Insights From Social Media

Why Bother Voting at All? - by Rex Anderson

Following the recent local council elections, New Zealanders now face a familiar and frustrating pattern: more mayors and councillors pushing for Maori Wards and unelected Māori appointments to councils and boards, while parcels of public land and resources are handed over to favoured iwi groups—with little or no input from the communities footing the bill.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why is it so hard to do the obvious thing?

I've been thinking overnight about the news yesterday that a second Christchurch school has decided to put the walls back up in their classrooms and abandon those modern learning barn style spaces that we were doing in favour of going back to the traditional single class. 

The school is Shirley Boys High. 

Breaking Views Update: Week of 8.6.25

Sunday June 8, 2025 

News:
Councillor Toi Iti seeks Doug Leeder's seat - BOP Regional Council
Bay of Plenty regional councillor Toi Iti plans to vacate his Kōhi Māori ward seat at this year’s local election to contest the general councillor position currently held by Doug Leeder.

Leeder, the regional council’s chairman and East Coast general ward constituency councillor, announced his plans to vacate his seat this week.

Ani O'Brien: A Week Is A Long Time - 7 June 2025

A week is a long time in politics. Welcome to my new weekly wrap up of the week that was in New Zealand politics with a sprinkling of international news.

Dr Eric Crampton: Learning from letters

We can learn a lot from newspapers’ Letters to the Editor pages.

This week, I had a column in the Stuff newspapers on the Initiative’s proposed fast-track for new supermarkets.

I noted that existing district plans block new supermarkets that might compete with existing ones. So, we suggested enabling large-scale entry by a new player, overriding anticompetitive parts of district plans, and handling plan changes and consents for all sites at one go.

Matua Kahurangi: Waving a noose in Parliament?

By now, you’ve probably seen the image spreading across social media - Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori, standing in New Zealand’s Parliament, brandishing a noose like some kind of political prop. I watched it unfold live during the parliamentary debate yesterday and it was one of the most disgraceful stunts I’ve ever seen in the House.

Cam Slater: Te Pāti Māori’s Haka Tantrum - A Disgrace to Parliament and a Middle Finger to New Zealanders

Te Pāti Māori’s contempt for parliament is a microcosm of their broader contempt for a unified New Zealand. If they can’t play by the rules, they don’t deserve a seat at the table.

The recent suspension of Te Pāti Māori MPs for their disruptive haka during a parliamentary vote over the Treaty Principles Bill is yet another low point in their tiresome saga of performative nonsense.

Alwyn Poole: A hugely important document for NZ to learn from.

The Whitehouse recently released a document titled: Make America Healthy Again.

The health trends listed are stark – and the needed solutions are clear (even if is going to be like doing an Aircraft Carrier doing a u-turn in the Suez Canal).

In many of the crisis stats NZ is not far behind.

Mike's Minute: Why do we still listen to polls?

The polling industry, whose only answer to fairly obvious questions seems to be “this is just a snapshot in time”, may have trouble explaining the past week of polling in this country.

There was one on Tuesday night and one on Wednesday morning. They have completely different results.

Insights From Social Media

Steven Mark Gaskell writes > Decolonisation: Because Who Needs Democracy When You Can Have Tribal Backtracking?

So, you’ve heard about this new “trendy” political movement decolonisation. Apparently, our forebears messed everything up by, you know, building a modern society based on individual rights, rule of law, and brace yourself equality under the ballot box. Now, instead of simply moving on from history like mature adults, we’re supposed to rewind the clock to some romanticised era where everyone was relegated to their little tribal fiefdoms. Good luck finding a civics textbook in that dystopia.

Saturday June 7, 2025 

                    ⇩

Breaking Views Update: Week of 1.6.25

Saturday June 7, 2025 

News:
'Sad day in Parliament': Winston Peters on Te Pāti Māori suspension debate
The New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says Te Pāti Māori MPs' behaviour performing a haka in Parliament in protest against the Treaty Principles Bill was unprecedented and "unforgivable".

