Breaking Views Update: Week of 24.8.25

Sunday August 24, 2025 

News:
Historic challenge over Māori Health Authority disestablishment heads to court
Whether the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora was in breach of the rights of Māori under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and Te Tiriti o Waitangi will be tested in the High Court in Wellington next week.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 23 August 2025

A bad time to be a middle-aged man from a very wealthy family

Well, kinda. There are plenty of reasons why life is still very, very good for the 40-something-year-old offspring of rich-listers, but this week has been rough for those of them named in the rampant speculation about who could be the pedo with name suppression. At last count I have had no fewer than four names confidently whispered to me as pretty much definitely the man who has been convicted of knowingly possessing and importing thousands of objectionable material files. The content was child sex abuse material featuring little girls including torture. Customs uncovered 11,775 objectionable files including hundreds of hours of video.

Matua Kahurangi: Face tattoos and tā moko ain't a free pass

If you think getting a facial tattoo gives you some sort of untouchable street cred, think again. Walking into a pub, club, or any establishment expecting special treatment because of a few lines of ink on your face is laughable. Many people around the world see facial tattoos as intimidating at best, and at worst, an automatic warning sign of gang affiliation or trouble. To be honest, I simply look at them and think, “What an idiot - why would anyone ruin their face like that?”

Ele Ludemann: Name suppression creates more victims

This post deals with the suppression of the name, family name and the company associated with them permanently suppressed. Do not leave any comments which could identify any of them.

Suppressing the name of a man convicted of importing and possessing child sex abuse material has created more victims.

The first was a man wrongly named as the one who was convicted.

Kerre Woodham: What good would repealing the gang patch ban do?

Labour's Tāmaki Makaurau candidate Peeni Heare is standing by a comment that he’d repeal the gang patch ban. He agreed with the notion at an event on Wednesday night. Now, this is despite Chris Hipkins saying no, no, that's not true, we're not going to repeal the gang patch law. Peeni Henare told RNZ he was asked his personal view on the issue, which is informed by whanau experience.

David Farrar: Homes are for families, not protests

Radio NZ reports:

Protesting outside someone’s home is set to be made an offence, with the government introducing new legislation carrying fines or jail sentences if people target private residences.

Mike's Minute: The teacher strike achieved nothing

As the teachers head back to school, like all the other strikes, nothing got achieved.

It never does.

For a strike to work you need to scare people, you need to bring a place to a standstill.

Bruce Pardy: Legal rights should not depend on lineage - Indigenous or otherwise

A judge of the British Columbia Supreme Court recently found that the Cowichan First Nation holds Aboriginal title over 800 acres of government land in Richmond, B.C. But that’s not all. Wherever Aboriginal title is found to exist, said the court, it is a “prior and senior right” to fee simple title, whether public or private. That means it trumps the property you have in your house, farm or factory.

Saturday August 23, 2025 

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Robert MacCulloch: Chumocracy is Threatening NZ’s Future

Long-run economic prosperity is built on there being rewards for a person's efforts and ingenuity. However, when top jobs are handed out on connections, not on merit, it falls apart.

Why acquire skills and work experience when there is little in it for you? Why bother?

So it is now in New Zealand. We are in the midst not of a temporary downturn, but of a longer-lasting loss of living standards; stagnation unlike we’ve ever experienced.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Peeni is harming Labour's chances at government

Seems to me that Peeni Henare's shenanigans in the by-election right now is exactly the kind of thing that Labour has to knock on the head, quick smart, if they want to be in the game at the election next year.

Now, as we were discussing earlier, even though Carmel Sepuloni has told Penny off for saying that he wants to repeal the gang patch ban, he is not backing down.

Steven Gaskell: Straight Talking

Reinventing Tradition: The Art of Making Yesterday Up Today

Welcome to New Zealand, where “tradition” is less about preserving the past and more about rewriting it on the fly with taxpayers footing the bill. Only in Māori culture can something be both a “revival” and a brand-new invention, all while being enforced as if it were chiselled in stone since time began. Point this out and you’re instantly branded a cultural heretic. Because nothing screams “authentic” like rituals cooked up in a committee room sometime around 1987.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 17.8.25

Saturday August 23, 2025 

News:
Ngāti Oneone land return investigation plan approved by Gisborne council
Gisborne District Council has approved a plan to investigate the return of ancestral land to Ngāti Oneone, despite some concerns that it should be more “broadly applied”.

At a council meeting on Thursday, as a statement of intent was adopted, Mayor Rehette Stoltz commended councillors “for being brave and being wise and having their taringa (ears) open” to Māori ward councillors who brought a new perspective.

