David Farrar: Of course GP wait times will skyrocket under Labour

The Post reports:

Labour’s Dr Ayesha Verrall is adamant that her fees-free GP policy will not overwhelm clinics, despite featuring no commitment to fund the training of more doctors.

The policy has faced sustained criticism from Health Minister Simeon Brown, who says the free visits would increase demand on GP clinics without any plan to increase the number of doctors.

David Farrar: Which language should be used first?

I am a fan of agencies having both English and te reo names. I am not a fan of agencies only using their te reo name as happened under the last Government.

If an agency (or their website) uses both English and te reo, which should be the primary language? Well, let’s look at the census data:

Tuesday June 2, 2026 

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Chris Lynch: Unelected council members to lose voting powers

The Government has moved to stop unelected appointees from voting on council committees, saying decision making should rest with representatives chosen by voters.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts announced changes to the Local Government Act 2002 that would mean voting rights on council committees would be made only for elected councillors.

Graeme Spencer: If Radio Spectrum Is Taonga, What Isn't?

In 2022 Labour "gifted" 20% of the 5GL spectrum to Maori - not a treaty settlement - a "gift" - along with this gift, $75 million was provided to establish and support the entity (Kāhui Whakaata - the Māori Spectrum Entity) during its formative years.

For years, the spectrum was treated as a national resource - Governments licensed or auctioned it to telecommunications companies, who paid for the right to use specific frequency bands. It was largely an administrative process, and the associated revenue would have benefited all New Zealanders.

John McLean: Hipkin's policy silence doesn't matter

Why the Labour Leader’s failure to disclose policy is irrelevant

Much has been made of Chris Hipkins not disclosing Labour Party policy positions in the lead-up to the November 2026 general election.

Hipkins’ ostensible reason for not (yet?) announcing policy is that he wanted to wait until after the Government delivered its budget on 28 May. He hints that he may begin to announce Labour policies in June.

Pee Kay: This is only the tip of a very large iceberg!

Have you ever heard of Oranga Marae? No?

Despite the name, it is not actually a physical place.

Oranga Marae is a government fund dedicated entirely to upgrading, rebuilding, and maintaining marae across New Zealand. It operates as a joint Crown investment programme between Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Māori Development) and the Department of Internal Affairs. The Oranga Marae programme claims to offer the advice and funding needed to sustain both physical marae structures and their cultural heritage.

With all that in mind, isn’t the question – Why?

Damien Grant: Buckle up, the future is going to be magical and terrifying

Predictions are tricky. In 1943 the chairman of IBM speculated the world would have a demand for, maybe, five computers. Al Gore declared there would be no snow on Mt Kilimanjaro by 2016. Thomas Edison famously stated that the “…baby of the 21st century will be rocked in a steel cradle”. The inventor of the light bulb didn’t foresee the rise of plastics.

I have a fraction of the insight of these great minds and insufficient wisdom or humility to prevent me from joining them in making absurdly incorrect predictions. Buckle up.

Melanie Phillips: War against Israel targets the British Museum

Historical truths backed up by ancient artefacts are pitted against a lethal echo chamber

Fury has exploded among prominent British Jews and others over the decision by the British Museum in London to postpone a lecture that was scheduled to be given this week.

Simon O'Connor: We are being misled

I explore three of the ways many in media manipulate stories and, as Sir Roger Scruton once noted, effectively censor what people read and hear.

I’m a big fan of the late Sir Roger Scruton. He was a powerful conservative voice, and among many writings, he warned of the censorship happening to conservative voices. In 2019 he said:

Kerre Woodham: As far as Budgets in tough times go, this was a pretty good one

As far as Budgets in economically precarious times go, I thought it was a pretty good one.

And save yourself the 20 cents, anonymous texter. I can see you typing from here. "Well, you would say that, Tokyo Rose, wouldn't you?" Well yes, come on, be fair though – what on Earth were they supposed to do? We were warned that there would be very little money to spend.

David Farrar: How about a special economic zone for NZ?

Radio NZ reports:

New Zealand First will campaign on establishing a Special Economic Zone at Marsden Point to “provide relief” from planning regulations and the RMA in the area. …

He explained the proposed party policy, saying a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) can have varied policies, but include tax breaks, wage subsidies, reduced regulation, and investment in physical, transport or communications infrastructure. …

 Monday June 1, 2026 

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Dame Professor Elizabeth Rata: New Zealand's Public Culture

What is it to be a New Zealander? Who do we believe ourselves to be?

