Mike's Minute: The cost of living "crisis" no longer exists

It turns out a lot is in a name.

Stats NZ gave us the latest household living-costs price indexes.

This is what we pay for stuff. This is the cost of our living or, as is more often than not referred to by the media and the miserable, the "cost of living crisis".

Yvonne Van Dongen: New Zealand Is An Escape Hatch

For transers fleeing Trump’s America or homophobic foreign regimes.

The news that a male student from Oman identifying as trans was able to access New Zealand funding raises serious questions about our immigration policies in such cases.

The Otago University student came here on a scholarship to study commerce from his home country. That scholarship is worth $340,000 to the student and, by implication, also New Zealand.

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Why are the oil and gas companies scared to invest in us?

There are two ways to look at this oil and gas announcement today.

Aussie outfit EnZed Energy's been given the nod to go have a sniff around off the coast of Taranaki.

That's important because they're the first company to be given that right since the Ardern ban. But there's already talk online about the fact this was the only application. There was nobody else applying for this permit, and it's just to have a poke around.

Pee Kay: The councils affected surely wouldn’t fall for this undisguised power grab….would they?

Back in late 2025 the government signalled nationwide council amalgamation plans to replace regional councils with Combined Territories Boards. Following a three-month ultimatum in May, 2026, councils have until August, 2026, to voluntarily merge under the “Head Start” pathway or face forced consolidation from Wellington.

Andrew Dickens: The bigger problem isn't oil

The New Zealand Government has officially granted the first new offshore oil and gas exploration permit since reversing its ban, awarding it to Adelaide-based Australian explorer EnZed Energy.

EnZed Energy, an Australian start-up. So, it’s their first rodeo.

David Farrar: Radio NZ at it again

So Radio NZ ran a story from Reuters about the terrible hate crime attack in Berlin which saw 1 killed and 29 wounded at a pride festival.

However they removed a key detail from the story. That the attacker was an Islamist. Reuters had this in their story, yet Radio NZ removed it. (see below)

JC: Which Greens Are Good for You

The garden variety of course. They are packed with, among other things, essential vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre that support overall health. As my wife will be quick to tell you, they are not my favourite food, but she serves them up on a regular basis, bless her. I am regularly reminded a diet without them is not in my best interests. So, to ensure my good health I duly consume and, to be honest, my tastebuds are not averse to the flavours of most.

There is another variety of which the same cannot be said. These are the human/political specimens. The Green Party released their election manifesto over the weekend and a diet without what they are offering, I suggest, is in every sane person’s best interests.

Kerre Woodham: Is this how you imagined your retirement would go?

From good news to bad news really – a growing number of pensioners are turning to the Government's hardship support network as a last resort as the cost of living crisis grinds on. Applications for temporary additional support from New Zealand super recipients have almost tripled since 2020, rising from around about 22,000 per year to more than 61,000 in 2025.

Spaniard: Opportunity Party: what of our conservation estate?

At present, New Zealanders have equal stakes in our open-access public conservation estate … Those settings would be ended by the work Kingdon-Bebb fronted for the Options Development Group. Kiwis’ equality in the public conservation sphere, certainty of access, and the science-driven focus on nature’s good health would be over.

David 'Farrar: Will MBIE be held on contempt?

The Herald reports:

Ministry officials are denying they deliberately misled a Parliament select committee by not revealing an immigration IT project had been terminated while being questioned about its progress.

Appearing before Parliament’s Privileges Committee today, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) chief executive Nic Blakeley and former Immigration New Zealand (INZ) head Alison McDonald insisted they hadn’t intended to hide the project’s cancellation from MPs and instead had believed the matter was commercially sensitive and couldn’t be discussed as negotiations were ongoing.

Thursday July 30, 2026 

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Gerry Eckhoff: A Dog’s breakfast

A dog’s breakfast has been placed on the menu for us all by a ministerial sous - chef and Minister of Local Government - Simon Watts. It is quite extraordinary that he thinks such far-reaching changes to local government require virtually no time being allocated for widespread consultation between councils and the people who employ them - the rate payer. Even more remarkable is the lack of published data that would help enable us all to make an informed judgment on all proposals.

