Kerre Woodham: Why does everyone have to march to Labour's educational drumbeat?

This election is highlighting yet another war being fought on the ideological battleground that is education. Charter schools, as they operate now, are in the sights of Labour because they're doing something different. To be fair, Labour's never liked the idea of schools operating under their own curriculum. Nothing new there. As Chris Hipkins told Mike Hosking this morning, they're all for new ideas in education, so long as the schools follow the party line.

Karl du Fresne: I wrote this in 2008 and wouldn't change a word

I wrote this column about MMP 18 years ago and wouldn’t change a word. Some of the references are dated (United Future, the Tight Five, Alamein Koopu) but the system remains as flawed now as it was then.

This year, in case it has escaped your attention, is an election year. And as with every election since 1996, it will be conducted under the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system.

Major General John G Howard: Two steps behind - why Wellington needs faster intelligence

This year's NZSIS Security Threat Environment report lists many threats facing New Zealand. But one of the biggest is not on its list: the Government has more useful intelligence than ever before, yet it is not digesting that intelligence fast enough to matter.

Ministers need faster briefings that turn intelligence into policy choices before events move on. To achieve this, Cabinet requires a decision-support process fit for today.

Dr Michael Johnston: Ritual Punishment

Human beings have a tendency to blame and punish others for their misfortunes.

The ancient Greeks turned this tendency into a ritual called pharmakos. When plague, famine or another disaster struck a city, its people drove one of their own out to purge their misfortune. Victims of pharmakos had done nothing to cause the calamity, although they were usually considered socially undesirable.

The election campaign has revived this ancient ritual.

Ele Ludemann: When aggressors become victims

If people had used the March 15th Christchurch mosque attacks to vilify the victims, there would have been national and international outrage.

But since Hamas invaded Israel three years ago, torturing, raping and imprisoning innocent people of all ages, it’s the victims who have been vilified with Jews all over the world subject to verbal and physical attacks.

The attacks have been minimised and those who took part in the atrocities excused, even supported.

 Saturday October 10, 2026 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 4.10.26

Saturday October 10, 2026 

News:
Ngāti Whātua contacts McLaren over Remuera and Muriwai trademark bid
An international supercar firm says it “deeply respects” New Zealand’s cultural heritage after applying to trademark two Māori place names in Auckland.

But Ngāti Whātua says “no one has spoken to us” about the application by British company McLaren. Māori leaders have now contacted the carmaker after being alerted to the legal bid by the Herald.

Dame Elizabeth Rata: Episode 6 - Inspectors and the Examination System 1877 - 1899

The video below discusses "The aim of our national system of education is development—intellectual, moral, and physical". These are the words of the Otago inspectors in 1899. Episode 5 is about the key role of the remarkable men who were the school inspectors.

Richard Prebble: The question at the heart of this election

“Is it morally acceptable for any one person to be a billionaire?”

Jack Tame asked both leaders.

It says something about New Zealand — or perhaps TVNZ — that the question was asked.

More remarkable was that neither Christopher could answer yes or no.

Roger Partridge: Who Makes the Judges?......

......(And why the process is not what Parliament laid out)

This article was first published in LawNews on 8 October 2026. It is part of a series on how the New Zealand Supreme Court has upset the balance of the constitution by straying out of its lane – and what can be done about it.

Appointments to the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court come down to a list of no more than three names. Who decides which names make the list is not straightforward, even if you have read the relevant statute.

Bob Edlin: When names are gifted by Maori, they stick....

......even if a majority of submissions are opposed

Call a kaumatua and ask for a new name to be “gifted”.

That’s our advice to Green MP Julie Anne Genter, who is miffed about the name the Electoral Commission has given to the electorate which she hopes to represent in the next Parliament.

Names that have been “gifted” by local Maori have a strong chance of being adopted by public authorities.

David Farrar: Should NZ join the EU?

Simon Bridges writes:

This came to mind recently when EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen got cosy with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at her 2026 state of the union address over Canada becoming an “associate member” of the European Union. If it’s good enough for them, why not us Kiwis?

Caleb Anderson: Authenticity and the Unexamined Life

Socrates is known for his claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. What did he mean by that, and what implications does this have?

I have spent thousands of hours counselling others, often young people. I have been struck by an explosion in the number of young people (and not so young people) who seem devoid of direction, desperate for certainty, lost in the convenience of dogma.

Graham Adams: Is criticism of Māori culture permitted at Massey Uni?

Last month, a member of the public filed a formal complaint against Massey University’s Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger that raises a fundamental question: Are university staff allowed to publicly criticise aspects of Māori culture — whether spiritual beliefs, tikanga, language, life choices or history — without attracting official investigation or censure?

The complainant sent a 3100-word missive to the Vice-Chancellor in a belated response to five columns the professor had co-written three years ago that discussed university funding, decolonisation and mātauranga Māori.

Rodney Hide: Raine showed us the lecture room. Here's the staffroom.

John Raine has laid bare what our universities teach students. The University of Auckland's new gender equity plan shows the same machinery aimed at staff: hiring, promotion and annual reviews. No budget, no targets.

"I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now," writes Emeritus Professor John Raine in The indoctrination must stop but Labour would double down. "Not so fast, some warned - they were right!"

Andrew Dickens: These flip flops from the right and the left need to stop

I had to chuckle after yesterday's interview with Mr Abercrombie from the PPTA who grudgingly accepted that improvements to the education sector by the government is a factor in teacher registrations being up 40 per cent this year.

Mr Abercrombie, other industry advocates and the Labour led opposition have been dead set against the changes but now they’re slowly admitting that things are better.

Mike's Minute: Like children, our problems are for others to solve

I tell you who should be feeling good this election campaign: political parties.

If the commentary and expectation I'm seeing so far is truly representative of where we are at in this country, as consumers we have slipped back into a gliding-on type world of the 1970's.

Peter Dunne: Leaders Debate

The first leaders' debate was a dismal affair. Neither leader was persuasive, nor were their responses especially convincing. Both failed to achieve the circuit breaker each was seeking to reinvigorate their currently stalling campaigns. Together, their performances explain why the two major parties are attracting the lowest combined support levels since MMP was introduced thirty years ago.

Brendan O'Neill: Gaza: the most lied about war in history

Finally, on the third anniversary of 7 October, the left’s empire of falsehoods against Israel is starting to crumble.

What would you call a country that is experiencing one of the highest levels of population growth on Earth? How would you describe a country where the child malnutrition levels are similar to those of that industrial powerhouse of Europe, Germany? What would you say about a nation that was in receipt of so much food aid that at one stage around 3,163 calories were available per person, per day? I’ll tell you what you couldn’t say: that that country is suffering one of the most demonic genocides in history. That its people are being forcibly starved. That its pain finds no parallel in the annals of human wickedness.

 Friday October 9, 2026 

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