workplace out there.

Some of my colleagues think that it's really gross that the Herald, who we work with, have taken photos of Mark Lundy today after he got out of jail yesterday.

Now, the photos aren't anything particularly special - he's sitting in the passenger seat of a car, all you can really see is his face, that funny little beard he's got, some sunglasses and his latte coloured hoodie. It tells you nothing and it shows you almost nothing.

Zoran Rakovic: Whose Land Is It Anyway? New Zealand’s Property Rights Farce

“Property rights are not about hugging a fencepost. They’re about knowing who’s in charge, who gets the bill, and who reaps the spoils.” — Alchian & Allen, paraphrased for clarity and sanity.

Let’s drop the pretence. New Zealand is fast becoming a textbook case in how to muddle up a perfectly decent nation. The latest chapter in our decline? A slow, clumsy dismantling of one of civilisation’s most basic and boringly essential inventions: clear property rights.

Ani O'Brien: Amending the Equal Pay Act - anti-woman attack or sensible course correction?

Everyone thinks their side is telling the truth. Their side’s outrage is justified. Their side is fighting the good fight. The other side are the liars, cheats, and must have every single action viewed through the lens of the worst possible intentions.

Peter Dunne: Parliament Backbenchers

Being a backbench government Member of Parliament is at best a mixed blessing.

On the one hand, there is the excitement of being part of the government team, able to interact with Ministers from the Prime Minister downwards about what the government is doing and generally being “in the know”. Through Caucus committees, government backbenchers can work alongside Ministers on the development of policy ideas which may eventually come to fruition as government policy.

Brendan O"Neill: Greta Thunberg’s moral siege of Israel

Why isn’t Greta Thunberg sailing an aid ship to Sudan? Things are dire there. Two years of war have given rise to ‘catastrophic hunger levels’. The horrors dwarf ‘those in Ukraine, Gaza and Somalia combined’, reports Deutsche Welle. And yet the benighted Sudanese have failed to win the favour of the world’s best known eco-brat. Her boat is destined not for Africa but for the only strip of land that matters to the virtuous of the West: Gaza.

Mataua Kahurangi: ACC removes race-based targets

ACT has welcomed the decision by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to remove race-based targets from a recent tender for delivering injury prevention programmes, following pressure from ACT MP Laura McClure.

Kerre Woodham: The New Zealand political system David Parker wants

Long serving Labour MP and former Minister David Parker gave his valedictory speech in Parliament last night, where he gave his colleagues across the House a list of things to do, among his thank yous and goodbyes.

Chief among them was closing the gap between the very wealthy and the middle class. It could be done, he said, with a tax on capital income, a wealth tax, some form of interest deductibility ban with rules for deductions to avoid double taxation. He said this would pay for a tax-free threshold for income earners up to $10,000 with the next 10,000 subject to lower tax rates.

Simon O'Connor: The sniff test

The government's use of urgency to change pay equity laws doesn't pass the sniff test but at least now MPs seem to know what a woman is.

I’m a great believer in gut instinct on various matters. Not so much on deciding whether something is right or wrong, but an initial impression as it were.

My gut instinct on the government’s secretive, then rushed, move to change our pay equity laws is not positive. It doesn’t pass the sniff test.

Bob Edlin: The outdoor swimming issue in Whanganui....

Psst! A citizens’ assembly (behind secrecy masks) will dive into the outdoor swimming issue in Whanganui

In Porirua, the citizens’ assembly concept was translated into an exercise in co-governance.

In Whanganui, it has become an exercise which will be conducted in secrecy.

Ele Ludemann: Majority support Bill defining man and woman

A majority of people support a Bill defining man and woman:

A new poll has found majority support for a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law according to biology, with 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭.

David Farrar: A less simplistic bill would be good

Winston Peters announced:

New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law.

The Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill will provide clarity and consistency in New Zealand law by defining “woman” as “an adult human biological female” and “man” as “an adult human biological male” in the Legislation Act 2019.