He said during the haka "...people were being intimidated and no circumstances no matter what you say it was unprecedented, unforgivable".

Zoran Rakovic - No Laughing Matter: The Missing Joy in English Class

A thoughtful critique of NZ's proposed English text list for Years 7–13, drawing on Steiner, Dawkins, and timeless educational insights. Submissions close 13 June.

Are we teaching students to think—or just what to think? As the Ministry of Education seeks feedback on its new English curriculum text list, one question looms: where’s the humour, the wonder, the wit, and the wisdom beyond ideology? Before submissions close on 13 June, take a closer look between the lines.

Caleb Anderson: Was Winston right in poking the bear?

Numerous times in parliament Winston Peters has drawn attention to the mixed ancestry of Maori Party MP's. On the surface it seems inappropriate (and perhaps impolite) to question what a person considers their primary identity, but does he have a point here?

The visceral response he receives when he does this seems to expose a very raw nerve indeed.

Nick Hanne: Silenced for exposing foreign interference in NZ? Surely not.

Courage comes in all shapes and sizes.

I saw this for myself last Friday in the Manukau District Court when I went to support Portia Mao on behalf of the Free Speech Union.

Don't let Portia's appearance or gentle demeanour fool you. This pint-sized Kiwi-Chinese journalist isn't backing down to anyone or anything.

Chris Lynch: Commerce Commission targets supermarket dominance

The Commerce Commission has unveiled a new move to challenge the dominance of major supermarket chains and large grocery suppliers, saying the current market structure is failing New Zealand consumers and stifling competition.

In a draft report released today, the Commission outlined changes to the Grocery Supply Code and initial findings from its ongoing inquiry into the wholesale market.

John Klar: Gas-Powered Engine Revival in High Gear

Americans aren’t as excited about electric vehicles (EVs) as they once were, so now General Motors (GM) is getting back in the gas-burning game. The company announced a major production shift at its Tonawanda Propulsion plant in New York state. GM has abandoned its previously announced $300 million capital investment in EV drive units and devoted $888 million to the production of its sixth-generation V-8 gas-powered engine in 2027. The move represents a significant shift in the wind direction of the market, reflecting changing attitudes and policies related to EVs and the expected impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It may also be a bellwether of consumer demand.

Roger Partridge: New Zealand’s real economic problem - Too little capital, not too much profit

New Zealand’s economy has a chronic capital problem – and it is getting worse.

Over the last 50 years, New Zealand has become one of the most undercapitalised economies in the developed world. Our workers are supported by far less infrastructure, plant, technology, and equipment than their counterparts in comparable countries. That means less productive jobs, slower wage growth, and, in many cases, higher prices.

Matua Kahurangi: Meth, markets and mistakes

In 2011, pseudoephedrine, a once-common ingredient in cold and flu medication, was pulled from New Zealand pharmacy shelves and reclassified as a Class B controlled substance. The reason? It could be used to manufacture methamphetamine, or “P”, the drug blamed for a wave of addiction, crime and community devastation across the country.

The decision was seen as bold, even necessary. Then-Prime Minister John Key said he feared for his teenage children. His own home had been burgled by a man with a meth habit. The ban, Key argued, would help dismantle the domestic meth supply chain and protect Kiwi families.

David Farrar: The Telegraph review of the Ardern book

Tim Stanley is a former UK Labour Party candidate, and writer for The Telegraph. He reviews the recent autobiography by Jacinda Ardern:

Friday June 6, 2025 

                    ⇩

Ele Ludemann: Broke rules, broke oath

The Privileges Committee recommendation of a week’s suspension for Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke and three for Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has been agreed to by parliament.

When MPs take the oath at the start of their parliamentary careers they swear to uphold the rules.

Tui Vaeau: The Industry of Perpetual Grievance......

