Breaking Views Update: Week of 4.10.26

Saturday October 10, 2026 

News:
Ngāti Whātua contacts McLaren over Remuera and Muriwai trademark bid
An international supercar firm says it “deeply respects” New Zealand’s cultural heritage after applying to trademark two Māori place names in Auckland.

But Ngāti Whātua says “no one has spoken to us” about the application by British company McLaren. Māori leaders have now contacted the carmaker after being alerted to the legal bid by the Herald.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 6 - Inspectors and the Examination System 1877 - 1899

The video below discusses "The aim of our national system of education is development—intellectual, moral, and physical". These are the words of the Otago inspectors in 1899. Episode 5 is about the key role of the remarkable men who were the school inspectors.

Richard Prebble: The question at the heart of this election

“Is it morally acceptable for any one person to be a billionaire?”

Jack Tame asked both leaders.

It says something about New Zealand — or perhaps TVNZ — that the question was asked.

More remarkable was that neither Christopher could answer yes or no.

Roger Partridge: Who Makes the Judges?......

......(And why the process is not what Parliament laid out)

This article was first published in LawNews on 8 October 2026. It is part of a series on how the New Zealand Supreme Court has upset the balance of the constitution by straying out of its lane – and what can be done about it.

Appointments to the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court come down to a list of no more than three names. Who decides which names make the list is not straightforward, even if you have read the relevant statute.

Bob Edlin: When names are gifted by Maori, they stick....

......even if a majority of submissions are opposed

Call a kaumatua and ask for a new name to be “gifted”.

That’s our advice to Green MP Julie Anne Genter, who is miffed about the name the Electoral Commission has given to the electorate which she hopes to represent in the next Parliament.

Names that have been “gifted” by local Maori have a strong chance of being adopted by public authorities.

David Farrar: Should NZ join the EU?

Simon Bridges writes:

This came to mind recently when EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen got cosy with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at her 2026 state of the union address over Canada becoming an “associate member” of the European Union. If it’s good enough for them, why not us Kiwis?

Caleb Anderson: Authenticity and the Unexamined Life

Socrates is known for his claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. What did he mean by that, and what implications does this have?

I have spent thousands of hours counselling others, often young people. I have been struck by an explosion in the number of young people (and not so young people) who seem devoid of direction, desperate for certainty, lost in the convenience of dogma.

Graham Adams: Is criticism of Māori culture permitted at Massey Uni?

Last month, a member of the public filed a formal complaint against Massey University’s Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger that raises a fundamental question: Are university staff allowed to publicly criticise aspects of Māori culture — whether spiritual beliefs, tikanga, language, life choices or history — without attracting official investigation or censure?

The complainant sent a 3100-word missive to the Vice-Chancellor in a belated response to five columns the professor had co-written three years ago that discussed university funding, decolonisation and mātauranga Māori.

Rodney Hide: Raine showed us the lecture room. Here's the staffroom.

John Raine has laid bare what our universities teach students. The University of Auckland's new gender equity plan shows the same machinery aimed at staff: hiring, promotion and annual reviews. No budget, no targets.

"I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now," writes Emeritus Professor John Raine in The indoctrination must stop but Labour would double down. "Not so fast, some warned - they were right!"

They were. Raine charts an extension of the "long march through the institutions": a University of Canterbury law bridging course featuring "Race and Ethnicity - Understanding White Supremacy" and "Bodies and Society – Fatphobia". Auckland's Waipapa Taumata Rau Stage 1 course, still "mandatory for accredited programmes". Tikanga Māori "compulsory in all core LLB courses across New Zealand".

That's what students are taught. Raine also quotes Massey University telling staff, in their professional development plans, that "all staff are expected to implement the [Te Tiriti] principles in their work and practice."

That's the staffroom, and the University of Auckland has just written down how it works there.

A plan to make plans

Its Gender Equity Strategy and Plan 2026–2029 runs to 15 pages. The vision: "A university where gender equity is real, visible, and sustained."

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/assets/about-us/about-the-university/equity-at-the-university/gender-equity/gender-equity-strategy-plan.pdf

Try measuring that. The plan doesn't.

There are 29 deliverables. Deliverable 26: "A Gender Equity Strategy and Plan for 2026 – 2029 is published." The plan delivers itself. Tick.

Fifteen don't start until November 2027, more than halfway through. And the measures?

"Specific evaluation methods and measures will be established as part of the development of each initiative". Later, then.

Into hiring and promotion

Job ads will show "a visible commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion". Decision makers are offered "Implicit Bias, Cultural Navigation and DEI Literacy programmes". Leadership development comes through "career progression initiatives targeted on the basis of gender and gender-ethnicity intersections."

