Andrew Bydder: Councils Have to Break the Spending Addiction

Councils love spending other people’s money. But if it goes on for too long, the public get annoyed at rates rises and vote out the councillors. That’s how it is supposed to work. But everything changed after the GFC. Councils discovered a magic money tree!

The Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) was created in 2011 in response to the Global Financial Crisis. Banks had stopped lending to everyone, which caused problems for debt-funded council infrastructure programmes.

Alwyn Poole: Redefining Genius – In the light of Sam Ruthe

I had the overwhelming privilege of watching 15 year old Sam Ruthe run the fastest 1500m for someone his age in the history of ever.

Form the time I was eight years old and saw Bayi, Walker and Dixon run incredibly well – I was hooked on the sport.

Damien Grant: ACT’s clarity a sticking point for Luxon in his apparent struggle to explain ‘why’

On Waitangi Day the prime minister went as far away from the Treaty grounds as reasonably possible. Akaroa. He was making nice with Ngai Tahu and was rewarded with a few photos.

This left the stage at Waitangi open, and Seymour exploited the opportunity. He enjoyed himself debating the media and getting viral moments with former comedian and progressive activist Guy Williams.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 16.2.25

Monday February 17, 2025 

News:
Nelson Tenths case: Māori land claim leader Rore Stafford seeks Supreme Court hearing to expedite justice

The descendants of customary landowners at the top of the South Island have been trying since colonial settlement in the 1840s to resolve an agreement to reserve 15,100 acres (6110ha) of land as the Nelson Tenths Reserves during settlement.

Ross Meurant: The Liz Gunn Case - Not Guilty

Liz Gunn: A law graduate and former Television presenter, more recently recognised as an anti-vax campaigner and condemned by most MSM as a conspiracy theorist, the founder of the Loyal NZ political party, has been pilloried by many.

As I posted recently (referring to the Polkinghorne case) (1), in New Zealand we are deemed to be innocent until proven guilty.  And, if charges brought by a prosecuting agency of the State, fail to prove guilt, or are later on appeal, set aside, “that person” is deemed to be – Not Guilty.

Tim Donner: Tracking the Trump Tsunami

Calling him an activist president would be the understatement of the year.

A tsunami is a gigantic tidal wave that you know is coming but are powerless to stop or alleviate. The best you can do is gird your loins and run for the hills. That is the position in which Democrats find themselves these days as the Trump executive tsunami consumes everything in its wake. The Dems are huddled together in the disintegrating shelter of the DC Swamp, decrying the inevitable but realizing they will get swept away and that the damage to their way of life will be incalculable. It is something to behold.

Bob Edlin: Mayor Whanau and Ayesha Verrall have won Jonesie Awards....

Maybe the media missed it – but Mayor Whanau and Ayesha Verrall have won Jonesie Awards (which were named after Guess Who?)

A Google search failed to steer me to a report about the 2025 Jonesie Awards in our major newspapers or from our major broadcasters.

That doesn’t necessarily mean this annual event was not covered by the “legacy media”. Maybe their reportage would have been winkled out if I had used other search words.

Brendan O'Neill: JD Vance has signed the death warrant of the status quo

Well, that was a delicious spectacle. America’s self-made VP gloriously roasting the wizened technocrats of Europe. A Yank from dirt-poor origins sticking it to Europe’s turbo-smug ruling class. How they squirmed as the boy from Ohio who somehow made it to the top of US politics chastised them for their indecent desertion of the ideals of liberty, democracy and security. It was like an intellectual waterboarding, and I loved every minute of it.

David Farrar: Liz Gunn wins

The High Court has dismissed on appeal the assault conviction against Liz Gunn. Now I’m not a fan of Ms Gunn’s stances on various issues, but the court decision makes clear how outrageous her arrest and prosecution was. From the ruling:

Sunday February 16, 2025 

                    ⇩

NZCPR Newsletter: Parliamentary Sovereignty Hangs in the Balance

The secret ‘partnership’ deal between the Cook Islands and China caught our Government by surprise. It caused concern because it will bring the influence of one of the world’s most ambitious global superpowers much closer to home.

