John Robertson: Pharmac’s Treaty Theatre - Apartheid Rebranded as “Engagement”

For a split second, it looked like sanity had crept back into the public sector. Pharmac announced it was scrapping its Māori Directorate — and anyone with a working spine thought, “Finally. Maybe we’re done with the racial separatism.” But then came the inevitable bait-and-switch. The new acting CEO, Brendan Boyle, pipes up with the usual Orwellian mush: they’re not ending anything — they’re “creating a Māori engagement model that is more comprehensive, sustainable and effective.”

Translation? “We’re still doing apartheid — just with a better marketing team.”

Alwyn Poole: Three Key Articles to Consider re Education in NZ

There would have been four articles but the use of taxpayer’s money to pay for teacher registration has already been posted. 

1. An interesting article re moving away from State Schools altogether.

I believe that there are a number of reasons why the Australian system now appears to be moving well ahead of NZ. You can stipulate the others but the fact that nearly 36% of students are in private schools in Australia and less than 4% in New Zealand.

This article – raises many interesting points – e.g.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 27.4.25

Wednesday April 30, 2025 

News:
Auckland iwi boss accuses NZ First, ACT MPs of 'scaremongering' with Waitākere Ranges claims
NZ First and ACT MPs Shane Jones and David Seymour need to "learn to read", the chief executive of a West Auckland iwi says, after they criticised a proposal by Auckland Council to work more closely with the iwi as "co-governance".

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Can Nicola Willis pull off her no new money budget?

If Nicola Willis can pull this Budget off, it'll be impressive, because she has written a budget, by the looks of things, that is so tight, there is basically no new money.

If you haven’t caught up on this, Nicola Willis gave a speech this morning in which she announced she was cutting back her new spending in this budget hugely.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Willis' Pre-Budget Speech is Out-of-Touch Wellington Jokey Silliness....

Finance Minister Willis wants her NZ Budgets to be "lolly scrambles", just not in 2025. Her Pre-Budget Speech is Out-of-Touch Wellington Jokey Silliness.

For some light relief and comedy, take a look at Finance Minister Willis Pre-Budget Speech. She sets up her party clown theme by saying, "For today though, I’m going to switch out of my Economic Growth hat and into my Minister of Finance hat and focus my remarks on this year’s Budget". What's with these hats?

Kerre Woodham: Why would the Government interfere in the aviation market?

We know airfares are expensive, right? Everybody, and I mean everybody, I know who's booked flights recently has made the comment that an overseas flight is cheaper than flying just about anywhere around New Zealand – especially to the provincial centres. Easter was huge in terms of airfares, but even on your normal everyday Wednesday morning, flying to Timaru, flying to Tauranga, it's going to set you back a fortune.

Michael Reddell: A pre-Budget speech

In a pre-Budget speech this morning the Minister of Finance announced that this year’s operating allowance – the net amount available for new initiatives – was being reduced from $2.4 billion to $1.3 billion (speech here, RNZ story here). Operating allowance numbers in isolation don’t mean a great deal (what happens to the rate of general inflation matters a lot) but a cut like that, at the very end of the Budget process, can probably be taken at face value. On its own, it is equivalent to about a quarter of a per cent of GDP.

Richard Meade: NZ and Australia face a complicated puzzle when it comes to supermarket prices...

This may be as good as it gets: NZ and Australia face a complicated puzzle when it comes to supermarket prices

With ongoing cost of living pressures, the Australian and New Zealand supermarket sectors are attracting renewed political attention on both sides of the Tasman.

Allegations of price gouging have become a political issue in the Australian federal election. At the same time, the New Zealand government has announced that “all options” are on the table to address a lack of competition in the sector – including possible breakup of the existing players.

Mike's Minute: Is being Trump-like still good for politics?

For a while there being a tough guy was good for your credibility.

Look at Victor Orban, Javier Milei and Nayib Bukele. They all revelled, and succeeded, at the polls with their macho, Trump-esque persona.

The world was moving away from "Me Too" and progressivism. There has been a very distinct move to conservatism, especially in parts of Europe.

