Geoff Parker: Margaret Mutu and the Case Against Equal Citizenship

Why ancestry-based governance undermines democracy

In a recent appearance on Q+A, Margaret Mutu advanced arguments implying that Māori never ceded sovereignty, that New Zealand is fundamentally a Māori country, and that democratic structures should be reshaped to reflect Māori authority.

It is a powerful narrative. It is also one that collapses under constitutional scrutiny.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: When will the Christchurch Cathedral get repaired?

Tell me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that every single year the Anglican Church in this country delays repairing the Christchurch Cathedral, the public cares a little less about seeing it restored. And yet again, the Anglicans are asking for money to fix the thing.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 22.2.26

Saturday February 28, 2026 

News:
Protest and partnership: The paradox of Māori charter schools under Seymour
Against that backdrop, it may seem difficult to reconcile why Seymour has strongly backed and approved funding for a significant number of kaupapa Māori charter schools.

In the past week alone, he has announced two new kaupapa Māori charter schools, bringing the total number of Māori-focused charter schools to seven of the 20 approved nationwide, more than a third, with more expected.

Vance Ginn: Capitalism’s Coalition Is Cracking — And That Should Worry Us

Free-market capitalism still delivers the goods. But its political coalition is fracturing — and that should worry anyone who cares about prosperity and freedom.

Recent Gallup polling on Americans’ views of capitalism and socialism shows that just 54 percent now view capitalism favorably, the lowest Gallup has recorded. Views of socialism remain much lower at 39 percent, but the direction matters. Support for capitalism has fallen notably over time, especially among independents and younger Americans.

DTNZ: Power bills set to rise as network costs push prices higher

Meridian Energy says household electricity bills could increase by up to seven percent this year, driven largely by rising lines and transmission charges rather than wholesale energy costs.

The company reported a half-year profit of $227 million after a loss the previous year, with chief executive Mike Roan stating that regulated infrastructure costs set by the Commerce Commission were higher than expected and would continue flowing through to consumers over coming years.

Roger Partridge: A President unbound - Trump’s second term and the erosion of constitutional constraint

On 5 February 2026, Donald Trump stood before the National Prayer Breakfast. The room was full of the faithful – pastors, politicians, and conservative leaders who had long believed that America’s renewal required a strong hand. Trump was asked about accusations that he had weaponised the Department of Justice against political opponents. His reply was disarmingly candid. “I don’t,” he said, “but wouldn’t I have a right to?”

The audience laughed. Some applauded.

Nick Clark: The RMA reform we were promised is not the reform we got

New Zealand has been trying to fix its resource management system for the better part of three decades. The Resource Management Act has been amended virtually every year since 1991 and reviewed several times during that period. Yet reform has consistently failed.

The RMA has defeated its own purpose. It aimed to deliver sustainable management. Instead, it delivered a housing crisis, $1.3 billion a year in infrastructure consenting costs, 1,175 different zoning categories, and declines in freshwater quality and indigenous biodiversity - the environmental outcomes most directly within the planning system's control.

Peter Williams: Make New Zealand Healthy Again

New Zealand is spending record sums on healthcare while growing sicker by the year. What if the real solution isn’t more hospitals and doctors — but fewer sick people?

As the old sage Confucius is supposed to have observed around 500 BC, “A healthy man wants a thousand things; a sick man wants only one.”

Two and a half millennia later, that observation feels uncomfortably current. We are living longer, but we are not necessarily living healthier. New Zealand’s average life expectancy has risen by roughly 18 years over the last century—from about 65 years in 1926 to around 83 today.

Kerre Woodham: Volunteers deserve trauma counselling cover

I can't even believe we're having to discuss this, but we are. It seems absolutely ludicrous that drunk drivers who say, kill their passengers, maim their passengers, smash their own selves up after crashing their vehicles —hopefully not into innocent victims, but sometimes it will be— are able to claim ACC, but the volunteer firefighters and the first responders who are volunteers who respond to the crash and have to deal with the horror of the aftermath, quite often they will know the people involved if it happens in a small community. If they're the ones that have to unwrap a kid from a drive shaft, they are not able to claim ACC for trauma counselling or PTSD. What they do is considered a leisure activity.