Rodney Hide: Schooling Through a Te Ao Maori Lens

Last week my 13-year-old at Wakatipu High studied in English “An introduction to culture and identity in literature”.

The class guide was as follows:

Centrist: Why is New Zealand sticking to UN climate rules when everyone else is walking away?

Nearly every major country ignored the UN’s February deadline to submit new emissions-reduction plans—except for New Zealand and a handful of others.

While global powers like China, India, and the EU delayed or outright ignored the requirement, New Zealand lined up with just nine other nations to comply.

Centrist: Marc Spring - “Luxon has allowed the left to stay in the game”

Christopher Luxon’s leadership is failing to connect with voters, according to indy journalist Marc Spring, who says, “There is a deep dissatisfaction with our PM.”

Spring argues that Luxon’s weak approach has squandered National’s advantage, allowing Labour to stay in the fight when they should have been politically crushed.

Dieuwe de Boer: Rogue Bureaucrats and Feeble Ministers

I hadn't followed the story of Janet Dickson's fight against the Real Estate Authority (REA) very closely. I knew she objected to the REA requiring real estate agents to do a left-wing "cultural course" before they can be licensed. I admire her taking this conscientious objection all the way to a Judicial Review, which she unfortunately lost.

Corey Smith: World Leaders Try to Appease Trump

President Donald Trump welcomed two world leaders to the White House this week. On Tuesday, he met with the king of Jordan to discuss the future of Gaza and the president’s proposal to relocate Palestinians to the Arab country. The king was in a tough position and appeared to play it safe during the joint press briefing. On Thursday, the commander-in-chief met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to talk about tariffs and strengthening relations between the two countries. The meetings were quite different from each other – as far as the public knows – yet still had the same air of tension.

John MacDonald: Here's why we're so bad at road repairs

I’m starting to wonder whether it was just a fluke that we managed to build things like the big hydro dams back in the day without them falling over. Without them falling apart. Cracking under the pressure.

Because, when you consider achievements like that, it makes it laughable that we don’t seem to be capable anymore of really simple stuff like fixing roads.

Dr Guy Hatchard: The Gene Technology Bill Will Allow Gene Edited Microorganisms to Be Labelled as Natural

… and Sold to an Unwitting Public.

Last chance to have your say. Submissions close on Monday 17th February

A year ago Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Laureate co-inventor of CRISPR gene editing technology announced a ground breaking project to edit human and animal microbiomes in the gut, promising to cure diseases like asthma and Alzheimer’s and also ameliorate climate change (???) by altering the metabolic processes of animals and humans. Now today the NZ government is proposing to deregulate such biotechnology experimentation including gene editing of microorganisms.

Saturday February 15, 2025 

                    ⇩

Peter Williams: My submission on the Treaty Principles Bill

I submitted to the Justice Select Committee today on the Treaty Principles Bill, or rather, a sub-committee of the Select Committee.

It was via Zoom. The chair was Labour MP Duncan Webb. In attendance were Steve Abel from the Greens, Takuta Ferris from Te Pati Maori, and National MPs Jamie Arbuckle, Carl Bates and Rima Nahkle. There were no representatives from either Act or New Zealand First.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The speakers at Waikato University's 2025 Economic Forum....

The speakers at Waikato University's 2025 Economic Forum, "Unconstrained Thinking for Constrained Times", Symbolize NZ's Stagnation.

To help solve this country's economics woes, our Universities have jumped into action. Yes, Waikato has unleashed its 2025 New Zealand Economics Forum Conference, marketed under the title "Unconstrained Thinking for Constrained Times". So who is unleashing this new wave of thinking about how to fix our broken system?

