Penn Raine: Wait for it!

Wait for the howls of ‘Populism!’ when Britain’s red wall of Labour run councils crumbles as Farage’s Reform party marches over the ramparts, giggling as it goes.

No doubt there are similar wails, but of ‘Misogyny!’ and perhaps even ‘Racism!’ sounding around Wellington’s beltway and its bureaucracy’s dim corridors at Maiki Sherman’s announcement that she was stepping down because her position was ‘untenable’.

Brendan O'Neill: The English have revolted

The Reform surge in England is more than a protest vote – it’s a people's blow against the cultural elites.

Here are some phrases I don’t want to hear today. ‘Protest vote.’ ‘The cry of the “left behind”.’ ‘A bloody nose for the establishment.’ For while it’s true that the colourless functionaries of our two-party regime will be holding their bloodied snouts today following a bruising blow from the electorate, none of those trite phrases captures the historic nature of what is happening. This is not just a ballot-box ‘screw you’ – it’s an attempted reordering of politics itself by voters with nothing left to lose.

Roger Partridge: The Roots of the Left-Right Divide....

The Roots of the Left-Right Divide: Whose Suffering? And Who Knows Enough to Act?

In January 2023, Jacinda Ardern resigned as New Zealand’s Prime Minister after five years in office. She left as one of the most celebrated progressive leaders of her generation – and as one of the most domestically repudiated. Labour’s vote virtually halved between her historic 2020 majority and the 2023 election, and the party polled higher in the weeks after she resigned than it did while she led it. She now holds fellowships at Harvard and Oxford, commands global audiences, and has written a New York Times bestseller. She did not tour New Zealand for the launch.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 9 May 2026

Maiki Sherman resigns

TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman has resigned. In a statement on X, Sherman acknowledged that she had used “an offensive comment” toward another journalist at a function in the Finance Minister’s office last year, apologised the following morning, and said those apologies were accepted. She also stated that the remark came in response to “deeply personal and inappropriate remarks” directed at her that evening, while accepting that this did not excuse her own conduct.

Peter Williams: The Sad Stobo Saga

How the wokerati got to a white male

In April 2024 the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) launched its Matangirua strategy – its formal Māori engagement and capability framework. The strategy was designed to help Māori “participate as Māori” in financial markets. That apparently means “not just as generic consumers or investors, but in ways that recognise Māori economic structures, values, and collective ownership models.”

All up that sounds like a separatist model. Are Maori , or those who call themselves Maori, really that different from the rest of us?

Richard Prebble: Broadcasters should be careful what they wish for

I have a confession to make.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority was my idea.

What is worse, I still think the original idea was right.

To my surprise, after the 1987 election, David Lange made me Minister of Broadcasting. Much of today’s broadcasting system came out of my reforms.

Matua Kahurangi: Maiki Sherman resigns - when did words become career-ending?

Now, let me start by saying this. I have never been the biggest fan of Maiki Sherman. Like much of the mainstream media in New Zealand, her reporting has always leaned heavily to the far-left, and there were plenty of nights watching TVNZ where it felt like centre-right politicians were being hunted down over the most trivial nonsense imaginable.

Kerre Woodham: The super situation - what poison are you willing to swallow?

New Zealand, according to the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, needs to reform the electricity sector, expand and strengthen capital markets, speed up digitisation of the health sector, and reform the pension. The OECD joined other international agencies in calling for the age of eligibility for super to be raised by indexing it to life expectancy with measures to take account of different ethnicities and work backgrounds. A bit like in Australia, if you're in a tough job that is tough on your body and you physically cannot work any longer, then you can get the pension a bit earlier, it just won't be as much as the full pension.

Peter Dunne: Singapore's “food for fuel” deal

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon describes the "food for fuel" deal he has just concluded with Singapore as "world leading". While that language may sound unnecessarily Trumpist, the arrangement is certainly a positive one to be celebrated.

David Farrar: NZ First voted against the Singapore FTA

NZ First voted against the Singapore free trade agreement in 2000. It is that FTA that has led to this latest extension:

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he discussed the potential for other countries to join a landmark deal that ensures essential supplies like fuel and pharmaceuticals make their way to New Zealand during a crisis.

Mike's Minute: We need more backbone from our leaders

Why now Sean?

I had Covid vibes when I read Sean Sweeney's thinking about the CRL.

