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.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.10.26

Wednesday October 21, 2026 

News:
National's marine reserve promise raises questions from frustrated locals
A National Party promise to set up a marine reserve off Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf is raising questions from frustrated locals.

Iwi say the party shouldn't be promising anything without their involvement, and a community group which has been asking for a marine reserve since 2021 wants to know why it's taken so long to get a decision.

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.

Caleb Anderson: Fascism - the uncomfortable truth

It is pretty standard for the far left to throw the accusation of fascism at the political or institutional right. This has become common currency when the left encounter something, or someone, they don't like.

It saves arguing the case. Just throw the insult, and assume it will stick. Throw it often, and it becomes orthodoxy.

Richard Prebble: It is bizarre

Every election one sees the bizarre, but Christopher Luxon’s actions are inexplicable.

I saw on TV Luxon campaigning in Epsom with Paul Goldsmith. Goldsmith was claiming he would be a good electorate MP. I laughed.

A friend of Goldsmith’s told me that Paul has often said how lucky he is not to be an electorate MP. Being National’s flag bearer in Epsom he gets a high list place, no one expects him to win, campaign seriously or do constituency work.

Kerre Woodham: Will changing the right to silence allow justice to be served?

National is promising to take away the right to silence in child murder cases if re-elected. Which might be an enormously popular move. Who doesn't want to see somebody held accountable for the deaths of so many babies and children in this country over the years? But I hope they've done their homework on how exactly they're going to force people to speak and what the unintended consequences might be.

Douglas Elliffe: A Tale of Two Meetings

Last month I attended the Free Speech Union’s annual conference to hear panel discussion of hate speech between Andrew Doyle, Samira Taghavi and David Cumin, chaired by Tim Wilson of the Maxim Institute. Naturally, the audience was alive to the dangers of governmental restriction on free speech and the implicit reintroduction of blasphemy laws, and the panel shared those concerns.

Penny Marie: Make Your Vote Count - Maurice Williamson on Why 2026 Is Like No Other MMP Election

Maurice Williamson explains the complexities of New Zealand’s voting system and why 2026 is different to all previous elections

This week on People in Politics I sat down with Maurice Williamson: National MP for 30 years from 1987, holder of 18 ministerial portfolios, front-bench Cabinet minister, and later New Zealand’s Consul General in the United States. In his own words, he is still “at heart a right-wing free market Tory”, and he is “frightened as hell” about what happens if the other side forms the next government.

That is why he is urging National supporters to think hard about their party vote on 7 November. He is not telling you to abandon National. He wants you to use both your votes so they actually do something.

Guest Post: Max Harris

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Juliet Moses:

I recently heard Max Harris, the Labour Party candidate for Tamaki, speak at an event. He introduced himself as having a “strong moral compass”.

That’s a bit odd, I thought, and more than a bit self-righteous. Sometimes you hear someone describing someone else that way, but not self-identifying as such. I decided it warranted more investigation.

Mike's Minute: Do you know the policies of the party you're voting for? Or does it not matter?

One of Opportunity's polices is to stop you from using your KiwiSaver for first home purchases.

The big question around that policy is - did you know that?

Everyone, and I mean everyone, I have talked to that is even contemplating supporting Opportunity can't name a single one of their policies out side of land tax and universal incomes, which ironically, although they were the ideas that got them to prominence, didn’t actually make the so-called "bottom line" reveal.

 Tuesday October 20, 2026 

                   ⇩

1News Verian Poll: National jumps, leaving Labour’s position perilous

Christopher Luxon’s National Party has surged four points to open a five-point lead over Labour in the latest 1News Verian poll, its strongest result since February.

John Raine: The Left is Up for Co-Governance – Could this Mean a Future Ethnocracy?

In an Ideal World……

Most New Zealanders want to live in a unified country where all have equal rights under the law, while respecting the cultures and traditions of the many ethnicities that make up our population - over 200 in the 2023 population census. Of these, the four major groups self-identified as:

• European – 67.8%
• Māori – 17.8%
• Asian – 17.3%
• Pacific Peoples – 8.9%

Wendy Geus: Luxon refuses help to save the Coalition, prefers political oblivion

…. and left wing media panic as it becomes clear their guys might lose

'We need to inject more ACTness into the Coalition' reads a comment on David Farrar's Kiwiblog. Yes, I thought, this is truly a watershed moment, when voters can give ACT (and NZ First) the power to stop the hushed up marxist tyranny in the public service, operating under the guise of eliminating racism and threats to diversity. Ardern would be proud.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Greens and Te Pāti Māori are committed to digging this hole deeper

Unbelievably, the Mongrel Mob drama is still rolling on. It's been six days.

A video has emerged from the hui at the gang pad in which Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara tells the Mongrel Mob that Te Pāti Māori's policies would reinstate what should have existed all along.

Chris Penk: Central and local government love blaming each other. Voters don’t care

What’s the difference between local and central government?

While that might sound like the start of a joke – and some would maintain it is – actually it’s a pretty serious question this election.

Both tend to maintain that they alone are true representatives of the people. And, in fairness, each would have some justification for that claim. Councils are closer to action on the ground, so might just be more in touch with citizens. On the other hand, ministers and other MPs are scrutinised much more closely, so we may feel more responsive in that sense.