Breaking Views Update: Week of 9.2.25

Saturday February 15, 2025 

News:
Mariameno Kapa-Kingi Enters Members Bill To Establish Mokopuna Māori Authority
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

DTNZ: PSA takes legal action to halt job cuts

The Public Service Association (PSA), representing 25,000 Health NZ workers, has filed legal action with the Employment Relations Authority to halt widespread job cuts at the agency.

The proceedings were filed on 12 February and seek an urgent hearing to stop dismissals, particularly targeting the planned elimination of 1,100 roles in the data and digital directorate, along with cuts to the National Public Health Service and the Pacific directorate.

Michael Johnston: Safety First!

Some people think we live in relatively safe times. Those people are naïve.

It is true that you are much less likely to die in a workplace accident, on the road, in a war, or from an infectious disease than in the past. But the foremost threat to safety today is not physical, but cultural.

Kerre Woodham: Is insurance becoming a nice-to-have?

We've seen floods in Europe, fires in California and in the last couple of years, weather events here at home.

As of the 1st of September 2023, insurers had paid out $2.053 billion on claims relating to the Auckland Anniversary flood and Cyclone Gabrielle.

Bob Edlin: Tākuta Ferris – chided by Shane Jones for delivering apology only in Maori....

Tākuta Ferris – chided by Shane Jones for delivering apology only in Maori – says his generation was born to agitate

Tākuta Ferris found to have misled the House…

That was the headline on a post by David Farrar on Kiwiblog yesterday after the Privileges Committee reported:

Guest Post: Social justice takes precedence over law in census investigation

A guest post by a reader on Kiwiblog:

David Seymour obliquely referred to the pervasion of a social justice agenda in New Zealand in his first interview of 2025 on The Country, with words to the effect, Government officials (and universities) have gone rogue implementing identity ideology (with private enterprise following suit!)

Professor Robert MacCulloch: A Tribute to the Founder of Well-being Economics, Richard Easterlin....

A Tribute to the Founder of Well-being Economics, Richard Easterlin, who we flew out to NZ in 2019. He symbolizes a choice our country must make.

A few weeks ago, the founder of well-being economic, Richard Easterlin died, at the age of 98. In 2019, I invited him out to NZ, as a Visiting Professor to Auckland University. He was interviewed by Liam Dann at the NZ Herald and had a degree of influence over this nation's approach to the pandemic, as recognized by the Beehive in June 2020, which includes a link to a Zoom interview that I did with him back then. Easterlin was the intellectual architect of former PM Ardern and Finance Minister Robertson's "well-being approach" and "well-being budgets". That approach has always been scorned by National and ACT, who regard it as a joke. It is no joke to me.

Friday February 14, 2025 

                    ⇩

Nick Clark: Time to modernise New Zealand’s gene technology rules

It is hard to believe today, but a TV interview about genetic modification (GM) once upended an election campaign. That interview cast a long shadow over the use of GM in New Zealand.

For those too young to remember, in July 2002, just a few weeks before a general election, Prime Minister Helen Clark was interviewed by TV3’s John Campbell. It was a fiery encounter. Campbell, citing an impending book by Nicky Hager, Seeds of Distrust, alleged that GM corn had been accidentally released into New Zealand’s food supply and the incident covered up.

Clark was blindsided by Campbell’s questioning and was visibly angry. Afterwards, she referred to him as a ’little creep’. ‘Corngate’ was born.

Professor James Allan: Losing to Win

Longer term readers of the Speccie will recall that back in 2015 and 2016 I thought, and argued, that all conservative voters would do better to preference Labour rather than Malcolm Turnbull and the Libs in the 2016 election. In other words, I thought we had to lose short-term to win long-term.

Dr Michael Bassett: Maori, welfare and tikanga

If you are like me and constantly surprised by what constitutes tikanga, you might have noticed an article in the weekend papers about a Maori woman “with limited means”, separated from her late husband, who sought funeral costs from the taxpayer to cover the costs of his funeral. The Ministry of Social Development agreed to pay for the casket and expenses involved in getting it to the burial ground. However, it drew the line at paying another $1,026 towards food for the mourners.