Chris Morrison: Now Scientists Claim Near 20-Year Stable Arctic Sea Ice is “Unsurprising” and Predicted by Models

Dramatic confirmation that the sea ice in the Arctic has been stable for nearly two decades is contained in a recently published science paper from a team led by Dr Mark England from the University of Exeter. The finding is of course obvious to anyone who studies the data but it will inconvenience the activist cranks who continue to promote supposed reductions in Arctic sea ice as an important sign of their imaginary ‘tipping points’ and their fake climate crisis. Despite the data showing the ice has been stable over every month in the year since around 2007, Sir David Attenborough told BBC viewers in 2022 that the region could be summer ice-free by 2035. The climate hysteric Al Gore never quite recovered his authority when he said all the ice could be gone by 2014.

Olivia Pierson: Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry, Phase 2 - My Submission

To make your own submission click here:

The COVID-19 Inquiry is assessing key decisions made by the New Zealand Government in 2021 and 2022 in the following areas:

Vaccines, including mandates, approvals, and safety Lockdowns, especially the lockdowns of late 2021

Dr Will Jones: Here Comes the Politics of Kindness

Covid tyrant queen Jacinda Ardern is set to tour the UK and US to promote her new memoir, subtitled A Different Kind of Power. In the Spectator, Michael Jackson says Kiwis remember all too well Ardern’s use of power and are still suffering the effects. Here’s an excerpt.

Eliora: Maturity Can Have Good Advantages

‘Old(er)’ age has a lot going for it. Maturity has additional advantages, markedly if you are a leader, such as Donald Trump or Winston Peters. Their maturity gives wisdom, drive, history of things to avoid, opportunity to develop beliefs, more time to be comfortable in their own skin, a tendency to see the broader perspective, determination to leave a legacy and the confidence to make fast-paced, good, decisions. It’s not their first rodeo!

Tuesday April 29, 2025 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government has a bigger police problem

Look, maybe I'm being naïve, but I'm not that stressed at the news that 3 people were allowed to start police college without passing the fitness test. Were you?

I mean, it seems to be more important to just have police officers and more police officers walking the beat and providing a reassuring presence than it is to be absolutely sure that they can do a vertical jump and run 2.5 km in 12 odd minutes.

Graham Adams: Auckland Uni students react to Treaty ‘indoctrination’

This year, the University of Auckland launched mandatory courses focused on a particular view of New Zealand history, Te Tiriti, and indigenous “knowledge systems”— which is to say mātauranga Māori — for all first-year students.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re studying engineering, accounting, science or arts, you will have to enrol in one of the Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) papers, even if you can see no value in the topic, and object to having to pay for it. Domestic students are obliged to pay fees of more than $1300 for the single paper but international students are being stung for up to $5730.

Caleb Anderson: No such thing as truth ... really!

One of the great postmodern lies is the assertion that there is no such thing as truth, from this assertion inevitably flows most postmodern nonsense.

I have been an educator for thirty five years. I have noticed a profound shift at all levels of the education system, from empiricism toward ideology, from debate, and the application of reason, to dogma, from free thought, and the value of argument, to indoctrination.

John Raine: Better Times 2027 – Vision or Hallucination?

Imagine for a few minutes that it is late 2027 and things have miraculously taken a turn for the better. Here goes…………

Economic and social progress was sufficient in its first term for the Christopher Luxon-led coalition government to be re-elected in 2026. The Act Party, still pressing for a nationwide constitutional discussion, secured 16% of the vote and were needed at the table, which with National’s 37%, and NZ First retained in the team at 7%, gave the Coalition a strong mandate. Labour suffered even more than expected at the polls through the extreme policy demands of its expected Green and Te Pati Māori partners around taxes, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agendas, and policies beneficial to Māori but not to other New Zealanders.

Chris Lynch: New Zealand and Philippines to sign military cooperation agreement

New Zealand and the Philippines will this week formalise a new agreement to strengthen military cooperation between the two countries, Defence Minister Judith Collins has announced.

Collins is travelling to the Philippines today to sign the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement, which she said highlights the importance New Zealand places on working closely with regional partners.

Philip Crump: Winds of Change: Defining Woman and Sex

After years of rancour and division, political leaders in the UK and NZ have welcomed developments in both countries that bring clarity to the gender debate.

A storm of headlines erupted on April 16 when the UK Supreme Court ruled that ‘woman’ in the Equality Act means biological female and ‘sex’ refers to biological sex, not gender identity as set out in a gender recognition certificate. It undoubtedly marks a pivotal moment in the wider gender debate.

Dr Michael Johnston: The game-changing approach trades training needs

For decades, New Zealand’s industry training system has been a poor cousin to the university system. In recent years, only about 6% of school leavers have undertaken apprenticeships. Nearly a third enrol in degree-level study at university.

