DTNZ: $104K ransom demanded after Manage My Health hack

Hackers have demanded a ransom of NZD $104,000 after breaching the Manage My Health patient portal over the summer break, exposing the medical data of tens of thousands of New Zealanders.

Speaking to The Post, the company confirmed the cyber-security incident was a ransomware attack, with the attackers seeking US$60,000 (NZD$104,000) to release the compromised data. A decision had not yet been made on whether to pay the ransom.

Ani O'Brien: What is happening in Iran and what has caused the new year unrest?

Iran on the brink: economic collapse, protest, and international reaction

After five days of anti-regime protests in Iran, the New Zealand media is still not reporting meaningfully on the significant events besides a handful of earlier articles. What concerns me is that New Zealanders who aren’t on X likely think they are still being served up to date news by our news media. However, the 24 hour news cycle has been dead here for some time and New Zealanders don’t even know what stories they are missing out on.

I’m sure there is a reason we have wall-to-wall coverage of an accidental fire in Switzerland, but little on potential revolution in Iran. I’m not sure there is a good reason though.

On New Years Day, I received several messages on X asking me what was going on and why the media wasn’t reporting on it. While answering the latter is increasingly difficult, I decided to gather up info from international sources, add a bit of my own historical knowledge for context and attempt to answer the former.

Dr James Allan: The Marvellous Miseries of Multiculturalism

I start this first column of the new year with the heavy heart that I am sure all our readers have for the families of the victims of the horrific mass-murders on Bondi Beach just before Christmas. And let us not deal in the usual Labour Party euphemisms, misdirecting abstractions and Kumbaya platitudes. This was the deliberate attempt to murder Jews, by Islamic extremists, done solely because they wanted to kill Jews. And they did, with the odd non-Jewish bystander thrown in. That makes Australia, outside of Israel itself, the country where the most Jews have been murdered in a single incident since the Second World War.

Emmanuel Rincon: Sanctions Didn’t Destroy Venezuela’s Economy — Socialism Did

In recent weeks, the debate over Venezuela has intensified, largely due to the military pressure that the Trump Administration has placed on Maduro’s regime. This has led various political figures, journalists, and analysts to revisit Venezuela’s recent history and the causes that drove the Maduro regime to provoke the worst economic collapse ever recorded in the Western world — an 80 percent GDP contraction in less than a decade. The crisis becomes even more shocking when considering that Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Stefan Bartl: Liberty Creates Abundance - How Free Markets Feed Families

Thanksgiving draws people, regardless of race or creed, together around a table heavy with food and laughter. At its center sits a golden turkey, but it’s the sides (mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and gravy) that spark the most excitement. American football murmurs from the television as plates and hands cross the table, passing dishes with the casual choreography of family life.

This is, in spirit, the very scene Frédéric Bastiat once imagined when he marveled at how Paris was fed each morning. “It staggers the imagination,” he wrote, “to comprehend the vast multiplicity of objects that must pass through its gates tomorrow… And yet all are sleeping peacefully at this moment.” No single mind coordinates the miracle and yet, it happens.

Friday January 2, 2026 

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Breaking Views Update: Week of 28.12.25

Friday January 2, 2026 

News:
Understanding the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Customary Marine Title Amendment Act — What It Means for Māori Rights and the Coastline
A significant legal shift affecting how Māori can secure customary marine title over the marine and coastal area has now been cemented in law. The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Act 2025 reflects changes agreed through Parliament following a lengthy process of debate, public submissions and legal interpretation that has spanned several years.

Best of 2025: Ryan Bridge - We shouldn't have to work for the government

Do you know what's really starts to rub me the wrong way?

It's governments telling us to do more things.

This morning, we've got the government coming out with yet another hotline.

Andrew Wilford: Rich People Won’t Just Sit Still While You Tax Them

As New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani prepares to take office, tax-happy progressive groups are eager to let you know that the idea that rich people move because of taxes is all a big myth. There are no consequences to raising taxes on rich people, they argue, because rich people will be rich no matter what.

It’s a pretty picture, and a convenient one for those who have never met anything economically productive that they didn’t want to tax. The only problem is that the data proves it just isn’t true.

The 2,500-year history of ice-cream

We all scream for ice-cream, especially as temperatures soar in the summer. Ancient civilisations had the same desire for a cold, sweet treat to cope with heat waves.

There are plenty of contenders claiming credit for the first frozen desserts, from Italy and France in the 17th century to China in the first century.

But before you can make ice-cream, you need a reliable source of ice. The technology to make and store ice was originally developed in Persia (modern-day Iran) in 550 BCE.