Bob Edlin: After calling to dump the royal family......Maxwell might muse on the Maori monarchy

After calling to dump the royal family, because of Andrew’s transgressions, Maxwell might muse on the Maori monarchy

We learn today how Stuff columnist Joel Maxwell gets his laughs. He has written:

David Farrar: Violent crime continue to plummet

This should be the major news story of the week, or month. The massive increase in violent crime under Labour has not just reversed, but has dropped to another low according to the latest crime data.

Friday February 27, 2026 

                    ⇩

Caleb Anderson: This thing we call education

By the end of the term of the previous (Labour) government, education in New Zealand had reached crisis point. Erica Stanford deserves praise for some much necessary curriculum reforms, but she is only half way there, if that.

In this opinion piece I am speaking only about curriculum reform, not about education reform more generally, which has its own set of problems.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Was David Seymour right about Air New Zealand going 'woke'?

So David Seymour’s right about Air New Zealand - but he’s also wrong about Air New Zealand.

Before we get to why, let me bring you up to speed on what’s happened with the airline today, because the news is not good.

Pee Kay: English Language Bill is “bullsh*t”

So says Chloe!

The government has introduced a bill to make English an official language, to ridicule from the opposition, and a fierce defence from Winston Peters.

The legislation would see English be recognised as an official language alongside Te Reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.

Just two pages long, the legislation states that English has long been a de facto official language, but not set out in legislation.

Corey DeAngelis: The Atlantic’s Critique of Homeschooling Ignores the Real Education Crisis

The Atlantic recently ran a story headlined “He Was Homeschooled for Years, and Fell So Far Behind.” It profiles Stefan Merrill Block, who was homeschooled in his early years and later struggled to catch up once he entered traditional schooling. But one rough experience doesn’t invalidate an entire movement that is delivering superior results for millions of families across the country.

Peter Dunne: Chris Hipkins' State Of The Nation Speech

There has been much criticism that Labour leader Chris Hipkins' so-called state of the nation speech to Auckland business leaders this week was a missed opportunity. According to these critics, Hipkins should have used the occasion to spell out some major policy details to kick-start his party's election campaign.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: EU is ignoring economics 101 - those who spend must also pay

European integration has always been a tug of war. On one side stand the enthusiasts. They treat every crisis as a chance to deepen the union, pool sovereignty, take another step towards a federal Europe. On the other stand the sceptics. They worry that centralisation undermines democracy and economic sense.

Peter Williams: Let the Experts Decide Bendigo’s Future

Today, February 25 is a significant day for Bendigo — Bendigo in Central Otago that is.

Like its Australian namesake, this district was built on gold. In Victoria, large-scale mining never entirely stopped; the Fosterville Gold Mine continues to operate as one of that state’s major producers. In Central Otago, by contrast, the last meaningful gold operations wound down in 1942.

Now the question is whether Bendigo, Otago returns to the industry that created it.

Bob Edlin: Extremists will be irked.....

Extremists will be irked, but Govt has put Law Commission’s transgender report into the “no need for urgency” basket

Someone once raised questions that drew PoO’s attention to trans extremists being illogical.

If you can change your sex then why not change your race or species? Why is one possible, but not the others?

David Farrar: How is Waititi’s hero going?

In July Te Pati Maori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said that Burkina Faso’s leader Ibrahim Traoré was his modern day hero. I thought it would be timely to check in and see how his hero is going.

Al Jazeera reports:

Mike's Minute: The political divide on homelessness

There was a huge reaction to yesterday's Politics Wednesday segment on homelessness and move-on orders.

Labour argues homelessness is up dramatically and there is nowhere for these people to go.

New numbers released today show that simply, in Auckland anyway, is not true.