New Zealand has a public culture grounded in Enlightenment principles of universalism, secularism, freedom, and individualism. The exclusivity of ethnicity is rejected for this inclusive New Zealand identity.

Philip Crump: Elon Musk Filed a Prospectus. Every Journalist Should Read It.

It promises to save humanity from the fate of the dinosaurs. It may also eat your business model.

When companies decide to go public through an initial public offering, their prospectuses are, without exception, unreadable. They are designed to be impenetrable - dense wording with legal qualifications, risk factor boilerplate, and accounting disclosures that protect the issuer while revealing as little as possible to investors. They are written by corporate lawyers and analysts, and read by other corporate lawyers, analysts and institutional investors. The SpaceX prospectus filed on 20 May was prepared by Gibson Dunn, the US law firm where, many years ago, I was a partner, although thankfully I didn’t draft prospectuses.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 31.5.26

Monday June 1, 2026 

News:
Councillor makes an ‘open apology’ over Māori and fast food comment
A regional councillor withdrew comments in a council workshop over Māori preferring KFC over eel, and has since offered an “open apology”.

The comments were made at a Waikato Regional Council workshop by councillor for Waihou, Keith Holmes, earlier this month.

Graham Carter: Councils are Ceding Sovereignty to Iwi – This is Treason

There is a major power shift happening under our noses, as power moves from elected representatives to unelected and unaccountable iwi and hapū appointees.

We have been warned for some time now that Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements (MWRs) are undermining local democracy and would be sped up by captured councils and local iwi before the government passes its Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms.

Dr Eric Crampton: Open markets are still the best way to a fair economy

The strongest protection tenants can have is plenty of other potential places to rent, from different landlords eager to rent them a home.

When zoning rules make it very difficult to build new housing, existing landlords do not face much potential competition. If every landlord has dozens of tenants racing to submit applications as soon as a property becomes vacant, landlords will have a lot of power over their tenants. And rents will be high.

Dr Michael Johnston: Let’s trade the fees-free tertiary funding for something that works

The worst-kept secret of this afternoon’s budget is that the entitlement to a fees-free year of tertiary study will be scrapped. On 8 May, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters ‘leaked’ the policy change on Newstalk ZB. Finance Minister Nicola Willis subsequently confirmed Peters’ claim.

The fees-free policy was implemented in 2018. Incoming Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had announced to prospective tertiary students, “your first year is on me.” It wasn’t, of course. It was on New Zealand taxpayers, and it has cost them approximately $350 million per year ever since.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: A prescription that fits

This week’s Budget confirmed what most New Zealanders already suspected. The government’s finances are tight, the deficit persists, and there is no pot of money waiting to be spent on the country’s problems.

Just as well, because government spending never delivers growth or prosperity. The question is, what will?

Henry Olsen: Let Them Eat Slop!

In an age of unprecedented technological upheaval — an upheaval more consequential than even the advent of fire or settled agriculture — we find ourselves standing — quite literally — at a crossroads.

The question isn't whether AI will transform writing — it’s what we lose when we let it.

Dr Eric Crampton: Fingers crossed

If the country sees a few lucky breaks, Budget 2026 shows a return to surplus in 2029.

The period of structural deficits will have lasted almost a decade.

Without those lucky breaks, including at the Strait of Hormuz, deficits will extend for longer. And it beggars belief that a decade of structural deficits is consistent with the fiscal responsibility provisions of the Public Finance Act.

Bob Edlin: Budget Day surprise – Upston’s Bill to modernise social security systems is rushed through three readings

Fresh from telling us she is comfortable about collecting $1000 a week to live in her own Wellington apartment because she has “followed the rules”, Social Development Minister Louise Upston popped up yesterday to announce the Government is making changes “to improve and update the efficiency of the welfare system by modernising its processes”.

Alwyn Poole: Education … everyone knows change is needed but …

… there are so many signals that the current government is going about most things education related in the wrong way.

