Nick Clark: Head Start Done Right - A better way to reorganise local government

The Government wants to merge New Zealand’s councils into a smaller number of big councils. A new report from The New Zealand Initiative says this is the wrong fix.

In Head Start Done Right, Senior Fellow Nick Clark says the real problem is not that we have too many councils. It is that too much power has been taken away from local communities and moved to central government.

Lindsay Mitchell 'Too sick to work' needs addressing

ACT announced welfare policy at the weekend.

Their concern is about the growth in people who are on a benefit because they are too sick to work.

Readers here will remember the distinct Sickness and Invalid's benefits that were abolished in 2013.

Kerre Woodham: How can we justify sending money overseas when our own infrastructure is failing?

Yesterday, I was talking about the amount of aid we're sending to places like Vietnam and Indonesia. Places I would venture to suggest that are showing more go ahead, more investment in infrastructure than we are. When you're looking at Vietnam, they're building one of the largest stadiums in the world, they've got fast rail underway, they're building a huge city to house much of its population – they're spending billions. It's also a place where New Zealanders travel to get first class healthcare that we can't access here.

Bob Edlin: McKee’s promotion - Maori voices....

McKee’s promotion triggers an article recognising (or maybe lamenting) there is no one Maori voice

A headline on The Spinoff today stated the obvious:

Nicole McKee’s new Act leadership role means record Māori party leaders – but no one Māori voice

The article beneath was triggered by news that Nicole McKee has become the Act Party’s new deputy leader. Both minor parties in the coalition government therefore have leaders and deputy leaders “who whakapapa Māori”.

David Farrar: Who have been the Paris Agreement Heros and Zeros

The Paris Agreement was done in 2015, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The latest data is for 2024, so I thought it would be interesting to see which countries have had the largest decreases and increases.

Alwyn Poole: Gap grows in maths, writing.....

From NZH: “Gap grows in maths, writing: More than 90% of poor children fall behind by Year 3”

Derek Cheng writes:

“Almost all socio-economically disadvantaged children fell behind in maths last year by Year 3, with 95% below curriculum level and 70% more than a year behind.

Wednesday July 1, 2026 

                   ⇩

Duncan Garner: Horizons Regional Council - 14 Iwi Agreements Rushed Through in Secret?

Local councils across New Zealand are quietly locking ratepayers into long-term co-governance arrangements without any honest conversation about the final bill. This week at Horizons Regional Council, councillors are being asked to progress 14 separate Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements under the Resource Management Act. These deals require staff, lawyers, consultants, and ongoing administration potentially forever, yet councils are treating basic financial questions from elected members as a problem.

We look at the growing culture of information overload inside local government, where massive agenda papers are dumped on councillors right before a vote. With major central government reforms coming to replace the RMA framework, rushing these commitments through on the hoof makes no sense. Ratepayers deserve to know where their money is going, especially when every dollar spent on bureaucracy is a dollar not spent on fixing roads and upgrading infrastructure.

Click to view

Clive Bibby: The Aspirational Element

It would seem like stating the obvious when identifying one human characteristic that sets individuals apart from their contemporaries.

We can talk about “courage, natural sports talent, above average IQ or abnormal leadership qualities” - to name but a few.

Francis Menton: What's Up With The Endangerment Finding Litigation?

Have you heard of the “Endangerment Finding” (EF)? You have if you have been reading this blog for any period of time. The 2009 EF is likely the most consequential, expensive and destructive regulatory action ever put in place by the federal bureaucracy. In that action, EPA claimed to find that carbon dioxide and several other so-called “greenhouse gases” constitute a “danger” to human health and welfare. Using the EF as the predicate, the administrative state under the Obama and Biden presidencies implemented dozens of major regulations intended to transform the entire energy sector of the U.S. economy. Obama/Biden regulations based on the EF sought, for example, to force the closure of all fossil-fuel based power plants; to end the production of internal-combustion-based cars in favor of electric cars; to restrict drilling for oil and for natural gas; to halt construction of pipelines; and many, many other such things.

