Jillaine Heather: Words, not witch hunts

We’ve said it over and over: censorship is a trap. The wind changes, and it blows right back in your face.

At the Free Speech Union, we’ve spent years defending the slim, uncomfortable space that lets bad ideas be seen and argued with, not buried to fester away.

Clive Bibby: Are Maori Wards about to become a dot on the Timeline of History

I have always thought that the introduction of Maori Wards was a naked attack on the democratic institution of government in this country.

It was based on a false premise that people claiming to be of Maori decent were underrepresented in the corridors of power at all levels throughout the nation.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Fast track isn't fast enough

So fast track has a problem - it's not fast enough.

Eight months in, only two projects have been approved. The mining in Taranaki is still undergoing consultation. AKA: delayed.

The word is that every man and his dog is lining up to have their say, including Mount Taranaki - literally. How you ask a mountain its thoughts and feelings is beyond me, but are we even surprised anymore?

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.9.25

Tuesday September 23, 2025 

News:
Southern Cross Nursing Scholarship Programme Launches At Whitireia And WelTec
A new partnership between Whitireia and WelTec and the Southern Cross Health Trust is offering nursing ākonga (students) in the Wellington region unparalleled support during their studies and clinical placements.

Launched on 22 September 2025, the Southern Cross Nursing Scholarship is offering nine scholarships to Whitireia and WelTec ākonga for the 2026 academic year, as well as covering the cost of clinical uniforms and footwear for all first-year Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Nursing Māori, and Bachelor of Nursing Pacific ākonga.

Mike's Minute: The U.S. supports free speech, until it doesn't

When Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson are raging against their President, you know a line has been crossed.

Cruz said the FCC threat from Brendan Carr was straight out of Goodfellas and it's got mafia written all over it.

It's important not to forget we have the confluence of several stories here in the Jimmy Kimmel scrap;

Lindsay Mitchell: The Future of Welfare in an Ethnically Changing Population

Asians will make-up a third of New Zealand's population by 2048.

For those worried about one in eight working-age New Zealanders currently relying on a benefit, this is good news.

That's because Asians are heavily under-represented amongst beneficiaries.

David Farrar: We need less inflation, not more

Radio NZ reports:

Nicola Willis is calling Labour’s willingness to discuss increasing the Reserve Bank’s inflation target “insane economic illiteracy”. Labour says that’s a “massive misrepresentation” of their stance.

Damien Grant: The response to the death of Charlie Kirk has become a phenomenon

The response to the death of Charlie Kirk has become a phenomenon in itself. The response is analogous with that of Lady Diana and John Lennon but the political nature of his assassination creates a very different cultural impact.

My background compels me to focus on the family of the suspect. From what we know they are good parents who raised their children as best they could. And in the face of what occurred the father persuaded his son to surrender. In a death penalty state.

Philip Crump: The Assassination of Charlie Kirk - Free Speech and Billionaire Media

The death of the conservative firebrand comes at a pivotal time for global media.

On September 10, Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated during a campus event at the University of Utah. The killing, carried out by Tyler Robinson who now faces the death penalty, has sent shockwaves through American politics and media.

The impact will no doubt be wide-ranging, and early signs are already emerging of the effect that Kirk’s assassination will have.

Bob Edlin: Stanford and an unavoidable clash......

Stanford and an unavoidable clash – but maybe this was a case of snub or be snubbed

Remember this?

It happened just a few days ago.

Mike's Minute: If it's expensive, does buying local actually work?

If only nostalgia paid the bills.

But when it comes to peaches, it doesn’t.

Wattie's is out. Pams do a good line of imported stuff, and those who buy peaches in tins like it cheap.

A lot of us like cheap.

Monday September 22, 2025 

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Pee Kay: I was beaten for speaking Maori

Another Maori Language Week has come and gone and as usual, we were subjected to TV reporters giving a lesson on how to mangle a language, the obligatory profusion of pro and anti-commentary and it delivered some sideshows and farces of absurdity.