1. It is highly predictable that the teacher unions and most of the teaching sector will oppose most changes proposed by a center right government. However the Minister has neither reduced their power – or engaged well if she is not willing to do that.

2. The curriculum changes have been driven by a very narrow group of people with very slim engagement, understanding of our system, and endorsement from the wide sector. The qualifications and experience of the education sector has been significantly ignored by a “do what you are told to do” attitude from the Minister.

 Sunday May 31, 2026 

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Dr Don Brash: The Total Annihilation of Te Tiriti in the Health System

"The Total Annihilation of Te Tiriti in the Health System..."

This is the heading on a press statement issued by Lady Tureiti Moxon referring to the Government’s decision to change the wording in the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act from “give effect to” Te Tiriti principles to merely “take into account” those principles.

She claims this “weakens Treaty obligations in health legislation” and represents “the total annihilation of te Tiriti in the health system”.

What on Earth is she talking about?

Net Zero Watch Samizdat: Tony Blair brings centrism back to energy reality

UK

Blair: we cannot afford Net Zero

Tony Blair has warned Britain cannot afford Net Zero and urged the government to change course and prioritise cheaper energy. “We must prioritise cheaper energy and electrification over net zero and use what is left of our North Sea oil and gas resources,” he says.

Geoff Parker: English Isn't Endangered—but Its Place In Public Life Is

According to critics of the English Language Bill, English doesn't need legal recognition because it isn't endangered. The argument goes that since almost every New Zealander speaks English, there is nothing to protect.

That completely misses the point.

Nobody is suggesting English is about to vanish. The question is whether the language that unites almost every New Zealander should remain the clear and undisputed language of government, public services, law, education and national communication.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 30 May 2026

BUDGET 2026: The Dead Rabbit Budget

While much of the political discussion has focused on who won and lost domestically, the Budget documents themselves are heavily framed around geopolitical instability, energy insecurity, ageing demographics, and economic shocks originating beyond New Zealand’s shores. Finance Minister Nicola Willis repeatedly referenced the fuel crisis, while Treasury’s forecasts assume a temporary but significant hit to growth and inflation over the coming year. Treasury now forecasts annual average GDP growth of 1.2% for the year to June 2026 before accelerating to 2.3% in 2027 and 3.2% in 2028. Employment is forecast to grow by 220,000 jobs over the next four years, while wages are expected to increase by an average of 3.1% annually.

William McGimpsey: Lessons from Fiji

I recently returned from a family holiday in Fiji, where I took the opportunity to learn a bit more about that county’s fraught history of mass migration, ethnic conflict, military coups, and demographic shifts.

Fiji’s experience serves as both a warning to countries like New Zealand about the consequences of mass migration and ethnic replacement, and a learning opportunity about the types of reforms that can reverse it.

Ashley Church: “They’re both as bad as each other”

Laundering the latest lie against Israel

Just when it seems that the moral inversion around Israel cannot get any worse, someone finds another shovel and starts digging.

In recent weeks, a major report documenting the sexual violence committed by Hamas on, and after, October 7, was released. The findings are grotesque, hideous and almost impossible to read without feeling physically sick. They describe sexual violence as terror, humiliation as strategy, and the destruction of bodies and families as part of the point.

Dr Eric Crampton: Send my regards to NZ’s regulators as they struggle to keep up

Last year, Cabinet papers promised that New Zealand’s agricultural-product regulator would be required to use assessments from trusted overseas regulators. The Bills now before Parliament instead say the regulator must merely “have regard to” them.

A duty to have regard to something is not a duty to use it. It can be satisfied by reading the overseas assessment, noting it, and then doing the local assessment much as before.

Bob Edlin: The name that shall not be spoken in Parliament....

The name that shall not be spoken in Parliament – you can find it in the third paragraph below

By the time MPs had taken their seats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, The Post had named the official who (the newspaper contended) had received briefing notes from Z Energy and Fonterra which, curiously, have disappeared.

Guest Post: The media mess and how to fit it

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Fish Across Face:

My name is a pseudonym, as I’m identifiable with a high profile local television show. For what it’s worth, publishing the following is an acknowledgement from our host that I have decades of experience in most areas of TV, radio, commercial production and so on. My name wouldn’t be familiar, but to kiwis, my content is.

