David Farrar: Another school lunch beauty

Readers will no doubt have seen the numerous stories about mouldy lunches served at Haeata Community Campus. There were multiple stories on all media platforms reporting that these mouldy meals were the result of Compass, the meal provider.

Radio NZ, and other media, failed to ask any questions at all, as it fit the narrative that the revised school lunch programme was bad that the left love. They didn’t ask:

Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.11.25

Wednesday December 3, 2025 

News:
'Please walk on me' NZ flag exhibition shocks Hastings councillor
The Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery is backing a controversial exhibition that encourages people to walk over a New Zealand flag, despite a councillor saying it "feels so wrong".

Māori artist Diane Prince's installation Flagging the Future was hastily removed from the Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū in Nelson earlier this year for what the gallery described as staff safety reasons following abuse and complaints.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government should not fund Ozempic

The big health news today is that the WHO is essentially calling for the funding of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic for people who would otherwise not be able to afford it.

So basically, make it not just for the rich, but for the poor as well.

Ryan Bridge: Rate caps are happening, but will they work?

This rates cap is popular politics, no doubt, and local government needs a good kick in the pants.

But does a 2-4% band simply mean we're going to pay more in other fees?

Rates aren't the only way these guys make money off us, we also pay for specific things like resource and building consents, LIM requests, dog registrations, and campgrounds.

Dr William Happer Previews His Trip To NZ To Talk Climate Change Truth

Sean Plunket chats to Dr William Happer on The Platform about the climate change hoax.

Click to view

Ani O'Brien: Dirty Politics 2.0 - Labour’s covert influencer says what Chris Hipkins can’t

Jordan Rivers has failed to disclose his employment in the Labour leader's office

When Nicky Hager published Dirty Politics a decade ago, he exposed a political ecosystem in which government insiders supposedly used independent bloggers to wage smear campaigns, break stories, and launder political attacks through channels that looked organic. Hager argued that politicians fed attack lines to bloggers like Cameron Slater. Slater published the hit jobs and ministers kept their hands clean.

Chris Morrison: New Scientific Findings Expose the Hoax Behind Meat Eating Climate Alarm

Sensational new scientific findings have blown holes in the climate hoax opinion that humans need to give up eating meat to save the planet. The effect of methane (CH4), a minor ‘greenhouse’ gas, have been grossly exaggerated to suggest that animal farming poses a significant threat to the global climate. But the invented threat relies on multiplying by around ten the length of time that CH4 stays in the atmosphere – an invention under Global Warming Potential 100 know as GWP100 that is in widespread use in activist circles, including the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. At current emission levels, five Italian scientists predict 54% less warming than under GWP100, while small decreasing emissions, possible with some changes in animal diets, produce only tiny amounts of claimed warming.

Chris Lynch: Government moves to cap rates and curb cost pressures on ratepayers

The Government has announced plans to introduce a national rates cap, saying the move has been designed to help councils control rates increases and reduce pressure on household budgets.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said rising rates were becoming unsustainable for many residents, with some communities facing repeated double digit increases.

Dave Patterson: What to Do About Venezuela?

The war on drugs wasn’t a real war until President Trump made it one.

President Trump has made Venezuela a special project, presenting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the face of the evil visited on America by drug and human traffickers. Maduro does not personally run the cartel’s transnational criminal operations, of course, but he facilitates. In some cases, he may actively support and protect them. Trump has taken a multi-pronged approach to stopping this.

Trump’s Venezuela Strategy Is Three-fold

David Farrar: The maths results show why people hate the media

How many stories have you seen in the Media where some group is complaining about there being less of a focus on the Treaty of Waitangi in the education system? I’ve lost count, but it is scores and scores.

How many have you seen about the results of the maths acceleration trial?

Kerre Woodham: Labour makes big promises, but can they deliver?

Hundreds of the Labour Party faithful gathered over the weekend in Auckland to begin the march back to Parliament's government benches. Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Gray was preaching to the converted when she told the crowd that New Zealand's Pavlova paradise has been eaten up by the rich. She said Labour needed to give workers a reason to vote for them and to deliver fundamental and systemic change. Yay! Cue loud rapturous applause.

Bob Edlin: Minister is admonished for not mentioning the muting of Maori media.....

Minister is admonished for not mentioning the muting of Maori media – but budget cuts have been bruising for ALL media

Remember what Budget 2025 did for the news media?

The government provided $6.4 million over four years to hire journalists in heartland New Zealand for reporting on councils and courts.

JC: Will Winston Go Right or Left?

An article in the Weekend Herald by political reporter Jamie Ensor discussed the growing ties between NZ First and Labour. Factually, I could not fault it but I also sensed that it was written with a modicum of hope that Winston would go with Labour. I think Jamie might be disappointed. The possibility Winston will is, however, forever present and I suspect Jamie’s article is a vehicle to get people to think this might be a good idea. Jamie is trying to sow the seed that it realistically could work.

Tuesday December 2, 2025 

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Judy Gill: What “Giving Effect To Te Tiriti” Means in Schools

What does “giving effect to Te Tiriti” actually mean?

Across New Zealand, schools are declaring that they will “give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

Many parents assume this means teaching New Zealand history or acknowledging Māori culture. In reality, in modern policy language, it means something far more structural.

Caleb Anderson: The American Founders and the lessons we refuse to learn

The oft repeated statement that "Those who forget history are likely to repeat it" ... resonates now more than ever.

Humanity, irrespective of time, place, beliefs, or any other point of difference, seems incomprehensibly blind to the experiences of those who have gone before us, even (and sometimes especially) where these are amply documented, as well as somewhat indifferent toward those who will come after us, and who have to deal with the messes we make.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Are local councils competent enough to meet rate caps?

The Government has announced the details on its plan for rates caps - councils will be capped at 4%.They will not be able to raise their rates by more than 4%, and the plan will start being implemented in a couple of years' time, sort of mid 27, and then will be fully in place by mid 2029.

Ryan Bridge: Labour should pay attention to the housing market

The housing market is once again in the driver's seat for the economy, but it's not heading in the direction we're used to.

Yes, a recovery is underway.

But the brutal truth of 2025 was summed up rather well, I thought, by Sir Bill English in an interview about the current state of play.

Eliora: This Conservative Man Has the Experience

Think strategically folks! Which leader will conservative Kiwis vote for next year? Luxon, Seymour or Peters or...waste a vote on a very minor party? Conservative Kiwis are smart. Labour, the party that folded and became very unpopular at the last election, has astonishingly, overtaken National in recent polls. Voters are unpredictable and have gone all over the place in the last eight years with their votes. Labour won in a landslide with Ardern as leader and then quickly took a massive hit under her disastrous leadership.

David Farrar: KiwiSaver moving to 6%

National announced that if re-elected they will increase the default KiwiSaver contribution rates from 3% to 4% (already announced as government policy) and then to 6%. The rates will be: