Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do New Zealanders really want a capital gains tax?

Well, I don't know what's worse for Labour - the fact that they've announced a capital gains tax policy again today, or the fact that someone leaked it and forced them to announce it in a rush.

Obviously, it does suck for them that somebody leaked it first, because it means that they were so unprepared that they had to rush-job announce it in an email at 3:05 this morning.

Erica Stanford: Refreshed national curriculum to raise achievement

Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the release of the full draft of New Zealand’s new Year 1–10 curriculum, another significant step toward delivering a world-leading education system for every learner in New Zealand.

“This is a major milestone. It’s been almost 20 years since our New Zealand Curriculum was last fully updated, much has changed in our country and the world since then. Going forward, New Zealand will have a clear, knowledge-rich, year-by-year curriculum that sets out what every child should learn and when, ensuring consistency, coherence, and a fairer education system,” Ms Stanford says.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 26.10.25

Wednesday October 29, 2025 

News:
Supporters and MPs fume as Te Pāti Māori tries suspending MP, who threatens legal action
Te Pāti Māori members and MPs are divided as the party’s leadership attempts to suspend its own MP, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi.

But it’s unclear how Kapa-Kingi will be suspended, or if the party’s leadership has the backing of its MPs to suspend her. Her son is now threatening legal action against Te Pāti Māori, saying it “refuses to comply with their own legally binding constitution”.

David Round: Thoughts for our Time - Article 5

Representative democracy works only for as long as the elected representatives are ready to respect the wishes of the electors. There may sometimes be a tension between the wishes of the electors and the conscientious beliefs of the elected ~ the great Edmund Burke was among those who argued that a Member of Parliament was not a mere mouthpiece to repeat unthinkingly what his electors told him, but also had a duty to his (or her) own honest sincere convictions. But Burke would also have agreed, of course, that MPs are obliged to serve their electors to the best of their ability, should strive, at least, to represent their wishes, and in any case should always respect them.

Ani O'Brien: Labour offers Kiwis about $4.27 a week in exchange for CGT

Tax-to-spend is not what New Zealand needs

Just a quick reaction to Labour’s CGT announcement from me borrowing from a few economists social media commentary. Super rushed so excuse typos.

Labour’s post-long-weekend promise lands with a familiar thud… a shiny new tax to fund a shiny new entitlement. Chris Hipkins announced Labour would introduce a narrow capital gains tax (CGT) on profits from investment and commercial properties sold after July 2027. The money, he says, will fund a “Medicard” providing three free GP visits per year.

DTNZ: ‘AI Scribe Tool’ to be rolled out to 1,000 emergency doctors

An artificial intelligence scribe tool will soon be deployed to 1,000 doctors and frontline staff in emergency departments nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced.

The technology, designed to reduce the time clinicians spend on paperwork, automatically records consultations and drafts clinical notes, referral letters, and follow-up summaries for doctors to review and confirm.

Philip Crump: Trump's Crypto World

The pardoning of Binance founder CZ last week has given a glimpse at the sensational personal deal-making at the heart of Trump's administration.

A hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term has been his fervent embrace of cryptocurrency, transforming a once-niche sector into a cornerstone of American economic ambition. From signing an executive order in January 2025 to establish a Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, to unveiling the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile in March, Trump has delivered on campaign pledges to position the United States as the “crypto capital of the world.”

Mike's Minute: Winston tells it like it is on courts

First, a quick question on the Oxford Union.

We thought it was a thing when David Lange turned up all those years ago, but since then Willie Jackson, David Seymour and now Winston Peters have appeared.

So does that diminish its exclusiveness?

Yvonne Van Dongen: On Netsafe and Pronouns

Who are they protecting?

Netsafe is billed as an independent non-profit organisation promoting safe and responsible use of online technology. The charity earns almost $7m providing goods and services to government departments such as Education and Justice and employs 32 full-time employees and two part-time.

Eliora: The Fallout From This Legislation

The effect of Ardern’s Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill has irreversibly damaged young people’s lives and their families.

