Mike's Minute: Fees Free was a mistake - let's not repeat it

I have learned a lot about kids and university, having had two attend and graduate and one still immersed in the experience.

Here are the takeouts.

Ani O'Brien: A week is a long time: 16 May 2026

The Māori political map is being redrawn

Te Pāti Māori’s internal warring has kicked into a new phase with Mariameno Kapa-Kingi formally quitting the party (after previously taking them to court for booting her out) and announcing she is launching her own party, the “Te Tai Tokerau Party”. The new electorate-specific party name may actually be an issue, however, as concerns have already been raised about whether the Electoral Commission will allow a party named after an electorate as it may present confusion or advantage.

Olivia Pierson: A de facto marriage - Islam & Marxism

The undying love-affair between Islam and Marxism, particularly admired by the wanton wokerati, represents a profound moral, and therefore civilisational, challenge to human flourishing in our time.

Both display a damn creepy organising principle steeped in the rejection of Western liberty, Judeo-Christian understandings of human nature, and the fundamental dignity of the person.

David Harvey: Two Tribes, One Argument - Salmond, Dutta, and the Grammar of Progressive Polemic

An analysis of two recent New Zealand opinion pieces, their shared themes, intellectual methods, and rhetorical weaknesses

Bryce Edwards of the Democracy Project runs an excellent daily news briefing as part of the Democracy Project. The briefing consists of news stories organized by topic and with links. The bias is towards legacy media (a term in intend to use when I am being polite about Mainstream Media. I use the later term when I am being critical) but alternative media features as well. Half of the site is free to all. The other half is for paid subscribers. It is well worth the subscription.

Peter Dunne: Labour and Greens need Te Pati Maori

Rawiri Waititi is absolutely correct when he says there will be no one-term government without Te Pati Māori. At no point since the last election have Labour and the Green Party been polling strongly enough to contemplate forming a government without the inclusion of Te Pati Māori. And even if Te Pati Māori were to be involved, there have only been three occasions, according to the polls, since the last election when the left bloc would have had the numbers to form a government, were there to have been an election.

Peter Williams: STV time is up

Time to remove a complicated voting system

For those suffering from insomnia at 2.30 in the morning, can I recommend a taxpayer funded website stv.govt.nz

On second thoughts it may not just make your eyes glaze over. It could also make you bloody angry about how some local government political activists, aided and abetted by their bureaucrats, have conned their voting public to adopt the ridiculous voting system known as Single Transferable Vote or STV.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is Auckland getting ripped off when it comes to concerts?

Here’s a question for you: how badly did we get ripped off if it’s true we paid $3 million to get Robbie Williams here?

Now, we don’t know for sure that's the amount the Government paid out of the Major Events Fund, but that is what Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has revealed in a fit of pique at the Government.

Ryan Bridge: We need more positivity

It's Friday huddle, pep talk time.

New Zealand, we're going to need our number-8 wire, positive, can-do, problem solver attitude now more than ever.

Air New Zealand's in the doldrums, Trump's at war in the Middle East, oil's chocked up, Xi's talking about Taiwan again.

Kerre Woodham: If there's a fix for obesity-related costs, why wouldn't we use it?

Obesity related illnesses, as you well know, cost this country a fortune. The direct healthcare costs of obesity, well, they estimated it at $2 billion per year, per year, and that was in 2021, so it'll be a hell of a lot more now. It's more difficult to calculate the total economic impact that obesity has on this country. Estimates range between $4 to $9 billion per year. It depends whether you include lost productivity and how you quantify the loss of quality of life. If you are chair bound and you're in your 20’s, how do you calculate the cost of that? Cardiovascular disease linked closely to obesity costs New Zealand a minimum of $13.8 billion.

David Farrar: No the BSA will not be missed

Newsroom reports:

Media lawyer Steven Price questions how the Media Council could be placed to pick up the slack, on top of its existing workload.