Thursday February 26, 2026 

                    ⇩

Centrist: Medical Council draft tells doctors to advance Māori equity, dismantle ‘power imbalances’

Documents circulated to doctors this week show the Medical Council is consulting on a new statement requiring practitioners to actively advance “hauora Māori” and address “unfair systems and power imbalances” within the health sector.

Does pursuing race-linked outcome equity cross from professional standards into political doctrine?

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Could we pass a transport rule that reflects some common sense?

The Government announced today it wants to shake up the road rules a little - allowing kids under the age of 12 to ride their bikes on the footpath, and letting e-scooters use cycleways.

Now, it might surprise you to learn that both of those things are against the rules. Kids aren’t allowed on footpaths on their bikes unless the wheel diameter is roughly the length of a ruler or smaller, and e-scooters are not allowed in cycle lanes.

Ryan Bridge: Who do we believe on vaping?

There's a big puffy cloud of smoke hanging over the vaping versus cigarettes debate this week.

It's all kicked off because the government's handing out free vapes to smokers to stop them getting what we know could be a death sentence.

David Farrar: Woke Wellington strikes again

The Herald reports:

A bicultural overhaul of Army doctrine that features Māori cosmology at its core has led to a Government revolt, with the NZ Defence Force putting on hold part of the controversial programme.

The NZ Army’s new “general orders” to soldiers uses a pantheon of te ao Māori gods as guiding influences for its strategy “to achieve a bicultural status by enabling the recognition of Māori cultural interests as they are guaranteed within Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

Colinxy: Magna Carta - What Relevance Does It Have Today?

The Magna Carta, the Great Charter, is often invoked with a kind of reverence, as though it were a timeless constitutional talisman. It undeniably marked a turning point in English history. But what, if anything, does it mean for a modern constitutional democracy on the far side of the world? What relevance does it have in New Zealand today?

Professor John Raine: Climate And Energy Policy Realism Not Virtue Signalling, Please

Saving the Planet with Formula 1 Design Regulations

The 2026 Formula 1 (F1) motor racing season gets under way in Melbourne 6 - 8 March. During pre-season testing in Barcelona and Bahrain, leading drivers such as Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso weren’t holding back with their criticism of the new FIA design regulations.

The sustainable non-fossil fuel is not really an issue, although “sustainable” needs close scrutiny as too often some environmental and emissions costs are externalised. The key change is that the FIA has specified an increase from 120kW to 350kW (close to 50%) electric power, and a reduction from ~550kW to ~400kW from the 1.6 litre turbocharged internal combustion engine. Notably, the battery energy storage capacity of 4 megajoules for 2026 remains unchanged, with this energy to be recovered twice over in braking each lap. Drivers now have become electrical energy managers rather than being 100% focused on driving flat out.

Kerre Woodham: Privacy - can we have our cake and eat it too?

There's been a second major medical platform hack, leaving live patients labelled as dead and people's names changed to Charlie Kirk, the American activist who was shot dead last year – assassinated really. MediMap is widely used across New Zealand. It's often used by the aged care, disability, hospice and community health sectors. It's the second major cyber-attack on medical files and records in recent weeks after Manage My Health was hit at the end of last year, start of this year. Manage My Health's portal systems were compromised over the New Year holiday, putting the data of more than 120,000 users at risk. But it seems the two breaches are vastly different.

Romina Boccia: America Can’t Tariff Its Way Out of This Debt Crisis

"Without tariffs,” the President said on his affordability tour in Georgia, “everybody would be bankrupt, the whole country would be bankrupt.” In court, the Trump administration has made similar sweeping claims, arguing that revoking certain tariff authorities would have “catastrophic consequences” and “lead to financial ruin.”

The Supreme Court has now struck down the administration’s “reciprocal tariffs” imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This is a major victory for American consumers and businesses who suffered from higher taxes and higher prices that the tariffs imposed.

Mike's Minute: What's not being said about pay equity

Marilyn Waring. Remember her?

Once an activist always an activist.

Marilyn took it upon herself to form her own select committee and she and a bunch of other MPs and interested parties opened their doors for submissions on pay equity and the changes the Government made that they didn’t like.

