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.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 30.11.25

Tuesday December 2, 2025 

News:
Hipkins signals distance from Te Pāti Māori as new poll shows voters want him to rule out deal
Labour leader Chris Hipkins is signalling a hardening line against Te Pāti Māori, as new polling shows nearly half of New Zealanders want him to rule out working with the party after the 2026 election.

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:

Lindsay Mitchell: Boosting birth rates with benefit payments is a very bad idea

Last week the UK government gave in to the growing pressure from activists to scrap their two child cap on welfare benefits - this despite polling showing majority support for the cap. Glancing through commentary in response to this move, there is an increasingly common theme appearing. That governments should not curb welfare payments for children when the fertility rates are heading south. Or, put another way, birth rates should be incentivised - not discouraged. Who cares where the money to raise children comes from?

Mike's Minute: I think we should get rid of some jury trials

In the UK the Justice Secretary has suggested the end of the jury trial, except for rape, murder, manslaughter, or what he calls "cases that pass a national interest test".

The idea has received the sort of reaction you would expect from the usual quarters you would expect it from.

David Farrar: ERO on the cell phone ban

The ERO has done a report on the impact of removing cellphones from schools. Their major findings:

Alwyn Poole: How to Improve Attendance in New Zealand.

School attendance in NZ is in deep trouble. Not just in reference to our historic levels but also compared to other OECD countries.

New Zealand’s school attendance is lower than the OECD average, especially in upper secondary ages, with rates dropping from 70% to 50% between 2015 and 2025.

Dr Don Brash: At the end of year two, how are they doing?

With less than a year to go to the next general election, polls suggest that the current Government could well lose to a Labour-led coalition, despite the mess which the last Labour Government left just two years ago. Is that negativity warranted?

There are all kinds of criteria one might use to assess the Government but in recent years I have consistently used just five.

Henry Johnston: The GDP myth - What it really shows, and what it doesn’t

The most-often cited metric of economic success more often than not simply tells us what we want to hear – or what the West wants us to hear.

A few weeks after the Russia-Ukraine war began, Belgian economist Paul De Grauwe penned an article for the website of the London School of Economics with the title ‘Russia cannot win the war’. No military specialist, De Grauwe based his conclusion on some simple math: Russia’s GDP was roughly equivalent to the combined output of Belgium and the Netherlands. Therefore, he claimed, Russia is an “economic dwarf in Europe.” Its military operation was thus doomed.

Monday December 1, 2025 

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NZCPR Newsletter: UNDRIP Disaster

At 4.45 am New Zealand time on 20 April 2010, then Minister of Maori Affairs, Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples, announced to the United Nations in New York that New Zealand would support the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

Pee Kay: We are Funding the White Anting of Democracy!

Tureiti Haromi Moxon, or Lady Moxon, until recently was not a hugely well known name in New Zealand’s political activist arena, but she seems to be making sure that changes!

Lady Moxon is married to the Anglican bishop, Sir David Moxon, hence her damehood.

Professor Robert MacCulloch and Sir Roger Douglas: The Superannuation Debate

PRESS RELEASE

Professor Robert MacCulloch
Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics
University of Auckland

Sir Roger Douglas
NZ Finance Minister 1984-88

The NZ Initiative, which is funded by our largest corporates, has attacked super savings for all. One of its former staffers is Prime Minister Luxon's Chief Policy Adviser.

Cam Slater: Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits.....

Exposed: The Hypocritical Nexus Between Otago University Academics and Big Tobacco, and a Push for Monopoly Profits in New Zealand’s Tobacco Wars

This leak exposes a rotten core in New Zealand’s tobacco control scene, where hypocrisy reigns and public health takes a back seat to agendas.

Dr Oliver Harwich: The long estrangement

It is strange to observe a nation act irrationally and against its own interests. Stranger still when that nation is your own.

I grew up in Germany. I still think in German. Yet Germany’s political psychology feels increasingly alien to me.

Mike's Minute: The govt shouldn't have touched the carbon market

If you follow the carbon market, and you should, it is yet another lesson in the abject failure that almost certainly results in gerrymandering markets.

Four times a year you bid for credits (offsets) to counter your polluting habits.

You do this because we signed up to Paris and made a bunch of promises we were never going to be able to keep.