Alia Bland: An Open Letter To The University Of Sydney

Regarding the appointment of Jacinda Ardern as Professor of Practice

Dear Professor Scott,

I read with absolute disgust that the University of Sydney has appointed Jacinda Ardern as Professor of Practice, where she will apparently be sharing her wisdom on empathetic leadership, social cohesion and civic trust.

You cannot be serious.

Richard Prebble: Cannot be correct

The Labour Party has issued no law-and-order policies.

There are several possible explanations.

Chris Hipkins says Labour is focused on the cost of living. Yeah, right.

Dr Eric Crampton: Ending bail-outs will force councils to confront their bad decisions

If you know that someone will always be there to bail you out if things go wrong, you’ll make worse decisions.

Economist János Kornai called this the “soft budget constraint”. He thought it explained a lot of the pathologies in Eastern European companies and economies before the fall of the Soviet Union.

Companies knowing that they’ll be bailed out don’t keep a sharp eye on their accounts. The same holds for local governments – and their electorates.

JC: Guy Fawkes Is Two Days Too Early

If only the election had coincided with Guy Fawkes Night. That particular event was born out of a political feud. As you will recall the man himself, with a group of Catholic conspirators, hid 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords aiming to blow up the British Parliament and assassinate the Protestant King James I. Unfortunately they were betrayed and the plot was foiled. I predict a similar scenario here two days later on 7 November. The left coalition plot to overthrow the right coalition will be similarly foiled, not by gunpowder but by a mechanism known as the ‘split vote’, perfectly legitimate under the MMP system.

Geoff Neal: Top 10 Voter Issues and Performance by Government

For the first time this election, a comprehensive list of the top 10 voter issues and official government performance data has been compiled into one place - www.KPI.nz (Kiwi Performance Indicators).

Voters can now see:

Dr David Smylie: I Left New Zealand Over An Email

It was a private, four-sentence reply to a sales rep, sent late one night.

For that, the Medical Council found my comments “objectively racist” and put me through a year of ‘re-education’ that I was expected to pay for myself. In the process, New Zealand lost a GP with almost 40 years’ experience and a deep commitment to genuine patient care.

Rodney Hide: Election outcome: the real losers won't be on the ballot

Here’s my election night prediction, for what it is worth.

We will get a centre-right government. National will win an overhang. ACT and NZ First will come out on top. Opportunity will not make it into Parliament. The big losers will be the New Zealand media.

The media are finished

Mike's Minute: The truth always comes out

What do they say about the truth always coming out?

By Friday morning Kerrin Leoni was gone.

She lied and she got caught with the photo and the video. Not only didn’t it pass the pub test, it didn’t pass the truth test.

Campaigns almost always have things in them you never saw coming. For Labour it was a combination of dishonesty and their past.

Wednesday October 28, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do Labour's complaints about early voting stand up to scrutiny?

Okay, you want to know what a party sounds like when it's preparing to lose an election? Check out Labour.

They've started to ramp up their complaints about so-called voter suppression. Now, to be fair, this is not a new complaint. It's been going on all campaign. It goes back more than a year. But it really went up a level with Ayesha Verrall complaining that the first day of voting would fall on a public holiday and that "it's all adding up".

Ryan Bridge: Will the US midterms matter more to Kiwis than our own election?

Odds are on we'll get another hike to the OCR tomorrow.

That'll take us to 3%.

Markets are pricing the chance of that hike happening at about 85%.

NZCPR POLITICAL PARTY CLIMATE POLICY 2026

Executive Summary

The 2026 election presents New Zealanders with a stark choice over climate and environmental policy. The political blocs are divided not just on emissions targets and regulatory settings, but on the fundamental question of whether climate policy should prioritise economic growth and scientific realism, or aggressive emissions reduction, regulatory expansion, and ideological transformation.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 25.10.26

Wednesday October 28, 2026 

News:
Iwi demand answers over potential LNG operations in Marlborough Sounds
Iwi at the top of the South Island want a “please explain” from the Government after revelations its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import project could involve operations in the Marlborough Sounds.

Ani O'Brien: The case for saving Chris Bishop

A Parliament without Chris Bishop would be a worse Parliament

You may have heard about “The Overhang” which looms large over this election campaign. If not, you can read what I wrote a few weeks ago on the situation. In any case, because of the potential overhang that will be created by National having more electorate seats than their party vote entitles them to, they will most likely not take any list MPs into Parliament. That means senior National MPs Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, and Gerry Brownlee would lose their seats. Unless those standing in electorates win their seats.

Pee Kay: The Maorification Virus

A Satirical look at New Zealand Politics, 2017 – 2026

Part 1 Who will save Democracy?

On 26th October, 2017 a hitherto unheard-of virus entered New Zealand.

Democracy didn’t know it but it was to become the key target of this previously obscure and outlandish contagion.

By mid to late 2018 it was becoming obvious to many that Democracy was definitely the target of the virus and, worse still, Democracy had actually been infected.

Peter Williams: Election Fortnight begins

Why can’t we just do it on the day?

And so we’re away.

We don’t have Election Day. We have Election Fortnight. It’s quite ridiculous really.

The candidates can campaign for the next 12 days, but not on the 13th, November 7th.

Guest Post: Tactical voting

The MMP electoral system can be problematic — but, with a good understanding of its nature, there is a way for the National Party coalition government to be more assured of being reelected; and at the same time, give ACT and NZ First more say in crucial matters such as equal rights for all New Zealanders, which National have been too timid to implement, despite having promised to do so before the last election.

Bob Edlin: Maori trust’s beach barrier was blessed with a karakia....

......but it didn’t have the blessing of the local council – or the law

Uh, oh. Tensions between beach-going motorists and beach-protecting vigilantes were reflected in a report headed Kāwhia landowners face threats to burn down marae over beach closure.

The report explained that significant numbers of landowners supported the blocking of vehicle access to the Kāwhia Hot Water Beach beach to protect Te Arai ō Wiwini, a breeding ground and nursery for pātiki and other fish.

David Farrar: Yes Minister is a documentary

Matthew Hooton reports:

They’re called the “bureaucratic priesthood” – powerful officials in Wellington who ministers must work with to deliver their promises but who think they, not democratically elected politicians, should be the judge of what the public wants and what it’s going to get.

The priesthood is only a minority of officials, according to a new study by the free-market New Zealand Initiative to be published after the election. It’s designed to help new ministers and MPs, on either side of the political divide, deal with barriers officials could put up to stop them doing what they have been elected to do.

Graham Adams: Why does the left soft-soap Māori gangs?

The Coalition parties can barely believe their luck as the gang scandal continues to engulf their political rivals even as advance voting begins.

Little wonder Oriini Kaipara has been described as a “sleeper-agent for the centre-right” given that a video she posted of herself at a Mongrel Mob hui — alongside Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, Green MP Hūhana Lyndon and Green candidate Michel Mulipola — sparked the political firestorm.