Bonner R Cohen, Trump reopens vast swath of waters off northeastern coast to commercial fishing

One of the nation’s richest fishing grounds — put off-limits to commercial use by the Obama and Biden administrations — is once again open for business, courtesy of a proclamation issued by the Trump White House.

The Feb. 6 proclamation — “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic” —revokes an Obama- and Biden-era policy that prohibited commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Created in 2016 by the Obama administration, the marine national monument covers nearly 5,000 square miles on the edge of the continental shelf about 150 miles east of Cape Cod. The monument designation included a ban on commercial fishing, which Trump lifted in his first term. The Biden administration reimposed the ban in 2021, a step Trump 2.0 is now reversing.

David Farrar: Crazy nanny state in NZ

Newsroom reports:

Polymarket, Kalshi and similar prediction markets are illegal under New Zealand’s gambling laws, the nation’s gambling regulator has decided.

Polymarket and Kalshi are online markets where users can place bets on future outcomes, ranging from New Zealand provincial cricket results to what phrases Donald Trump will use next month.

Wednesday February 25, 2026 

                    ⇩

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Can we find the money for the pay equity scheme?

So, the People’s Select Committee of former MPs has reported back today and, completely unsurprisingly, has slammed the Government for scrapping the pay equity law last year.

Which is fair enough in some ways, it was a shoddy process. The MPs say it offends the rule of law and they’re probably right.

Ryan Bridge: Businesses should be scared to take our data

This government has made fast-track a buzzword.

After yet another massive hack of private information on Sunday, it needs to put that buzzword into action sharpen up our privacy laws. Like, yesterday.

Especially if we're talking about your health information getting stolen and potentially posted online by hackers for a ransom.

Ani O'Brien: Labour’s State of the Nation: Softer, smaller, safer

I went to the Labour Party State of the Nation

Today I found myself somewhere I have not been for sometime… A Labour Party event. I used to be a Labour Party member and in fact they still send me auto-emails asking me to renew. Before that even, I was a Greens member, but we were all naive and high once. In 2020, for the first time I cast my vote for the centre-right after being effectively excommunicated from polite progressive society over my insistence that humans cannot change sex and gender ideology activism was becoming a problem.

That political journey left me politically homeless for a while until I learned that politics is about tradeoffs. I needed to pick a side to work with and the centre-right was willing to at least talk about women’s rights, the left were not.

Graham Adams: Luxon Finds Merit In Treaty Principles After All

Ever since David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill was defeated in Parliament last April he has promised his campaign for “equal rights for all citizens” would be back on the political agenda for this year’s election.

He is certainly doggedly keeping the memory of the bill alive. He mentioned it in his State of the Nation speech on February 15; in his address at Waitangi on February 5; and on the same day in a column in Wellington’s The Post, in which he restated the proposed articles with a reminder that each had received significantly more support than opposition in polls at the time.

Harry Phibbs: The European Tiger Roars

How Poland forged its economic freedom.

Poland was pivotal to the fall of Communism in Europe. The Solidarity protests in the 1980s gave hope that political change was possible, even among those who feared that totalitarian states might prove permanent with their grim monolithic structures. Poland’s subsequent success as a free nation serves as an exemplar to others. What a contrast with Russia, which has also overthrown Communism and remains beset by poverty, tyranny, and an aggressive foreign policy.

Kerre Woodham: Chris Hipkins' underwhelming State of the Nation speech

Credit to those 120 business people who went along to hear Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation address yesterday, hosted by the Auckland Business Chamber. Credit to those few people who watched it live, like my colleague Mike Hosking. My word, it was dull. And that is not me being a lickspittle mouthpiece for the Tory overlords. Have a listen to this:

Bob Edlin: Epstein files, duty and service to the public ......

Epstein files, duty and service to the public – a British monarch and an American president have very different approaches

Simon Louisson, a Wellington journalist who briefly was a political and media adviser to the Green Party, has been prompted by the arrest of Prince Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office to press for overhauling our constitutional arrangements.