Robin Grieve: Fact Checking Jack Tame

Paul Henry was interviewed by Jack Tame on Q+A about his decision to stand as an ACT Party candidate.

Jack Tame began by reminding viewers that Henry had said he was standing because he wanted his grandchildren to enjoy the same opportunities to grow up in the paradise he experienced as a child. Tame then challenged him on the top income tax rate in the 1960s and the cost of university, arguing that the New Zealand Henry was nostalgic for was the product of a high-taxing government, an extensive welfare state, and a large state house building programme.

Caleb Anderson: The Education Conundrum - Complementary Opposites

Media have been delighted to run a story on the opinions of five anonymous teachers bemoaning current curriculum changes. The anonymity implies that these teachers would be reprimanded for the positions taken, unlikely, and their unanimity indicates the views of the profession at large, also unlikely.

Dr Don Brash: My advice for Christopher Luxon - Stand for something

There is an old political lesson which Christopher Luxon and the National Party would do well to remember:

If you stand for nothing, you get run over.

National is currently polling at around 29 percent. That is an extraordinary position for a first-term Government facing an Opposition still burdened by the failures of the Ardern years.

Geoff Parker: Two Magic Words - "Treaty Obligations” - Or Simply Government Policy?

If you've listened to Ministers, government agencies and public officials over the past few years, you have probably noticed two words appearing with increasing frequency:

"Treaty obligations."

They are used to justify decisions involving public assets, public funding, governance arrangements, consultation requirements and government policy.

Centrist: InternetNZ moves to limit who can vote after Free Speech Union recruited 2,400 members

InternetNZ is considering new restrictions on who may become a member after the Free Speech Union recruited about 2,400 supporters to join the organisation and vote in its board elections.

Members elect InternetNZ directors, giving them influence over the organisation responsible for managing New Zealand’s .nz domain system.

Mike's Minute: Of course Luxon ruled out the Opportunity Party

The funny thing about Christopher Luxon ruling out the Opportunity Party was I already thought he had.

Or if they hadn't, I assumed they would, so yesterday as I watched came as no surprise.

What possible connection is there between a centre-right coalition that extends out to the NZ First nationalism, to the ACT libertarianism, and the National low tax, classic centrist view of the world, and a party that hasn’t even got the 5% and wants to hand out money to everyone, whether they need it or want it or not?

Kerre Woodham: Upgrading our water infrastructure is long overdue

The first national picture of our water networks has revealed severe and immense pressures, with an average of 31 wastewater overflows across New Zealand every single day given as an example of how it's failing. In total, about 15% of our pipes are in poor or very poor condition – and that’s likely to be understating it, given that the pipes are under the ground and we only know there's a problem when there's a problem, like a sinkhole – good morning St Marys Bay, hello Wellington. Or when there's a major sewage overflow – good morning again Wellington, and looking at you, Queenstown Lakes and Herne Bay.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Australian workers produce in 39 minutes what a New Zealand worker produces in an hour.....

We need to do better

A fortnight ago, I wrote in these pages about the fall in New Zealand’s road toll, from 843 deaths in 1973 to a provisional 271 last year. I thought it was an achievement worth celebrating.

But then my colleague Bryce Wilkinson and I put the same numbers beside those of 28 other countries. It puts this achievement into perspective.

On the harmonised World Health Organization series used in our report, which ends in 2019, New Zealand lost 9.6 people per 100,000 to road crashes, nearly twice the OECD comparison average of 5.5. Only five of the countries in our new book did worse: China, Brazil, India, Chile and the United States.

David Farrar: The hatred of the left for those with non-left views

The FSU released:

This Wednesday at the Ellen Melville Centre, Rob Campbell CNZM, Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology, sits down with Free Speech Union board member Ani O’Brien to discuss whether New Zealanders holding public appointments are still permitted political opinions. Campbell lost two chairmanships over a LinkedIn post. The subject of the evening is who gets told to stay quiet.