“They have just got a bunch of volunteers who meet and sit, I don’t know, four times a year. That’s it. They take turns drafting the decisions. They have a staff of one, or one part-time person. How’re they going to handle it? They also have no expertise in broadcasting.”

This is actually an argument in favour. Just look at the stats.

Saturday May 16, 2026 

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Bryan Leyland: "Things that you know that ain’t so…" - electricity

As the American humorist Will Rogers said: “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so”:

“An electricity market based on trading kWh in the short-term will automatically provide a reliable and economic supply into the future”

In New Zealand, our electricity market certainly does not provide an economic and reliable supply. Instead, it is often unable to supply all the load and it produces wildly fluctuating power prices.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 10.5.26

Saturday May 16, 2026 

News:
Govt agrees to change or scrap Treaty of Waitangi references in 19 laws
The Government will change or remove references to the Treaty of Waitangi that are included in 19 pieces of legislation.

In a statement, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed two references would be amended, seven would be repealed and in 10 pieces of legislation, it would be specified that Treaty provisions should be considered by no higher standard than “take into account”.

Mike's Minute: Chris Hipkins is deluded

Is Chris Hipkins missing a gene?

Does he have a self-destructive predilection? Or is he just a pillock by nature?

He rolls into Auckland to tell the nation's biggest city and engine room in election year that she's all good and everyone has moved on from the lockdowns. His lockdowns.

Nicola Grigg: The mess Labour left us in.....

Nicola Grigg gave a powerful speech in Parliament to remind New Zealanders of the mess Labour left us in, and the work National are doing to fix it.....

Click to view

Roger Partridge: Parliament right to correct Supreme Court on climate change case

This week, the Government moved to reassert Parliament’s authority over the courts. Two years ago, in Smith v Fonterra, the Supreme Court revived a climate change claim the Court of Appeal had unanimously struck out. The claim included a proposed new tort of “damage to the climate system” recognised by no court anywhere in the common law world. I wrote at the time that the court had appropriated a role that belonged to Parliament. On Tuesday, the Government said that Parliament will take that role back.

Kerre Woodham: This is a Budget that should've already been delivered

Guess what? New Zealand's in economic trouble. I know, I know, who would have thought it? Well, we did. You know it, I know it. We've known it for a very, very long time, right from the very start when Labour began throwing money around. There were the Cassandras coming on the radio saying, “Oh, you're going to have to pay it back. All very well and good now, probably the right thing to do, but at some point we're going to have to pay it back."

“The outlook is negative, so it indicates that there is a chance of a downgrade.”

Bob Edlin: Trump should brace for reprisals as Waititi calls for penalties over Wihongi detention

The PoO team was greatly cheered to hear Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi go out to bat for “all New Zealand citizens detained by ICE”.

But his primary concern was the wellbeing of Everlee Wihongi, who has been detained by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement for over a month without any charges.

Lindsay Mitchell: The deafening silence about welfarism and children

It took becoming a mother to awaken an interest in politics in me. Having then become increasingly aware of the detrimental role welfare was playing in weakening family structure and what it meant for children, I developed an unfavourable view of big govt and extensive redistribution. In that context libertarianism made sense to me. I listened and read in that sphere, gravitating first to Lindsay Perigo's minor party (slogan - "Its enough to make you vote Libertarianz") and then ACT. During the 2000s the one person constantly drawing welfare dependence to the attention of the public was Muriel Newman. Time after time Muriel would appear in the Dominion or Evening Post exposing some new data or penning an opinion piece. I think she single-handedly kept a concern about welfarism to the fore, championing time limits and work expectations for single parents. She also worked hard on representing the rights of fathers and shared-parenting. When I campaigned for ACT in 2005, Muriel's name was the one that would come up. Her recognition factor was very strong.

David Farrar: ACT’s immigration policy

ACT have proposed six things in their immigration policy. Let’s take them in turn.

Deport serious offenders. Anyone on a residence visa who is convicted of a crime with a 10 year or more maximum sentence is deported.

No brainer.