Breaking Views Update: Week of 29.6.25

Wednesday July 2, 2025 

News:
ACT Party tried to get Treaty of Waitangi clause removed from education legislation
The ACT Party fought to have a Treaty of Waitangi clause stripped out of amended education legislation - but was overruled.

ACT leader David Seymour says not removing it entirely has "certainly created some controversy", but it was "simply political".

Chris Lynch: Jobseekers now required to reapply for support every six months

People receiving Jobseeker Support will now need to reapply for their benefit every 26 weeks, rather than once a year, as part of a Government move to increase accountability and improve employment outcomes.

Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says the change, which takes effect from today, is aimed at encouraging more regular engagement between jobseekers and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).

Dr Michael Bassett: Poverty - The modern man-made monster

Are you, like me, getting sick and tired of the endless stories in the Mainstream Media about poverty, with self-appointed “experts” arguing for more money to be spent on the problems they describe? They show no signs of understanding the serious nature of the country’s fiscal deficit. Worse, the journalists reporting these “experts” fail to examine the fact that many of the complainants they quote simply farm the poor and rely on their continued existence for their own personal incomes.

Matua Kahurangi: ACT tries to end race-based education

National folds to the woke

The other day I wrote about how Erica Stanford has been quietly ushering race-based policy back into New Zealand schools, under the feel-good label of “pastoral care”. Now we learn that while Stanford is pushing things in one direction, the ACT Party has been trying to steer us in another. You can read my original article here:

David Farrar: Census no more

Former Government Statistician Len Cook writes:

The Government Statistician must agree with key users, population experts and statisticians on a process for Identifying the full range of due diligence critical for the proposed census change. My own view is that the Royal Society should be funded to lead an independent review of the scientific integrity and validity of what is proposed.

JC: Where Are the Principles in the Treaty?

It’s a good question because the answer is, as Winston Peters says, there aren’t any. There are only articles. Three of them. Principles have a very different meaning to articles when it comes to official documents and treaties. As far as I can conclude, the principles were introduced in the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. They are also embedded in the minds of activists to try and back up their false narrative that the Treaty has obligations that have to be fulfilled in areas where it clearly doesn’t.

Kerre Woodham: Tougher sentences are the way to go

The Government's harshest sentencing rules begin today. Rules like capping the maximum discount that a judge can apply at 40 percent, with some exceptions.

There will be no repeat discounts for youth offenders, those aged 18 to 25. No discounts for remorse, if you're sorry again and again and again, you only get to be sorry once, because Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said repeat discounts had allowed for lenient sentences.

David Farrar: Tougher anti-stalking laws

Paul Goldsmith announced:

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is welcoming changes to toughen up the proposed anti-stalking law, including being triggered after two specified acts within 24 months.

 Tuesday July 1, 2025 

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John Robertson: Why the Word “Bicultural” Needs to Be Erased from New Zealand Law

There’s a quiet word baked into New Zealand legislation that’s been doing a lot more damage than people realise: bicultural.

It sounds harmless. Even noble. A word supposedly meant to honour New Zealand’s history. But scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find it’s one of the most corrosive terms in our entire legal system. It’s the foundation of a two-tier framework — a system that divides citizens not by merit or equality, but by ancestry and spiritual entitlement.

Matua Kahurangi: New Zealand’s opening the floodgates to unvetted Indian degrees

New Zealand has thrown open its doors to Indian degree-holders, scrapping the critical qualification assessment process that once ensured a baseline of credibility for foreign credentials. According to a recent report from The Times of India, this policy shift is being hailed as a “streamlined” pathway for Indian graduates to access visas, work, and potentially permanent residency in New Zealand. Beneath the glossy rhetoric of global talent and Indo-Kiwi partnerships lies a dangerous gamble that threatens the integrity of New Zealand’s immigration system and the livelihoods of our citizens. This is a reckless invitation to chaos.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why does it take so long for good ideas to become law?

Anyone out there, hands up, who doesn't agree with the Justice Minister's plan to introduce harsher punishments for people who assault first responders?

I feel like this is a complete no-brainer.

I mean, there are some out there who would argue that no assault is acceptable at all and that if you create two tiers of punishment where you've got the police officers on one level and then the normal humans on another - what you're saying is that some assaults are more acceptable than others.

John McLean: High Time To Wield The Axe

Tribal threats to New Zealand’s democracy must get the chop, before it’s too late

There’s no such thing as pan-Māoridom. Never has been. Not before colonisation, and not now. “Māori” are a collection of separate tribes (iwi), which now number about 150. None of these tribes were or are democratic. The head of each iwi hierarchy is a paramount chief, the Ariki, typically an inherited status. At the bottom of each traditional Māori tribe were the slaves and baby girls.

