Karl du Fresne: A gross failure of editorial judgment

There’s a story in the New Zealand Herald this morning about the death of former King Cobras gang leader Ulaiasi “Rocky” Pulete. Carrying the byline of Herald crime reporter Jared Savage, it’s written in the reverential tones normally reserved for an esteemed community leader, business person or sporting figure. Pulete is described as “a giant of the criminal underworld” and “highly regarded across the wider criminal fraternity”.

Clive Bibby: The “Clayton’s” Health Care Staffing Shortage Problem

How many times do we tune in to the 6pm News to find the opening segment occupied by a damning report about a nationwide doctor and nurses shortage.

We then proceed to be lambasted with political speeches from the Opposition Health spokesperson and the politicised Heath Care Workers Union.

What you don’t hear are the reasons why these shortages have been allowed to occur.

Steven Gaskell: The Teaching of Māori Spiritual Worldviews in New Zealand Schools

The teaching of Māori spiritual worldviews in New Zealand schools is a legal consistency issue.

New Zealand’s commitment to secular education is grounded in the principle that the state should not privilege one religion over another. Under current practice, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and other faith traditions are clearly defined as “religion” and therefore excluded from classroom teaching, except in contexts where students are provided choice and parents’ rights are respected. In contrast, Māori spiritual worldviews are reframed as “culture” and integrated directly into the curriculum. This inconsistency raises significant legal and human rights concerns.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We need to think critically about the future of the Paris Agreement

Finally, we have a serious party who has spent time thinking about it - and is now seriously suggesting that New Zealand should pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Now, that was what came from that ACT Party announcement that I told you would be coming today that you needed to keep an eye out for.

ACT says Paris isn't working for New Zealand and it says we should push for the agreement to be reformed - and if it isn't reformed, then we should pull out of it.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 31.8.25

Wednesday September 3, 2025 

News:
Government Tertiary Reforms to Centre Māori Voices, Says Minister Shane Reti
Universities Minister Shane Reti says Māori voices are essential for positive change in the university sector, following a major announcement today.

The Government is reforming tertiary education to better align teaching and research with Aotearoa’s future workforce and innovation needs.

John McLean: Shadow Boxing Report On Radio New Zealand

A report with whopping willful blindness

In mid-August 2025, news emerged of a report on the performance of “RNZ National”, Radio New Zealand’s 24/7 “flagship” broadcast channel that includes Morning Report (6am – 9am, weekdays) and RNZ’s Saturday Morning show.

Chris Lynch: Christopher Luxon confirms global technology giant Amazon will invest $7.5 billion in New Zealand

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed global technology giant Amazon will invest $7.5 billion in New Zealand.

Amazon Web Services, the corporation’s cloud computing arm, will establish data centres in New Zealand, a move Luxon described as unprecedented.

Chris Lynch: Sharp rise in business closures prompts fresh call to back local

Business closures are becoming a daily occurrence in New Zealand, with new figures showing a 26 percent surge in company liquidations across key industries.

Data from credit bureau Centrix reveals the construction sector remains under the most pressure, recording 765 closures in the past year, up 46 percent. Hospitality has also been badly affected, with 297 businesses shutting down, a 49 percent increase. Hospitality firms are now more than twice as likely to fail as the average New Zealand business.

Kaaren Mathias: NZ’s shift to more private healthcare will likely raise costs and reduce quality: what the evidence tells us

Because Health New Zealand has refused to reveal how much it is paying private hospitals to perform elective surgeries under a new government contract, it is difficult to assess whether taxpayers are getting value for money.

The government has committed to an evidence-based, cost-effective health system that provides equitable access to all New Zealanders.

Mike's Minute: Foreigners buying homes - we got there at last

We got there at last.

If you are a Golden Visa holder, that’s a person who puts $5-10 million into the country, you can now buy a house.

The idea that we expected you to put that sort of money into a country and then rent was, and is, absurd.

Brendan O'Neill: What a pathetic bunch of cry-bullies Israel’s enemies are

The Houthis started a war with Israel and now they’re blubbing like babies because Israel struck back.

