Richard Prebble: Who won the election campaign opening?

As a former campaign manager, we used to measure the success of a campaign by the size of the crowds.

Both major parties use to hire the biggest hall, the Auckland Town Hall, which holds 1,529.

Campaign meetings were open to the public. We measured enthusiasm by the numbers who could not get in.

JC: What Are We Looking For

I refer to the types of parties’ policies we, as right-wing conservative voters, would like to see at the forthcoming election. Anything from the left will not sit comfortably so we must look to the three parties on the right. We must start from the base that there is no one party that is going to address everything we may want. Therefore each party has to be looked at individually in each policy area.

Peter Williams: Splitting your vote - It’s the only way

The latest 1News poll tells us what we’ve known for a while. National can only get back to power through its electorate MPs

The arrogance of the National Party is reaching peak level nonsense. There was the still revered former leader John Key at the campaign launch telling the faithful that anything other than “two ticks National” could result in cabinet ministers from parties other than National.

Well blow me down with a feather. Isn’t that the whole point of a coalition government?

Javier Milei: Argentina President Milei’s UN takedown

Mr. President, Heads of State, representatives of the peoples of the world.

Today I address you for the third time as President of all Argentines.

When we took office of a country in ruins, on the brink of the worst crisis in its history, one thing was clear to us from the outset: we had to confront our problems with absolute honesty.

Dave Patterson: China’s Presence in the Arctic a Growing Concern

Beijing’s presence in the Arctic is no secret – but it is a cause for concern. China, which euphemistically calls itself a “near-Arctic country,” has for several years become an increasingly frequent presence in the Arctic. A recent intrusion by the PRC prompted close monitoring of the Chinese vessel. Rear Admiral Bob Little, Commander of the US Coast Guard’s Arctic District, told Reuters: “So far in 2026, four Chinese research vessels have conducted work offshore in the US Arctic, compared to a total of five in 2025.”

Ashley Church: Did Israel have advance knowledge of 7 October?

Separating what was known from what wasn't

There’s a theory about Pearl Harbor that has been circulating almost since the day the Japanese attacked the American Pacific Fleet on 7 December 1941.

It says that President Franklin Roosevelt knew the attack was coming and allowed it to happen because he wanted the United States to enter the Second World War and needed an event dramatic enough to change American public opinion.

It’s a compelling story, which probably explains why it has survived for more than 80 years. There’s just one problem. There’s no credible evidence that it happened.

Bob Edlin: Yes, voters favoured scrapping the Maori Health Authority....

....but the Waitangi Tribunal wants it resurrected

By finding that the Luxon Government failed to do all sorts of things when it scrapped the Māori Health Authority, the Waitangi Tribunal has buttressed the case for its disestablishment which ACT and New Zealand First are promoting.

In a report released on Friday, the tribunal examined the Crown’s process for developing plans to address Māori health in place of a Māori health authority.

Bob Edlin: MBIE mandarins (it seems) have left Ministers out in the cold....

.....when it comes to overheated housing

PoO noted an RNZ report which said:

Advocates for people living in overheating new builds are dismayed that officials will not consider comprehensive changes to fix the issue until 2031.

Residents of the glut of townhouses and apartments built in the last few years have repeatedly raised concerns about dangerous heat in their homes during summer, because of common design flaws.

Tuesday September 29, 2026 

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Why John Key Is Wrong - Maurice Williamson Exposes MMP Vote Splitting.

Is splitting your vote clever or a massive gamble? In this episode of Duncan Garner: Editor-in-Chief, former National minister and mathematician Maurice Williamson joins Duncan to lay out why he believes centre-right voters should split their votes this election.

Click to view

Ryan Bridge: What strategic voting will do

There's an irony to this latest poll which won't be lost on Labour.

It is of course one poll and should be read as such.

The big parties are getting smaller, and the smaller parties are getting bigger.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 27.9.26

Tuesday September 29, 2026 

News:
PM Christopher Luxon says ‘very legitimate question’ about Waitangi Tribunal
The Prime Minister is refusing to be drawn before the election on whether National would get rid of the Waitangi Tribunal.

It follows Saturday’s announcement from National’s coalition partner NZ First that the party would abolish the tribunal if re-elected, replacing it with a body tasked with completing historical treaty claims.

Pee Kay: Smoke, Mirrors, and Supermarkets

National Side-steps the Economic Drivers They Actually Control

Right now, National is playing a masterful game of economic misdirection. While Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis demand accountability from supermarket executives, National actively side-steps the massive economic drivers they actually control. It’s a convenient distraction; if the public is busy blaming the price of cheese, nobody asks why the governments own strategy is completely failing.

New Zealand’s grocery sector, well the locally owned ones, have been in the cross hairs of a number of our political parties over the last few weeks.

Geoff Parker: The NZ Herald's Cherry-Picked History.

The facts the Herald left out

The Weekend Herald's article (26 Sep 2026) “Horse trading: The troubling history of Māori-Pākehā land deals” presents a highly selective account of New Zealand's land history. It takes readers through disputed purchases, confiscations, the Native Land Court and Treaty settlements, while giving far less attention to the events that preceded those grievances.

That matters because history is chronology. If the beginning of an episode is removed, the events that follow can be made to look entirely different.

The Herald has published its version. Here are the facts it leaves out.

Kerre Woodham: Both parties' launches reeked of desperation

The election campaign officially kicked off over the weekend with the two main parties, but honestly, it feels like we've been in campaign mode for years now.

National and Labour gathered their party faithful in their respective happy places: the swanky International Convention Centre for the blue team, Dew Drop Events Centre in South Auckland for the red team.

Amy Gallagher: I Was Forced Out of an NHS Training Course for My Belief in Colour-Blind Meritocracy.....

.....It’s Time for the Courts to Intervene

In 2020, I enrolled at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust to become a psychotherapist. Infamous now for its disbanded Gender Identity Development Service, the Tavistock was one of the first NHS trusts to declare itself an ‘anti-racist’ organisation. As part of my training, it pushed its policy seminar, “Whiteness: a problem for our time”, where, it claimed, “a key and urgent question then for those of us who are regarded as White is, how do we interrogate our whiteness?” I was told I needed to view all white people as racist as it was the Tavistock’s official ‘anti-racist’ stance.

Colinxy: Who Actually Governs NZ?

A Genealogy of Bureaucratic Power in a Country That Pretends Ministers Are in Charge

Every few years, New Zealanders rediscover the same uncomfortable truth: the people they elect do not actually run the country. Ministers announce, promise, and posture. Bureaucrats decide, delay, and deny. The public service is the permanent government; ministers are the temporary decoration.

Peter Williams: On Politics

Nothing appears to have changed much in New Zealand politics in the month that I’ve been out of the country. The National Party continues to be a major disappointment in terms of both policy and election strategy, the Maori Party just gets weirder and weirder, Labour is backtracking on policy, and I still can’t make up my mind whether I party vote for ACT or NZ First.

And then there’s the media.

Ashley Church: Can we still rock the Casbah?

Why has the left turned its back on the Iranian people?

Those of us of a certain age will hear the words Rock the Casbah and be immediately transported back to 1982 and one of the most distinctive songs of that era.

Released by British Punk band, The Clash, it went on to become one of their biggest international hits – but behind the cheesy video (which you can easily find on YouTube) and the ridiculously catchy chorus was something much more serious because the song was inspired by what was happening in Iran in the years immediately following the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Richard Prebble: Who really pays tax?

The poll this week on tax finds that only 4 percent of people think they should pay more tax, while 64 percent support a wealth tax.

I wonder if the pollster had read this statement first, would it have changed the answer?