So it should come as no surprise that many Māori leaders are no fans of democracy.

Philip Cranmer: Antarctic Ambitions - China’s Expansion and New Zealand’s Scott Base Redevelopment

As New Zealand moves forward with the redevelopment of Scott Base, China has submitted plans for its sixth station on the continent.

Earlier this month, Antarctica New Zealand announced the selection of a new contractor to assist with the design and delivery of the redevelopment of Scott Base. The base is New Zealand’s only Antarctic research station, located 3800km south of Christchurch and 1350km from the South Pole.

Damien Grant: How an author and billionaire changed the lives of thousands of Kiwi kids

Early in the book Once Were Warriors Beth is watching television and notices that the houses on television are filled with books. She inspects the house she shares with Jake and comes to the realisation that there are no books. None of the houses Beth has ever lived in had books.

Graham J Noble: The Media’s Narrative on Iran Strikes Sustains Critical Damage

The Islamic Republic’s nuclear program wasn’t the only thing crippled in the past week.

Did anyone expect the establishment media to applaud President Donald Trump’s decision to order strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran? Probably not. Maybe we could at least have hoped that anti-Trump news outlets would not go full Baghdad Bob and claim the historic raid was a failure. Yet that is exactly what CNN and The New York Times did with a little help from a hastily put together Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) damage assessment that was conveniently leaked to the cable news network in record time. But that media narrative has already crumbled as if it had also been hit by one of those Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) devices recently delivered – business end first – to the Islamic Republic.

Eliora: National Is the Sneaky Party

We in New Zealand suffered years of utter despair caused by the aptly described ‘worst prime minister the country has ever experienced’. Jacinda Ardern ruled with ruthless nastiness, under the hypocritical guise of being ‘kind’. Ardern was mean, fake and deceitful.

Kevin: It Ain’t Over

How is the endgame going to be played out? Honestly, I don’t know. But you can bet that Trump and Netanyahu are surrounded by people who are strategy experts.

They say that on the world stage you’re either playing chess or you’re playing poker.

Ananish Chaudhuri: Why are high achieving teens headed overseas and why this is not necessarily a good idea

Why are high achieving teens headed overseas and why this is not necessarily a good idea

Part 1: Why are high achieving teens headed overseas and why this is not necessarily a good idea

Part 2: Why going to study overseas, particularly Australia, is not necessarily a good idea

 Monday June 30, 2025 

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Anglo Saxon: Moneti$ing Maoriness

Debunking Hinemoa Elder's racist agenda.

The largest industry within New Zealand is the maori grievance industry. It has the greatest turnover by far of any business enterprise in New Zealand; and here's the kicker.. its completely non profit; it produces nothing; zero; nada; completely a zero sum game. The entire industry is a mind numbingly massive tax payer funded redistribution of wealth. Our best and brightest hop on a plane.. who can blame them?

Click to view

Matua Kahurangi: No swimming, no fishing, no voice

New Zealanders need to wake up. A spiritual decree has just shut down hundreds of kilometres of public coastline, and almost no one dares question it. Why? Because it’s wrapped in the untouchable cloak of tikanga Māori.

David Farrar: More taxpayer funded lobbying?

Stuff reports:

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka has asked his officials for urgent advice around “electioneering” concerns related to a Whānau Ora advertisement encouraging Māori to sign up for the Māori roll was released this week.

The half-hour ad was rolled out by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency this week, featuring artist and activist Tame Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe).

Ani O'Brien: What is in a name? Te Puna Aonui

Without Googling, do you know what the agency does?

Minister Karen Chhour has made the decision to rename Te Puna Aonui. The name translates to "spring of enlightenment" or a "source of wisdom and collective action" and the minister says it is not clear enough to New Zealanders what the venture is and who it serves.

Dr James Allan: Annoyances

Here are a few things that get my goat. They really annoy me. Start with the strange coalition between open borders Left-wing progressives and chamber of commerce types (some, but fewer these days, nominally conservative) about how ‘there are jobs locals won’t do’. A mere moment’s thought tells you that’s wrong. Such claims aren’t that far off the ante-bellum, pre-US Civil War queries from some in the south about ‘who will pick the cotton if we end slavery?’ It’s simple. In market economies all jobs will be filled if you offer to pay enough. All of them without exception. It’s just supply and demand.

DTNZ: Petition demands Covid-19 Royal Commission summon Ardern, Bloomfield and Hipkins

A new petition is demanding that New Zealand’s Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry compel key political and health figures to testify under oath about their roles in the country’s pandemic response.

Centrist: Ngāpuhi talks face ultimatum as government pushes for single settlement

The government is signalling the clock is ticking on Ngāpuhi Treaty talks, with Treaty Minister Paul Goldsmith warning negotiations “can’t be as long as forever” and should conclude by 2040.