This post addresses today’s failing media ecosystem, its relationship with the Left of politics, and how to fix it – from someone inside the tent.

Rodney Hide: Christchurch City Council Has Lost Its Mind

The elected councillors and staff at Christchurch City Council have officially taken leave of their senses.

I was alerted to this particular madness by the wonderful Katrina Biggs on X, who posted the flyer for the council’s “Women’s Swimming Sessions.” I didn’t believe it at first. Surely this was satire. So I went to the official Christchurch City Council website to check. It gets worse.

Here is what they actually say:

Saturday May 30, 2026 

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Geoff Parker: The Culturalisation of Healthcare

"A new study on eating disorders raises a familiar question: why are universal health problems increasingly being repackaged as ethnicity-specific challenges?"

New Zealand's taxpayer-funded research industry has once again discovered the answer to a problem that nobody was asking.

This week's breakthrough revelation? Eating disorders apparently require a "Kaupapa Māori-led" response.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government was right to give billions to defence and forget arts

Geez, how sorry do you feel for Paul Goldsmith at the Music Awards, eh?

So, he's invited to the awards and he hasn't got his mate Chris Bishop with him this time. Bishop didn’t go after what happened with Don McGlashan last year.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 24.5.26

Saturday May 30, 2026 

News:
Iwi leaders furious about Budget 2026, call it ‘economic apartheid’
Representatives of the Iwi Leaders Forum arrived at Parliament furious about the Government’s Budget, accusing it of creating an “economic apartheid”.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis handed down her third Budget. It was delivered amid a backdrop of significant economic uncertainty, with clear issues at home and abroad.

Mike's Minute: My thoughts on the Budget

I asked for the surplus to arrive sooner than previously forecast and, as though she was listening this time yesterday, the first words out of Nicola Willis' mouth were it will be a year ahead of schedule.

You can't ask for more than that.

Ani O'Brien: The Dead Rabbits Budget

Perceptions, appearances, and feelings...

Note: my analysis is political and so relies much more on perception, sentiment, and what things appear to be. I include economic and fiscal commentary from those more qualified than myself, but if you are after the true nuts, bolts, forecasts, OBEGALs, and OBEGALxs you won’t find it here.

Nicola Willis spent months lowering expectations for Budget 2026. She made it abundantly clear that there would be no “lolly scramble” or “sugar hits”. She set the expectation that the usual election year ‘bribes’ would not be on the agenda. My personal favourite line of hers was from yesterday when she said:

Ani O'Brien: How the media have distorted the truth to target their current villain

Accomodation allowances should be scrutinised, but Louise Upston is far from the only one receiving one

The media have created a controversy over Louise Upston’s accommodation allowance. Naturally the story has triggered public anger because it appears, at first glance, to confirm every suspicion people already hold about politicians. A minister receives around $1,000 a week in taxpayer-funded accommodation support while also owning an apartment in Wellington. Politically, it ain’t a great look. A minister tightening accommodation support for ordinary people while receiving accommodation support herself was always vulnerable to being seized upon by opposition including media.

Peter Dunne: Budget strategies

With her latest Budget Finance Minister Nicola Willis has joined some very unlikely company.

In 1972 then Finance Minister Rob Muldoon crowed that “I’ve spent it all for them”, meaning that there was no room for rash spending promises from Labour before that year’s election. In a somewhat more genteel fashion, former Finance Minister Grant Robertson deliberately set constrained forward spending allowances and booked $4 billion in savings and reprioritisation in the 2023 Budget. His intention was to leave the National Party with extremely limited fiscal room to fund its election promises without having to either cut public services or rely on highly optimistic economic revenue forecasts.

Kerre Woodham: Was holding the OCR the right decision?

So what would you rather? A little bit of pain now or a whole lot more later? The Reserve Bank yesterday opted to keep the official cash rate at 2.25%, but the decision to hold was a close-run thing. And we know that now because of the transparency around the decisions being made and a jolly good thing it is too. Governor Dr. Anna Breman had to use her casting vote. The Monetary Policy Committee was evenly split on whether to raise the rate. The three Reserve Bank officials wanted to hold, the external committee members wanted to hike and therefore Governor Breman had to use her casting vote.