Ross Meurant: Guilty Before Found Guilty and Guilty After Found Not Guilty

If ever there was a shocking travesty of justice, it was Rt Hon Luxon’s ill-advised comment of, “ill-advised”, to Hon David Seymour, relating to the Epsom MP’s letter to Dr Polkinghorne. (1)(2)

A fundamental pillar of New Zealand’s system of justice, predicated on the 1215 Magna Carta is:

We are all innocent until proven Guilty.

Polkinghorne was found Not Guilty.

Dr Will Jones: Christian School Worker Sacked for Sharing Social Media Posts Criticising LGBT Teaching Wins in Court of Appeal

A Christian school worker who was dismissed after sharing social media posts criticising the teaching of LGBT relationships at her son’s school has won a key Court of Appeal battle related to her dismissal. The Mail has more.

Peter Dunne: Next Election Still National's To Lose

The first opinion polls of the year send a mighty wake-up call to the coalition government, but they are not the death knell some might think. Polls are always a snapshot in time, subject to particular influences at the time they were taken. A more accurate assessment emerges from the trends that they disclose over time, rather than the result of any one individual poll.

Dr Eric Crampton: The (transplanted) paranoid style in Kiwi politics

Some essays are timeless. In 1964, Richard Hofstadter diagnosed what he called “The Paranoid Style in American Politics”. His essay in Harper’s Magazine began:

Bob Edlin: Yes, the beach is better protected....

Yes, the beach is better protected, but an iwi went to court to preserve its customary rights (to do what is unclear)

Keen to broaden my horizons, I have been finding the answer – a part of the answer, at least – to the question: What is the Māori world view?

JC: Polls Tell Government to Get a Move On

The February Taxpayers’ Union/Curia poll is out and it is not encouraging for the governing parties. National is up a smidgen but still stuck in the low 30s. ACT and NZ First are down slightly but all the changes are within the poll’s margin of error. Compared to the Roy Morgan poll released on January 29, this poll is harsher to the right but less so to the left. Changes recorded in both polls are fairly minimal.

David Farrar: Tākuta Ferris found to have misled the House

The Privileges Committee has reported:

The Privileges Committee has considered a question of privilege concerning a member’s denial that he made a particular statement in debate, and recommends that Tākuta Ferris be required to apologise for deliberately misleading the House.

The irony is he was accusing other MPs of being liars, but in fact the record has shown Ferris himself lied.

Mike's Minute: A Land Rover drive isn't a crisis

Like most things in life, there is nuance and subtlety that is lost along the way.

David Seymour is of a personality that undoubtedly gets up the noses of some. He might even bother the Prime Minister periodically.

Thursday February 13, 2025 

                    ⇩

Barry Brill: Creative Accounting Trumps Climate Change – Again

New Zealand’s promise to halve CO2 emissions by 2035, is clever sleight-of-hand. The minister says it will cost us virtually nothing and we won’t need to increase the pace of tree-planting.

In An Absurd Ardern Ambition (2024), I noted that New Zealand’s first Nationally-Determined Commitment (NDC) (2021-30) under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change undertook to buy more that $30 billion worth of offshore credits. This was the largest “donation of taxpayers funds to a worthy cause” ever recorded.

In reaching for that record, the 2021 Cabinet consulted nobody and rode roughshod over the unanimous opposition of all its officials and advisers. It was a “captain’s call” to overshadow all others!

Dr Peter Winsley: The English Curriculum New Zealand schools need

In recent years the English curriculum has been weakened through the replacement of rich knowledge content with ill-defined “competencies.” Shakespeare disappeared. Identity politics coloured the 2007 National Curriculum, was strengthened in the 2022 Refreshed Curriculum, and continued in later documents. Little attention was paid to cognitive science “or the science of learning”.

