Ani O'Brien: Should the centre-right split their vote?

Is the overhang a lifeline for the centre-right?

I have thought long and hard about writing this. I wrote a kind of explainer about 6 weeks ago, but I wanted to be sure that I was sharing the best information before really throwing my support behind the strategy. And, to be honest, I have felt really sad for National and the situation they find themselves in. Although, of course, much of it is self-inflicted. I have a great deal of respect for many in the party and I know that they are feeling wounded by the increasing push for strategic voting.

Pee Kay: It has now ballooned out to a massive $1.093 billion!

Welcome to episode 5 of 2026 Election Issues in a Nutshell.
$1.093 billion!

Below is another episode broadcast by The Anglo Saxon.

In this episode (below) the Anglo Saxon focusses on the Maori Health Authority and Maori Health providers, highlighting the extreme costs to the taxpayer.

Roger Partridge: The House Price Story Almost Everyone Missed

This month’s big housing story was not the Reserve Bank’s rate rise, whatever the media coverage suggested. Mortgage rate rises, the effect on house prices, whether the spring market will stall – all of it was reported, correctly, as housing news.

But the bigger housing story occurred last week, when Parliament agreed to something no country has previously tried. As my colleague Oliver Hartwich explained earlier this month, Chris Bishop’s new Planning and Natural Environment Acts, replacing the Resource Management Act, do not merely name housing affordability as a goal. Under the new laws councils will have a duty to keep enough land available that its price stops carrying a scarcity premium. An independent umpire will judge whether they have.

Simon O'Connor: Scapegoats at the Checkout

What the political rush to punish supermarkets reveals about modern campaigning.

This election year’s scapegoat is clear – supermarkets. Every election has some form of scapegoat or ‘baddie’ to blame. This year it turns out to be the mums and dads running the likes of New World or Four Square while the previous election in 2023, it was landlords and property owners, and before that it was the mad covid years.

Kerre Woodham: Strategic voting – is it really a clever decision?

There's an old saying, "you're so sharp you could cut yourself". Similar to "you're too clever for your own good", meaning sometimes a person tries to be too tricky or clever, which leads them to make a simple task messy or fail completely. And that is the warning being given by the main parties to voters who are trying to rig the system.

Bob Edlin: The Nats, Nicola and the no-new-taxes slogan.....

....maybe (to nobble Chloe) a new war whoop is needed

Some readers are likely to have choked on their cornflakes this morning as they contemplated the prospect of a Green Party Minister of Finance.

That prospect was raised by a few ominous headlines.

Mike's Minute: Why the PREFU is important

We have Ruth Richardson to thank for today.

She was the architect of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994, what today is called the PREFU – the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update.

If you don’t remember it, it heralded a change in approach that seemed to me at the time as significant, if not profound.

Wednesday September 30, 2026 

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