It was Covid vibes because during that period I cannot tell you how many people I know and regularly dealt with, whether it was people in the media or people from business, who said one thing about the Government and their handling of lockdowns and the economy in private, and something completely different in public.

So Sean, having left the CRL to head to Ireland, has now left Ireland but has stopped by long enough to tell us we don’t scope our price major projects that well. Who knew?

Saturday May 9, 2026 

                   ⇩

Clive Bibby: A Betrayal of Trust

MMP was supposed to fix problems associated with political representation at the highest level of decision making. Yet for all its promotion as the most democratic form of government, we still witness examples of remote communities being allowed to fall through the cracks - and in that context, it would appear nothing much has changed from the bad old days.

Ryan Bridge: The OECD's report needs to be taken with a grain of salt

It's somewhat ironic the latest lecture we're getting from an office of global boffins is headquartered in Paris.

No offence to the French, but they're screaming out for lesson in basic economics.

Their debt-to-GDP ratio is 118%. Their debt is 60% above the EU limit.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The media is under scrutiny and we've had it coming

If it’s not already obvious to you, the fact that Maiki Sherman has lost her job should now make it very clear: the media—especially the state broadcasters, both of them—are about to find out what it means not just to make and report the news but to be the news.

Just look at what’s happened this week alone. And this is only a sample—this has been building for some time.

John Raine, Michael Kelly and Brian Leyland: Why New Zealand must drop Net Zero 2050

Climate Change Realism Not Alarm

Climate change alarmism has become a quasi-religion, where many normally rational scientists have moved to a rigid belief state rather than continuing to question the science and constantly check the latest evidence. Fortunately, a core of respected atmospheric physicists continues to speak out and keep rational debate alive [e.g. 1, 2, 3]. Environmental activist and writer, Michael Shellenberger [4], also counsels strongly against climate doom thinking.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 3.5.26

Saturday May 9, 2026 

News:
Whangārei District Council has taken a step closer to strengthening how it embeds the principles of Te Tiriti
Whangārei District Council has taken a step closer to strengthening how it embeds the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi across its organisation, after a proposed implementation plan was presented to a key standing committee.

The council’s Te Kārearea Strategic Partnership Standing Committee on Tuesday heard about the proposed plan, which responds to improvement recommendations from a council‑wide Te Tiriti o Waitangi health check commissioned by Whangārei District Council (WDC).

Geoff Parker: A Storm Is Not An Act Of Colonisation.

The report makes a legitimate point that some Māori communities are vulnerable to severe weather events, especially isolated rural or coastal settlements. But it weakens its own credibility by turning climate resilience into a broad ideological argument about colonisation and governance.

Climate risk is primarily driven by geography, infrastructure quality, income, and preparedness — not ancestry.

Ani O'Brien: Who really wants a Grand Coalition between Labour and National?

The whole idea is borne of establishment panic

The sudden enthusiasm for a “Grand Coalition” between the New Zealand Labour Party and New Zealand National Party is being presented by proponents as a sober, pragmatic response to the complexities of modern governance. Its advocates speak the language of stability, maturity, and responsibility. They gesture toward international examples, invoke economic necessity, and lament the supposed distortions of coalition politics under MMP. But under the paternalistic managerial tone and the carefully chosen euphemisms, is an admission of political failure and more troublingly, a repudiation of the democratic choices voters have been making and the subtle-as-a-gun signals they have been sending to the political class.

Rodney Hide: City Rail Link: 19th-Century Trains Under a 21st-Century City

The City Rail Link is a $5.5 billion monument to backward thinking.

Auckland is digging a 3.5 km twin tunnel under its CBD to run 19th-century steel-on-steel trains. The project, originally budgeted far lower, has ballooned to $5.5 billion. Auckland ratepayers and taxpayers are on the hook for billions upfront with rate payers coughing up $220–$265 million every year in operating, interest and depreciation costs. That is real money sucked out of productive parts of the economy.

Brendan O'Neill: The ugly truth about the cult of Palestinianism

The conviction of the Palestine Action activists confirms it: Israelophobia is a vile menace to civilised values.