Topping my list was Rāwiri Waititi.

Insights From Social Media: 22 Mendacious Modern Part-Maori Myths

From the archives of 1law4all 

1. The Maoris are indigenous to NZ.

Wrong. Unlike the Indians in North America and the Aborigines in Australia, who have been on their land for tens of thousands of years, gaggles of Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1250 A.D. a mere 400 years before Abel Tasman. At Cape Reinga there is a hillock that, according to Maori lore and the accompanying sign, the spirits of dead Maoris leave from on their journey home to Hawaiki, thus showing that even the modern part-Maoris don’t believe that they are indigenous.

Bob Edlin: What does Potaka really think about Māori Language Commissioner’s criticism?

PoO was left wondering if something had been lost in translation – or whether Maori Development Minister Tama Potaka was confident nobody would notice his curiously cryptic response to a Parliamentary question.

It’s Maori Language Week and Maori MPs seemed keen to avoid speaking in English.

DTNZ: ATMs predicted to vanish by 2026 leaving Kiwis locked out of cash

The familiar site of the automatic teller machine (ATM) could soon fade from New Zealand streets, with reports warning that ATMs may be virtually extinct by 2026.

A report in Morningside claims that while banks hail the shift as a “natural evolution” toward “convenience” and “efficiency”, critics caution that a cashless future risks creating dangerous vulnerabilities for society.

Peter Dunne: Government arrogance

Governments rarely lose office because their policies are unpopular or not working. Far more often they are defeated because they have become arrogant and contemptuously dismissive of those promoting different views to theirs.

Usually, this trend becomes pronounced during a government's second or third term, but there are already emerging signs of increasing arrogance and intolerance from the current government, barely two-thirds into its first term. This week alone there have been three such displays of the government's mounting arrogance and disregard for contrary views.

Ele Ludeman:

Where are the protests?

Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, girls and women have been subjected to increasing loss of rights.

They aren’t allowed to work.

Schools are closed to girls and women can’t go to university.

Roger Partridge: The Rule of N - A short course in competitive arithmetic

In New Zealand economics, numbers have personalities. Two supermarkets are a duopoly. Three would be perfection – except four banks are still an oligopoly. One airline is intolerable, even though two always seem to collapse.

The equation is precise: current number (N) plus one equals salvation. This is the Rule of N – count the competitors, declare the number insufficient, and pronounce the market broken. It is beautifully simple, and completely backwards.

Nick Clark: Electoral Amendment Bill - Fixing democracy's timing problem

Three weeks.

That is how long New Zealanders waited to know the outcome of the 2023 election. While coalition talks were delayed pending the declaration of results, most comparable democracies can declare theirs within hours or days and promptly begin to form their governments.

Dr Michael Johnston: A new dawn for vocational education

Vocational education has never had a good reputation in New Zealand. It has long been seen as a second-best option for ‘struggling students.’ University is the destination of choice for ‘good’ students, even if they have no idea what they want to do there.

This unfortunate attitude was on display last week after Education Minister Erica Stanford announced the list of subjects to be included in the new school curriculum for Years 11-13.

Ani O'Brien: Tom Phillips - the folk hero of the Family Court fringe

Tom Phillips is dead, his three children are now in the care of Oranga Tamariki, and a certain corner of the New Zealand internet has decided to martyr him as their patron saint of unfairly treated dads.

Sunday September 21, 2025 

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John McLean: Aoteainertia

New Zealand is not in the swim. It’s swimmy, barely able to tread water. The Second Law of Thermodynamics has cuckooed the once-plucky and productive settler nest of New Zealand. Entropy is endemic. There’s little but directionless disorder.

New Zealand is in desperate need of abundant, well-directed energy, both electrical and psychological.

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Green growth delusion collides with AI revolution

UK

Nvidia boss warns Miliband over UK energy policy

Britain will need natural gas to power new giant computing hubs for artificial intelligence, the boss of Nvidia said, warning that Britain’s high electricity price remained a “challenge”. During an interview with the BBC, Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury said in response that the UK government plans to to continue with its push for renewables. 