If I had spent a large chunk of the past two years firing missiles into France, at some point I’d expect a missile back. I would know, even in the delirium of my Francophobic violence, that the French would target me for death one day, and what’s more that they would have every right to do so. So what’s with all the wailing and rushing for the fainting couch following Israel’s decapitation of the Houthi terror group? This is a virulently anti-Semitic militia that has been terrorising the Jewish State with bombs and drones for two years straight. Israel’s strike back is not a ‘war crime’, as the moral illiterates of the Israelophobic mob would have you believe – it’s justice.

Bob Edlin: Kiwis don’t need a Constitutional Court to crimp our elected law-makers.....

Kiwis don’t need a Constitutional Court to crimp our elected law-makers – we already have judges who do that

Thailand’s Constitutional Court reminds us of how judges can be politically powerful. It has removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, ruling that she “lacks the qualifications and possesses prohibited characteristics” under the Thai constitution.

As the ABC reported, her dismissal flings the country into political instability.

Bruce Cotterill: Chasing foreign supermarkets won’t lower food prices

I sometimes wonder if our politicians put themselves in the headlines without thinking things through.

This week the supermarket industry has been back in the spotlight. Our Finance Minister is making it her business to keep it there as she attempts to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.

Tuesday September 2, 2025 

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Alwyn Poole: Some Overall Statistics for the NZ Education System

I use University Entrance as the key indicator for three reasons:

1. It is the highest qualification that covers all schools.

2. It is a very good proxy for the levels below.

3. It includes schools who do IB, Cambridge and NCEA.

Michael Laws on the incompatibility of human rights and Māori sovereignty.

On The Platform, Michael discusses Auckland Law School Associate Professor Andrew Erueti's new research, Indigenous Rights Beyond the Liberal Frame, explores how governments use the language of "equalit", "non-discrimination" and "one law for all" to resist Māori authority and constitutional transformation.


Click to view

Pee Kay: Farting Against Thunder

The Earth’s Climate is always changing. It has done since its formation. Didn’t we all learn that in high school geography? Well, maybe until the green zealots infiltrated our education system!

The Sahara Desert is one of the driest deserts on earth and almost uninhabited. But it wasn’t always that way. It once was a fertile, well-watered land.

Just as Greenland wasn’t called Greenland because it was covered in ice and snow!

Duggan Flanakin: The U.S. Rediscovers a Valuable Trading Partner — Indonesia

In the throes of the summer, the Trump administration announced an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade with the Republic of Indonesia — the world’s third largest democracy — that builds on the 1996 U.S.–Indonesia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. Key features of the agreement relate to tariffs and other barriers to bilateral trade, environmental protections, and labor rights.

Michael Reddell: Oh, what a tangled web

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive - from Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott.

Those were the words that sprang to mind on Friday evening when I heard the news that Neil Quigley had finally resigned as board chair (and board member) of the Reserve Bank. There had been more than enough in his conduct over recent years, and in what he tolerated from Orr, that Quigley should have gone long ago – and certainly shouldn’t have been reappointed by Willis last June – but had it not been for the repeated and sustained efforts of mislead the public over the circumstances of Orr’s departure no doubt he’d have seen out his term (which expired 30 June 2026).

Matua Kahurangi: The March for Australia and the media’s great deception

When thousands of Australians took to the streets yesterday for the March for Australia, I knew exactly what was coming. The mainstream media would not report honestly on why those people were there. They would not listen to the speeches, they would not look at the banners or talk to the everyday Aussies who marched. Instead, they would reach straight for the same tired smears they always use -“racist”, “violent”, “white supremacist”.

Eliora: NZ Cannot Afford to Be Blasé About This

Grant Robertson, the former finance minister, expressed regret for not borrowing more.

I thought I had made up a new word, but I was wrong. Squanderlust came to mind, but I found it is used in the English language: A strong desire to waste one’s financial resources. This word fits with Grant Robertson’s financial management of the government’s books.

David Farrar: Quigley’s resignation

I was sad to see Neil Quigley resign as Reserve Bank Chair, but not surprised. The lack of transparency over Orr’s resignation was sub-standard.

Mike's Minute: The Reserve Bank mess is finally at an end

Rhetorical question - why do you think Neil Quigley quit on a Friday night?

The key is, he would have been booted if he didn’t walk. So it sort of ends a shambolic and shameful period for what should be one of our most esteemed institutions.