Toby Young: Dramatic Slowdown in Melting of Arctic Sea Ice Surprises Scientists (But Not Climate Sceptics)

The melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the past 20 years, scientists have reported, with no statistically significant decline in its extent since 2005. The Guardian (of all newspapers) has more.

DTNZ: National’s Digital Driver’s Licence plan met with fierce backlash

The National Party has copped fierce backlash on social media over its plan for Digital Driver’s Licences.

National’s plan to introduce digital driver’s licences has ignited a wave of fierce backlash online, with critics accusing the government of ushering in an “Orwellian digital prison” under the guise of “convenience”.

Richard Meade: An attempt to lower NZ electricity prices could end up doing the opposite – here’s why

In its quest to lower electricity prices for New Zealand households, the Electricity Authority may inadvertently make the situation worse.

This week, the authority announced plans to require New Zealand’s “gentailers” – firms that both generate electricity and retail it to consumers – to offer the same supply terms to independent retailers as they do to their own retail arms.

Peter Dunne: Goff and Mallard appointments

It is difficult not to see Sir Trevor Mallard’s sacking as New Zealand’s Ambassador to Ireland as anything other than an act of political vengeance by Foreign Minister Winston Peters. After all, there has been considerable antagonistic history between the pair, culminating in then-Speaker Mallard’s trespassing of Peters during the 2022 occupation of Parliament’s grounds by Covid19 protestors.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: The importance of clear laws shown in impressive evidence from Italy

New research finds that incomes per capita in Italy could be 5% higher if the government wrote better laws. Many laws are confusing and hard to understand. Even for the courts. The uncertainty harms business decisions and costs everyone money.

The research is by economist Tommaso Giommoni and coauthors. Their study “The Economic Costs of Ambiguous Laws” was published in June 2025 by the Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research.

Matua Kahurangi: Labour loves the gangs!

Labour is once again being linked with gangs, this time over the gang patch ban. During a debate in Tāmaki Makaurau, Labour candidate Peeni Henare was asked if he supported repealing the ban on wearing gang insignia in public. His answer? “Āe.” Yes.

JC: No, Radio Is Not Dying

RNZ’s ratings are in the toilet. Listeners are, metaphorically speaking, giving RNZ the flush and turning the dial to Newstalk ZB. In a survey commissioned by the organisation and conducted by former staff member Richard Sutherland (first mistake), staff were asked their opinions on the reasons why. The most common answer was ‘Radio is dying’. No it isn’t. It’s the organisation you work for that is dying. Has it occurred to any of these people that they might be part of the problem?

Mike's Minute: We're still talking about working from home

One of the "never the twain shall meet" moments that came out of Covid was working from home.

Here we are, five years on, and the battle has not only not died, it's intensified.

The big gab fest this week in Canberra had the unions asking for a four-day week.

Friday August 22, 2025 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Richard Chambers just reminded us of how good we have it here

I'm gonna say thank you to the Police Commissioner, Richard Chambers, for maybe reminding us to be grateful for what we have.

He gave an interview to the Herald today and he said he thinks there is a fair bit of punching down on New Zealand going on at the moment. And he thinks that's unfair.

He says: "With the world going a little crazy, I count us lucky that we are where we are."

Ryan Bridge: What the OCR says about the state of our economy

Remember just a few weeks ago how Sir John Key wanted 100 point cut from Reserve Bank?

We'll, they've almost given him what he wants.

It's easy to be an armchair critic of the boffins down at Number 2 The Terrace - "They should have gone for 50." "Club 25 was too cautious."

Anglo Saxon: New Zealand Local Body Elections - Time to restore democracy?

In October 2025 New Zealand goes to the polls in its local body elections across much of the country. For this year the coalition government has restored the right to ratepayer veto of maori wards.

In this video, I explore the bigger picture of where collective governance comes from, its outcomes, and why we should vote against it.

Click to view

Kerre Woodham: What will it take to bring NZ out of its funk?

Finance Minister Nicola Willis all but invoked the old adage ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’, when commenting on the state of the economy yesterday. In a stand up with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon after the Reserve Bank cut the OCR by 25 basis points to 3%, she blamed the sluggish economy on doomsayers from the opposition benches who were talking the economy down, and all but instructed Kiwi households to be more jolly.

David Farrar: Micro nuclear power

A fascinating post by Stephen McBride. He notes:

A single uranium pellet the size of a gummy bear contains as much energy as 140 barrels of oil. It’s the cleanest, safest energy source known to man.

And:

Ele Ludemann: I asked the wrong question

Yesterday’s post on getting rid of the Maori seats explained I’d asked AI for some ideas.

