Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: We've got to stop nitpicking legitimate uses of Defence Force flights

Well, I've come back from holiday to find Christopher Luxon having the week from hell, haven't I? The small business comments, the Winston Peters "go back to where you came from" comments and now Choppergate.

The latest with Choppergate, by the way, is that the event Chris Luxon was telling Mike Hosking about on Monday, where he finished up in Whanganui at 10:30 and then had to get back to Auckland, was in fact a National Party fundraiser.

Ryan Bridge: Unemployment isn't as bad as it seems

A couple of things on the unemployment number that came out yesterday.

It looks worse than actually it is because a bunch of people decided they would start looking for work in the second quarter than the one before it.

So, there are a bunch of reasons for this happening, but basically you don't really know.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 2.8.26

Thursday August 6, 2026 

News:
Corrections Minister halts $9m ‘massage programme’ for prisoners
The Corrections Minister has halted a $9 million plan to provide rongoā Māori healthcare in prisons, including giving prisoners traditional massages, after questions were asked about the programme.

Corrections launched a procurement process for the services in all New Zealand prisons in July.

Dr Eric Crampton: Can culture drive innovation? The answer lies in the books

Everyone knows that culture matters, at least in a vague sense. But showing how it matters has been like pinning jelly to a wall.

I don’t know how many opinion pieces I’ve read blaming New Zealand’s ‘tall poppy syndrome’ for weak innovation and productivity growth. But how could you test whether it is true?

Eliora: They Are All Terrible, but Pick One.

Kiwis are being asked to vote in the November 26 election and some don’t trust any party.

Never has there been such cynicism about politics and the country’s direction. It cuts across many age groups,but the 65+ group includes those who say they are so fed up they don’t even want to vote in the next election. They recall how badly the government treated them at crucial times. They say they are sick and tired of the arrogance and shenanigans surrounding our politicians. The electioneering palaver, ‘Trust us, yes, we’ve messed up, we’ve misled you with our promises but (implied) we’re slightly less corrupt than the other parties,’ isn’t cutting the mustard any longer. One big negative looms large. Voters are ‘still burdened by the failures of the Ardern years’ and indicate it was so bad for them it has affected whether they will vote or not. More on that later.

JD: Will We Be Pākehā Freeloaders?

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

As a Kiwi would you pay a couple of dollars a week into an All Black Support Fund? Possibly. How about a couple of dollars a week to prop up The Wallabies, England or Les Bleus? Not bloody likely!

And so to the question of NZ pensions.

Kerre Woodham: It's getting harder to decide who to vote for

A friend of mine said to me the other day, “do you have the cliff notes of Labour's policies going into the election? I haven't heard much from Chris Hipkins.” I said, “well, you haven't heard much from Chris Hipkins because he doesn't need to say much.” The best tactic for Labour right now, and they've they copped onto that very early, was to stay shtum and let National and its coalition partners do their very best to lose the election. Christopher Luxon's suck it up cupcake to business owners in Rotorua and then the subsequent apology was yet another case of him having to explain himself. “I didn't mean it like that, you know what I'm saying.” He's done it so many times before. He did it with the bottom feeders comment, he did it with the sorted comment. He doesn't mean it, but it comes across badly, it's mischaracterised, it's misrepresented, he has to explain himself, and when you're explaining, you're losing.

David Farrar: CPI to move to monthly

Scott Simpson announced:

New Zealanders will have access to monthly inflation data from July 2027 as part of a major upgrade to the country’s economic statistics, Statistics Minister Scott Simpson says.

“Moving to monthly Consumers Price Index (CPI) reporting is one of the biggest improvements to New Zealand’s economic statistics in decades.

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: Will TOP ever be more than a sideshow?

Everybody's talking about the Opportunity Party and I'm not quite sure I believe they're anything more than a bit of a sideshow. They haven't cracked 5 percent yet but anyway, there we go.

Sir Ian Taylor wrote an opinion piece that was published by Stuff. In it, he said that throughout his life he's been a centre-left voter. That's been his political home. But during the whole Covid period, with the Labour Party's response to Covid and the way it wasted its supermajority when it had, you know, all the power in the House, he became disillusioned.