Ryan Bridge: Commerce will always find a way eventually

Good morning, and I really do mean, good morning.

Four months ago, war kicked off in the middle east. A year earlier the tariff war kicked off all over the world.

And yet today the following things are happening, regardless.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are the guns really the issue here?

We need to talk about Brian Tamaki having his guns taken off him.

Let me say right at the start: I'm not a fan of Brian Tamaki. He's a troublemaker who doesn't seem intelligent enough to understand what he's doing. But I still feel uncomfortable about the police taking his guns off him.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 28.6.26

Wednesday July 1, 2026 

News:
First Wellington iwi participation agreements signed
Two Mana Whakahono ā Rohe iwi participation agreements signed on Thursday, with Greater Wellington, are now formalised under the Resource Management Act.

Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki Incorporated and Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai Charitable Trust agreements were agreed by iwi governance and approved unanimously by Council. The two Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements are the first of their kind to be completed in the Wellington region.

Mike's Minute: Stop wanting the Govt to fix everything

Poor old Australia is finding out governments can't fix everything.

We often want governments to fix everything because we collectively aren't up to fixing it ourselves.

On the social media ban for teens, Australia was the pioneer. A chunk of the world followed but Australia, to a degree, was hailed a hero, and yet Albanese has exploded with frustration a few short months after introducing their laws because they don’t work.

Here's the twofold problem:

DTNZ: Wishart taking media to court over lazy climate reporting

Veteran journalist Ian Wishart is crowdfunding legal action against TVNZ, RNZ, TV3 and the Broadcasting Standards Authority, accusing them of “churnalism”, copying climate press releases without their own fact-checking.

Wishart, editor of Investigate Magazine, has set up a Givealittle Page to raise $35,000 for two High Court challenges. He said trust in the mainstream media is at an all-time low, and regulators like the BSA – which is now being disbanded – have contributed to a lack of standards in reporting. A recent Curia poll taken by RCR, showed 51% of people now trust the independent media more.

Ivan Barnett: Te Arawhiti issues the policy templates

Te Arawhiti is the Māori Crown relations agency in New Zealand.

Te Arawhiti issues the policy templates, the Treaty‑principles definitions, and the partnership expectations that now shape the entire public service. These frameworks are already embedded across government departments, councils, and regulatory agencies. They influence how officials interpret the RMA, how councils conduct consultation, and how infrastructure projects are assessed. They operate quietly, without public mandate, and without meaningful parliamentary oversight.

Ryan Bridge: MPs need to stop doing stuff for social media likes

There's a perception out there that some of the younger MPs either don't know what they're doing in Parliament or are just doing stuff to get likes on social media.

I'm going to be so real right now with you – some of it's actually true.

Ashley Church: TOP is a Trojan horse for the left

Why a vote for The Opportunities Party is simply a vote for the Greens and Labour

The idea of a genuinely centrist political party that draws intelligently from both the left and the right is attractive.

Such a party could combine environmental responsibility with economic realism. It could appeal to younger voters concerned about housing, climate, infrastructure and the future without requiring them to buy into the full ideological programme of Labour or the Greens.

Kerre Woodham: Tradies are the 'Belle of the Ball' in election year

Nobody loves a tradie more than a politician in election year. Labour announced it would reset the apprenticeship boost scheme back to two years from 2028 if come the glorious day they became the next government. Labour leader Chris Hipkins announced the election policy to the party faithful at Labour's congress as they call it in election year in Wellington over the weekend.

There are so many young New Zealanders who would love to get into the trades and are just desperate for the opportunity to do that. And we've got a lot of feedback from those employers who would love to take on an apprentice but they just need a bit more financial support to be able to do that.

Bob Edlin: What the Treaty industry is costing us.....

The Waitangi Tribunal and those urgent claims – what the Treaty industry is costing us

Readers were short-changed by a 1News report which said the Government has spent well over $4 million defending legal challenges by Māori since taking office, “with the number of urgent inquiries by the Waitangi Tribunal soaring to record highs”.

The report said: