John Denton: The Tragedy of the Commons: Self-interest and NZ Politics

One of the more interesting paradoxes in economics is that individuals pursuing their own economic interests can collectively produce an outcome that leaves everyone worse off. This is the tragedy of the commons.

The idea was first clearly formulated in 1833 by William Forster Lloyd, an Oxford professor of political economy, as follows.

David Lillis: Education, Science and the Election

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...” Carl Sagan (1995).

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.10.26

Thursday October 22, 2026 

News:
Woman vows to continue occupation of abandoned school despite Treaty settlement
Alice Wairau has been occupying a closed school for four years, and vows she will never leave, despite the wishes of the Crown, which says she has no right to be there.

Wairau and several supporters have been occupying the former Ōpoutama school site near Māhia in Hawke’s Bay since it closed in 2005.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is this the moment National started to win the election?

All right, it was either a rogue poll, or it was the moment National started to win this election. I think there's a good chance it's the latter.

If National is now winning the election, it will be because they have finally started talking about the things they're good at: education and crime. Thank you very much to the Mongrel Mob for the latter. Not that annoying "nine new taxes" nonsense that wasn't working.

David Harvey: Not A Right to Silence Issue

How Politicians Misunderstand Highly Nuanced Legal Concepts

The National Party announced a policy that proposes to remove the right to silence that can be invoked by adults who may (or may not) have information surrounding the cause of death of a child under 12.

The term “right to silence” has a number of meanings at law.

Richard Prebble: Does Luxon know something we don’t?

Commentators are puzzled by Christopher Luxon’s determination to rule out a deal with TOP.

Perhaps Luxon knows something they don’t.

Political parties commission much more sophisticated polling that reveals who their supporters are and what might change their minds.

Andrew Dickens: A Government before Christmas is unlikely

The other day Christopher Luxon sent conniptions through the commentariat by saying we'll be lucky to have a Government by Christmas.

I'm not surprised.

So we have an election on November 7th. Writ day is December 3rd – that's the deadline for all the votes to be counted.

Peter Williams: How to fix the Overhang Problem

The Mixed part of MMP is the problem. Make our electoral system proportionately pure.

Ideas about how to negate the overhang in the MMP voting system have been punted regularly in the last week.

The Political Editors at both Stuff and the New Zealand Herald must have had a beer one night and decided together this dreadful, unfair, immoral and unfair tactic (sarc) must be stopped. The next day, October 17, both wrote columns decrying the concept and suggesting ways to ensure it can’t happen again.

Kerre Woodham: What issues are concerning you this election?

In light of the Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs' visit to the Mongrel Mob pad and their stated determination to restore the mana of the mob, I read Jamie Ensor's piece in the Herald with interest. According to Jamie, Labour hasn't proposed any specific new law and order policies with just days to go until the election.

Bob Edlin: The Parents’ Alliance - Post puts a spotlight on Jonathan Ayling....

.....but what are we supposed to see?

The headline on a report in the Post aroused PoO’s interest:

Former Free Speech head’s ‘useful skill set’ helped set up parent lobby group

The headline echoed the content of the first two sentences:

LilBaP: Shared Benefits and Personal Risk

Guest Post on GoodOil by LilBaP

The Greens’ business policy does not account for the difference.

The Greens’ business policy reads like it was written by people who have never signed a weekly wage bill, never had to scrape to pay GST because a client paid late and never risked their own house.

Their policy opens with “Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.” The policy states that “Te Tiriti and He Whakaputanga should actively shape the practices of all businesses operating in Aotearoa New Zealand, including their products, their practices, and their use of resources.” Let’s hope this only applies in Aotearoa.

Rodney Hide: Two votes, one brain

You have two votes. Make them count.

That is the secret of MMP. The party vote decides how many seats each party gets. The electorate vote decides who represents your electorate. Treat them as one vote cast twice and you likely waste half your say. Split them smartly and you can change the government.

I know. I have been the beneficiary.

Mike's Minute: Why the gang pad video hurts Labour the most

Only good thing about Oriini Kaipara and her gang video, which spent the better part of the day front and centre, starting with us yesterday morning as we played you the cringe-inducing audio, to be followed by the rest of the media, was that Oriini is from the Māori Party, not the Greens.

If it had been Marama, it would have been well and truly over. Not that Marama wouldn't agree with her any, it's just we don't have the video.

There she is for all to see, geeing them up, offering help and mana, seemingly some concern they haven't got some state houses as well.

Wednesday October 21, 2026 

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Robin Grieve - Billionaires: Why Should Success Be a Moral Offence?

The question posed by Jack Tame in the TVNZ leaders’ debate was straightforward: “Is it morally acceptable for any one person to be a billionaire?” The responses from Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins were revealing because neither could give the straightforward answer anyone who champions aspiration would.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Erica Stanford doesn't need to apologise for raising standards

All right, we need to talk about a news story that has been written in such a way that you're supposed to be alarmed by the fact that nearly half of all Year 12 students might fail Erica Stanford's NCEA replacement.

Ani O'Brien: Scaremongering unions have a bad case of amnesia

What NZNO's own figures reveal about the health system crisis

I am not here to dispute the reality that New Zealand’s hospitals and wider health system is struggling. Nurses are burnt out, patients have to wait too long, and our resources are never enough. Nothing in this essay is intended to pretend this is not the case. However, I am going to challenge the particular political narrative that our health system has fallen apart all of a sudden under this government due to unprecedented underfunding and understaffing because that just isn’t true.

Pee Kay: We Get the Government We Deserve

Catching up with old friend Bruce recently and naturally, the conversation turned to politics but more specifically, the abysmal standards of our political leaders. Realising we weren’t going to fix the country, Bruce wrapped up the discussion with a grim, undeniable truth: “Sadly, we will get the government we deserve.”

Yes, we’ve all heard that phrase “we get the government we deserve.” While it’s often mistakenly credited to Thomas Jefferson, it actually belongs to the 19th-century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre, who bluntly penned in 1811 that “every nation has the government it deserves.”

Brendan O'Neill: How ‘Palestine’ conquered France

Saturday's violent desecration of the French Republic was a mob jihad against democracy itself.

I’m old enough to remember when we called it ‘conquest’ when a mob of masked men stormed a town hall or a parliament building to raise the flag of a foreign nation. I can recall a time when the violent invasion of a nation’s high seats of civic power by a faceless swarm draped in the standard of a distant land was considered an act of brazen, treasonous hostility. So why do so many insist on referring to the thuggish usurping of the streets of Paris and beyond by gangs flying the Palestine flag as a ‘protest’?

Richard Prebble: The other election

There is another election going on that may have far more influence than the election result.

The Kiwi is the world’s 10th most traded currency.

Every day up to NZ$140 billion is traded. Currency traders, every minute, 24 hours a day, are holding a referendum on New Zealand.