David Farrar: Who actually pays tax in NZ

The Taxpayers’ Union has released a report showing who pays tax in NZ. The findings include:

Owen Jennings: Tax is a means to an end, not an end in itself

Tax is likely to be the big policy divide in this coming election. No matter how you put the parties together, it seems almost certain that parties led by Labour will seek to increase taxes and conversely, those led by National are not suggesting any increases; even potential reductions.

The media’s current fascination with TOP conveniently overlooks their plans to raise taxes.

Mike's Minute: The gang patch ban vs the Bill of Rights

I think the majority of us would agree that the gang patch ban, along with the renewed police attitude to gang activity, has produced a pretty successful answer to what was previously a situation with gangs where they basically ran rampant, ruined a lot of people's lives and produced untold misery in a lot of small-town New Zealand.

I note as a watcher of Parliamentary Question Time that Minister of Police Mark Mitchell is very rarely peppered with questions these days because the Opposition know they were on the wrong side of history i.e. letting gangs run wild.

Wednesday August 5, 2026 

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Mike Butler: The treaty principles crossroads again

The Waitangi Tribunal’s declaration that the review of treaty principle clauses breaches treaty principles is both predictable and shines a light on the constitutional crossroads that 50 years of treaty policy have brought us to.

AI told me that evaluating whether the review is the "correct" course of action involves navigating one of the most significant, complex, and deeply polarizing constitutional debates in modern New Zealand history.

John Denton: TOP Pensioner Attack

Amid the current MSM hoopla about TOP, momentarily muted as the press pack rushed off to dig the dirt on Paul Henry and Stuart Nash, the one key TOP policy winning voter attention is seldom mentioned.

What’s driving TOP in the polls has nothing to do with them being ‘centrists’, offering a measured alternative to Labour or National and claiming to be willing to work with either of them, it is simply that TOP are offering free money, and who can resist that?

Clive Bibby: The wilful destruction of the New Zealand pastoral economy

Waking early to catch up on world and local news is becoming a bit of a habit for old blokes like me with nothing much else to do.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I do find at this time of the day, a useful number of interesting topics that could form the basis of a blog - which others may also enjoy debating.

Owen Jennings: FENZ – friends or fiends?

Our neighbours lost their home to a fire. There was no fire brigade in our small district. It was devastating and took a huge emotional toll as well as massive inconvenience. It was, however, the motivation to form a volunteer brigade and obtain a used vehicle suitable for a rural locality.

Guest Post: Good On Mt Albert Grammar Principal

A Guest Post from No Minister by pdm

I hope the Principal took the opportunity to enforce to the student that Moko are earned by deeds and actions and most certainly are not decoration whether scribbled on with a Marker pen or etched on as is the case with so many Maori these days. Particularly Maori women.

Mrspdm and I had an 80 year old or thereabouts Maori lady as a neighbour and very good friend for a few years and she was adamant on that matter and considered it a lack of respect when she saw young people in particular adorned by unearned Moko.

Here is the Herald story which features the boys mother going `full bore’ against the schools decision and I have no doubt from the tenor of the writing that the Herald is in support of she and her son as well.:

Bruce Cotterill: The risk behind Opportunity Party’s rapid rise in the polls

There once was a young woman. She had long dark hair and a nice smile. She was a politician. She came out of nowhere. She was bright and charismatic, communicated well, and the media adored her. The people adored her too, despite not knowing that much about her or the team around her.

She became our Prime Minister, with promises of kindness, more houses and less poverty.

Peter Williams: Who can be a racist?

It's not about ethnicity. It's about your politics.

In my not entirely successful career as a radio talk show host, a few encounters remain fresh in the memory.

One was with former Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira during the time of the Ihumatao land occupation near Auckland Airport in 2019.

Kerre Woodham: Is ACT's policy needed? Or are they trying to generate headlines?

We opted to go with Act wanting to give teachers the legal power to remove seriously or persistently disruptive students from a classroom. Now in an election year with parties struggling to get airtime and oxygen, you have to wonder how much of this is serious policy, how much they seriously think they can get pushed through in a coalition, how much is just to generate headlines.