Ani O'Brien: Nicola Willis is no Ruth Richardson and that’s the problem

Nicola Willis promised discipline. She promised to rein in spending, shrink the bloated public service, and put New Zealand’s economy “back on track” after Labour’s disastrous run. Instead, she has drifted. Spending remains high, the bureaucracy is still bloated, and taxpayers see little sign of the tough decisions we were promised.

The result? Labour, of all parties, is polling neck and neck with National, less than 13 months out from the election. That should be a political impossibility, given the wreckage they left behind. But it speaks to the central failure of National and its Finance Minister. Voters expected change, and what they got instead was continuity.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Alarming US public debt means New Zealand Government should be more prudent

Imagine that your family spent twice as much as it earned last month. Around the kitchen table the mood would be grim and the bank’s patience likely wearing thin.

In August 2025, the United States federal government spend over twice its income, $689 billion versus receipts of $344 billion. Even doubling every American’s tax bill would not have closed that gap.

Simon O'Connor: The 'right' response

The conduct of Charlie Kirk before his assassination, and the likes of Israel and Maria Folau, give us a good idea of how we should respond to the increasing challenges in society.

Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the recent release of an exclusive interview with Israel and Maria Folau, I’ve been asking myself - what is the right response to having your views challenged so aggressively and dramatically by opponents?

Dr Peter Winsley: How can more young people enter careers and fulfil their potential

Many young New Zealanders feel that a social contract has been breached. This tacit contract is that, if students worked and studied hard, the government would maintain through its institutions the macroeconomic stability and microeconomic flexibility that allow people to succeed with decisions on study and career choices.

However, young people are now expected to enter a weak labour market under tight fiscal constraints and with high uncertainty over the information learners can draw on. New Zealand has inherited multi-billion infrastructure deficits. It faces challenges in funding growing retirement and health liabilities. Its low domestic savings rates favour non-tradeable sectors and property rather than knowledge-intensive, export-orientated businesses.

Kerre Woodham: Surely we've reached the bottom of the economic cycle

The news came in around quarter to 11 yesterday, and it was unwelcome confirmation of what many people had been experiencing, had been feeling. The economy had contracted, and worse, it had shrunk 0.9%, far worse than economists had been predicting.

Economists at the Reserve Bank had forecast the economy would shrink just 0.3% during the June quarter. Retail banks said, "Oh, I don't think so. I think it'll be closer to 0.5." In fact, the figures released by Stats NZ yesterday showed GDP fell almost a full percentage point in the three months ended June, with declines in most industries.

Bob Edlin: Plenty of advice for NZ’s Minister for Growth......

Plenty of advice for NZ’s Minister for Growth – from reducing Govt deficits and debt to handing in her resignation

It’s great to see former ministers of finance and a former prime minister offering advice on how to turn the Government’s “going for growth” rhetoric into GDP growth and a lift in our general well-being.

They have all chipped in after New Zealand’s economy shrunk by 0.9% in the June quarter – 

David Farrar: Winston on the Paris Agreement

The Herald reported:

Act and NZ First are duking it out over who first came up with the idea of pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Act made the announcement on Tuesday morning. That afternoon Winston Peters claimed on social media that he’d come up with the idea first.

Winston is saying he was first to propose pulling out of Paris? Let’s look at what he has said over time on Paris:

Mike's Minute: Who from the Reserve Bank will be held accountable?

Was this the final nail in the Adrian Orr coffin?

Can we add Christian Hawkesby and the entire monetary policy committee? After all, it's easy to blame a governor, but it’s a committee that votes on what to do with the cash rate.

