Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll: October 2026

Here are the headline results for October's Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll:

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: John Key's speaking sense about billionaires

Thank goodness for Sir John Key speaking some sense about billionaires, am I right?

I don't think anybody expected billionaires to become a topic of discussion in this election but here we are.

It started, of course, with Jack Tame's question to the Chris' during the leaders' debate on whether it was basically morally offensive for someone to be a billionaire.

John Raine: The Indoctrination Must Stop But Labour Would Double Down

The Ongoing Long March Through the Institutions

More than three years ago, along with many others, I was drawing attention to New Zealand’s trajectory towards cultural authoritarianism, and the widespread identity politics and critical social justice activism in our public service, the universities, the wider education system, but also in the private sector. I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now. Not so fast, some warned - they were right!

Breaking Views Update: Week of 4.10.26

Friday October 9, 2026 

News:
David Seymour challenges Chris Hipkins to tell iwi he’ll scrap charter schools
“If that’s Chris Hipkin’s real mission, then I don’t like his chances this election.”

That was ACT Leader David Seymour, following Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ promise to scrap charter schools during TVNZ’s Leaders Debate on Tuesday.

Heydel Mankoo: The rise of Cultural Marxism In 5 Minutes

On John Anderson Media, Rafe Heydel-Mankoo traces how the failed communist revolution of the 20th century morphed into a "cultural Marxism" that seeks to use minorities and university elites to overthrow our culture.

Click to view

Olivia Pierson: There Once was a Civilisation

There once was a civilisation which came out of two world wars the world had never seen the like of, and it was brutally hollowed out. Its epicentre, its heart, bones and spirit, however, were still sturdy enough that it limped, wounded and diminished, into the years after, because one of its leaders was a freakishly beautiful giant among men. Winston Churchill knew that letting a culture of 5000 years in the making die undefended by the will of the nearest psycho thug with a massive chip on his shoulder was the worst crime on offer.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Trump’s diesel squeeze leaves NZ dangerously exposed

Donald Trump’s second term has given Europe one fight after another. Tariffs, Greenland, Ukraine and Iran have all had their turn.

Last week, the Americans added one more: diesel. On Thursday, Reuters reported the Trump administration had told Germany and France to draw down their emergency diesel stocks “or face a potential US diesel export ban”. By Trump’s standards, it was a polite request.

Kerre Woodham: Did we learn anything from the leaders debate?

Well last night I took my mum to the Q Theatre to see a performance of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, which was fantastic. Last couple of days, I really recommend you get along and see it – I think there's a few tickets left. It was fantastic. And then I had to come home and watch the leaders' debate on demand, and I know what I'd rather have been watching, that's for sure. I agree with Mike, the format of these "debates", in inverted commas, because they're not debates.

Bob Edlin: A Treaty signed in 1840, sovereignty and genetic engineering....

.....Maori want a bigger slice of the action

An item on the Scimex website – drawing attention to a new research paper on the history of genetic modification in New Zealand – mentions “Maori” just once.

The paper to which attention is drawn, on the other hand, makes much of the role of Māori (or lack of it, we are led to believe) in the shaping of GM policy over the past 50 years.

The abstract says the authors trace five consistent threads across the complex history of GM,

JC: The Left Are Out to Lunch

I don’t mean having left the building to buy lunch, rather they are exhibiting a state of confusion and are largely out of touch with reality. The left treat every election like one huge child’s birthday party. The treats, in the form of giveaways are handed out and, in many cases, are free or have no prices attached. These ‘treats’ are nothing more than bribes designed to hoodwink the less aware in society to vote for them.

David Farrar: Why Mowbray donates

Nick Mowbray writes:

I’m aware of the criticism we receive for donating to National and ACT. I’m also aware of the false narrative that we lobby the government and expect something in return.

So let me be clear: we have never lobbied the government. Less than 1% of ZURU’s revenue is in New Zealand.

We donate because we care about this country’s future and believe National and ACT have the right talent and strategy to move it forward.

Richard Prebble: Does winning the leaders’ debate matter?

I remember New Zealand’s first televised leaders’ debate in 1969. To the commentators’ surprise, Norman Kirk was judged to have got the better of Prime Minister Keith Holyoake.

Holyoake went on to win the election.

It set a pattern that has lasted 57 years.

Opposition leaders have a remarkable record in leaders’ debates. Yet governments, despite losing or failing to win the first debate, have usually gone on to win the election.

How is that?

Rodney Hide: Luxon - Gone By Morning Tea

Imagine the scene. Chris Luxon is speaking to a shed full of blokes in high-vis. He clears his throat, looks sincere, and announces that the future of world leadership is white and it's male.

The clip hits the internet before he’s out of the shed.

What would happen?

Thursday October 8, 2026 

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Roger Childs: The Post, not impressive

I regard Hobson’s Pledge as a repulsive organization. Matthew Hooton, The Post, Friday October 2

Stuff

The Post’s editorial last Friday showed Stuff at its worse. The previous day it had printed a full page advertisement from Hobson’s Pledge which was basically a cartoon wondering why Labour leader Chris Hipkins doesn’t rule out the racist Maori Party as a possible partner in a Labour-led coalition should they be able to form a government after the election. Editor Hooton conceded that the advert did not breach the law or advertising standards so Stuff decided to run it.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: National's winning on education - and parents agree

So I reckon there was one moment in that leaders' debate that would have worried parents up and down this country, and it was this one.

Chris Hipkins conceded that, if Labour were to win the election, he would scrap the one hour of reading, writing and maths for primary school kids.

Clive Bibby: Opening salvos in Election Campaigns almost always matter

With the exception of only a few military campaigns throughout history, the tactics used and the strategic positioning of the major firepower on the battleground was almost always crucial to the end result.

So too it has always been with political debate - no matter what forum.

Mike Butler: A Giant Treaty Rort?

Does Treaty of Waitangi policy amount to a rort that has grown beyond the wildest dreams of those who set it up and is now too large and too deeply embedded for any government to dismantle?

That is the question that emerged from spending a couple of months updating the treaty settlement financial redress total at Treaty Transparency 1975-2026 HERE 

 
The word “rort” describes a scheme that takes unfair advantage of a public service, loophole, or resource.

Mike's Minute: Medicine for foreign aid money is a no-brainer

From our “he would say that, wouldn’t he” file, comes the predictable Winston Peters response to the National Party's medicine for aid deal.

National are reading the room. If you have no money and you need to trade one thing for another, does medicine beat aid?

Yes, hands down.

Olivia Pierson: New Zealand - Beyond the Boats Invading our Mother Country

The only souls still possessed of political zeal are those whose fervour is the fervour of the wolf. What they see is a flesh-and-blood civilisation, meaty and unguarded, to be looted for the survival of their own mangy pack. I mean the commies, of course: the Greens, Labour, Te Pati Maori, the gauchely named Opportunities Party, and the Islamic interest that travels openly in their company. Should these packs ever come into serious power, the country will be eaten out from its porn-soaked reproductive organs to its essential guts, and the devouring will be euphemised as gritty “real life” until the old guards are gone — the Boomers, and we of Generation X.