On the face of it, the imbalance makes little sense. Skilled tradespeople earn excellent money. Their skills are perennially in demand. Yet industry training continues to suffer from low status relative to university education.

Kerre Woodham: When did weather become such a big deal that it dominates the news?

Speaking of the bad weather, it brings me to the emergency mobile alerts. The emergency mobile alerts came about because Fire and Emergency and the National Emergency Management Agency and other agencies including New Zealand Police, Ministry of Primary Industries and Ministry of Health use emergency mobile alerts to alert people if their lives, property or health are at serious risk.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: National and Labour have created a Fiscal Crisis in NZ.....

National and Labour have created a Fiscal Crisis in NZ. There's only one way out. Here it is, in joint work with former Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas

The Worst Finance Minister Ever, Labour's Grant Robertson, and now the new one who is competing for that title, Nicola Willis, have jointly created a fiscal crisis in NZ. We currently have one of the worst primary fiscal deficits in the developed world (which is government spending minus tax revenues, excluding interest costs).

JC: Self-Inflicted Truths Hurt the Left

The Free Dictionary describes the term the truth hurts as follows: Hearing the unvarnished truth about someone, something or oneself can cause the listener to feel unhappiness or sadness. They give the following examples:

David Farrar: A boost for teachers

The Herald reports:

The Government has announced a $53 million boost for teacher registrations and practising certificates fees through to 2028.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said it will also cover any increases the Teaching Council may implement through their current fee review.

Mike's Minute: ACC and their race-based policy

It is being reported as a scrap, which I'm not sure is accurate.

But if it is, it is a shame and probably a lesson for the combatants, who are both supposed to be on the same side.

But under MMP, is anyone on the same side?

Monday April 28, 2025 

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Matua Kahurangi: Co-Governance in the Waitakere Ranges

A divisive proposal that New Zealand doesn’t need

New Zealand is built on the values of unity, equal citizenship, and shared responsibility for our common resources. However, a recent proposal by the Auckland Council to introduce co-governance in the management of the iconic Waitakere Ranges threatens to undermine these very principles. The proposal, which would see local hapū share power with the Auckland Council in overseeing the Ranges, is not only unnecessary but risks creating a divided society where ethnic lines determine who holds decision-making power over public spaces.

Matua Kahurangi: Oxford’s shameful decision to honour Jacinda Ardern

It's downright embarrassing that Jacinda Ardern, our former and most hated Prime Minister, is set to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University. This decision is not only baffling but an outright insult to the very principles that institutions like Oxford should stand for. While Ardern’s time in office was met with both praise and criticism, the overwhelming sentiment among many New Zealanders is one of disdain for her leadership. To see Oxford, a beacon of academic excellence, bestow such an honour upon a leader who failed so spectacularly in several key areas is nothing short of disgraceful.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Either Victoria University is lying about its World Ranking....

Either Victoria University is lying about its World Ranking, or its managers can't calculate percentages.

The QS World University Rankings 2025 say, "This year’s ranking is the largest ever, featuring over 1,500 universities". Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, sits at number 244, putting it within only the top 20% of those rankings. What does Victoria say about this matter? "Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University is in the top 1% of the world’s universities for 15 subjects". What is the truth?

Anglo Saxon: Would the real New Zealand please stand up?

ESSENTIAL VIEWING FOR ALL NZERS.... THIS IS HAPPENING NOW.

The Maori political activist party are attempting to impose tikanga on our Parliamentary process.

The chief Justice of New Zealand Helen Winklemann, a graduate of the Auckland Frankfurt University uses 1984 doublethink to timewarp back to 1840 and newspeak to redefine New Zealand. Now this is where its led.

Click to view

Dr James Allan: Australia’s Conservatives Are Paying the Price of Kowtowing to the Left

When the so-called ‘moderate’ MPs in a Westminster conservative political party remove a sitting Prime Minister from their own party, one who has delivered a majority government but is to the right of these moderates, the long-term effects are not good. Back in 1990, and after delivering 11 years of majority governments, Maggie Thatcher was knifed by the wets or moderates in the British Tory party. It is arguable that the party has never recovered.

Dr Will Jones: White Men Blocked From Applying for Jobs at Premier League Clubs

White men have been blocked from applying for coaching jobs at Premier League football clubs including Manchester United and Liverpool under a policy that appears to be a direct contravention of equality law. The Telegraph has more.