So this public forum (one of a series being done around NZ by the FSU using Ani) is on a very interesting topic. Rob Campbell was removed as Chair of HealthNZ due to his columns attacking the then National opposition. So this discussion is actually giving a voice to a long-term left activist (Campbell) by having a discussion about whether those with public appointments should be allowed to publish their political opinions.

DTNZ: Police warn of sophisticated crypto scam impersonating Detectives

Police are aware of incidents where scammers are targeting people with cryptocurrency wallets and accounts, by impersonating police officers and cryptocurrency company representatives.

Over the last few weeks, a number of reports have shown scams of this nature, which has resulted in victims suffering millions of dollars in losses.

Wednesday July 29, 2026 

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Perspective with Ryan Bridge: What do the latest inflation numbers really mean for the 'squeezed middle'?

Nicola Willis will like the inflation number that's come out. More importantly, she'll like the story that number is telling.

Remember, her target audience is the squeezed middle. This is the battleground. This is the fight for the soft centre at the election: Labour versus National. These are the voters both parties are targeting.

Lindsay Mitchell: National are not promising you anything except other people's money

National are not promising you anything except other people's money.

The latest example, having historically opposed Paid Parental Leave, they are now promising to extend it further. This is what they famously did with the Clark government's Working for Families which sealed the 2005 election for Labour. Remember John Key and his scathing comment about 'communism by stealth'? He had three terms to repeal but it is still with us. In this term National have increased payments.

Pee Kay: Do you smell fish?

Do you think these houses were ever going to be temporary?

Were these houses always going to be gifted to local Maori and do you think this was the agenda all along?

JD: An Analysis of TOP’s Taxes

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Amid the current MSM hoopla about TOP, momentarily muted as the press pack rushes off to dig up dirt on Paul Henry and Stuart Nash, there is one key TOP policy winning voter attention that 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?

Andrew Dickens: Was Luxon right to rule out TOP?

So, Christopher Luxon has ruled out working with TOP.

There's some speculation that the decision was made on the fly and might not have been fully thought out.

He didn't seem so certain about himself as he walked away from the press cameras.

Peter Williams: My vote needs a home

Fifteen weeks out it's struggling to find one

The great irony of Christopher Luxon ruling out a coalition with those redistributive Marxists of Opportunity is that the longer Luxon leads National it’s becoming the kind of left leaning social democratic party I’ve spent my life avoiding.

Consider some of their recent announcements and claims:

Brendan O'Neill: Who would take up arms for Broken Britain?

A survey has found that only six per cent of Brits would fight for the nation. I hate that I understand why.

Putin will be over the moon. Caves in Iraq will echo with the laughter of whatever remains of ISIS. For a new poll has found that a measly six per cent of Britons would take up arms if we faced an ‘imminent invasion’. Armies of mad Islamists could be amassing on our beaches and just one in 17 of us would ask for a gun. ‘We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be’, said Churchill. Not anymore, we won’t.

Melanie Phillips: A tsunami of lies

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani should be held to account for libellous incitement against Israel and the Jews

We are being overwhelmed by a global tsunami of lies.

Flanked by US and New York City flags, the mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, packed so many lies about Israel into a videoed two-minute hate that he sounded like the late Hassan Nasrallah on double speed.

Kerre Woodham: Recessions are toughest on our youngsters

Now in any recession, it's the young ones who are going to find it hardest to get jobs, and this recession is no different. Student Job Search says many students and graduates are really struggling to find jobs, part time, full time, which means they're also finding it tough to pay the rent and to put food on the table. And just looking at the story, it seems that many young people who've followed their passions are finding it the most difficult to get work. They've taken out student loans to get degrees in fields like screen production or radio, or they've done a Bachelor of Communications and then they're finding that the jobs simply aren't there, not for entry level.

David Farrar: Luxon rules out TOP

The Post reports:

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has ruled out working with Opportunity after the election.

Opportunity has polled within a percentage point of the 5% threshold in three different public polls in recent weeks. If the party made it into Parliament on current polling its support would be needed for either the coalition or the Opposition parties to govern.

Alwyn Poole: Two Good Indicators and Two VERY bad indicators for NZ Children and Young People

The Good

1. There has been a positive and statistically significant improvement in full school attendance for Term 2 2026 compared to the previous 10 years.

