Mike's Minute: Has the Opportunity Party blown it?

The Opportunity Party turns out to be a sham of sorts.

We have bottom lines, but not real bottom lines.

1) More power to the Commerce Commission. Big deal...

2) A 10-year health plan. That means nothing.

 Sunday October 4, 2026 

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Insights From Social Media: Sorry, National, You’ve Let Us Down

SORRY, NATIONAL, YOU’VE LET US DOWN - by Val Davis

Sorry, National, you’ve let us down
For so many of us that’s a fact
So I’ll give my Electorate vote to you
But my Party vote to ACT

Sorry, Sir John, this time you’re wrong
To ask us for 2 Ticks Blue
We feel betrayed - we feel dismayed
We’re wondering what to do

Breaking Views Update: Week of 4.10.26

Sunday October 4, 2026 

News:
Whanganui District Council’s Relationship Agreement With Iwi Still To Be Ratified
Whanganui District Council remains committed to forming an official partnership with iwi, after “a long and, at times, arduous journey” towards Treaty settlement.

Councillors last year voted to adopt a relationship agreement with iwi and hapū, coming into effect after the Whanganui Land Settlement Negotiation Trust’s (WLSNT) Treaty settlement with the Crown.

Anglo Saxon: New Zealand's equality failure pitches voters against Maori tribalism.

In this episode; Anglo Saxon asks do you think people in New Zealand have equal rights; and why are maoris always fighting for more?


Click to view

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 3 October 2026

This week New Zealand lost a great former Parliamentarian and Speaker, the Right Honourable Adrian Rurawhe. He died at just 65 and most people had no idea how ill he was. Chris Hipkins said Adrian had not even told the Labour caucus he was sick because he knew they were busy with the election and “didn’t want to get in the way”, which is entirely consistent with everything people have said about him since his death.

Brendan O'Neill: The lesson of Flydubai? Don’t mess with Zionists

The heroism on that crazy flight was a beautiful reminder that the Jewish nation is here to stay.

I was in the calmest place in the world yesterday as the news of the terror on that Flydubai flight started to trickle in: Tel Aviv airport. Yes, the very airport for which that plunging, blood-stained jet was destined was an oasis of serenity. Passengers watched the news on their phones with superb, unflappable composure. Smiles cracked over pints of dark lager as it became clear the crisis had been resolved. Then it struck me: we were chill because we knew that if a suicidal loon tried any sh*t on the flights we were about to board, he’d be slapped and hogtied in seconds.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Is NZ now saying ‘no’ to foreign investment?

When law firms advise foreign clients on investing in New Zealand, they usually include some version of the same paragraph. It describes the country as a stable democracy with independent courts, secure property rights and predictable politics, and for decades nobody had to think twice before writing it.

Last week, a lawyer at one of the leading firms told me his team is advising an overseas client on an investment here. They have just toned that paragraph down, he said, because it is no longer true. That is not because the law has changed, but because promises made by various parties during the campaign for the 7 November election would undermine property rights.

Kerre Woodham: Just how big is Labour's fiscal hole?

How big is his hole? Nicola Willis was asking Grant Robertson back in 2023, where are you going to find the money to fill that Government's financial fiscal hole? And now yesterday, she says that Labour has another fiscal hole to fill and it's a beauty. She told us yesterday when she was a guest in studio that there is no way Labour can afford to fund their pay equity promises, far less many of the other promises they're making to voters. Labour in response has said, well just taihoa, all will be revealed when our fiscal plan is produced sometime soon.

Bob Edlin: Effective altruism.....

........a philosophy shunned by the Trump team but embraced by The Opportunity Party

I might have been busy thinking about mowing the lawns next day, or some such, on September 19 because I missed the chance to attend a conference on “effective altruism”.

The one-day conference, organised by an outfit called Effective Altruism Aotearoa New Zealand, was held at the National Library of New Zealand (not too far from my home).

David Farrar: The Herald poll of polls is wrong!

I am a big fan of polling averages and simulations. In fact I always say don’t pick just one poll, but look at the average, and the trend over time. So I was delighted when the Herald did Herald-Motu poll of polls. However whatever formula they are using is producing results that simply do not match the actual results it is meant to be averaging or simulating.

David Farrar: Labour’s inflation tax

Simeon Brown pointed out:

“According to Labour’s own modelling, where house prices rise by 3 per cent and inflation sits at 2 per cent, the vast majority of the revenue collected from Labour’s Capital Gains Tax comes only from inflation rather than real gains.

“Under those conditions, a couple who buy an $800,000 rental and sell it five years later for $927,000 would have to pay a tax of $35,600. Once inflation is accounted for, that amounts to an effective tax rate of 81 per cent on the couple’s real capital gain.

Mike's Minute: The power of statistics

Given Westpac played what I would loosely call a dumb game this week with numbers, let me return serve.

Their numbers involved a bunch of what they call "necessities" and their prices over the past ten years.

White bread is up 120% and butter up 157%. Chicken though is only up 2%. So, if you ate a lot of chicken, not only would you be protein rich, you would have saved a fortune.

The CPI is up in that period 38%.

Saturday October 3, 2026 

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Ryan Bridge: We need to keep an eye on diesel

Trump's getting desperate to fix gas prices ahead of the midterms and usually when he's trying to do something for America, there will be losers and that could well be the rest of us.

We spoke a few weeks ago about the fact he was looking into a ban on diesel exports. The industry didn't like it – they thought it wouldn't bring prices down. They lobbied the White House and said the idea could actually push prices up.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 27.9.26

Saturday October 3, 2026 

News:
Only Iwi Reps Keep Voting Rights On Taranaki Committees
Iwi representatives will be the only non-elected members still able to vote on Taranaki Regional Council committees - but farmers will lose their vote.

A fortnight ago local government minister Simon Watts had a law passed to ban voting by people appointed to council committees, saying limiting voting to elected councillors would strengthen democratic accountability.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 5 - School Property, Attendance And Discipline 1877-1899

In the video below Episode 5 is about how school inspectors, parents, and teachers contributed to setting up an entire national system in an under-developed land. The inspectors wrote vivid descriptions of crowded classrooms, poor ventilation, grounds covered with logs. They also described saddle sheds, sanitation, attractive school grounds and gardens. Children's nourishment and health was a major concern with strong connections forged between the systems of public education and public health.

Bob Edlin: Rainbow requirements and Treaty obligations......

......the HR issues that impede productivity but enhance diversity

PoO noted a Newsroom report headed Major export and construction firms warn against legal definition of women.

The report draws attention to objections raised to the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill, which aims to amend the Legislation Act to define “woman” as “an adult human biological female” and “man” as “an adult human biological male”.

Richard Prebble: The Future Never Comes

New Zealand First’s big promise this election is a Future Fund.

The Future Fund looks like a recycled version of the Provincial Growth Fund, but this time on steroids.

The Provincial Growth Fund was to be a $3 billion fund for “regional development”. Regional development turned out to include refurbishing 347 marae.

It also included $52 million for the loss-making Whakatōhea mussel farm in Ōpōtiki.

Ani O'Brien: Could Opportunity really work with the Right?

Ask whether The Opportunity Party are left or right and they tell you they are neither. They are “centrist”, they say, and they are teal. The three pillars that underpin their ethos are “Unity, Innovation, and Nature” and they describe themselves as a “blue-green party”. They believe that industry and nature can grow together, rail against “divisive, pendulum politics”, and promise to be a constructive MMP kingmaker rather than just another tribal appendage of either bloc.