NZ First’s Shane Jones, who is drafting a Member’s Bill to force a single Ngāpuhi settlement, said taxpayers had already spent “well beyond $20 million” and could not afford endless delays.

Dr Michael Johnston: The Johnston test for human intelligence

Philosophers love to dream up strange scenarios to get us thinking. They call these scenarios ‘thought experiments.’

In 1980, philosopher John Searle published his ‘Chinese room’ thought experiment. Searle asked his readers to imagine someone who understands no Chinese sitting alone in a room with a very large book.

The book contains instructions for manipulating Chinese symbols, to produce a plausible response to any statement or question written in Chinese.

Dr Eric Crampton: For more help and less noise

Parliament is supreme but it is not infallible.

Governments often propose policies that are wrong in principle. And even when policy is right in principle, it is easy to make mistakes when drafting legislation.

Nick Clark: NZ’s infrastructure paradox - When spending more delivers less

A peculiar economic paradox appears to govern infrastructure development in modern New Zealand: the more we spend on infrastructure, the less we seem to get for it.

This uncomfortable reality was a key takeaway from last week’s launch of the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission’s Draft National Infrastructure Plan.

 Sunday June 29, 2025 

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Insights From Social Media

Democracy Delayed Is Democracy Denied - Tom Henry

When New Zealanders voted in 2023, they didn’t just want a better economy and safer streets—THEY WANTED THEIR COUNTRY BACK. They voted to END race-based laws, DEFEND freedom, and RESTORE the rule of law. The Coalition Agreement spelled that out in black and white. Yet what do we get from the Prime Minister? Selective memory and political evasion. Mr Luxon’s pre-budget speech cherry-picks from the voter mandate, but ignores the very foundation of why Kiwis demanded change in the first place.

Net Zero Samizdat: Robbing Peter to pay Paul

UK

Tinkering with the grid

Keir Starmer mooted the idea of removing green levies from electricity bills for intensive users, but only from 2027. Net Zero Watch pointed out that the cost still needed to be paid, so this move would just increase bills for everyone else (see blog section below).

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: Two suggestions for handling a deluge of submissions.

How should a select committee respond to a deluge of submissions? Does it matter if many submissions are part of a campaign playing on whipped up fears?

Such questions now confront our select committees. A process-oriented Bill before Parliament has apparently attracted over 133,000 whipped up submissions.

Matua Kahurangi: Stuff sinks to new low as convicted thief Golriz Ghahraman becomes their voice on Iran

Stuff has just confirmed what many Kiwis already suspected. The line between journalism and activist propaganda has all but disappeared. In its latest farce, Lloyd Burr and the Stuff editorial team have handed a megaphone to none other than Golriz Ghahraman, the disgraced former Green Party MP and convicted serial shoplifter, to lecture New Zealanders on the state of democracy in Iran.

Mike's Minute: NZ is better than we think

A friend of ours opened a new business last week.

It was a soft opening and will be full steam ahead by the school holidays.

So far he is going gangbusters. There's a lot of local support and it looks like a good news story.

Matua Kahurangi: Pae Tata exposes the University of Otago's real agenda

Race-based control dressed up as reform

Just as I was about to grab lunch, Ani O’Brien flicked me a DM on X. No message, no context - just an image of what looked like a poster titled "Pae Tata Strategic Plan to 2030." It caught my eye immediately. Only a day earlier, I’d written about official OIA documents showing that Māori and Pacific Island students can get into the University of Otago’s medical school with grades as low as 65 percent, while non-Māori need to hit around 91. You can read that below.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time - 28 June 2025

Rest in peace, Takutai Tarsh Moana Kemp

Having only just celebrated her 50th birthday, Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp sadly passed away this week. She had been diagnosed with kidney disease last year and was receiving treatment. She was on the waiting list for a transplant. The assumption has been that she succumbed to her illness.

Kerre Woodham: I'm a fan of building around the train stations - with caveats

The Government has instructed Auckland Council to allow apartment buildings of at least 15 storeys near key train stations as the City Rail Link nears completion. Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Auckland Minister Simeon Brown said the Government would require Auckland to allow even greater housing and development around the CRL stations than had been planned, to ensure that Auckland takes economic advantage of this transformational investment in the city.

Bob Edlin: Collins makes no mention of iwi, demi-gods – or public funding....

Collins makes no mention of iwi, demi-gods – or public funding – in update on Tāwhaki space development

When it was first announced on June 1 2021 by Megan Woods, who then was Minister of Research, Science and Innovation, Project Tāwhaki was lauded as an “exemplar Māori-Crown partnership”.