2. I was asked about Erica Standford’s engagement with schools. I therefore took the time to go through her Minister of Education diary for the last three years. I found that she has directly visited approximately 60 schools. Given that she is also Minister of Immigration I would think that this is a very good level of engagement. A case can be made that there is a low level of visits to highly challenged schools but the diary contains no information about where she has actually been invited to.

Tuesday July 28, 2026 

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What’s Wrong With Local Government

On The Platform Michael Laws chats about what’s wrong with local government, and why the government may make it worse, and his view on fixing it.

Click to view

Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Do we need a moratorium on data centres?

There's a bit of having your cake and eating it too when it comes to people who turn their noses up at these data centres.

The Greens are jumping up and down about them. Of course they are. They say they'll suck up power from the grid, push up electricity prices and create only a handful of jobs. That's the problem, apparently.

Dave Witherow: Power Pressure

There was a time when we used to be rich – number three in the world pecking order. Now, at number 63, and sinking fast, we are approaching the status of a third-world backwater. Poverty is widespread, and many New Zealanders are unable to afford the basics of existence. Electricity, for example – which used to cheap, is now so expensive that in the last year alone some 20,000 households had their power cut off at least once – despite government subsidies which last winter topped half a billion dollars. People are taking out loans to pay their power bills, sinking deeper into debt, while the power companies, (which we used to own) rack up about four billion profit per annum.

Mike's Minute: We need to recognise the legacy of Bill Birch

I was a bit deflated a couple of Fridays ago when the news of the passing of Bill Birch came through.

His life contribution and story barely got a mention.

But I felt better this last Friday when at least his funeral got much better coverage.

Pee Kay: Social and Economic Survival or Managed Social and Economic Decline?

The 2026 election not as a choice between left and right, it is not a choice about who you have traditionally voted for and it is definitely not a choice of voting for who your parents and grandparents voted for.

This November it is actually a choice between social and economic survival, or managed social and economic decline!

Geoff Parker: Culture Is Not Democracy - Equal Citizenship Is

Professor Dominic O'Sullivan argues that abolishing Mana Whakahono ā Rohe Agreements "undermines democracy". In reality, the opposite is true.

No one is arguing that Māori culture should be excluded from public life. Every New Zealander is free to express their culture, advocate for their interests, and participate in democratic processes.

The issue is whether one ethnic group should enjoy statutory rights that no other citizens possess.

Rodney Hide: The Private Text That Triggered the Outrage Machine

Is it too soon to declare the brouhaha over Mr Stuart Nash’s text theatre? And a political hit job?

I don’t know. Let’s test the water.

Elizabeth Lawrence: Are Teachers Unions Sneaking DEI Into Classroom AI?

Left-wing activists have found a new way to indoctrinate kids.

Powerful teachers unions and education groups across the US are allegedly working to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion – also known as DEI – into artificial intelligence (AI) before the technology is fully integrated into American classrooms, according to a new investigative report by Defending Education, a watchdog group.

Andrew Dickens: Food security should be an election priority

As if the world hasn’t already got enough to worry about what with war, and fuel crisis and inflation, there comes another concern.

This weekend The Independent published a piece on UK Farmers warning that food shortages are just 10 days away for the UK and there are signs that suggest they’ve already arrived.

Chris Lynch: South Island mayors divided over Government’s council reforms

South Island mayors have given chrislynchmedia.com sharply differing views on the Government’s local reforms, with some backing mergers, others still weighing their options, and several warning the process was moving too quickly.

Nelson and Waitaki have settled on preferred options, Canterbury and Otago councils are still testing theirs, while some West Coast leaders say communities have not had enough time to properly consider the changes.

David Harvey: Controlling the Internet

Disclosure of interest. I write this as a member of InternetNZ, although I do not agree with its direction of travel or the way in which it has drifted from its original role. I am also a member of the Free Speech Union.