Saturday September 20, 2025 

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Ani O'Brien: When the Left decides violence is justified

Charlie Kirk’s assassination could have been a moment of unified horror bringing together anyone who values democracy, free speech, or civil society. That it was not is cause for great alarm and demonstrates that society-wide political animosity is at dangerous levels. Kirk was not killed in an accident. He was hunted, targeted, and gunned down in front of an audience because of his political views. His killer didn’t just dislike what Kirk said, he believed Kirk’s very existence was intolerable and he was justified in eliminating him. This is the culmination of years of rhetoric from the left that frames conservatives not as political opponents but as evil incarnate, “hatemongers” whose words are literal violence. Once you have convinced people that speech is violence, it is only a small step to convince them that real violence is simply “self-defence.”

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The GDP numbers are the fault of the Reserve Bank, not Nicola Willis

How is it that we are having a conversation today about whether Nicola Willis needs to quit her portfolio because of yesterday's shock GDP number?

This is crazy. What happened yesterday is not Nicola Willis's fault. It is the Reserve Bank's fault. It is not a matter of opinion. It is a fact.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.9.25

Saturday September 20, 2025 

News:
National Iwi Chairs Forum and Council of Trade Unions announce day of solidarity
The National Iwi Chairs Forum and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) Te Kauae Kaimahi have announced a national day of solidarity between iwi and unions in resistance to the "Government's ongoing attacks on Māori and workers"

Chris Lynch: Economy shrinks as Government and opposition clash over blame

Fresh economic data showing the economy shrank in the June quarter has prompted sharp exchanges between the Government and Opposition over who is to blame and what should come next.

Statistics New Zealand figures released today show Gross Domestic Product fell 0.9 percent in the second quarter of the year, following a 0.9 percent increase in the first three months.

Brendan O'Neill: The Battle of Gaza City - it’s time to take sides

Why the army of the Jewish State must be victorious over the Islamist hysterics of Hamas.

‘I judge a man by one thing’, said the early 20th-century English Liberal MP Isaac Foot: ‘Which side would he have liked his ancestors to fight on at Marston Moor?’ He was referring to the Battle of Marston Moor of 1644, during the English Civil War, in which the Parliamentarian side under the command of the radical Lord Fairfax roundly defeated the Royalist side. It was the military victory that propelled these isles towards democracy. I’m starting to feel similarly about the Battle of Gaza City – that you can judge a person by which side they’re taking in this clash between the army of Israel and the neo-fascists of Hamas.

Matua Kahurangi: Māori want to talk about genocide

Just not the genocide they committed against the Moriori

Every time there is talk about an alleged genocide happening in Palestine, you can guarantee there will be loud activist Māori voices screaming about it. Debbie Ngawera=Packer this week started to cry out about injustice, oppression, colonisation, and the suffering of the people in Gaza. When it comes to the genocide their own ancestors carried out against the Chatham Islands' Moriori, they go deadly silent.

Bob Edlin: The forecasters got it wrong, when looking into the past.....

The forecasters got it wrong, when looking into the past – but Willis is confident they are right to be bullish about future GDP

Finance Minister Nicola Willis presumably had hoped to brace Parliamentarians – and the public – for politically discomforting economic news from StatsNZ today.

Mike's Minute: Compulsory KiwiSaver could be our answer to saving

Having argued the other week for compulsory KiwiSaver, it was sort of ironic, but probably lucky, that several reports came out post the comments that wanted the same thing.

Then enter Winston who wants it as well, and will pay for it, apparently with tax cuts.

Of course the tax cuts are completely unaffordable, but it doesn’t make the compulsion a bad idea.

Kerre Woodham: Unions seem to have struck themselves into irrelevance

Back when I was a kid, you knew the school holidays were coming up when the Seafarers Union went on strike. Sure as God made little apples, a week before the school holidays, the unions would be all out, brothers and sisters, and then there'd be all night negotiations between the cloth caps and the capitalist overlords, while parents waited anxiously to see if the annual road trip —south in our case— would take place to go down and see the Christchurch rallies. Generally, at the last minute they would, so it was a mad dash to Wellington, over the Cook Strait to Christchurch for the school holidays. Every single time.