John Robertson: When Bloodlines Run the Country

Look, New Zealand is doing something straight-up weird, and most people feel it but can’t quite name it. We live in a country that calls itself modern and fair, but the truth is, the system treats citizens differently depending on where your ancestors came from. You didn’t do anything. You didn’t vote wrong. You didn’t rob anyone. But if your grandparents arrived on the wrong waka, you get less say. And somehow, everyone pretends this is noble. This is madness.

Turn on the six o’clock news and it’s the same song: colonisation, Treaty this, partnership that, ancestral rights everywhere. Every week, like a broken record. You’ve got bureaucrats talking about “co-governance” and “Treaty principles,” like they’re some kind of holy law, while ordinary people—mum and dad, the bloke down the street—just nod along because everyone’s too scared to say it out loud. And the stuff they’re talking about? Mostly dead people. Most of it happened 200 years ago. Yet we let it decide who gets a real say in 2026. That’s not democracy. That’s backward-ass apartheid with a fancy accent.

David Farrar: A sensible merger

The Government announced:

The Government has today confirmed the establishment of a new Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT), to support the Government’s ambitious reform agenda in housing, transport, urban development and the environment.

Richard Prebble: Election 2026 a toss-up as Luxon India deal, AI revolution reshape economy

I asked ChatGPT to assess my 17 predictions for 2025.

Two were wrong.

I said the Ukraine War would end and that the US Constitution would constrain US President Donald Trump.

ChatGPT judged eight predictions, such as my calls that the economy would recover and that the next election would be a toss-up, to be unresolved.

DTNZ: U.K. study undermines claim that CO2 drives ‘climate change’

A global analysis of long-term temperature records has found a weak-to-non-existent relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and the rate of global warming, challenging a central assumption behind many current ‘climate policies’.

The study by Queen’s University in Belfast, UK was completed in August of this year.

David Farrar: Own goal by Starmer

Alaa Abdel Fattah has been a prisoner in Egypt on dubious charges, and may have been tortured there. It is right and proper for the UK Government to advocate (as he gained British citizenship) for his human rights to be respected.

But Starmer did a huge own goal by going beyond that and declaring that he is delighted Alaa Abdel Fattah is in the UK and that his case has been a top priority for the Government.

Thursday January 1, 2026 

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Judy Gill: Te reo Māori, taonga and the question of responsibility

Te reo Māori is frequently described as a taonga—sacred, tapu, precious—and the Treaty of Waitangi is often invoked to argue that the state therefore bears an obligation to protect it.

Increasingly, a further claim is added: that difficulty learning te reo Māori today is driven by “intergenerational trauma”. This article questions whether that trauma framework is being used with conceptual precision and evidential discipline, and whether it explains contemporary language outcomes better than simpler factors such as age, literacy, educational quality, and language use in the home.

John Robertson: ACC and Maori healing

Let’s not kid ourselves. ACC is supposed to be a taxpayer-funded injury insurer. You pay your levies. You get hurt. They fix you with stuff that actually works — medicine, science, evidence. That’s the deal. That’s the social contract.

But somewhere along the line, metaphysical mumbo-jumbo has snuck in and taken over. ACC is now paying for Rongoā Māori, a so-called “healing program” built on Māori spiritual beliefs. And at the heart of it? Tikanga.

Greg Bouwer: A Libel Revived - The False Narrative of Jewish Hatred Toward Christians in Israel

A persistent and pernicious myth has resurfaced in global discourse: that Jews in Jerusalem (and by extension, Israelis as a whole) harbour contempt for Christians, regularly expressed through acts of public disdain such as spitting on clergy and pilgrims. In some corners of social media and anti-Israel activism, this claim is treated not as a fringe concern but as a reflection of Jewish identity and Israeli character.

This is not just a distortion. It is a revival of an old libel in modern form — a cynical inversion of reality, deliberately weaponised to undermine Israel’s moral standing and smear the Jewish people.

From BreakingViews archives: Fiona MacKenzie - The “Land Back” Pogrom — Most Kiwis Don’t See It Coming

(Note: To reduce word count and aid understanding, Māori words have been omitted where possible.)

New Zealanders who pay attention to the slow creep of our political and legal institutions have every reason to feel uneasy. Many believed the 2023 election would halt the advance of racial division and restore a government committed to equal citizenship. Instead, the Coalition—particularly the National Party —seems schizophrenically determined to avoid offending those who demand ever-expanding tribal privilege. Far from dismantling race-based policy, it is still normalising it in much legislation and policy.