So this is the movement that the queen of smug, Sally Rooney, promised to share her fat royalty cheques with. This is the movement that plummy vicars fawned over in Westminster Square with their placards saying ‘I Support Palestine Action’. A movement that counts within its ranks men content to use a 7lb sledgehammer to fracture the back of a woman. A movement so far up the fundament of its own self-righteousness that its members think nothing of raining steel blows on a woman’s spine. I would engage in some serious self-reflection if an organisation I gushed over was found to contain blokes who use weapons to crack women’s bones.

Roger Partridge: From legal realism to legal radicalism.....

From legal realism to legal radicalism: breaking faith with the constitutional order

Something happened in law schools in the closing decades of the twentieth century. It did not make the headlines. But it shaped the thinking of a generation of lawyers and judges more profoundly than almost any statute or judgment.

Legal realism – the view that judges make choices rather than merely apply rules – merged with a broader current of post-modern thought flowing through the humanities and social sciences. The conclusion that seemed to follow was arresting: legal categories are not neutral; the distinction between legitimate and activist judging is itself a value judgment; and those who invoke legal orthodoxy are defending, whether they know it or not, the interests of the powerful.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: The Martian Audit

The Martian Audit is a satirical novella. Two Martian auditors land in the Wairarapa expecting to assess humanity at its best. They are promptly fined for parking without consent.

The novella is the work of Dr Oliver Hartwich, Executive Director of the Initiative. In twenty years of writing on public policy, first in London, then in Sydney, and since 2012 in New Zealand, Dr Hartwich has produced reports, submissions, columns and books. The occasional short satirical piece has found its way into the Initiative’s weekly Insights newsletter. The Martian Audit is his first longer-form work of fiction.

Peter Williams: RIP BSA

The abolition of the Broadcasting Standards Authority was inevitable. Dithery Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith finally made a decision, or more likely his cabinet colleagues and some Act MPs gave him a boot in the behind and told him to get on with it.

But exactly when this relic of the analogue age, brought into existence before TV3 was even on air, will actually be disestablished is unclear.

David Farrar: Reminder - Winston campaigned against the China free trade agreement

Winston Peters voted against and campaigned against the China free trade agreement, that came into force in 2008. Look at what happened to our exports to China since then:

Mike's Minute: Good riddance to the BSA

I do worry about Paul Goldsmith's ability to make a decision.

The BSA and its abolition is a “done by morning tea, let's move onto the important stuff” sort of thing.

And yet he seems to have been waxing and waning and pontificating for the past two years of Government.

Friday May 8, 2026 

                   ⇩

Ryan Bridge: The Nats stand a chance this election

The Coalition is failing on two numbers that matter most to us voters.

Inflation is up over 3% - not as bad as the Aussies but not helped by Trump.

But wage growth is 2%.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Wellington Council's been caught keeping secrets from ratepayers again

Now, you would have thought that after all the publicity Wellington City Council has been getting - and the paid staff have been getting - for being caught doing things behind the backs of elected councillors, they probably wouldn’t do it again.

And yet, here we are. They’ve been caught doing it again.

David Harvey: A Framework For Media Regulation In The Digital Age

A standalone proposal for the reform of media and communications regulation in New Zealand

Preliminary Note

The Minister for Broadcasting, Paul Goldsmith, announced earlier today that the BSA is going to be disestablished. He favours an industry based model for ongoing media regulation and believes that the task can be taken up by the NZ Media Council. That is all very well but the Council requires additional funding. Perhaps the funds allocated to the BSA can be redirected to the Media Council.

Professor Brian Boyd: Place—or Race?—in Education

Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland has enshrined “place” in education in a top-down and almost entirely unargued-for way. “Place” appears to be a cover for race: an attempt at social justice and possibly an attempt to lift Māori performance in the university and society. The roots of this shift go back to 2022, when a broad curriculum “transformation” was proposed. The elements dealing with “place” were initially given great prominence. They promoted idealized, romanticized, and essentialized Māori ways of thinking and attempted to instil a narrow and fixed interpretation of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Trump’s Iran war is paying for Putin’s

Russian power has always sat on a contradiction. The country can put satellites into orbit and tanks across borders, but it cannot build a normal economy.

Helmut Schmidt caught the contradiction in the 1970s when he called the Soviet Union “Obervolta mit Raketen,” Upper Volta with rockets. The line was brutal then, and it has aged well (even though Upper Volta is now called Burkina Faso).

