Reynold Macpherson: A Social Media Ban May Solve the Wrong Problem

New Zealand’s proposed ban on social media for people under 16 starts from a serious concern. Children can be harmed online. They can be exposed to bullying, sexual material, grooming, misinformation and extreme content.

Social media can also disrupt sleep, concentration, learning and family life. Some platforms are designed to hold attention for as long as possible. Young people are especially vulnerable to those techniques.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.8.26

Saturday September 5, 2026 

News:
ACT pledges to stop millions being spent on roadside public art
The ACT Party will stop motorists' money from being spent on roadside sculptures, art, and monuments in a new transport infrastructure policy announced on Friday.

He listed several examples of public art that he claimed illustrated a “prioritisation problem,” including the $630,599 spent on the Te Manu Rangimaarie sculpture at the Piarere roundabout, $810,000 spent on the Te Waka sculpture on the Waikato Expressway and $3.7 million for 35 pou and two taonga artworks on Te Ara Tupua walk and cycleway between Wellington and Lower Hutt.

Rodney Hide: The watchdog comes last

I am grateful for Family First's Bob McCoskrie drawing my attention on X to a shocking result on the just released Quality of Life survey. The survey asked city residents how much they trust New Zealand’s institutions. Police came first. Then the schools, the hospitals, the courts. Then local government. Then Wellington.

Last was the media.

Geoff Parker: Ani O'Brien Is Right - This Isn't Co-Governance......

.....It's About Who Will Govern New Zealand.

There is a very important video doing the rounds from Ani O’Brien, and I think every New Zealander who cares about the future of our democracy should watch it.

Her message is remarkably simple.

It is about where political authority in New Zealand should ultimately reside.

Ani O'Brien: Answers to Stuff You Wanted to Know.

A couple of days ago I asked you what you wanted me to write about between now and the election. This was, in retrospect, dangerous. You could have jumped the shark and I would have had to politely ignore all suggestions. But my faith in the intelligence of my readership was justified!

You had a lot of questions. Some of them are enormous and deserve proper essays of their own. Quite a few of you want me to go back down the He Puapua and co-governance rabbit hole, others want a forensic examination of TOP, and several want me to work out what a Labour-Green-Te Pāti Māori-TOP government might actually look like. There was also interest in strategic voting, electorate races, and what the minor parties could extract from National or Labour in coalition negotiations.

I will endeavour to write essays covering as many of those topics as possible. But there were also lots of questions that have reasonably straightforward answers. So I thought I would begin with a kind of Q+A format.

Consider this the first instalment of Stuff You Wanted to Know.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is National's tax strategy really working?

Question for you: is National's tax strategy working?

What I'm talking about is the blatant strategy they have of swamping social media and traditional media with warnings about Labour, the Greens, and the Opportunity Party's taxes in a bid to freak you out so badly it drives you back to National.

Kerre Woodham: Does there need to be harsher penalties for careless driving?

18 year old Jade Evans was killed last year when a truck driver ran a compulsory stop sign and crashed into her car, leaving her with catastrophic brain injuries. She and her unborn baby Lily died three days later after Jade's family donated her organs to save the lives of others. Now her family's calling for stronger accountability for preventable road deaths following yesterday's sentencing of the truck driver. The driver, who pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death, was sentenced to two months community detention, disqualified from driving for one year, and ordered to pay reparation to Jade's family. Doesn't seem much for lives lost, does it?

Bob Edlin: Horowhenua – where the district council gives preferential treatment to iwi....

....on six properties it aims to sell

The Taxpayers’ Union is crying “foul” after yet another local authority has demonstrated it regards some citizens as more equal than others.

The authority in question is the Horowhenua District Council, which has voted to give iwi and hapū first right of refusal over six council-owned properties.

David Farrar: Excellent constitutional ideas from ACT

ACT have proposed a number of good constitutional ideas. They are:

Add to the Constitution Act 1986:

• Parliament is sovereign;

• the rule of law is fundamental; and

• all New Zealanders are equal before the law.

Dr Don Brash: The pros and cons of AUKUS - Submission to Australian public inquiry

Australia is currently holding a “Public inquiry into AUKUS” . The five members of the panel holding the inquiry are:

Mike's Minute: Look further than the headline

Here's the headline: "3000 hospitality businesses close in a year".

That’s what the media not only does, but loves. They would perceive it as bad news and they can't pedal bad news enough.

But in the numbers are the real story.

Friday September 4, 2026 

                   ⇩

Anglo Saxon: Beware The Maori Sovereignty Machine.

This episode is a collaboration with author John Porter. We examine the network of iwi rangatira actors pushing for tribal sovereignty.

Click to view 

JC: We Do Not Want This

And we did not vote for this.

It’s now official: Christopher Luxon has the political nous of a bedbug. Making membership of the Paris Accord non-negotiable in post-election talks can only be regarded by those on the right as traitorous behaviour of the worst kind. What leader of the right, in their right mind, goes trampling all over their party base and those of their coalition partners? This is nothing short of mindless stupidity.

Chris Lynch: EXCLUSIVE - 89 staff assault incidents recorded at Rolleston youth justice facility in 12 months

Staff at the Rolleston youth justice facility were assaulted 57 times in the past 12 months, with 19 of those assaults causing injury, official information released to chrislynchmedia.com shows.

There were a further 32 attempted assaults on staff at Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo over the same period, taking the total number of recorded incidents to 89.

Clive Bibby: An insensitive response and a lost opportunity

A classic example of why PM Christopher Luxon is losing support amongst what should have been his most traditional supporters is his treatment of the current Air New Zealand CEO's performance in charge of the Nation's airline during the last turbulent trading year.

Ryan Bridge: It's not the mistakes that kills trust, it's the accountability dodgers

There's an air of arrogance and butt-covering to the stench that is Moa point.

In a nutshell, the council, its water management company and the contractor were all a bit shit at their jobs.

And Wellington's South Coast has been shat on.

Peter Dunne: Hipkin's dilemma

Has Te Pāti Māori just ruled itself out of government, or will Labour’s Chris Hipkins cave in, in the pursuit of power?

Te Pāti Māori's "bottom line" policies of subordinating the sovereignty of Parliament to the Treaty of Waitangi and a separate Treaty of Waitangi Commission, together with a contestable $200 million fund to promote Māori sovereignty issues raise that question. If ever implemented these changes would be the country’s most profound constitutional changes since the establishment of Parliamentary government in 1852.

Simon O'Connor: Accountability lost

With apologies to John Milton for misusing his title, but does New Zealand have an accountability issue? Recent events suggest the answer is yes, and our democracy is the poorer for this.

Accountability is a cornerstone of a successful democracy. Yet it is rarely discussed, particularly when public debate is increasingly dominated by topics such as artificial intelligence, social media, and the causes of political division.

Bob Edlin: Child porn - Brierley went to jail and lost his knighthood.....

.....but former Maori fishing CEO gets to serve time at home

At first blush, it seemed the former chief executive of Te Ohu Kaimoana was treated leniently when he was spared jail after police found 136 files “of the worst kind of child exploitation material on his devices.

At second blush, that impression was not dispelled.

Graeme Hastilow was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention in July after pleading guilty to five charges of copying child exploitation material and five charges of possessing it.

Home detention? Really?