David Farrar: Bomber Bradbury and HDCA

The Post reports:

Prominent blogger Martyn Bradbury says he will be appearing in court on Tuesday over posts on his website The Daily Blog, adding that he is “prepared to to go prison for free speech”.

Bradbury – who is widely known as “Bomber” for his bombastic speaking style – wrote on his website that four of his blog posts had been “censored” and he was facing a possible fine or even a prison sentence of six months.

Ryan Bridge: Is it too late for the Nats to roll Luxon?

The battle for the right and centre-right vote is the most interesting thing about the election.

Because it's the battle that will determine who wears the pants in the next government.

I'm still of the view that the coalition will be re-elected. The make-up of the cabinet is what they're now fighting for.

Perspective with Andrew Dickens: What on earth was the Migrant Association thinking?

You've got to ask yourself: what on earth was the Migrant Association thinking? This comes after its stunt of guillotining an effigy of Winston Peters because it believes he's racist.

It obviously disregarded the fact that many supporters of Peters believe unmitigated immigration allows undesirable migrants to flood the country, the type who think nothing of guillotining a politician or anybody else they disagree with.

Alwyn Poole: Another small, but positive, Education shift.

The latest IPSOS poll is anything but good reading for National with Labour favoured to better manage 9 of the top 11 issues – including Education. The respondents are wrong on Education as there is incremental progress at present. Much more should be being done in a range of ways but it is not the same level of disaster created by Hipkins and Tinetti.

Each year I do a data process that includes every high school in NZ across a range of measures based on their leavers data. I am about to get the raw data to do that work. Some full system data is now available and I am really happy to say that there have been improvements.

Mike's Minute: We get a lot of reports from people with no power or influence

We have in this country a lot of people paid for by us that basically do a lot of talking and gesturing and do it with no real power or influence.

A lot of them are commissions. One of them is the Human Rights Commission.

Tuesday August 4, 2026 

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Roy Morgan: National-led Government leads Labour-led Parliamentary Opposition

In July National-led Government leads Labour-led Parliamentary Opposition (49% vs. 41%)

Roy Morgan’s New Zealand Poll for July 2026 shows the National-led Government (National, ACT & NZ First) down 2% to 49%, maintaining a clear lead over the Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori Parliamentary Opposition, down 1% to 41%.

JC: Fauci Forced To Plead the Fifth Amendment

Not once, not twice, not three times but 111 times. You read that correctly. It is not a typo: one hundred and eleven times. Through last week’s Senate hearing and his own self-incriminating diaries Dr Anthony Fauci has now been exposed as among the worst human beings ever to walk on God’s earth. The type of behaviour he engaged in is unbelievable on so many fronts. He makes Megan Markle look a saint by comparison. She might be a narcissist, but she cannot be held responsible for actions that led to the deaths of millions of people worldwide. Fauci can.

Ani O'Brien: The Activists Behind Winston Peters' Mock Execution

Left wing political violence gets a free pass, again

On Saturday afternoon in downtown Auckland, a crowd gathered for what its organisers called “political theatre”. It began as a mock trial and ended with the symbolic execution of New Zealand’s Foreign Minister. The event, organised by the Migrant Workers Association of Aotearoa (MWA), saw an effigy of Winston Peters wheeled towards a mock guillotine before a crowd baying for the spilling of his metaphoric blood. Association president Anupam Kaloti acted as prosecutor, judge, and master of ceremonies although she assured critics that it was “satire”.

Pee Kay: Killing Prosperity with Good Intentions

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

We have all read and heard about the ETS but do we all know just exactly what the mechanics of the scheme are, why politicians are so obsessed with it and do we know just how much the ETS affects us as a country and personally?

I didn’t, my knowledge was superficial, so I went searching.

Duggan Flanakin: Mining the oceans for fresh water – and Uranium

About 450,000 residents in the Corpus Christi (Texas) metropolitan area are primarily served by fresh water from two severely threatened reservoirs, but the city has become increasingly reliant on water sent via the Mary Rhodes Pipeline from Lake Texana and the Colorado River. The city remains under stage 3 water restrictions despite recent heavy rains. Lake Corpus Christi is only a third full, while the rains raised Choke Canyon Reservoir’s water level to 20% full.

Nathan Smith: Change Comes From Within, Paul Henry

I like Paul Henry. He was always a bit of an unserious joker, but I think all his joking around has caused him to be confused about the reality of New Zealand politics.

Part of his stated reasons for getting into politics is to restore the country back to what he considers the “good old days” when he was growing up. He wants his grandchildren to enjoy the same benefits he enjoyed, and so his goal requires rolling back some of the more insane policies accrued over the decades.

Lindsay Mitchell: Outgoing Children's Commissioner calls for bigger benefits as swansong

Today on Q&A outgoing Children's Commissioner Claire Achmad told Jack Tame the idea that work alone will lift children out of poverty is a "fallacy".

Yet the US evidence says the opposite.

NZ has a very high rate of sole parent benefit dependency. So did the US. The two countries share the family breakdown of African Americans and Maori. The Maori ex-nuptial birthrate is currently 81 percent and Maori make-up 51 percent of sole parent beneficiaries (with a recorded ethnicity).

Ryan Bridge: David Brent strikes again

Did you see the news Prime Minister's pep talk to business leaders on Friday?

The business chamber boss said Rotorua's had its sharpest fall in business confidence in a decade, and business are wondering how long they can actually stay in business.

Luxon's reply is what got people talking.

Rodney Hide: Demography Is Destiny — And New Zealand Is Choosing Decline

Elon Musk is blunt: “Demography is destiny.” New Zealand’s numbers prove his point.

Our total fertility rate sits between 1.55 and 1.60 births per woman. A decade ago it was still around 2. The fall is across every major ethnic group:

Guest Post: InternetNZ Goes Full Retard

A guest post by Gary Benner on Kiwiblog

I received a report on the Strategy 2022-2026 Review for the InternetNZ Board, and noted one paragraph that has me somewhat bemused, befuddled, and a little concerned.

Monday August 3, 2026 

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Damien Grant: NZ’s inflation is moving faster than you think....

Like an accelerating e-scooter, NZ’s inflation is moving faster than you think

Picture the Waitemata. It’s expansive. The bridge to your left, Rangitoto on the right, CBD behind you and an e-scooter weaving wildly just out of your vision. Ice cream in hand, pistachio and mango, clear sky allowing the winter sun to warm your soul. We really are lucky to live in such a beautiful country.

When the idiot on the e-scooter ploughs into your side, tipping you forward so your face breaks the fall and the ice cream scatters across the creosote, which matters more; the speed that the e-scooter was travelling at the moment of impact or, alternatively, how far it had been ridden in the previous hour?

Let’s talk inflation.

NZCPR Newsletter: Reform Update

The Coalition’s proposed shakeup of local government is well underway. Time is now running out for councils to decide on the shape of their mergers.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: New Zealand ignores the Kiwi who saw the future coming

In 1987, on a school trip to the German countryside, my maths teacher made a prediction. Dr Müller had worked at IBM before turning to teaching in our industrial city, Essen. One day, he mused, fast data connections would let him live in a place like this without giving anything up.

I was twelve and had just unpacked my first computer, an Amiga 500 with 512 kilobytes of memory. I found Dr Müller’s idea so fascinating, I still remember that conversation.

Dr Michael Johnston: Is university still worthwhile?

New Zealanders have long seen university as the best educational route to the good life. Trades and industry training is seen as a second-best option.

That attitude has always been based more on prejudice than reality. Skilled tradies are paid well and many go on to start lucrative businesses of their own.

It is time for a serious re-think of the way young people are prepared for the choices they face when they leave school.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: As they (RMA replacement Bills) stand, no

Last week, Eric Crampton made the case for passing the RMA replacement Bills, while noting some risks in their current form.

Nick Clark argued that Parliament should pause them.

I promised a verdict. Here it is: the Bills still need work. Deadlines loom if the government wants to pass them this term. And it may not have time to get them into shape.

Richard Eldred: BP Puts North Sea Business Up for Sale, Ending 60 Years of Production

BP is putting its entire North Sea business up for sale, drawing a line under 60 years of production in the region. The BBC has the story:

The decision follows a review of BP’s operations as it seeks to slim down the group. Its North Sea business has five production hubs – two in the central North Sea and three west of Shetland – and employs about 1,100 people. …

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Using Orbán tactics to purge opponents is wrong way to clean up Hungary

Ask a well-informed European to name the Council of Europe's constitutional advisory body, and you will usually get a pause. I had to look it up myself last week, which is awkward for a Europe columnist, and worse for one with a doctorate in law.