Bob Edlin: Science teachers (really?) troubled that our kiddies might struggle with learning about “The Father of Botany”

Centrist today has headlined a report –

Teachers push back as curriculum reset strips back Treaty framing and returns to clearer basics

The report kicks off:

David Farrar: A good further transparency move

The Herald reports:

Members of the public are due to get greater insight into the thinking of those on the powerful Reserve Bank committee that sets interest rates.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and Finance Minister Nicola Willis have agreed to a new charter that will see members’ individual views on how to set monetary policy publicised.

Simon O'Connor: Hamlet and the NZ media

Some journalists recent behaviour; legal threats; hidden stories; and an ideologically captured regulator. The state of New Zealand's media is akin to a Shakespearean tragedy.


To badly quote Marcellus from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 4) - there is something rotten with the state of our mainstream media and its wider ecosystem.

Whether it is the behaviour of some reporters; the increasing use of lawyers by the media; or the actions of the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) – the Fourth Estate is like the proverbial leviathan, eating itself.

Mike's Minute: How do you not have confidence in an event already sorted?

In a year of wacky polls and debate, we have this morning probably the maddest result of all.

Horizon research has either asked a leading or confusing question, or they have a misrepresentative group of people. Or the people who answered have other things in mind when they answered because the poll is about the fuel crisis.

Now the fuel "crisis", such as it is, has not actually been a crisis. You might argue in price it has, but it's peaked and the fears of $200 a barrel never happened and never came close.

JC: Good News the Media Won’t Tell You

Having completed my last article, the next thing I did was pick up the Weekend Herald, where I spotted an article by Cecilia Robinson. It was a good read, which meant it wasn’t an article written by an in-house journalist, e.g., Thomas Coughlan. Cecilia, like me, is a glass-half-full person. Some of my articles might read differently, but, overall, I have a positive attitude to most things in life. Cecilia’s article was not only positive but backed up with facts. “Are we talking down an economy on the up?” was her headline.

Thursday May 7, 2026 

                   ⇩

Kerre Woodham: Is there a case for amalgamation?

Government ministers gave councils an ultimatum yesterday: come up with your own plans for amalgamation within three months, or the Government will do it for you. Local Government Minister Simon Watts and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop said there was broad support from councils – some were already gung-ho and proceeding with plans to amalgamate. One of them is Nelson Mayor Nick Smith. He's long held the view that merging with Tasman is the right thing to do for his city and cites common interests and unnecessary duplication.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The BSA sealed its own fate

Well, blow me down - I did not think that Paul Goldsmith had the courage or the inclination to do something as bold as actually scrapping the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

I thought it was all talk when he kept dropping it as a possibility but it turns out I was wrong. He’s announced the BSA is gone; the laws will be drawn up in the next few months and they’ll be passed before the next election.

Lindsay Mitchell: Stanford admits Kiwis don't want to work

Immigration Minister, Erica Stanford, criticising ACT's proposed levy on immigrant workers, said it will fall to farmers to pay it. Farmers need immigrant workers because:

“There are certain regions in New Zealand where there is low unemployment or there are Kiwis who are simply not willing to do some of those jobs, be it in agriculture or aged care,” she said.

John McLean: Legal Elite Is Winning In The War For Constitutional Supremacy

Craig Stobo has been forced to resign as chair of the board of New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority.

On 4 May 2026, National Party MP and Commerce & Consumer Affairs Minister, Cameron Brewer, accepted Stobo’s offer to resign. Brewer’s acceptance was of course code for, “If he’d refused to resign, I’d’ve booted him”.

David Harvey: The Word that Swallowed Everything

This could be seen as a companion piece to “The Art of Not Deciding” which I published on 29 April 2026. That article dealt with decision paralysis. One aspect of that is fear and accompanying that is a desire to stay safe – from criticism, condemnation. Better to do nothing than do something and be criticised for it.

In this article I look at the issue of safety and the word “safe” and how that word has been weaponised.

Let me begin with a word. Not a law, not a regulation, not even a policy — just a word.

“Safe.”

David Farrar: Chippie is brave and right

The Herald reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he is open to discussing whether New Zealand’s superannuation should be means-tested.

Hipkins told Newstalk ZB’s Kerre Woodham he would not want full means-testing of the country’s pension but added “there are questions”.

Ross Meurant: Speech at the funeral of Pat Vesey

Excuse my referring to script. I usually speak from the cuff but there are a couple of points where I need to be specific.