The Industry of Perpetual Grievance: How Modern Maori Politics Became a Parasite on the Nation

A dismantling of cultural excuse-making, tribal corporatism, and the political infantilisation of Maori in modern New Zealand

"Grow up and cease to be children. Do not become mere appendages to the Pākehā." – Sir Apirana Ngata

Alwyn Poole: Disengagement with the NZ state education system.

Not counting students/families opting for private, state integrated and designated character school options – there are five major features of our current enrolment and attendance in the NZ Education system that need sunlight.

Melanie Phillips: The Pogrom Against Israel and the Jews

Right now, things seem to be spinning dangerously out of control. The tempo and viciousness of the attacks on Israel in the west are running at fever pitch, especially in Britain. Even some people who previously supported Israel are now falling for at least some of the lies which are bombarding them every single day.

Israel’s defenders are no longer just getting a hard time in interviews. As Natasha Hausdorff found here when she came up against Piers Morgan, they’re now getting shouted down altogether and are being deprived of the right to speak at all.

Bob Edlin: Columnist is critical of Luxon’s leadership......

Columnist is critical of Luxon’s leadership – and that’s without examining policies which approve separate funds for Maori science

Janet Wilson, writing in The Post, muses on why New Zealand’s major parties seem hellbent on making themselves as irrelevant as possible to the voters they serve.

For different reasons, both National and Labour have unshackled themselves from their identities and what they stand for, she contends.

Kerre Woodham: Who should be paying more for home insurance?

It's not really a huge shock, is it? The news that homeowners will have to pay even more for home insurance to help the Natural Hazards Commission (formerly known as the EQC), is to be expected. Insurers have been warning for years that premiums will rise and will continue to rise, that they may have to put some of the cost of risky properties back onto homeowners and in some cases, they'll be declining to insure homes altogether. And we've already started to see that.

Michael Reddell: Productivity growth languishing

I hadn’t had a look for a while at the OECD labour productivity (real GDP per hour worked) data, but the release of the latest OECD Economic Outlook the other day prompted me to spend some time in the (less user-friendly than it was) OECD database.

DTNZ: Australia re-enters per capita recession

Australia has officially slipped back into a per capita recession, with GDP rising just 0.2% in the March quarter—below forecasts—and falling 0.2% per person when adjusted for population growth.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Tall poppy syndrome leaves Kiwis working harder not smarter

Later this month, our organisation, The New Zealand Initiative, will take a large delegation of top New Zealand business leaders to the Netherlands. It is not a trade mission but an ideas exploration. We want to see what makes the Dutch tick and what makes the Netherlands successful.

As I was preparing materials for our delegation, one graph caught my attention. It tracked capital intensity and labour productivity for both countries from 1890.

Ele Ludemann: Not this term but

The government is right to be concerned about the performance of some state owned enterprises:

Simeon Brown has told various Government-owned companies they must explain why they are failing to deliver their cost of equity and how they will improve their return to the Crown.

The Minister for State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) told several of the SOEs – including NZ Post and Landcorp – that the Government was “disappointed and concerned” by their performance and they must deliver a “bold and challenging turnaround plan”. . .

Mike’s Minute: Was smokefree a failure or partially successful?

There seems to be increasing reportage, based around some new research, that our dream of being smokefree is up in smoke.

2025 is the year when we were aiming to be smokefree. By smokefree, it would have been reduced to 5% left smoking.

To meet that goal, the research says about 80,000 more people need to quit. They won't.

Thursday June 5, 2025 

                    ⇩

Zoran Rakovic: The Real Equity Is Found in Equations

New Zealand’s education system must shift from ideology to inspiration. It’s time to teach STEM, creativity, and AI to prepare kids for the next century.

Our children deserve rocket fuel, not red tape. As the Ministry of Education clings to 19th-century grievances, the future is slipping through our fingers. This is a call to reclaim education for what it should be: a launchpad into the stars.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The polls revealed how people felt about the pay equity saga

We've had a case of conflicting polls over the last twenty-four hours, with two completely different Governments predicted.