John McLean: Honesty

One distinct oddity in our strange world is that the darkest actors are often the more honest.

So when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced (late in 2021) his intention for Russia to invade Ukraine, outsiders should have taken him at his word. And when Chlöe Swarbrick chants “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”, we should harbor no doubt that Chlöe sincerely wants to see an end to the State of Israel.

Matua Kahurangi: The left’s buzzword backfire

Who’s really importing cultural wars?

Over the past few weeks, a new phrase has crept into the talking points of the left: "imported cultural wars." You’ll hear it everywhere now, especially from Green Party figures like Chlöe Swarbrick, Ricardo Menéndez March, Benjamin "Bussy" Doyle, and Lawrence Xu-Nan. Like clockwork, they’re all parroting the same line, trying to paint conservatives and critics as the ones dragging foreign conflicts and ideologies into New Zealand politics. It’s almost impressive how coordinated it is. But it’s also completely dishonest.

Bruce Cotterill: Is MMP still right for NZ? Reflecting on 30 years of electoral change

The recent antics within a couple of our minor political parties should force us to think about the future of our voting system.

The next general election in 2026 will see the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the MMP electoral voting system. MMP stands for mixed-member proportional and it replaced the “first past the post” (FPP) system we had had previously after a referendum in 1993.

Bob Edlin: A headline we were pleasantly surprised to read…

SBS News today posted that headline on news that:

President Donald Trump has questioned whether President Vladimir Putin is “serious” about ending the war in Ukraine and hinted that Russia could soon face “secondary sanctions” from the United States if it doesn’t stop attacking civilian areas.

“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities, and towns over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Turning around NZ for a few million $.....

Turning around NZ for a few million $ by buying the NZ Herald is the Best Deal Ever. Calling on all Investors to fire the going-nowhere, lost Herald Board.

A private investor with $10 million has bought 10% of NZ Media and Entertainment, which owns the Herald. Anyone who reads that paper knows its boring, failing and is serving no purpose. Other investors should buy more stock and overthrow the old guard. Introducing refreshing ideas into our domestic scene has become a requirement. The reasons a potential investor should consider doing so are set out below. The article is based on the original version that the National Business Review commissioned me to write a few years ago. Since this Blog has many more readers since then, and I've put effort into revising the article to make it more relevant to what's going on these days, here it is again:

Sunday April 27, 2025 

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Mike Butler: NZ’s wars as they saw them

The Spark, the Logs, and the Gasoline, by Piers Seed, that presents the New Zealand wars in the words of those who were there, is an outstanding book that should be a gamechanger in New Zealand policy making.

This is the third book in which Seed applies the discipline he gained earning a Bachelor of Engineering in electronics to New Zealand history.

In Hoani’s Last Stand (2022), he proves without doubt that no women and children were herded into a church at Rangiaowhia (near Te Awamutu) on February 21, 1864, and burnt to death by colonial troops, as has been frequently claimed.

Taonga and Contra Proferentem (2023) analyses two “very wobbly” legal constructs that the Waitangi Tribunal has used in decisions over 40 years.

The New Zealand wars have been investigated for 162 years and have generated successive compensation payments, the latest of which totals $4.6-billion.

The perception of these conflicts has changed radically over the years.

Matua Kahurangi: ANZAC Day hijacked

ANZAC Day, a solemn occasion dedicated to remembering the sacrifices of Australian and New Zealand soldiers, has once again been hijacked by political groups pushing their own agendas. This year, several public figures decided to shove their own causes into the spotlight, and it pissed off a lot of people.

John McDonald: Six Major Reasons to Oppose Road Pricing

The authorities are planning to take you on “a journey” into a society with more surveillance and more taxes.

2025 will be a critical year as moves to legalise road pricing schemes are currently underway in Parliament. The congestion charging schemes will involve additional surveillance technology being used to monitor vehicle movements and a billing system which effectively turns existing public roads into toll roads. A combination of charges, fees, permits, and fines are used in the schemes to collect revenue and penalise private motor vehicle travel.

John Robertson: Make New Zealand Secular

Co-governance is the tapeworm we politely invited into the national gut, and now we’re standing around wondering why the country feels bloated, weak, and too broke to fix a pothole.

Let’s stop pretending this is some enlightened step forward. It’s not. It’s race-based bureaucracy cosplay, where half the country gets to play “traditional steward of the land” while the other half gets to foot the bill, keep quiet, and tick the diversity boxes on the way out.