We seriously question how Ardern and her Labour MPs sleep at night. In fact, we don’t know how most of the MPs who were in parliament in 2022 sleep at night.

Bob Edlin: Electoral law........

Electoral law: if a spiritual leader’s flock needs protection against politicking in churches, what about marae?

New Zealand prides itself on being a secular society, notwithstanding the prayer said at the beginning of each day in Parliament, references to God in the national anthem and two Christian holidays, Good Friday and Christmas Day, being days when most shops are required to close.

But who knew that election campaigning is prohibited in churches?

David Farrar: Structured literacy is working

Erica Stanford released the following data on new school entrants:

• 58 per cent of students were at or above expectations, up from 36 per cent in Term 1.

• 43 per cent of students exceeded expectations in Term 3, more than double the Term 1 rate.

Tuesday October 28, 2025 

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Pee Kay: Upholding our treaty obligations - Political disguise for ethnic grift?

Just prior to winning the 2023 election, in an interview with Mike Hosking Chris Luxon said – “It’s all about management and my personal experience is that CEOs get different results with different management using the same amount of money. So, it’s what you do with it – and expectations and clarity, and bringing in all those CEOs before Christmas and saying ‘hang on, here’s the new deal, the deal is you have to deliver, you have to deliver’ … that’s what I’m sick of, absolutely sick of, all the talk and no action.”

The CEO’s he was “absolutely sick of” were the public servants heading government departments.

I’ll let you into a secret Chris. So the bloody hell are we!

Lindsay Mitchell: Same-old, same-old

The Social Investment Agency is a creation of the National government. It kicked off in July 2024 and is headed by the former police commissioner Andrew Coster.

According to Nicola Willis, “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for all New Zealanders... So we’re taking a different approach. We want to look beyond good intentions in our policy-making and use hard evidence to invest in what works. Our new approach builds on better social science evidence and advances in technology."

That sounds promising. A break with the old.

Brendan O'Neill: What the West could learn from Israel

Hostages Square in Tel Aviv is quiet now. The paraphernalia of hope remains. Yellow ribbons dance in the breeze. The flap of a hundred Israel flags breaks the silence. There’s still the burnt-out car that was recovered from the ‘road of death’ in the south, where Hamas slaughtered fleeing families on 7 October 2023. I look inside at its blackened remains, the squelched leather, the warped metal, and wince at the thought of what suffering must have unfolded in this suffocating space. In one corner of the square is an unsteady pile of placards featuring the faces of the 251 Israelis seized two years ago: the retired equipment of a moral movement no longer needed.

Kevin: Some Good News for You Boomers

You now have science on your side.

We know you like to think you’re smarter, wiser and more mature than all those youngsters. The good news is that you now have science on your side.

Bruce Cotterill: Seven long‑term agreements to secure New Zealand’s future

A few weeks back, the Prime Minister wrote a letter to the Leader of the Opposition, urging him to join a bipartisan agreement committing to offshore gas exploration for 10 years.

Unfortunately, the Labour leader dismissed the letter as a “political stunt”. I took the letter a lot more seriously. In fact, it got me thinking.

David Farrar: Not bad for first time

The Post reports:

About one in five ACT local candidates won the seats they stand for and party leader David Seymour says he’s happy more weren’t successful because now they can stand to run for Parliament.

“In some cases, I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t get elected so we can run them next year,” he told The Post.

Damien Grant: Our self-important broadcasting censors need to be reined in

In terms of bureaucratic overreach, few rival that of Sejanus building statues to himself. He was Emperor Tiberius’ man in Rome, while the degenerate sovereign luxuriated on Capri and, left alone for too long, Sejanus believed himself impervious to supervision.

He wasn’t, and his career was ended in a typically brutal Roman fashion.

There are many similar examples in the two millennia since, where middling civil servants assume more power than is good for them. It is a classic principal-agent problem and we have had a perfect example last week in the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA).