John McLean: Taupo District Council offloads to Tuwharetoa

An Ethno Mystic Council will shortly hand the reins to a Māori tribe

The Taupō District Council has a “Joint Management Agreement” with The Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board - the statutory board that represents the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Māori tribe. The Joint Management Agreement was entered into in 2009 and gave Ngāti Tūwharetoa unprecedented decision-making powers in resource consenting.

The 2009 JMA looks nothing like the final draft of a replacement JMA that the Taupō District Council and Tūwharetoa will almost certainly enter into before the end of July 2025. You can read the replacement JMA here:

Matua Kahurangi: Sick of the haka, over the welcome to country?

The other night, I was sitting down watching some Australian live TV through Kodi when I was hit with one of those painfully predictable rituals - a "Welcome to Country." Just when I thought the haka had reached peak cringe in New Zealand, Australia said, "Hold my XXXX Gold."

Caleb Anderson: Are our politicians really accountable?

I suspect that I am not alone in feeling that our politicians are not accountable in the ways many other New Zealanders are accountable, or in a way that many of us would consider truly, genuinely, accountable.

The refrain that they are accountable at the ballot box doesn't quite cut it.

Clive Bibby: The minor parties in the Government Coalition are proving to be its greatest strength

This weeks’s unsurprising but welcome poll result reinforces the opinions expressed in this column in more ways than one. And I expect the dramatic increase in support for the Coalition’s minor parties at the expense of Labour’s creaky alliance to continue until election day. 

Last election I voted strategically wanting to ensure a National led Government - I gave my Electorate vote to National and my Party vote to Act.

Net Zero Samizdat: Labour’s Net Zero plans collide with political and economic reality

UK

UK abandons zonal pricing

Ed Miliband has dropped zonal pricing plans amid fears of investor backlash and higher bills for southern households. The Guardian reports that the Energy Secretary is under pressure from Number 10 to show when his reforms will lower bills. Net Zero Watch welcomed the news on zonal pricing, calling the proposal a “sticking plaster” that avoids fixing the core issue. 

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time - 12 July 2025

A NZ Politics weekly wrap-up

Ex-MPs gone wild

Disgraced former politicians Kiri Allan and Golriz Ghahraman both crashed out of Parliament in a spectacular fashion and their actions continue to haunt them. After a battle with NZ Police and the Ombudsman, the media were finally able to get more details on what happened the night former Justice Minister Kiri Allan’s career crashed along with the Crown car she was driving. Police records show that Allan was “verbally abusive” and demanded that her court summons be made to “disappear”. She also said “words to the effect that she wrote the law and wanted to know if the police officer bothered reading the law or had learnt the law.”1

Philip Crump: America's Rare Earth Renaissance

Six months into Trump's second term, rare earth minerals are at the centre of his Administration's approach to foreign policy.

As President Trump reshapes global alliances, rare earth minerals are at the centre of his Administration’s approach to foreign policy, challenging China’s stranglehold on the resources that power modern technology.

Centrist: ‘Your caucacity never fails' - Tamihere fires race barb as Waipareira fights deregistration

The Waipareira Trust is taking the Department of Internal Affairs to court in a bid to stop its deregistration as a charity, following a years-long investigation into hundreds of thousands of dollars funnelled into John Tamihere’s political campaigns.

The trust’s spending on Tamihere’s failed 2019 Auckland mayoral bid and the 2020 Te Pāti Māori campaign, which he co-led, was later reclassified as a no-interest, related-party loan.

Lindsay Mitchell: Is there a relationship between marriage rates and welfare dependence?

With new data available from the 2023 census, it is possible to answer questions that contemporary policy makers seem disinterested in.

Earlier I posed the question, Who relies most heavily on welfare?

The following graph replicates ethnic benefit data and adds marriage data. Is there a relationship between marriage rates and welfare dependence? It would appear so.

Kerre Woodham: You can't just put up a story without any proof

Ray Chung has surely scuppered his chances of becoming Wellington's next mayor, hasn't he?

Although, given the way voters in Wellington tend to cast their ballots given their previous form, perhaps not. Chung has sent an email to three of his fellow councillors with the heading ‘A sordid night on the town”, in which he proceeded to pass on a story he heard from a neighbour while out dog walking, trash talking Mayor Tory Whanau. It accused her of participating in an orgy with a couple of young men and taking drugs, and talked about the form of the woman involved, being Tory Whanau, having soft, pendulous breasts.

Bob Edlin: Why rates are so high.....

Why rates are so high – in Ruapehu, the council pulls the plug on scheme that officials said would save almost $40m

Earlier this year, PoO noted that the Ruapehu District Council was sticking to its plans to impose an average 9% rate rise for 2025/26.

The Whanganui Chronicle reported that, at a public meeting in Ohakune, chief executive Clive Manley said 9% “sounds like a lot”, but budgets had to be stripped to get there.

The Mayor was singing from the same song book:

Saturday July 12, 2025 

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Heather du Plessis-Allan: My winner of the week

Winner of the week has got to be NZ First. 

In the latest Taxpayer's Union Curia poll, they are the third biggest party now, overtaking Act and the Greens. 

If you’ve been watching the polls lately that’s not a surprise. This has been coming for a while.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 6.7.25

Saturday July 12, 2025 

News:
Reviewers of legislation Treaty clauses expected to report back in months
The reviewers of all Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation include three lawyers and a director, and will be expected to report back "within months".

Insights From Social Media

So The Long Awaited Review Of Treaty Clauses In NZ Statutes Has Started. - June Kearney.

Check out the four members of the review panel:

1. Chair is David Cochrane, lawyer former member of the Waitangi Tribunal and part of a review of the Tribunal also.

Ronald Stein: The economic imperative for nuclear power

In an increasingly electricity-hungry world, nuclear power stands out as a cornerstone for sustainable economic growth, particularly for developing economies like South Africa. This article examines the economic rationale behind the adoption of nuclear power for electricity, with a focus on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) and Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technologies as catalysts for industrial and economic growth, providing a lifeline out of poverty and instability.

Professor Jerry Coyne: Now Colossal proposes to “de-extinct” the moa; Peter Jackson helps

It’s an hour until.Walrus Call, so I wanted to bring to your attention another insane attempt by Colossal Biosciences to “de-extinct” a species. This time it’s the moa, one of several species of this flightless bird that used to inhabit New Zealand until the Māori killed them all of by bopping them on the heads with jade clubs. Or so I recall.

Dr Bryce Wilkinson: A response to sincerely held concerns about the Regulatory Standards Bill

This week, Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee is hearing oral submissions on the government’s Regulatory Standards Bill. I support the Bill, most submitters oppose it. So, I have been listening carefully to their reasons.

Most opponents are passionate and sincere. They genuinely believe that the Bill will make it harder for governments to act collectively in the public interest.

Roger Partridge: The new ESG - why Dutch bankers are now talking tanks

The Netherlands has long been Europe’s model of commercial pragmatism. Its business leaders built their fortunes on free trade, open markets, and meticulous efficiency. So when The New Zealand Initiative’s “Go Dutch” business leaders delegation arrived in Amsterdam late last month, we expected familiar conversations about productivity, innovation, and regulatory reform.

Matua Kahurangi: The Government is quietly funding online propaganda machines....

The Government is quietly funding online propaganda machines through the “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Fund”

While many New Zealanders believe they’re simply debating passionate activists online, the reality may be far more coordinated. It turns out, some of the loudest voices parroting the government's narrative might not just be opinionated citizens. They could be on the payroll.