Michael Reddell: Fiscal failure

The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days.

If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to 2025 period which encompasses the whole Covid and inflation/disinflation period), much about that is outside the direct or near-term control of  any particular government.

Professor Ananish Chaudhuri: Trump’s war against Universities

Universities push back

Harvard university recently made news by refusing to bow down to the Trump administration’s demands in order to retain more than US $2 billion in federal grants and contracts. Harvard’s stance stands in contrast to the one adopted by Columbia earlier, where the latter agreed to most demands in order to keep about US $400 million of federal funds.

Kelli Ballard: Making the Border Great Again - Terrorist Arrests Under Trump Up 655%

Is President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts working? According to progressive media, they aren’t – or, rather, the administration is deporting illegals and taking children away from their families. More on that later. However, an exclusive from New York Post revealed that arrests of terrorist individuals has risen by 655%, or 219 known alleged terrorists compared to just 29 made at the same time last year under former President Joe Biden’s term. That’s nothing to sneeze about.

Matua Kahurangi: Are paywalls protecting criminals more than profits?

When journalism hides behind a paywall, who’s being protected - the public, or the perpetrators?

I've written before about the growing use of paywalls by mainstream media outlets. The common understanding is that they exist to generate revenue, and that's fair enough. Journalism isn’t free, and newsrooms need to stay afloat. But lately, I’ve started to wonder if paywalls are doing more than just making money. In some cases, they seem to be shielding criminals from public scrutiny.

Dr Michael Johnston: A welcome amendment

If asked to nominate the main objective of public schooling, most people would probably say that it is to teach young people the knowledge they need to thrive in adult life. However, according to the Education and Training Act, that is just one of four equally important objectives.

The Education and Training Act 2020 is massive. It legislates parameters for nearly every imaginable aspect of publicly funded education, from early childhood to university. One of its 669 Sections describes the objectives of school boards.

David Farrar: Liberals looking comfortable in Canada

The Canadian election is on Monday (Tuesday NZ time) and the Liberal Party has gone from being 20% behind a few months ago and facing a loss of well over 100 seats to leading in most polls and projected to win re-election.

They may not get a majority, which needs 172 seats. Current projections have them getting 186 seats. 338 Canada projects they have an 89% chance of winning the most seats and a 68% chance of getting a majority.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: One News, NZ's State Broadcaster, spends $1 million to attack 4 billion Muslims & Christians Worldwide.

Congratulations to One News in New Zealand, which has just spent around $1 million of tax payers dollars in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, on a five part investigation into a Church - which it calls - shock, horror - "loud" and "fundamentalist". The Church in question is Destiny. It counts many Māori & Pasifika as members. What does One News discover?

 Saturday April 26, 2025 

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Anzac Day Thoughts: Steven Mark Gaskell - Hijacking Anzac Day

ANZAC Day was about courage, sacrifice, and a quiet, shared respect for those who served—regardless of where they came from or what language they spoke. No one in the trenches stopped to ask their mate’s ethnicity before going over the top. But fast forward to 2025, and now you can’t start a dawn service without a political preamble wrapped in cultural theatre. Because obviously, what the fallen really died for was modern virtue-signalling and identity politics.

Anzac Day Thoughts: Brian Mullane - Did They Die In Vain?

Over 30,000 New Zealanders have fought and died on foreign soils defending our flag, our freedom and our democracy.

What we are seeing in New Zealand betrays each and everyone of those lost souls and also those that were fortunate to return home.

Anzac Day Thoughts: Rod Kane - This May Sound Like Sacrilege But Someone Has To Say Something

I tried to watch TV1's dawn service this morning but had to turn away and go and watch something else. As in other recent years, post Ardern, our most reverential day, the day that all NZers and Aussies come together to remember those that served and those that fell in the global wars, has also been hijacked by the maori everything set.

John Robertson: The integration of Tikanga into Parliament

When exactly did New Zealand trade its spine for a dreamcatcher? How did we go from a country built on secular democracy to one where legal decisions are being bent to appease ancient superstitions? Tikanga Māori isn’t law. It’s belief. And belief has no place sitting in the judge’s chair.

Let’s stop pretending this is “inclusive.” It’s invasive. It’s theocratic creep. We're watching the justice system mutate into a spiritual sideshow — where laws bow to the invisible, and facts are forced to fight phantoms. We're not building bridges. We're building altars.