Colinxy: What Are Erica Stanford’s Education Reforms Really About?

And are NZ teachers correct about where the system is headed?

I’ll start with a confession: I am pleasantly surprised by Erica Stanford. Not because she is perfect, no minister is, but because she is the first Education Minister in decades willing to say the quiet part out loud:

Critical Pedagogy, the Neo‑Marxist backbone of our curriculum, has to go[i].

David Harvey: The Courts and Climate Change

The Smith v Fonterra case was brought by climate change spokesperson for the Iwi Chairs Forum Michael Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) against several major emitters. Smith was attempting to use tort law to address the diffuse, cumulative harms of climate change to his property, culture, and iwi.

JC: Which Way Will Winston Jump?

Winston will stay where he is and not jump to the left. You might think its gone off track to concentrate on the Labour Party but my purpose is to highlight the policy differences between NZ First and Labour which will contribute to the decision Winston makes.

I note on Backchat and elsewhere there are some still not trusting Winston not to veer left post election and put the left block of chaos and mayhem into power. Despite his categorical statements that he will not do so, a level of distrust persists. This is perfectly understandable given the man’s history but I do not subscribe to it. I agree it is hard to forgive him for his horrendous betrayal of the right in 2017 by giving power to the Morrinsville fish and chips wrapper. The country paid a heavy price for that but so did he.

Mike's Minute: Moana Pasifika showed the market was right

Let this be a lesson to all those who argue against the simple truism that the market, most of the time, tends to be right.

Moana Pasifika are in liquidation, the vote was held and the story ends here.

The trouble is the taxpayer footed a lot of the bill and the money is gone, flushed down an ideological toilet.

Gary Judd KC: Stuart Nash, Cabinet Confidentiality, and Winston Peters’ Standards

Has Misconduct Stopped Mattering: or is it another case of amnesia?

Lord Peter Mandelson, former UK Cabinet Minister and dismissed UK Ambassador to Washington DC, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew and sometime UK trade envoy, were both arrested earlier this year on suspicion of committing the offence of misconduct in public office. Both have been released on bail. Neither has yet been charged. Neither may be charged. The common feature of the charges is the alleged sharing of sensitive government information they received in official capacities.

The UK Law Commission in making recommendations for law reform in this area, described the offence:

Andrew Dickens: Gas rationing and transition schemes

Thirty years ago, I was the station manager and breakfast announcer at a very small experimental talk station in Auckland called ‘The Point’ on 1476 AM. It lasted for about three years. It was a lot of fun. Now I mention this because I clearly remember 30 years ago a morning when we discussed what happens to New Zealand when the Maui and Kapuni gas runs out, because even then scientists were warning that supplies were limited and they were dwindling. That was 30 years ago, and the alarm bells were already ringing.

Bob Edlin: Big bucks are paid for council’s Chief Maori Officer (and his staff).....

Big bucks are paid for council’s Chief Maori Officer (and his staff) – and more are paid for advice on library blessings

The Wellington City Council’s veneration of the Treaty of Waitangi comes at a cost for ratepayers.

It has resulted in the council:

David Farrar: $800k per student!

Two AUT academics write:

Our research used Stats NZ’s Integrated Data Infrastructure to follow more than 250,000 school leavers from the 2015 to 2019 cohorts.

We examined whether the first-year fees-free scheme affected participation, programme choice, retention and completion.

Wednesday May 27, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: Something's not adding up with business investment in this country

If the Post is to believed this morning, the Government is considering a business growth fund whereby some crown agency would pick winners and probably a few losers with financial backing.

Chalmers did this in Australia.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The MPs need to take one for the team on cuts

Here’s a PR tip for the coalition Government: if they want to win support for their ongoing budget cuts - which affect some of the poorest people in this country - they should consider giving up something themselves.

Now, I don’t know if you saw this last week, but Stuff ran a damning story on Louise Upston, the Social Development Minister, who is a lovely woman and a very capable minister - but the optics were terrible.

Graham Adams: Why was UNDRIP ‘affirmed’ in the India FTA?

Exactly how a clause “affirming” the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples found its way into the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement is still unclear but the question is not going to go away any time soon.

In fact, it is turning into a whodunnit as political sleuths try to figure out when the clause was introduced, who put it there, and who wanted it included. They have been forced to try to join the dots and speculate due to the government’s inability — or unwillingness — to offer a convincing explanation.

Ashley Church: Be careful what you wish for

The frightening underside of digital reforms

New Zealand is in the early stages of a major debate about children, social media, digital identity and the future of online access.

Following the earlier introduction of a private member’s bill which would have required social media platforms to stop under-16s from creating accounts (now on hold), the Government is now moving toward the introduction of a much more comprehensive suite of digital ID measures to ‘address online harm’ and ‘introduce social media regulation’ – two phrases that should never appear in the policy platform of any centre right government, ever.

Roger Partridge: Schumpeter comes to Wellington

(And what we can learn from the Luddites)

In 1987 Telecom New Zealand employed about 25,000 people. By 1997 it employed under 8,000. A single corporation shed 17,000 jobs in a decade, in a country of 3.3 million. The cost of Telecom’s long-distance calls fell by 60 per cent between 1987 and 1992. The decade that followed was, on the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s assessment, a period of historically high labour productivity growth.

David Farrar: Parliament makes the law, not the courts

Radio NZ reports:

The government will pass a law preventing companies from being sued over climate change damage in many cases.

The law, which applies to current and future cases, will stop a High Court case against Fonterra and six other major emitters in its tracks.

Mike's Minute: Not everything is a conspiracy

Some are working pretty hard currently to buy into the Mike Smith storyline that the big end of town has the Government's ear over climate change.

Mike Smith is the activist, the agitator, the chainsaw man, the "smack the America's Cup" bloke.

So, you know, a life of angst and upset.

Andrew Dickens: Local council amalgamation could see less say for smaller towns

I was in the Coromandel over the weekend and I was reading their regional paper which still exists, The Informer, and in it was an article by Jeffrey Robinson, who's a local affairs reporter with decades of experience, and he points out the debate that is happening all over the country. The government is ending New Zealand's two tier regional and district council system, it has to happen by 2028 and every district must choose a new unitary council model.

The only rule is, well you can't go with the status quo. There's got to be change, there's got to be a rationalisation, it's got to be amalgamation, it's got to be smaller.

Bob Edlin: FENZ hires consultants to handle questions.....

FENZ hires consultants to handle questions – and Brigette deals with questions put to Tim Costley

Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s use of consultants was critically examined – and rightly so – in an article in The Post.

The authors were Dr Charlie Mitchel, a research fellow, and Dr Geoff Plimmer, an associate professor, both from the School of Management at Victoria University of Wellington.

They said:

Tuesday May 26, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: What does Auckland FC's victory say about ambition?

We've got to start this week talking about that Auckland FC win on Saturday night.

Did we not discuss on Friday's show the need for us in this country to be more ambitious for success? To have more confidence to back ourselves more and then a day later, just one day later, we have an example of exactly that.