David Farrar: Yes we should means test Super

Radio NZ reports:

More than 9000 people aged over 65 earn more than $200,000 a year, and another 33,000 earn between $100,000 and $200,000 – and the Retirement Commissioner says it’s fair to question whether they should be able to claim NZ Super as well.

Saturday June 28, 2025 

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John Porter: If Reversed it Would be Called Racism

American political economist Benjamin Friedman, author of Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, a basic reassessment of the underpinnings of today’s economics, once compared modern Western society to a bicycle whose forward momentum was kept going by continuing economic growth. He expounded that should that forward-propelling motion slow or cease, the pillars that define our society – our democracies, our individual liberties and social tolerance - would begin to falter.

Further warning, “…if society was unable to get the wheels back in motion, countries would eventually face total societal collapse”. 

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Should Moana Pasifika be saved?

There’s a strong chance that this has been Moana Pasifika's best and last season in super rugby. 

Do you want them to have another one? 

And if so, how much should the taxpayer put in to save it? 

Would you pay $7million? Because that’s apparently what they’re short.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.6.25

Saturday June 28, 2025 

News:
Family violence prevention minister Karen Chhour ditches Māori name for agency, forming new group instead of ‘Māori-only one’
The minister in charge of family violence prevention is ditching the Māori name for a collective established to deliver a whole-of-government approach to the issue.

Karen Chhour, an Act MP, is also forming a new “multi-cultural” advisory group with members of different communities, something she said has led to concerns being raised by “the current Māori-only one”.

David Farrar: NZ First MP quits

The Herald reports:

New Zealand First MP Tanya Unkovich is resigning from Parliament to take up “coaching and consultancy” roles in the private sector.

In a statement released this morning, Unkovich confirmed she had resigned as an MP, saying her skills would be of better use elsewhere.

DTNZ: Mallard’s office faces High Court action....

Mallard’s office faces High Court action after ignoring police warnings in Parliament protest crackdown

Former Speaker of the House and now ambassador to Ireland Trevor Mallard is facing a High Court lawsuit from a teenage girl who was 11 during the 2022 anti-mandate protest at Parliament.

Chris Lynch: Victims to have final say on name suppression under new law

Victims of sexual violence will soon be given the power to decide whether their abuser’s name is suppressed, following a law change passed in Parliament today.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the legislation would return victims to the centre of the justice system, with new measures focused on reducing trauma and delivering real consequences for offenders.

Peter Dunne: Regional Councils Unnecessary Overlay?

In politics, things often turn full circle. National's current musings about the future of regional councils following New Zealand First’s call for their abolition is the latest example.

Regional councils were established following major reforms instituted by the fourth Labour Government in 1989. The aim of those reforms was to streamline what was then considered to be a cumbersome and inefficient structure with over 850 ad hoc boards and councils.

Ele Ludemann: This will upset the left

The left were upset by what they regarded as right-wing changes to the NZ Herald board, this change will get them even more excited:

Outspoken broadcaster and former Breakfast host Paul Henry is set to make an extraordinary comeback to the state-owned television network, as a director on an overhauled TVNZ board.

Mike's Minute: Why are we concerned about the age of workers?

We've got more ageism, this time in education.

Unions are "concerned" as more teachers work past retirement age.

This in part is the trouble with unions.

Friday June 27, 2025 

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Peter Williams: Will education legislation really change?

The Minister seems keen on teaching spiritual matters

The legislative relationship between New Zealand education and the Treaty of Waitangi is a recent one.

Up till 1989 there was no reference to it at all in the prevailing Education Act. It was taught as part of the history curriculum, although most classroom experiences will be of it being glossed over under three headings – Māori chiefs said Britain could take over New Zealand, they could keep their own land unless they sold it to the Crown, and everybody who lived in New Zealand had the same rights.

Matua Kahurangi: Erica Stanford sneaks race-based policy back into schools

Just when you thought National put an end to race-based policies and co-governance in public services, Erica Stanford’s new Education and Training Amendment Bill (No 2) makes you wonder if National has completely lost sight of those promises. It reads more like something from the Labour government than the party Kiwis voted in to restore some common sense.

The bill would require school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi by:

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Moana Pasifika revelation could do huge damage

How disappointing is the revelation that Whānau Ora money has been used to fund the Moana Pasifika rugby team? 

How disappointing is that?

And this is not a criticism of the team. I mean, the team has been one of the rockstar stories of the Super Rugby season. This is about the funding.

Mike's Minute: We can't get out of our own way on Super

From the "we can't get out of our own way" file comes the question, as posed this week by the Retirement Commissioner, as to whether people who have money in the bank should get the pension.

The first part that is wrong with that is I thought we had decided many a decade ago, rightly or wrongly, that Super is an entitlement.