To the family of Pat Vesey – I extend my genuine condolences.

I emphasise “genuine” for once upon a time, Mr Vesey and I were adversaries.

Family of Pat Vesey, you know me not. But some may recall the constable-on-CIB trial - as one of the Scene Detectives - at the homicide site of Jeanette and Harvey Crewe, Pukekawa, June 1970.

Anthony Grant: Tikanga - The Unknown Law That Binds Us All

The law of Tikanga troubles me.

My concerns stem in part from my experience as a student at Auckland University in 1967 when I was enrolled to study Mãori.

Rodney Hide: The Population has Bombed

New Zealand’s fertility rate sits at 1.55 births per woman. Official Stats NZ figures for the year ended December 2025 confirm it. Replacement level is 2.1. We have been below it since 2013 and the numbers keep sliding.

This is not a local oddity. South Korea is at 0.68 children per woman — the lowest on Earth. Taiwan, Singapore, Italy, Spain and Japan scrape along between 1.1 and 1.3. Much of Europe hovers around 1.5. No major developed nation is reproducing itself.

Mike's Minute: The economic damage caused by weather warnings

This is quite possibly from our "hopeless causes" file.

But can I at least try and make the plea that we have a look at the economic damage done by trigger-happy weather offices and compliant clickbait media when it comes to storm warnings?

Cyclone Vaianu was the latest and is hopefully still fresh enough in our memories to remind us of a week's worth of hyperbole and headline nonsense that actually caused quite a lot of damage.

Not storm damage, but economic damage.

Wednesday May 6, 2026 

                   ⇩

New Zealand Is on the Edge

In this Lotus Eaters Daily commentary, Luca argues that New Zealand is undergoing significant demographic change, linking immigration patterns to broader debates about culture, identity, and national direction. The video reflects a critical perspective on diversity and the social tensions it can create.

Click to view

DTNZ: Govt moves to scrap Broadcasting Standards Authority

The Government is moving to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority, arguing the country’s media laws have failed to keep pace with the rise of online platforms, podcasts and on-demand content.

Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith said Cabinet had agreed to progress work on shutting down the regulator and exploring industry-led self-regulation instead.

Ryan Bridge: Governments should control spending and stability

There are basically two big things governments control that affect the economy and therefore all of us; spending and stability.

They're not to be taken for granted but too often they are.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: ACT's proposal for pharmacists isn't radical, it's common sense

So at lunchtime today, I was catching up with one of our advertisers just across the road, having a cup of tea. He owns a health-adjacent business and we got chatting about community pharmacies - like the one I go to - and what they can do to survive at a time when the big players, like Chemist Warehouse, are taking over.

Rodney Hide: Standover Tactics - $180 Million for a Gold Mine

An iwi group allegedly demanded $180 million from Santana Minerals to approve the Bendigo Santana gold mine in Central Otago. This is not consultation. It is standover tactics enabled by our planning laws.

ACT Resources spokesman Simon Court has called it exactly what it is. Documents and meetings show iwi representatives pointed to a previous seven-figure payout for a hydro project as the benchmark. Pay up or face opposition. The company calculated the lifetime “contribution” at around $180 million. Kā Rūnaka say $180 million has not been their “focus,” but they have not denied the report.

Ani O'Brien: Who is right about the India Free Trade Agreement ?

Not a disaster. Not a breakthrough. Just a trade deal.

The public debate over New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with India has been waging since New Zealand First announced they would not be supporting it. Depending on who you listen to, it is either a significant breakthrough that opens New Zealand up to one of the world’s most important emerging markets, or a rushed, low-quality deal that gives away too much while delivering too little in return. Both sides are telling a version of the truth. But neither, on its own, is sufficient to understand what has actually been agreed.

Rodney Hide: What is the New Zealand government's Debt Limit?

Sir Niall Ferguson’s “Ferguson limit” is the point at which a nation spends more on debt interest than on defence. Cross it and the fiscal arithmetic begins to erode the ability to project power or even maintain basic sovereignty. The United States crossed it for the first time in nearly a century in 2024. New Zealand beat them to it.

Our latest numbers are damning. Core Crown interest payments are running at around $8.9 billion a year. Defence spending sits at roughly $3.3 billion. We are not close. We are already deep into Ferguson territory. Interest alone now dwarfs law and order spending as well. The debt service bill is larger than entire departments.