The response from Google Gemini was it couldn’t help because it would incite discrimination and hate speech.

I wondered what would happen if I asked it to critique the points I’d made. The ressult showed I’d asked the wrong question yesterday and got a much better response : This was the critique (my points are in bold, followed by AI’s response):

Bob Edlin: What research will be starved by lopping of the Marsden Fund?

Oh, dear – see what sorts of research will be starved by another lopping of the Marsden Fund

RNZ reported yesterday that “a decades-old fund dedicated to blue-skies research says it was given a day’s notice of further funding cuts and told to keep quiet about it until the government made it public”.

The team at PoO imagines it was not the fund, but the administrators of the fund, who were given a day’s notice.

Duggan Flanakin: Regulating CO2 has led to global imbalances

The global push to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant, based on the questionable premise that increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere threaten to trigger a global climate catastrophe, has wreaked havoc on energy and economic development in the United States, Europe, and Africa while giving so-called “emerging” nations like China and India a virtual free pass.

Mike's Minute: We were more right than the Reserve Bank

There are two key things for me that came out of the Reserve Bank commentary.

The press conference post the announcement should be a must watch for us all – the insight is invaluable.

On one hand, the genius three who turned up —Karen, Paul, and Christian— tell us that what they have done will flow through.

 Thursday August 21, 2025 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Was Kiwibank's Jarrod Kerr proven right?

The longer that this economic funk that we find ourselves in goes on, the more that Jarrod Kerr of Kiwibank is being proven right, isn't he?

And we had a cut today - it was 25 basis points down to 3 percent - and now there's the expectation that we will maybe get down to 2.5 percent before this thing bottoms out.

2.5 percent is where Jarrod Kerr has been saying for months that we need to get to.

Ryan Bridge: What can Nicola do about inflation contributors?

Electricity and groceries are your two big ticket inflation targets. Punters want to pay less for both.

There are nuclear options available:

Cut the gentailers in half by force. Those pro-wrecking ball argue if you force them to separate out the generation side of the business from the retail, you’d create more competition and lower prices.

Kerre Woodham: How can teachers justify the continued disruption?

The secondary teachers are out again.

They're appalled and insulted by the Government's latest pay offer. For the record, the Governments offered a 1% pay rise every year for three years in collective agreement negotiations. PPTA President Chris Abercrombie says the offer is the lowest increase in a generation and 18-19,000 teachers will be out protesting today. Chris Abercrombie said the Government's offer was appalling, and argued that it failed to help efforts to recruit and retain teachers within the workforce.

Peter Williams: Our Two Tier Nation

Why do elites have special privilege?

In Britain they call the Prime Minister “Two Tier Keir,” a reference to, perceived or otherwise, a two tier justice system in that country whereby a woman can go to jail for 31 months for posting a message on social media, while rapists and terror offenders receive suspended sentences.

But after recent incidents in our fair land are we too guilty of a two tier society whereby the political and moneyed elite are given special privilege over the rest of us mere mortals?

Bob Edlin: Diplomat is appointed to do the ambassadorial job....

Diplomat is appointed to do the ambassadorial job which now is being done by Mallard – but is Peters celebrating?

OneNews has reported that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is “celebrating” the replacement of the former Speaker of the House, Trevor Mallard, as Ambassador to Ireland.

It is fair to suppose Peters has truncated Mallard’s term as Ambassador.

David Farrar: Another OCR drop

The Reserve Bank has dropped the OCR by a further 0.25% to 3.0%. They note:

The US has increased tariffs on their imports from most countries. US tariffs on New Zealand goods have increased from 10% to 15%. This tariff may hurt our exporters, particularly those who are reliant on the US.

Lindsay Mitchell: Why I disagree with Helen Clark

According to the NZ Herald this morning:

"Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has described the departure of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern from politics as “devastating for women around the world”."

Not this one.

Mike's Minute: Why don't parents cop flak for our kid's education?

Can I ask a question about parents?

I watched Erica Stanford do a press conference yesterday at a school in Wellington while launching the writing action plan.

While I was watching that I was reading a story about Nicola Willis, who it was suggested by people in London might be the next Prime Minister.

David Farrar: We must say no to two classes of citizenship

Stuff reports:

How can you be Māori, but not have New Zealand citizenship?

By not being born in New Zealand of course. The same way you can be Chinese and not have Chinese citizenship if you were not born in China, and your parents were not Chinese nationals. If you are are a third generation Chinese New Zealander, you don’t have automatic Chinese citizenship. And likewise if you are a third generation Maori living in say the UK, you don’t have NZ citizenship.

Ele Ludemann: Māori seats passed their use-by date

When I was thinking about writing a post arguing that the Māori seats have passed their use-by date and asked Goggle Gemini to give me some ideas.

This is the reply I got:

David Farrar: How unproportional might the next Parliament be?

MMP is meant to deliver a proportional Parliament. That is how it is designed, and how it was sold.

There is one aspect to it though that can make Parliaments unproportional. It is overhang seats – when a party wins more electorates than their share of the party vote would entitle them to.

Wednesday August 20, 2025 

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Mike Butler: The Parole Board and Mr Titford

Prisoner Allan Titford’s eighth parole hearing last week involved new Parole Board chair, Judge Doogue, and was covered by a reporter from the New Zealand Herald.

Mr Titford had objected to the presence of a reporter because of expected media hostility, was overruled, and the Herald published Allan Titford’s denied parole amid claims of unfair treatment (yes, that was how it appeared) on August 16, 2025.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: It's good that Trevor Mallard's coming home

So here's a little bit of happy news for anyone still feeling injustice over the petty way that Trevor Mallard turned the sprinklers on the Parliamentary protesters and made everything worse - he is coming home from his plum job in Ireland as the ambassador.

As Winston Peters says, quoting The Seekers - the carnival's over. And it's a good job too, because it was always deeply unfair that Mallard could behave like a child and basically torment fellow Kiwis, and then be rewarded by his mates with a job that was funded by Kiwis.

Ryan Bridge: The Coalition needs to tighten its agenda

In the last week we’ve had a smorgasbord of small, seemingly minor stories hitting the headlines.

Helmets or no helmets for cyclists. Which name comes first on the cover of our passports. A ban then reversal on marshmallows in hot chocolates from the coffee machine at hospitals.

Not a single one of these stories is significant on their own.

Clive Bibby: Better the devil you know

If ever there was a time when our record as a reliable partner during times of worldwide unrest is regarded as something of value, surely that time is now although it will take courage when choosing between those factions who are vying for our support.

Our government has choices to make just like during the times in the past when we have had to choose between good and evil but this time things are different.

Ani O'Brien: Who is willing to sacrifice the poor at the Green Altar?

Why we must stand up to anti-human activists.

We need to stand up to the anti-human activists who treat ordinary people as collateral damage in their crusade. Their vision of “climate justice” is really just human misery dressed up as virtue. Every time New Zealanders open a power bill, they’re reminded that the real “crisis” is one of affordability. We are told that sacrificing more, paying more, and living with less will somehow save the planet. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: shaving a fraction of a fraction off global carbon emissions by punishing Kiwis, especially our poorest, is not going to move the needle.

Professor Simon Kingham: Road-user charges can pay for more than just road maintenance...

Road-user charges can pay for more than just road maintenance – NZ could lead the way

The government heralded its plan to move New Zealand’s entire vehicle fleet to road-user charges as a fairer method of funding road maintenance.

Peter Williams: Why do even have name suppression?

In any discussion about name suppression law here’s an argument that’s hard to refute: if Rolf Harris, Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby had been New Zealanders we’d probably never know about them.

That’s because there’s every chance their names would have been suppressed, especially during their trials, and quite possibly afterwards.

Matua Kahurangi: Justice for sale

Wealthy child abuse offender seems to buy name suppression

New Zealand should be disgusted. A 46-year-old member of a wealthy family has been convicted of possessing and importing over 11,000 files of child sexual abuse material, including videos of toddlers being tortured, children being urinated on, and sadistic sexual acts involving pre-pubescent girls. Despite the seriousness of these crimes, their identity has been permanently suppressed. Not only their own name, but also their family name and the name of their high-profile company.

Kerre Woodham: Can you have confidence in buying a new build with partial liability?

Two stories in the Herald today - one about the announcement from Christopher Luxon and Chris Penk yesterday, changing the building liability settings so ratepayers aren't burdened with picking up the tab that shonky developers, builders, or architects are responsible for. In the Herald story, they cite a case in Queenstown: the Oaks Shores body corporate filed a $160 million claim for weather type defects.

JC: If the Boot Fits Wear It

Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Ayesha Verrall and Grant Robertson, the four amigos from the Labour Party most happy to put the boot in during the Covid pandemic, now appear to not want to be held accountable in public for their actions. When the boot is on the other foot, these bullies, not unsurprisingly, become cowards. What an absolute disgrace.

Ele Ludemann: From $50,000 to less than $1,000

Minister Brooke van Velden shows what can be achieved when common sense and practicality meets bureaucracy:

Kiwis told us that they wanted their Government Departments to be easier to engage with by putting English names first, as it is the language that the vast majority of the country speaks.