 Monday September 1, 2025 

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Damien Grant: Our universities are failing, and we have the grades to prove it

The first hint of trouble was a decade past. In a job interview for a law graduate. We hire lawyers fresh from university and throw them into the mayhem that is the judicial system with little training or oversight. Some thrive on the chaos and become great litigators while others do better in the more structured environment of a law firm.

NZCPR Newsletter: Door Opens for Tribal River Claims

Last week the Supreme Court delivered the second of its two-part judgement on the first Marine and Coastal Area Act case to progress its way through to our highest court.

In their initial judgement, which was released last December, instead of interpreting the law as Parliament intended so only a minority of claims for the coast would succeed, the Supreme Court took an activist approach by declaring that “tikanga” or Maori custom should be at the heart of all coastal claim decision-making. In doing so they virtually guaranteed tribal control of New Zealand’s coastline.

The second ruling, which also favours Maori, opens up the country’s waterways for tribal claim. While the decision only affects the beds of navigable rivers that form part of the coastal marine area – namely whichever is the lesser of one kilometre upstream or five times the river’s width at the mouth - it would nevertheless give Maori sovereignty activists a foot in the door.

Bob Edlin: Repair work for Transmission Gulley......

Roman roads are remembered as the Govt signals repair work just three years after Transmission Gully opening

The PoO team has been reminded that the Romans built an extensive, durable, and standardised network of roads that spanned the entire Roman Empire from Britain to the Middle East.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: When the numbers tell a different story to the government

Last week, New Zealand’s Reserve Bank (RBNZ) cut interest rates to 3.0 percent. The government was quick to take the credit. “Taking the pressure off inflation has allowed the Reserve Bank to lower the OCR when it needs to be adjusted,” a media release claimed. “The Government’s responsible economic management is making a difference.”

Dr Benno Blaschke: When more means less

Auckland desperately needs homes. Under thirties are giving up on finding homes while politicians promise solutions. So, when the government ordered Auckland Council to allow taller buildings – up to six stories – it looked like progress. Finally, more flats!

The Council unveiled shiny maps showing where six-storey buildings could sprout across the city. Politicians smiled for the cameras. Problem solved, right?

Not quite.

Dr James Keirstead: Amazing grades

In my last Insights column, I explained what grade inflation is and why it’s bad. I also surveyed research showing that grade inflation is a problem at universities in the US, the UK, and Australia. 

What about New Zealand? My report Amazing Grades: Grade Inflation at New Zealand Universities, which was released this week, shows that grade inflation is a problem here too.

Nick Clark: Local government reform - curing the patient?

When council rates rise at five times the rate of inflation, while water pipes burst and potholes multiply, something has gone very wrong.

Council rates jumped 12% last year, the steepest increase in decades, and will on average increase 9% this year. Ratepayers are angry. No wonder there have been calls for the government to impose rates caps.

Matua Kahurangi: Today patriots March for Australia

Today, Australians across the country will take to the streets in what is being called the March for Australia. The mainstream media are already rushing to paint it as “racist” or “bigoted,” but nothing could be further from the truth. At its core, this movement is about ordinary Australians standing up against mass immigration, the political cowardice enabling it, and the erosion of national identity.

Alwyn Poole: The Tremendously Underwhelming Response of Erica Stanford to a VERY key question.

Kerre Woodham hosted Minister Stanford on Newstalk ZB during the week. There were positive aspects and responses to questions from callers.

However, it came massively unstuck towards the end when Kerre asked what parents can do for their children re education.

It is a truism to state that parents are far more important/influential than teachers/schools.

David Farrar: The gift of the Greens

Roger Partridge writes:

The Greens’ coronation of Chlöe Swarbrick at last weekend’s AGM delivered a manifesto for economic transformation that would make Soviet economists nostalgic for their glory days.

Swarbrick delivered a speech that was part meditation retreat, part political rally. She declared her party “leading the Opposition,” positioned herself as Finance Minister-in-waiting, and announced her intention to overhaul capitalism.

Mike's Minute: The Govt hasn't followed through on cutting the public sector

It is with real enthusiasm that I see the Public Service Commissioner potentially doing what the main Government should have done two years ago.

What the Government did two years ago was say they were going to rectify the absurd size of the public service.

 Sunday August 31, 2025 

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