Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Wellington Council's got another thing to worry about funding

Tell you what, if you think Wellington doesn't have enough problems already, let me tell you about a new one: Wellington Zoo.

Wellington Zoo needs $14 million for its lion enclosure. It's urgent. It's not something that can be deferred. Wellington City Council needs to cough up the money.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.9.26

Wednesday September 9, 2026 

News:
Fast-track approval granted for Port of Tauranga’s Stella Passage expansion
New Zealand’s largest port, Port of Tauranga, has been granted fast-track approval today for an expansion bid extending its container berths and wharves.

The fast-track application was initially lodged at the end of 2024, before Ngāti Kuku Hapū Trust sought a judicial review of the scope wording, halting progress.

This followed a court ruling ordering the port to pay iwi $298,023.

Geoff Parker: The Trojan Horse - Six Words Changing New Zealand

Six fashionable words — and what lies behind them

There are six Māori words appearing more and more in New Zealand government, councils, public agencies, law and political debate.

Colinxy: The Greens’ Supermarket Nationalisation Plan....

.....Ideology First, Arithmetic Later

The Green Party has unveiled its latest “transformational” policy: nationalising 120 supermarkets at a cost of $2.8 billion. According to their pitch:

"Two companies control what almost everyone in this country eats, and they take about a million dollars a day in excess profit out of our shopping baskets.

 

It’s a compelling slogan. It’s also almost entirely unsupported by the available data.

Jordan Williams: SHOCK, HORROR - ACT wants road money spent on... roads

On Friday, ACT launched its Keep New Zealand Moving transport policy, promising to squeeze more infrastructure out of every dollar by stopping road-user money being spent on non-functional art and monuments.

Kerre Woodham: Do young people still see homeownership as a goal?

Back in the day, when I first got this job, I was desperate to buy a house.

All of a sudden I was earning enough to pay a mortgage, but after years of living on a waitress's wages and being a single mum, I didn't have the deposit.

I would now be able to start saving for one, there was a bit left over after expenses, which was a new and wonderful feeling.

Dr Don Brash: A "House of Iwi Lords"? Te Pāti Māori’s radical plan exposed

Te Pāti Māori's latest proposal is unlikely to become law. However, with all the ongoing talk about the importance of the Treaty and racial preferences by the Labour Party, Green Party, and TOP, we cannot totally rule it out.

Bob Edlin: Tax claims and electioneering bullsh*t.......

.....The Post spotlights some campaign nonsense

National’s Catherine Wedd is among the many National MPs who are parroting a moot message about the taxes that will be imposed if voters elect a Labour-led government at the general election.

In Parliament last week, she insisted:

David Farrar: LOL Greens want to run the supermarkets

The Herald reports:

The Green Party is promising to nationalise 120 Woolworths and Foodstuffs supermarkets to create a new Government-owned supermarket, KiwiMart, if elected.

Mike's Minute: Why is National not releasing reports on race-based issues?

You do wonder if National have an agenda pre-election over race-based issues.

The Waitangi Tribunal review is on Tama Potaka's desk and has been for a while.

It hasn’t gone to Cabinet. Why not?

Tuesday September 8, 2026 

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Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is Labour really in it to win it here?

Yeah, so it's not good for Labour in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll.

They've now fallen to 26 percent, which is below the 27 percent they got at the last election.

Now, this is not a surprise to me, and it shouldn't be a surprise to you, because we've been saying consistently on this show all year that Labour was going to come down in the polls once the policy started being released.

Pee Kay: November 7th, 2026

Why This Election is No Longer Business as Usual. This could be democracy’s “last chance saloon!”

New Zealand is standing on the edge of a constitutional cliff having been quietly herded there by powerful activists, ill-intentioned politicians and a worrying large herd of apathetic “sheeple”. We, the voting public, are being actively duped into believing this November’s election is just business as usual.

It isn’t.

Geoff Parker: The River Is A Legal Person — But Who Makes The Law?

Hemopereki Simon's article about the Whanganui River makes one thing very clear: for him, giving the river legal personhood does not go nearly far enough.

That is because his argument is not really about the river. It is about who should have political and legal authority in New Zealand.

Ryan Bridge: Standing still is not a strategy

We've got another report from another ratings agency, Moody's.

They've taken a look at our credit, they've taken a look at our economy, much the same as the S & P one we spoke about last week.

But here's a few things this country cannot afford to forget.

Colinxy: Why Liberalism Keeps Getting Crushed Between the Two Collectivisms

Liberalism — the philosophy of individual rights, limited government, free speech, and voluntary association — should, in theory, be the natural victor in any ideological contest. It produces prosperity, stability, and personal freedom. It avoids the utopian fantasies that lead to mass graves. It is the only system that treats people as individuals rather than as units of a collective.

And yet, historically, liberalism is the ideology that gets crushed first.

Why?

David Harvey: Opportunist Levelling

The Methods Change With Time

The Levellers were a radical political movement active in England during the mid-1640s to 1649, emerging from the Parliamentarian side of the Civil War. They were most influential among London artisans, tradesmen, and rank-and-file soldiers of the New Model Army.

Brendan O'Neill: The media’s sinister crusade against Reform

The status quo elites are weaponising ‘sleaze’ to try to kill off populism.

Two truths stare us in the face following the latest Reform UK scandal. First, Reform needs to up its game. It can’t keep shuffling slack-jawed into media stings. And second, the media really are hell-bent on nobbling this insurgent party. ‘Scandal’ is clearly their cudgel of choice for kneecapping populism. Between the amateurishness at Reform and the animus of a panicked press class, democracy really has its work cut out.

DTNZ: Milei vows to ‘recover’ Falklands

Argentine President Javier Milei has intensified Buenos Aires’ long-running claim to the Falkland Islands, declaring the British Overseas Territory to be Argentine and warning that his government will act against companies involved in a major offshore oil development.

In a nationally televised address, Milei opened with an unequivocal assertion of sovereignty over the islands, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas.

Bob Edlin: Local government academic chides Hastings council (hurrah!).....

....for its censorial hushing of code-of-conduct investigations

West Australia-based Dr Andy Asquith – it seems – has become the go-to expert on local government, when journalists check out the dubious goings-on of local authorities.

He has been referenced in media reports this week dealing with a byelection in Porirua, the Tauranga City Council’s regulatory conflict of interest, and the Hastings District Council’s egregious urge to hush its code-of-conduct investigations.