But if there's one thing you can take from these polls, which they both agree on, it's that the pay equity revamp hasn’t turned into the circuit breaker that the left clearly thought it was going to be.

Matua Kahurangi: The Privacy Commissioner just opened the door to mass surveillance

Facial recognition coming to a store near you!

The Privacy Commissioner has just given facial recognition technology a "cautious tick" after Foodstuffs trialled it in some of its supermarkets. In my humble opinion this is a massive failure to protect the privacy of ordinary New Zealanders.

This isn't about stopping shoplifters. It's not about keeping staff safe. It's about watching and tracking people without their permission.

Lindsay Mitchell: Ardern - If she insists on being remembered, I will oblige

One thing children who get murdered never seem short of is names. The latest example is Catalya Remana Tangimetua Pepene, the four-year-old Kaikohe child who recently met a violent death. Late 2023 it was Taita toddler, Ruthless-Empire Souljah Reign Rhind Shephard Wall. Or in 2016, 14 week-old Richard Royal Orif Takahi Winiata Uddin. Examples abound.

Insights From Social Media

Maori Activists / Racists Create Racism Watchdog Website

Steven Mark Gaskell writes > Oh spare me, just what New Zealand needed another website, this time courtesy of the Iwi Chairs Forum, to inform us all that the real problem in New Zealand isn't crime, cost of living, or failing infrastructure, but hurt feelings.

Enter “PAPARA” a name that sounds suspiciously like a noise a toddler makes, now moonlighting as a self-appointed racism watchdog. Because obviously, what the country has been crying out for is more publicly funded moral scolding, dressed up in cultural jargon and co-governance buzzwords.

Chris Lynch: International visitor spending increases as tourism rebounds

Spending by international visitors in New Zealand rose by more than nine per cent over the past year, according to new government data.

Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston said the increase reflects the sector’s vital role in growing New Zealand’s economy.

Dave Patterson: Ukraine Demonstrates Capability Just in Time for Ceasefire Talks

With precise strategic execution, Kyiv may have tilted the battle in its favor.

Seldom in war does the weaker side deliver a decisively devastating blow to the stronger. However, that may be just what happened last weekend (May 31-June 1). Ukraine launched a small drone attack deep into Russia that significantly damaged or destroyed an estimated 34% of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers. Like that of the United States, Russia’s strategic bomber force is a key element of its nuclear triad. Even more significant is that the airfields hit by Kyiv’s massive drone armada are deep inside Russia; one, Belaya in the Irkutsk region, is nearly 2,500 miles from Ukraine.

Kerre Woodham: How can we take polls seriously?

Honestly, I don't know why we report on polls. Seriously, I don't know why I'm even talking about them myself, but it's really ripped my nightie overnight. They're so frustrating, and because media companies commission them, it makes the media look like master manipulators.

Philip Crump: NZME Shareholder Meeting - RNZ Corrects the Record

After a two hour shareholder meeting, NZME has a refreshed Board which includes the newly elected Steven Joyce and Jim Grenon.

After months of uncertainty, NZME’s annual shareholder meeting took place yesterday afternoon at its Auckland offices, in the appropriately named iHeart Lounge.

The Herald’s Shayne Currie described the meeting as ‘chilled out’ due to the icy room temperature but it was an equally good description for the lively, good natured and relaxed discussion observed by an audience of approximately 50 shareholders. Notable attendees included former proprietor Michael Horton, Australian media commentator and investor Roger Colman and Hobson’s Pledge leader, Don Brash.

Chris Lynch: Opinion - The kindness façade: Ardern’s global glow hides domestic scars

When Jacinda Ardern appeared on New Zealand television to promote her memoir A Different Kind of Power, host Hilary Barry opened the segment by saying, “She’s been interviewed by some of the best in the business about it, the BBC, CBS, Oprah even, but she’s still got time for us too.” Ardern smiled and replied, “Are you kidding? This is actually the one I’m the most nervous about, because it’s home.”

JC: Is Goldsmith Out of Touch?