Ele Ludemann: Join the dots

Crime rates have decreased and prisoner numbers have increased:

It’s not hard to join the dots between fewer prisoners and less crime.

David Farrar: Collins on Public Sector

An excellent speech by new Public Services Minister Judith Collins to public sector CEOs. Some extracts:

Thomas Cranmer: Trump's Balance Sheet Diplomacy Set to Reshape World Order

Less than a month into his second term, Trump has already dismantled the old rules of US foreign policy and ushered in a new era.

Liberal interventionism which emerged as the dominant policy setting in the smouldering ruins of the Twin Towers on 9/11 is officially over. Its last act was arguably the chaotic and humiliating withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.

DTNZ: NZ First pushes for public say on water fluoridation with new Bill

New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that would return the power of fluoridation decisions to local communities, shifting authority away from central government.

Bob Edlin: If it’s called “kai” and it’s for a tangi, then (under the Treaty) a cultural case can be made for taxpayers to chip in

Oh dear.  The Ministry of Social Development has been found wrong to refuse a $1026 payment grant for the tucker at a tangi.

At first blush, this suggests the way has been opened for any eligible applicant to be given $1000 or so to provide the sausages rolls and what-have-you that help nourish mourners after a funeral.

Barrie Davis: The Leadership of President Trump

Donald Trump, now in his second presidency, is doing what he was elected to do by putting his country first. No longer prepared to be fettered by bureaucracy, he has already issued hundreds of executive orders which are intended to remove the waste and make America great again. While the contrary Supreme Court is trying to stop him and the subversive media is trying to vilify him, the erstwhile exploited Americans are liking Trump.

DTNZ: Tractors block central London in massive farmers’ protest

Hundreds descended on the British capital to decry inheritance tax changes.

Tractors blocked the streets around the Houses of Parliament in London on Monday as British farmers gathered to rally against the government’s plans to change the country’s inheritance tax policies. The changes will force many farms into bankruptcy, analysts say.

George Thomson: Pharmac expands funding for new treatments, including cancer drugs

Pharmac will fund new treatments for five health conditions, including several cancer drugs, from 1 March 2025, increasing access to vital medicines for patients across New Zealand.

Associate Health Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Simeon Brown welcomed the decision, saying it reflects the government’s commitment to expanding treatment options and improving patient outcomes.

Gary Judd KC: Minister tells Real Estate Authority CPD requirements did not meet her expectations

On 13 July 2023, LawNews published my article “Lessons for lawyers from the regulation of real estate agents.” I published a modified version on my Substack, here. Introducing my Substack, I said:

Graham Adams: Hipkins treads a slippery path on democracy

When Chris Hipkins initially declined last week to firmly rule out accepting a Māori commissioner with the power of veto over Parliament’s legislation as part of a coalition agreement with Te Pāti Māori, he slipped his head into a noose.

For the Coalition parties, it’s the sort of gift by an Opposition party leader most governments in a liberal democracy can only dream about. A power of veto would mean that voters could be denied effective representation under a Labour-led coalition because no matter what policies they endorsed at an election they would be always open to rejection by a Māori commissioner if bills did not comply, in his or her view, with Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The proposed commissioner, according to Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, would be able to strike down proposed legislation like David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: America's Pacific paradox leaves the door open to China

Perhaps geography is still destiny after all. The closer a Pacific nation sits to American shores, the more Washington seems to care about Chinese influence.

At its eastern edge, Washington still enforces Trump’s version of the Monroe Doctrine with vigour. This doctrine holds that any intervention in the Americas by foreign powers is a hostile act against the United States. Meanwhile, in the South Pacific, it appears content to create opportunities for Beijing’s expansion.

Dr Eric Crampton: The long road to housing affordability

It wasn’t that long ago that New Zealand’s housing market made international news because of its insanity. In 2016, The Guardian tagged Auckland as the “hottest property market in the world” – and part of a housing crisis.

Housing is still deeply unaffordable. But New Zealand’s housing markets have been making international headlines for a much better reason.