The parent DEI plan promises to "Embed DEI contributions and leadership in the Academic Standards at the next review opportunity". Academics are promoted against those standards. Staff will also be offered "suggested DEI-related goals" for their annual reviews.

The problem being fixed? The university's own pay gap page: "There is no evidence of unequal pay within academic role categories."

The cost nobody knows

What does it cost? Answering an Official Information Act request in March, the university said it "does not have a specific budget for 'equity, diversity and inclusion' as this function is distributed across the University."

It gave one figure: $436,350 this year for the Pro Vice-Chancellor Equity's office. That leaves out the HR diversity team, the equity posts in eight faculties and institutes, and the committees. Meanwhile the DEI plan promises "a needs analysis for additional named DEI roles" in 2027.

Read the sheer number of staff and their titles in the acknowledgements to get a true sense of the cost. Of course, that’s just staff cost. The true cost is the loss of rigour and critical thinking throughout the tertiary sector. Read the list and weep for what was once our higher education system.

Click images to view

Rodney Hide is former ACT Party leader, and Minister in the National-ACT Government from 2008 to 2011. This article was first published HERE

Andrew Dickens: These flip flops from the right and the left need to stop

I had to chuckle after yesterday's interview with Mr Abercrombie from the PPTA who grudgingly accepted that improvements to the education sector by the government is a factor in teacher registrations being up 40 per cent this year.

Mr Abercrombie, other industry advocates and the Labour led opposition have been dead set against the changes but now they’re slowly admitting that things are better.

Mike's Minute: Like children, our problems are for others to solve

I tell you who should be feeling good this election campaign: political parties.

If the commentary and expectation I'm seeing so far is truly representative of where we are at in this country, as consumers we have slipped back into a gliding-on type world of the 1970's.

Peter Dunne: Leaders Debate

The first leaders' debate was a dismal affair. Neither leader was persuasive, nor were their responses especially convincing. Both failed to achieve the circuit breaker each was seeking to reinvigorate their currently stalling campaigns. Together, their performances explain why the two major parties are attracting the lowest combined support levels since MMP was introduced thirty years ago.

Brendan O'Neill: Gaza: the most lied about war in history

Finally, on the third anniversary of 7 October, the left’s empire of falsehoods against Israel is starting to crumble.

What would you call a country that is experiencing one of the highest levels of population growth on Earth? How would you describe a country where the child malnutrition levels are similar to those of that industrial powerhouse of Europe, Germany? What would you say about a nation that was in receipt of so much food aid that at one stage around 3,163 calories were available per person, per day? I’ll tell you what you couldn’t say: that that country is suffering one of the most demonic genocides in history. That its people are being forcibly starved. That its pain finds no parallel in the annals of human wickedness.

 Friday October 9, 2026 

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Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll: October 2026

Here are the headline results for October's Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll:

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: John Key's speaking sense about billionaires

Thank goodness for Sir John Key speaking some sense about billionaires, am I right?

I don't think anybody expected billionaires to become a topic of discussion in this election but here we are.

It started, of course, with Jack Tame's question to the Chris' during the leaders' debate on whether it was basically morally offensive for someone to be a billionaire.

John Raine: The Indoctrination Must Stop But Labour Would Double Down

The Ongoing Long March Through the Institutions

More than three years ago, along with many others, I was drawing attention to New Zealand’s trajectory towards cultural authoritarianism, and the widespread identity politics and critical social justice activism in our public service, the universities, the wider education system, but also in the private sector. I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now. Not so fast, some warned - they were right!

Heydel Mankoo: The rise of Cultural Marxism In 5 Minutes

On John Anderson Media, Rafe Heydel-Mankoo traces how the failed communist revolution of the 20th century morphed into a "cultural Marxism" that seeks to use minorities and university elites to overthrow our culture.

Click to view

Olivia Pierson: There Once was a Civilisation

There once was a civilisation which came out of two world wars the world had never seen the like of, and it was brutally hollowed out. Its epicentre, its heart, bones and spirit, however, were still sturdy enough that it limped, wounded and diminished, into the years after, because one of its leaders was a freakishly beautiful giant among men. Winston Churchill knew that letting a culture of 5000 years in the making die undefended by the will of the nearest psycho thug with a massive chip on his shoulder was the worst crime on offer.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Trump’s diesel squeeze leaves NZ dangerously exposed

Donald Trump’s second term has given Europe one fight after another. Tariffs, Greenland, Ukraine and Iran have all had their turn.

Last week, the Americans added one more: diesel. On Thursday, Reuters reported the Trump administration had told Germany and France to draw down their emergency diesel stocks “or face a potential US diesel export ban”. By Trump’s standards, it was a polite request.