A.E. Thompson: Encouraging the Survival of Te Reo

Even assuming a case can be defended for taxpayer-funded efforts to revive or to maintain te reo, what we are seeing seems a stupid way to go about achieving that.

Throwing in Maori substitutes for an arbitrary range of words in English narratives (e.g. 'mahi', 'whanau' and 'motu') will at best lead to many people recognising and perhaps using those few words but remaining completely unable to participate in a Maori language conversation either as a listener or speaker. There will always be a constraint on how many Maori terms can be inserted into an English utterance before it becomes so burdened with te reo it will no longer be intelligible to most of the English-speaking world. We are probably close to that limit already.

Ryan Bridge: Should National campaign on a partial float?

They haven't said it explicitly yet, but one day soon, our KiwiSaver contributions will rise to 12% and Kiwibank will be partially sold to foreign buyers.

On the bank, Nicola Willis is flying a kite and talking about a potentially partial float of the stock exchange for the wee Kiwi battler. It needs capital to grow and take on the big banks.

They're getting access to an extra half a billion through changes already announced. But they could yet get more, should National campaign on a partial float.

Bianca Cavazzin: Why did the Russia earthquake trigger tsunami warnings across Pacific?

Dr Bianca Cavazzin discusses the science behind tsunamis as alerts are issued after major earthquake off Russia. 

This week’s magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula ranks among the most powerful ever recorded.

It occurred in one of Earth’s most seismically active regions, where similar events have struck in the past, including a magnitude 9.3 in 1737, 9.0 in 1841, 8.5 in 1923, and 9.0 in 1952.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 27.7.25

Friday August 1, 2025

News:
Te Pāti Māori files urgent High Court proceeding over electoral roll concerns
Te Pāti Māori says it has filed urgent proceedings in the High Court over reports people have been removed from electoral roll or shifted off the Māori roll.

It's not yet clear what the nature of the legal proceedings are - the party has been approached by RNZ for clarification.

John McLean: Democatised voting - God forbid

The current Government has proposed various changes to New Zealand’s voting and electoral laws. The changes will likely be implemented in their current proposed form.

In order to be entitled to vote in a general election, New Zealanders must be registered on the electoral roll. The proposed changes include preventing enrolment on election day, as is currently permitted. Under the proposals, New Zealanders (to be able to vote) will need to be registered on the electoral roll at least 13 days before ballot day.

Mike's Minute: It's oil and gas ban repeal week - hooray!

If you want to talk about doing stuff that matters, this week will produce one of the great ones.

Repealing the oil and gas ban, as the Government are about to do, puts right an egregious wrong – possibly the most egregious wrong of the last Government.

Graham J Noble: Leftist Media Grudgingly Concedes on Trump Trade War

It still seems they are rooting for ultimate failure, but some are giving Trump his due – for now.

Just a few months ago, the left-wing legacy media was decidedly Chicken Little on President Donald Trump’s tariff talk. Jobs would be lost, inflation would explode, the markets would tank, businesses would be crushed, and, yes, the sky would probably fall. Fast forward to the present, and some of those doomsaying news organizations are quietly – and even not so quietly – admitting that, at least for now, Trump is winning the trade war, and the US economy is feeling relatively few adverse effects.

Kerre Woodham: Rising gang numbers aren't good but the charges are

Gang membership is on the rise, but if you believe Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Basham, an increase in numbers is not necessarily a bad thing. Gang numbers have climbed past 10,000, up from 9,200 in 2023, but that might be, he says, because they're keeping a closer eye on gangs, their intelligence is better, they know who's in and who's out, the record keeping and the data is better. He told Mike Hosking they have a laser focus on gangs and since the Gang Act was passed, they've launched more than 9000 charges against gang members.

Cam Slater: Electoral Law Shake-Up - A Victory for Common Sense or a Storm in a Teacup?

If you want to vote, get off your backside and enrol. It’s not rocket science and it’s not oppression. It’s just adulthood.

New Zealand’s electoral laws are getting a much-needed haircut and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is standing firm despite the predictable howling from the usual suspects. The government’s proposed changes under the Electoral Amendment Bill, as reported by Stuff, aim to tidy up what they call an ‘unsustainable’ system. The big moves? Scrapping same-day voter enrolment and requiring people to enrol by midnight the Sunday before advance voting starts – 13 days before election day. Oh, and a ban on prisoner voting, because, apparently, some folks think armed robbers should pick our MPs from behind bars.

Eliora: The Psyche of a Small, Proud, Compliant Country

A small country in the South Pacific trailed behind most of the world during the outbreak of a virus named Covid-19 in 2020.

New Zealand (NZ) has been used in the past as a testing ground quite a few times. In fact, it has been described as a ‘social laboratory’ due to its history of implementing progressive or experimental policies, particularly in the late 19th and 20th century. The reference to NZ is often attributed to the French political scientist and historian André Siegfried who used it in his book, Democracy in New Zealand (1914). https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Democracy_in_New_Zealand/tqomAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR3&printsec=frontcover

Ele Ludemann: Need a better way

Yesterday more than 30,000 nurses, midwives and healthcare workers went on strike.

They want more pay and better conditions, a cause which will have a lot of sympathy from the public who need no convincing these health professionals are overworked and underpaid.

David Farrar: Labour always backs the crims

Stuff reports:

With a new trial for court bailiffs to seize cars if their owners haven’t paid fines, the Labour Party says innocent families could be left “stranded”.

The Government is trialling new technology for bailiffs to scan number plates as they search for people who have unpaid fines. They will then clamp or seize cars belonging to people with debt owed to the courts.

Thursday July 31, 2025 

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