I formerly taught Law and Information Technology at the University of Auckland Law School, where the domain name system and the issues surrounding Internet governance and control featured strongly, and those issues have been discussed fully in the various editions of my text Internet.law.nz – selected issues. Much of this article draws on matters that were the subject of that course, and which have sharpened as the years and the technology have progressed.

David Farrar: National promised 30 weeks paid parental leave

RNZ reports:

National has pledged to extend paid parental leave from 26 weeks to 30, if re-elected.

The party is also proposing to revive a policy that allows parents to take some or all of their leave at the same time.

Monday July 27, 2026 

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Damien Grant: New Zealand First is important, but it is not, yet, serious

Dear reader. Last weekend I went to the New Zealand First conference and election launch at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau. You know the one. It is meant to resemble a Polynesian fale. Reminds me of two praying mantises engaged in a death match.

Moving on.

For three decades the Odysseus of New Zealand politics has navigated the turbulent seas of electoral fortune. He fell to Helen Clark’s sirens touting the baubles of office, only to wrench himself free. He was caught under Ardern’s spell to spend three years trapped by his own Calypso before being tossed into the lotus island of obscurity.

Penn Raine: UNexpected

Last week, much to my surprise, a senior UN official accused Hamas of interfering with humanitarian deliveries in Gaza. The report claimed that Hamas operatives forcibly entered World Food Program sites, assaulted aid workers and took supplies which were to have been distributed to Gazans who face serious shortages.

David Lillis: Employment in University Academic Roles by Gender and Ethnicity: 2016 - 2025

Preamble and Disclaimer 

I offer this report as a contribution to ongoing debates on the future of our universities. In fact I undertook the study that led to this report, both out of curiosity and from a desire to provide information to the general public and to officials and policy-makers. I confirm that I was not funded by any external organization and that the work described here is exclusively my own.

Ani O'Brien: No to Blasphemy Laws - people have rights, religions do not

The long campaign to criminalise criticism of Islam continues to demand blasphemy laws

The Law Commission Hara ngākau kino | Review of hate crime law has surprised me. In an area crowded with panic, symbolism, and bad drafting, it has refused to solve the wrong problem. In Hara ngākau kino, it concluded that New Zealand should keep the current sentencing model, under which hostile motivation aggravates an existing offence, rather than create standalone hate-crime offences. It recommended practical reforms instead, including a hate-crime flag at charging stage, formal recording in court records, express judicial statements when hostility is proved, broader coverage for associated victims and bystanders, the addition of sex to the statutory list, better guidance and training, and annual publication of police and court data.

John McLean: Bayly's Bonza Bill

A laudable legislative project

A Members’ Bill initiated National Party Member of Parliament Andrew Bayly has been randomly drawn from Parliament’s (actual) biscuit tin and will now progress through Parliament’s legislative process. Members’ Bills are pieces of proposed legislation initiated by individual MPs, rather than political parties.

Bayly’s Bill is the Crimes (Offence of Failing to Report Child Harm) Amendment Bill. The Bill, if enacted, will make it a criminal offence to fail, without a “reasonable excuse”, to report an assault on a child to the Police. Reasonable excuses include where someone fears for their, or another person’s, safety, or believes the information has already been reported by someone else.

Dr Eric Crampton: The Americans are on the march! Will Wellington welcome them again?

Wellington has its share of urban legends, most of them false.

One of the more popular ones, and a recurring social media trope, claims that America’s Army Corps of Engineers was prepared to build a proper motorway between Wellington and Auckland after the Second World War. And that the New Zealand government turned them down.

A more restrained version claimed that the Americans would have built Transmission Gully to facilitate movement from their base at Paekākāriki through to the port at Wellington.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Australia’s economic future is on display in NZ’s present

As an economics student in Germany in the 1990s, I kept encountering two countries at the other end of the world. Whenever a professor wanted to prove that reform was possible, the examples were Australia and New Zealand.

Germany, under Helmut Kohl, never attempted anything like it. Kohl had reunification to manage, a fair alibi for half his sixteen years in office. But labour and product markets stayed as fenced in as ever. Shops could not legally sell a litre of milk after half past six in the evening, and unemployment climbed past four million.

The German language even coined a word for the condition: Reformstau, reform gridlock.