David Farrar: Business confidence at 30 year high

Radio NZ reports:

Business confidence has hit its highest level in 30 years on improving activity and on expectations of an economic rebound.

ANZ’s Business Outlook survey showed headline confidence rose 7 points to a net 74 percent expecting better conditions.

Dave Patterson: Hezbollah and Iran Narco-Terrorists on US Back Porch

Dangerous Middle East networks thrive in Central and South America.

If you thought that Hezbollah was just Israel’s problem, think again. Iran’s proxy and Iran are well established in America’s southern neighbor countries, and, without intervention by the United States, they are there to stay. A tropical islet in northeast Venezuela called Margarita Island – also known as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “Terror Island” – is a safe haven for Hezbollah and Iranian operatives. They move freely, participating in narco-terrorism, human trafficking, money laundering, terrorist training, and arms trafficking.

John McLean: Last Bastions of Woke

As 2026 draws to a close, we can say with some confidence that New Zealand has passed Peak Woke, and that Woke is on the wane. So where are the die hard Woketearoans retreating to and holding out? Where are the Neanderthal Woketards making their last stands?

David Farrar: Good for Morning Report, but not necessarily for Radio NZ

Radio NZ reports:

John Campbell is returning to RNZ, as the new co-host of Morning Report alongside Ingrid Hipkiss.

RNZ’s Chief Audio Officer Pip Keane said the field of applicants for role on the flagship news programme was impressive but Campbell stood out.

David Farrar: Potential terrorists should not get name supression

The Herald reports:

A Pukekohe man found in possession of extremist Islamic State content, including beheadings and terror attacks in Europe, has failed in his bid to secure a discharge without conviction.

However, his application for permanent anonymity was granted.

Insights From Social Media: The left's inability to laugh

Truth in Jest by Colinxy.

"Many a truth is spoken in jest"

Humour has always been one of humanity’s most subversive tools. It pierces pretence, exposes hypocrisy, and reveals uncomfortable realities in ways that solemn argument cannot. A joke can slip past defences, planting truth in the mind before ideology has time to react. Yet in our age, the Left seems uniquely incapable of laughing—especially when the joke is at their expense. They live within ideology, and ideology cannot abide ridicule. To laugh at it is to admit its fragility, and fragility is what they fear most.

  Sunday December 28, 2025 

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Frank Newman: Garrick Tremain

Garrick Tremain

Sadly, we have been informed that Garrick Tremain passed away painlessly and peacefully last evening in Lakes Hospital. 

Garrick was a truly outstanding individual. 

Not only was he the most talented political cartoonist of our generation, but the man behind the pencil was witty, insightful, fearless, compassionate, and humble. 

RIP Garrick.

Frank Newman, a writer, investment analyst, and Director of the NZCPR, is a former local body councillor.

Insights From Social Media: The He Puapua road map

PB adds to Geoff Parker’s post (bolding emphasis added):

What Waatea News is producing here is not analysis of 2025. It is a maintenance narrative — a story designed to protect institutional arrangements at the point they are being democratically wound back.

The structure is familiar and closely follows the He Puapua road map, as articulated by Claire Charters and advanced in practice by Lady Tureiti Moxon.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 28.12.25

Sunday December 28, 2025 

News:
Rāhui in place for part of Tongariro National Park after death
The local hapū, Ngāti Hikairo ki Tongariro, has placed a rāhui on the Taranaki Falls and Tama Lakes tracks until 6am on Tuesday 30 December.

To show respect, all hikers in the area were asked to consider using alternative tracks during the rāhui.

Matua Kahurangi: Another rāhui, this time for a natural death on a walking track

Firstly, I am sorry to hear that someone lost their life while walking the Taranaki Falls Track. My thoughts are with their family and loved ones. A sudden death on a popular walking track is tragic, and it deserves compassion, dignity, and respect.

However, it needs to be said. Why on earth is a rāhui needed when someone passes away from natural causes?

Ani O'Brien: Marc Daalder writes opinion, not journalism

Marc Daalder’s ideological tantrum, complete with foot stamp, begins with the headline,“Cabinet overrode health advice”. It tells you from the outset that Cabinet have been naughty! It takes a normal feature of democratic government (elected ministers making decisions!) and reframes it as scandal, as though unelected officials are supposed to govern and elected politicians are an unfortunate interference.

Laurie Wastell: US Launches Airstrikes on Islamic State in Nigeria to Protect “Innocent Christians”

The Trump administration has launched airstrikes on Islamic State in north-west Nigeria in coordination with Nigerian authorities, killing multiple militants. While Nigeria insists the strikes had “nothing to do with a particular religion”, President Trump railed against “Isis terrorist scum… who have been targeting… innocent Christians”. The Times has the story.

Marcelo R Santos: What if we taxed what people spend, not what they earn?

When people talk about tax fairness, the focus is almost always on income. How much the rich earn, how heavily that income should be taxed, and how to make sure lower earners are protected. But there is an older idea that is quietly starting to get attention again. What if taxes were based not on what people earn, but on what they spend?

Dr Kevin Donnelly: How the Frankfurt School Captured the Culture – and How to Fight Back

Conservatives have too often failed to realise that “politics is downstream from culture”. So argued Douglas Murray in a recent obituary of the late Peter Whittle, founder of the New Culture Forum (NCF), following the adage popularised by the late American journalist Andrew Breitbart, himself the founder of Breitbart News. “Too many conservatives for far too long felt the crucial battles were about economics”, Murray writes. “The NCF founder helped to correct that error.”

Melanie Phillips: American conservatism and “the Jewish Question”

Astonishingly, it looks as if “the Jewish question” — that perennial antisemitic canard — is becoming the hinge issue that will determine the course of American politics.

The Democratic Party and the left in general now promote an increasingly virulent hostility toward Israel and a corresponding embrace of Islamist and black extremism, leading to rising attacks on American Jews.

David Farrar: Auckland Uni gets it right

The Auckland University Freedom of Expression Statement looks very good. It is clear with few weasel words. Key extracts:

The University actively fosters and supports lawful and constructive debate by its staff and students on any topic, including with the participation of external speakers invited by a staff member, or a recognised student association or student club.

 Saturday December 27, 2025 

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Geoff Parker: A Narrative of Perpetual Betrayal Isn’t Evidence

Waatea News’ end-of-year lament paints 2025 as a dark age for Māori/Crown relations. But strip away the rhetoric and what remains is not evidence of oppression, it is the frustration of activist elites seeing their policy influence reduced.

The claim that Māori rights are “under serious threat” relies almost entirely on two assertions: that Māori-specific institutions and funding streams are inherently protective of Māori wellbeing, and that scaling them back constitutes discrimination. Neither claim withstands scrutiny.

David Farrar: Observations from the Kāinga Ora Chair

Simon Moutter is the Chair of Kāinga Ora, formerly known as Housing NZ. He sent the e-mail below to a few acquaintances of his, and one forwarded it onto me. With permission, I am blogging it below because I think it is such a good and interesting read.