David Farrar: Ouch

Stats NZ reports:

New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.9 percent in the June 2025 quarter, following a 0.9 percent increase in the March 2025 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.

Ryan Bridge: The waiting game continues for the economy

Has Nicola Willis failed on growth in her year of growth?

So far, yes.

We’ve gone nowhere in six months. Q2 basically wiped out Q1.

Should she resign?

Friday September 19, 2025 

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Ryan Bridge: Should we worry about extremism in NZ?

Did you see the cops put out a handy warning for us all yesterday?

Hide, tell, escape.

The spooks in Wellington reckon extremist violence is a realistically possibility in this country.

Now, they’ve been saying this for some time.

Roger Childs: Scott Watson Is Still Innocent

In December 2023 in the lead up to Watson’s most recent appeal police decided to go back to the hairs that had been collected from the tiger blanket 25 years previously and DNA test them in an effort to futherlink Watson to Hope or Smart.. The following year the Instutue of Environmental Science and Research began testing 30 hairs from the blanket. Results showed that none of the hairs contained any DNA from Hope or Smart. Mike Wilson, The Post September 3 2025

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The pressure's on the RBNZ to fix the economy - fast

Well, I think it's fair to say that the GDP print has come in at something of a shock.

The Reserve Bank was picking a contraction of 0.3 percent. The consensus was a contraction of 0.4 percent. The worst-case prediction from one of the banks was a contraction of 0.5 percent. It's come in at a contraction of 0.9 percent, which is basically twice as bad as most of us thought.

Professor Jerry Coyne: More unsubstantiated assertions of indigenous “science” in New Zealand

Predator Free NZ (“PFZ”, and “NZ” is New Zealand) is apparently a science-oriented trust whose goal—a worthy one—is to keep non-native predators, such as the common brushtail possum, out of New Zealand, as they destroy native wildlife and have other bad effects on the ecosystem. (The possum, for example, destroys native New Zealand birds and carries bovine tuberculosis, and it’s a constant battle to destroy them). But, like apparently all science in New Zealand, the organization is getting infiltrated with indigenous “ways of knowing” and “lived experience”, which in the case at hand appear, at they so often do, not to be based on real science at all. Real science means you use data to test a hypothesis, not simply adduce “lived experience”.

George Thomson: Teachers to strike again, demand higher pay and more te reo Māori support

About 40,000 primary school teachers, principals, and support staff will strike on October 23rd to urge the Government to address students and educators’ issues in education.

The decision comes amid rolling strikes for secondary school teachers this week.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: How Nato failed Putin’s drone test

On Wednesday morning last week, I was getting ready for my afternoon speech at the Financial Services Council conference in Auckland.

Between sessions, I scrolled through X on my phone. What I saw shocked me. Russian drones had violated Polish airspace. NATO fighters were scrambling in darkness. For the first time since the Ukraine war began, a NATO member was firing on Russian military assets.

Matua Kahurangi: Te Pāti Māori are racists

Chris Hipkins must cut them loose

Chris Hipkins has recently tried to distance himself from the disgraceful racist comments made by Takuta Ferris, also known as Romaine Ferris. Ferris has become the mouthpiece of Te Pāti Māori, spewing hate while the party scrambles to clean up the mess. They eventually apologised, but Ferris could not help himself. He went online in the middle of the night looking like he was on a meth bender and ranted again, repeating the same divisive, racist nonsense that got him in trouble in the first place.

Bob Edlin: “Please, your honour, may I have my gang patch back?”.....

“Please, your honour, may I have my gang patch back?” And thanks to the words “dispose of”, the judge said yes

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell sounded triumphantly emphatic when they brayed about their crackdown on criminal gangs on November 20 last year.

They were drawing attention to a raft of new laws that would take effect that night.

Gang insignia would be banned in all public places, courts would be able to issue non-consorting orders, and Police would be able to stop criminal gang members from associating and communicating.