Paul Goldsmith’s recent comments on the taxpayer-owned entities Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand bear little relation to global movements within the media landscape. His aspirations for these two media outlets cannot possibly be realised unless certain undertakings are made, of which no reference was made in his remarks.

Wednesday June 4, 2025 

                    ⇩

Mike's Minute: Some good energy news for winter, for once

Christmas came early for Tiwai Aluminium Smelter.

They get to do business. In fact, they get to do business in a country where you would have thought doing business is to be encouraged.

They have been prevented from doing all the business they can because they have a deal with their power company, Meridian, whereby they have to contain themselves if things are a bit tight in the old power department.

David Farrar: May 2025 1 News Verian poll

The 1 News Verian poll is:

Vote:

• National 34% (-2% from April)

• Labour 29% (-3%)

• Greens 12% (+2%)

• ACT 8% (-1%)

• NZ First 8% (+1%)

• TPM 3.7% (+0.3%)

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I see nothing's changed in camp Jacinda

Looks like nothing's changed in camp Jacinda, has it?

You will get no admission that she and her Government got anything wrong during Covid, from what I can gather.

Now, this is my disclaimer - I haven't actually read the entire memoir just yet. But from what I've skim read and from what I've read and heard in the reviews, and what I've read and heard with her interviews promoting the book, if you are looking for her to admit that she got anything wrong at all during Covid, you're not going to find it.

DTNZ: Trade Me and legacy media outlet Stuff announce merger in major digital media shakeup

Legacy mainstream media outlet Stuff and auction site Trade Me have agreed to a merger in which Trade Me will take a 50% stake in Stuff Digital, the division behind stuff.co.nz and ThreeNews, while Stuff’s newspapers, events, and Neighbourly are excluded from the deal.

Simon O'Connor: Call it what it is

A recent fracas involving a government Minister at a music event simply shows that an artist is allowed to provoke, but cannot be provoked.

So, a government Minister has found himself in woke hot water because he dared to give his honest opinion at the recent Aotearoa Music Awards. Chris Bishop, a former colleague of mine and who would happily describe himself on the liberal side of the National Party, was at the awards night and called a highly political musical performance “a load of crap.” Unfortunately for him, even as a liberal, he crossed an unwritten and unseen line which is that you never critique anything progressive or woke. Celebrate, yes. But never criticise.

Dr Eric Crampton: The only way to find out if more supermarket competition is real

There’s an old joke about economists walking past a $20 note on the sidewalk. One says to the other, “If that note were real, someone would have picked it up already.”

It could be that the $20 note was a photocopied counterfeit with advertising on the other side. You’ve probably seen those before.

But there are other potential explanations.

Matua Kahurangi: This Pride Month, let’s celebrate national pride instead

Scrolling through social media this morning, I came across a tweet that gave me pause. It was from James Foley (@Jimmy508989672), and it simply read: “This is my pride flag”, accompanied by an image of the New Zealand flag. In its simplicity, the message struck a deeper chord than most of the noise I have seen online lately.

Kerre Woodham: Our workplace fatality rate is appalling

On average, there are 73 work-related deaths in New Zealand every single year. Relative to the number of people in employment, the New Zealand workplace fatality rate is double that of Australia, and it hasn't shifted in many, many years. More road cones have not made a difference. The New Zealand rate is similar to the rate the UK experienced back in the 1980s. The gap between New Zealand and Australia is consistent across most industries and occupations. It's not like we've got one that is more dangerous than any other, which is why it's throwing these figures out. It's consistent across industries and occupations.

Insights From Social Media

Steven Mark Gaskell writes > Welcome To The Newsroom: Leave Objectivity At The Door, Bring Your Cultural Fluency

There was a time when journalism prided itself on objectivity, scrutiny, and a healthy dose of scepticism toward those in power. But welcome to 2025, where the newsroom’s guiding principle is no longer “hold power to account,” but rather, “don’t ruffle cultural feathers unless they’re Pākehā.”