It is called the Venice Commission, created in May 1990, six months after the Berlin Wall came down. Its founding resolution gave it the job of providing emergency constitutional aid to states in transition.

Dave Patterson: Where Does the US Stand With Iran?

President Trump has let it be known that he is not putting up with Tehran’s negotiating games. In response to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) surprise attack, launching numerous ballistic missiles at American military facilities in Jordan on Tuesday night (July 28), America’s commander-in-chief said the strikes would be answered with ferocity. All incoming missiles were intercepted, and no damage was done, nor were US service members killed or injured. What the attack did accomplish, however, was to motivate the US president to act decisively. As Fox News reported: “The United States resumed airstrikes inside Iran Wednesday night in retaliation for Tehran’s attempted surprise ballistic-missile attack on American forces, as an Iran expert warned that the regime has become increasingly willing to test Washington despite its weakened military capabilities.”

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: The Big Debate

UK 

The Big Debate

A major debate is underway amongst the centre-right on energy and climate policies. This week, the Telegraph featured a series of opinion pieces by leading thinkers on the subject:

With half of country suffering from drought, Tim Stanley argued conservatives need to take climate change seriously – and our writers responded.

Dr Eric Crampton: A Grokwork Orange

It’s only going to get weirder from here, folks.

Trump did not like existing social media platforms, so he launched his own, Truth Social, in 2022.

He posts there a lot. Content really can be anything.

Ashley Church: Are the Palestinians the ‘real Jews’?

What defines an ancient identity?

Back in June I wrote an article pointing out the inconvenient fact that there has never, at any time in history, been a sovereign Palestinian state and that reference to one is an invented modern fiction.

Antisemitic commentators responded immediately.

Unable to challenge the core of my argument (because history is history) they changed tack and latched on to an old conspiracy theory: that the Palestinians and the Jews are genetically related and that, therefore, the Palestinians are the ‘real Jews’ while the people we now call Jews are outsiders.

Sunday August 2, 2026 

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Chris Lynch: Opportunity Party wanted to raise youth justice age to 25....

Opportunity Party wanted to raise youth justice age to 25, now can’t say what the limit should be

The Opportunity Party has scrubbed the age of 25 from a policy proposing a major expansion of New Zealand’s youth justice system.

An archived version of the party’s “Smart on Crime” policy, captured on March 5, explicitly promised to “raise the age of the youth court jurisdiction to 25, in line with developmental science”.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 1 August 2026

Election 2026: Buff Bros and Bad Ideas

In a week full of controversy, Green candidate for Waiariki, Tania Waikato, drew attention by posting photographs of scantily clad Māori men and women (including herself) alongside information about enrolling and switching electoral rolls. She calls it the “bikini baddies and buff bros” campaign, the media calls it a thirst trap, and I call it a red flag for the Green Party. I am not sure they have room for an ego of Waikato’s size in their caucus.

Tony Orman: The Political Power Culture is Wrong – and Dangerous to Democracy

The first paragraph of a recent article on website “Newsroom” said “Labour says it will “100 percent” repeal one of the most contentious parts of the Government’s Planning and Natural Environment Bills if it wins power.”

Power?

Power over who?

John McLean: Evolution Of New Zealanders Into Entitled Aoteachondriacs

The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near

Sit down and pour yourself a strong one. Or a cup of tea. It’s all the same to me. I’ve got news for you. You are going to DIE. And, in the overall scheme of things, your death will come soon. The longer you live, the more likely it is that your last few years will be unproductive and unpleasant. In old age (if you get that far), you’ll be a burden on your fellow New Zealanders. There is no “right to life”.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Both Labour and National are tiptoeing around Winston

Did you see even Don Brash reckons Luxon should fire Winston as Foreign Minister?

Before anyone gets their hopes up, this never going to happen. If the PM cut Winston loose, the government would fall apart. That would kill not only Luxon's current term but his ambitions for a second.