Bob Edlin: The point rightly raised by Peters is that the same Parliamentary question has been asked umpteen times before

Before Opposition leader Chris Hipkins had a chance to put Question Two to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Winston Peters had intervened to raise a point of order.

It was a welcome point of order, at least for those familiar with the Parliamentary questioning procedure.

Peters said the question had been asked before.

Indeed, it had.

Chris McVeigh KC: What's in a name?

What's in a name? It is tempting to approach the current vogue aimed at replacing all the well established and familiar place names in New Zealand (including that name itself) with maori alternatives, as some kind of shallow exercise in preening vanity practised by a coterie of self righteous plonkers, but I don't propose doing that here.

So I'll do it here instead.

No, no but seriously and much and all as I'd gain a degree of personal satisfaction from a bit of undignified name calling, I must resist that temptation and accord those who indulge themselves in this way the respect their activities don't deserve and reluctantly resist any temptation to cater to my baser instincts.

Mike's Minute: We are finally utilising the whole country

I'm immeasurably uplifted by some Trade Me data.

Could it be we are finally getting the message on rural or provincial New Zealand?

Job data increasingly shows we're looking to the regions for work.

Friday May 29, 2026 

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Elliot Ikilei: Forget co-governance, this is straight up treason

There is a major shift happening under our noses, as power moves from elected representatives to unelected and unaccountable iwi and hapū appointees.

Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements (MWRs) are undermining local democracy and will be sped up by captured councils and local iwi before the government passes its Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms.

As I write, the Far North District Council is rushing through more MWRs with multiple iwi (and even hapū). They are giving this work priority and seeking to avoid public consultation. They are negotiating with five iwi and one hapū. The RMA specifically talks about iwi authorities; it doesn’t mention hapū.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I would argue Budget 2026 wasn't tight enough

Well, you would have done well to heed Nicola Willis’s warnings ahead of this Budget that there would be no spend-up, because there is no spend-up.

There is no money for - well, there is money for the important stuff. You’ve got the schools and the classrooms, and the hospitals, and the Waikato Expressway, and Winston Peters’ pet projects.

Graeme Spencer: The CCO That Put Culture Before Consumers

Timaru District Council after a suspect consultation process have finally formed a CCO (Council Controlled Organisation) with MacKenzie District Council.

The result - a subscale entity, too small to deliver real efficiencies but big enough to add cost and distance from accountability. The worst of both worlds.

Colinxy: Why Is Labour Delaying Its Policy Announcements?

The politics of silence, vagueness, and strategic fog

Labour’s refusal to release its full policy platform is no mystery. It is a strategy, and not a particularly subtle one. When a party is confident, it releases policy early. When a party is terrified of how voters will react, it releases policy late, in fragments, or not at all.

Chris Hipkins’ Labour is firmly in the second category.

Gary Judd KC: India FTA - The Sting Beneath the Sting

Cabinet Said Stop. The India FTA Says Go

In The Sting in the India Trade Deal A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth, I examined the inclusion of clause 13.2.2a in the India FTA. That clause states:

David Farrar: 260 regulators!

David Seymour announced:

For the first time, the full scale and structure of New Zealand’s regulatory landscape has been mapped, exposing decades of overlap and complexity, Regulation Minister David Seymour says.

“In New Zealand there are over 260 regulators. This includes 95 in central government, 79 in local government, and 57 statutory bodies, committees, or tribunals,” Mr Seymour says.

The total number is bad enough, but look at how many one entity may have rot deal with.

Dr James Allan: Just Repeal and Undo

How many readers have noticed this huge failing in so many longstanding, establishment conservative political parties around the democratic world? To start, the Left side of politics when in power will seed or remake some institution. Or it will enact some big-ticket legislative reform. Maybe it’s bringing into being a beefed-up, more potent and renamed Australian Human Rights Commission. Maybe it’s enacting a statutory bill of rights in Victoria, in Queensland, in New Zealand, in Britain.

John McLean: Sherman Tanks......

But still snares lamestream media’s Political Journalist of the Year award

Maiki Sherman has left Television New Zealand. And not before time. Her last day as TVNZ’s Chief Political Editor was 8 May. She claims she resigned, but it’s not clear that’s true. Almost certainly, she’s been paid a handsomely dollop of cash out of TVNZ’s trough in connection with her exit.