In a letter to the editor of The Post today, he has expressed an opinion that will be shared by many:

Karl du Fresne: Stuff's operating model: cheap and lazy

Last Tuesday’s edition of my local paper, the Wairarapa Times-Age, devoted an entire page to an Associated Press (i.e. American) feature story about affluent middle-class professionals taking extended career breaks.

The people mentioned in the story are representatives of an elite US metropolitan class who can afford to put their careers on hold while they spend months enjoying a “reset” in exotic locations such as Egypt and Brazil. It’s hard to imagine a story less relevant to readers of a paper in a New Zealand provincial town where many people are struggling.

Chris McVeigh: Clarity begins at home

I enjoy listening to Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand. There are a number of reasons for this. He has a pleasant manner and a calm , not to say soothing, quality to his voice. Neither declamatory nor strident, he chats away to his listeners and his guests as if we and they were sharing a quiet table and a couple of flat whites on an otherwise uneventful Sunday morning. He brings a sort of calm intelligence to the microphone, a quality which alas is sadly in ever short supply in the hectic, opinionated world of broadcasting today. He is also scrupulously fair in his interviews: probing but not dominating; conceding and not hectoring, in sharp contrast with others from the same stable, some of whom approach an interview as if it were the last fence in the Grand National, to be overridden at all costs.

Mike's Minute: Good or bad story at university?

What's in the numbers?

Well-known economist Shamubeel Eaqub has crunched a few figures. It turns out if you want to see it, being a student at university is a miserable experience.

And boy does the media love a story of misery. Being a student is pricier than ever, they tell us. "Does it pay off?" was your headline.

Tuesday February 24, 2026 

                    ⇩

NZCPR Newsletter: The Future of the Maori Seats

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program

– Milton Friedman.

The future of the Maori Seats has once again been raised as an important issue for New Zealanders to consider.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: You know what's ironic about Hipkins' State of the Nation speech?

Listening to Chris Hipkins' State of the Nation speech today, I found it really hard to take him seriously.

The speech was mostly just a list of things wrong with the country right now, most of which anyone who can remember back five, six, seven years, knows were caused by him, Grant, Jacinda and Adrian Orr.

Ryan Bridge: Kindness has its limits

Kiwis are known around the world for their kindness.

We open doors, we say please and thank you, we help out our neighbour. We leap in to help when help is needed.

It’s one of the traits we’re most proud of.

Kerre Woodham: You can't lump the homeless into one group

I am torn on this one because I know somebody needs to do something. That classic old talkback quote, Somebody needs to do something." Well, somebody has. The government is giving police new powers to crack down on beggars, rough sleepers, and basically nasty oiks. Yesterday, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, Police Minister Mark Mitchell announced the new move on orders and details around when they'll be issued and who they will target.

Colinxy: The Duplicitousness of Leftist Freedom

The False Banner of Liberty

From its inception, the Left has proclaimed itself the champion of freedom. Its rhetoric is filled with promises of liberation, equality, and fraternity. Yet history reveals a darker truth: whenever Leftist movements seize power, their definition of “freedom” collapses into coercion, censorship, and violence. The banner of liberty becomes a mask for tyranny.

Pee Kay: Or is that just STUPID!

“Agile, adaptive and lethal.” Those are the qualities New Zealand needs to become combat-ready, says Chief of Army Major General Rose King.

To meet those requirements our New Zealand Army leader has devised a new blueprint that she believes will “create a fighting-fit force for the future!”

Simon O'Connor: Control, curate, and censor

The motivations to stop using X - be it media or now the Clerk of New Zealand's parliament - are couched in moral terms by opponents, but it's all really about control, curation, and censorship.

In what I can only describe as a rather poorly considered, and mostly likely politically motivated action - unconsciously or otherwise – the Clerk of New Zealand’s Parliament has decided that the Parliament will no longer use the social media site X (formerly Twitter).

Mike's Minute: It's about time we had move-on orders

It's taken a while but we got there at last.

Move-on orders.

Clear lines of responsibility and delineation for police to actually fix a problem that has existed for too long in our central city areas.